Michael Lacher

Review of The Vine Cottage Bistro

My girlfriend and I were looking for an inexpensiv...

My girlfriend and I were looking for an inexpensive place to try out one of the Restaurant week participants in the El Cajon, La Mesa area. We chose Vine Cottage because their pre fixe menu looked the best of the budget offerings. We did make a reservation and we rolled in a little early. The inside was a little loud and full due to 49ers game and we opted to sit outside with heaters. It was real toasty out there but, I couldn't get over the feeling that we were eating in the parking lot ! We both ordered the pre fixe dinner menu for $20 each. She had mussels for app and they were super good with a decent portion, I had a caprese bruschetta that was fairly tasty and pretty large. For entree my gf had the salmon with potatoes, which I had a bite of but wasn't a huge fan. Wish it had a better sauce. I had airplane chicken, which was ok. Potatoes were a bit hard, but carrots may have been tastiest thing on my plate. For dessert, she had a chocolate hazelnut torte with a crunchy toffee-like crust which was very good and I had vanilla ice cream with chocolate sauce. .........Overall, we enjoyed the apps and dessert the most and probably wouldn't go back.....although our service was good and the value was good also.