Ironside Fish & Oyster Bar Lobster Roll

Lobster Roll San Diego

Don’t let the design fool you. In places, Ironside Fish & Oyster Bar in San Diego’s Little Italy resembles something out of “Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea,” with giant tentacles wrapped around lights, female ship figureheads calling to customers like sirens from the second floor, and a wall of fish skeletons looming above a banquette, teeth bared. The environment may be kooky, but executive chef Jason McLeod and his crew serve some righteous West Coast seafood, including a top-flight lobster roll.

When the Lobster Roll ($21) and accompanying French fries hit the table, my eyes couldn’t have prepared me for all the nuance. Let’s start with the rich split-top roll, which Pastry Chef Donna Antaloczy bakes in-house with cream cheese and eggs. The rolls are buttered and pan-fried to amp up the richness even more. Sweet, plump butter-poached lobster meat gets tossed with brown butter mayo before joining the roll. Crispy fried shallots and chives complete the savory picture, as do some of the best French fries in recent memory.

Ironside’s fries are a great riff on salt and vinegar potato chips, with skin-on, twice-fried potatoes seasoned with malt powder, salt, and parsley. They come with a ramekin of tangy malt aioli, which is mayo mixed with roasted garlic, thyme, and malt vinegar.

Lobster lovers often debate the relative merits of Maine’s mayo-based lobster rolls versus Connecticut’s drawn butter-based lobster rolls, and while both versions can be great, I’m currently enamored with Ironside Fish & Oyster’s San Diego-style lobster roll.

Address: 1654 India Street, San Diego, CA 92101
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Joshua Lurie

Joshua Lurie founded FoodGPS in 2005. Read about him here.

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