Last night we found ourselves in the East Village neighborhood of downtown and decided to knock off another Restaurant Week menu. With over 160 options, you’re pretty much guaranteed to be close to a few, especially downtown. We ended up at Acme Southern Kitchen, a smaller corner restaurant offering a $25 menu with a wide variety of Southern specialties.
We were seated right away without a reservation, a pleasant surprise, and offered this monster of a Restaurant Week menu.
It was accompanied by a pretty impressive wine list with a wide variety of local, domestic and international wines and microbrews. By 8 o’clock the place filled up, drinks and food started pumping out and the noise level rose noticeably. As people continued walking in, it became obvious that this is many local’s first stop on a night out. It’s a great place for couples or friends to get a quick bite of some great, homemade Southern food.
For starters, we went with the fried green tomatoes with “comeback” sauce and the pimento cheese spread with pickles and Saltines.
The tomatoes came hot from the fryer with a light, even breading, perfectly crunchy. They had a nice, slightly bitter flavor and were cooked perfectly, not mushy. The cheese spread was homemade, with a little spice, nice and airy, which worked well with the crackers. They look unassuming, but they pack a ton of flavor and I finished off the whole serving.
The best thing about Acme’s Restaurant Week menu is the option of two sides with your main entrée, meaning we got the chance to try four all together. We went with the Acme mac and cheese, potato salad, barbecue baked beans and red beans and rice.
The red beans and rice was the standout side dish, extremely flavorful, a tiny bit spicy, with big chunks of tasso ham. Unfortunately, I got a ham bone in my serving, but hey, at least we know they use a homemade stock.
For entrées, we got a chicken p0t pie and a big serving of chicken and waffles, in my opinion, the ultimate creation of Southern cooking.
The chicken pot pie was hearty and satisfying, a flaky crust on top, thick, flavorful gravy, fresh, crunchy veggies and big chunks of white meat chicken and potato. The chicken and waffles was equally impressive. A boneless chicken breast (no bones are an awesome touch) with a crunch you can hear a block away, just the way I like it. The pair were served with a jalapeño honey that I now want to put on everything I eat. Excellently executed.
Dessert brought us to a bread pudding with hard sauce (basically sweet whiskey icing) and a Peach Brown Betty named for its maple and brown sugar crust.
The bread pudding was a little dense for me but the flavor on both was super sweet and super delicious. At Acme you get freshly made, homestyle country food that just keeps coming. With drinks, our meal ended up a bit pricy but for great food and excellent service, that’s what you get. You can expect me back for chicken and waffles in the very near future.
One last thing, many restaurants are carrying out a second week of SDRW menus so be sure and check the website to take advantage of this awesome opportunity!
Acme Southern Kitchen
901 E Street
San Diego, CA 92101
http://www.acmekitchensd.com/
