Have you had your eyes on trying a new restaurant in San Diego County and thought, oh,
I'll get to it someday.
Well, today is your Sunday day today.
Now, their Sunday is Restaurant Week here in San Diego,
which means you can come out and try one of
100 different restaurants with a prefixed more affordable menu.
And one of the restaurants that you can try,
that's on the restaurant week option is Ortegas,
which is right in Hillcrest and it's been there for 18 years.
We have John Hogland here. He's the owner of Ortega. We also have a chef one over here.
So I'm going to get to you in just a minute because I
can't wait to hear about the dishes that are in front of us.
But John,
you guys have been there for so long and restaurant week
is another way to get fresh new customers in your dorm.
Absolutely. We've been there for 18.5 years now.
Yeah, in the Hill Crest neighborhood, the corner of Third and University
and uh restaurant Week has been great.
It brings in a lot of new customers, which is fantastic and they get to try our food.
But we also in other, other than what we're gonna present here today,
we have a full menu of uh Mexican cuisine from
car
enchiladas
tacos.
We also have a full bar. So margarita,
I noticed the margaritas, the pomegranate margarita right there in front of us.
That one looks really good chef.
Tell us a little bit about what's on the table here. Of course. Yes.
So, uh we have um, really good um, lobster.
We have our surf and turf lobster over here next to the uh, shrimp, lobster.
Um, and of course the whole lobster,
um, rice and beans,
more lobster. Also, we have uh, cesar salad
soup side, really good soup.
And of course our famous guacamole over here, is that what you serve?
Like table side, you'll make it right there
side. Yes.
Yeah.
And then for dessert, we have our churros and flan
over on this side and all of that other than the guacamole is for $35.
The three course meal. If you want to get the whole lobster, it's just an extra $10
chef just brought up something interesting. He called this the Puerto
Nuevo soup.
And I think of
Nuevo, I think getting your passport getting in the car,
driving south of the border.
But actually
John, that's where your restaurants originated. Exactly.
My business partner is one of the Ortegas and they started the Ortega tradition
in Nuevo. Ros
back in the 19 fifties. And we brought that tradition here 18.5 years ago.
So that's why we see all the lobster in
front of us too because that's what part of Nuevo
is so known for. Exactly.
And also, so your viewers know $1 from every dish,
every lobster dish goes to an organization called
dot org.
And it's a nonprofit that supports 10 orphanages in Baja
with over 500 Children
from life sustaining, support, food and utilities to college education.
And so we felt it was important to give
back to the region where our restaurant comes from.
Well,
thank you so much for doing that and
for getting involved in helping Children especially.
Absolutely. We've been able to raise over $100,000 over the last 15 years with
the graciousness of our guests coming in and trying our food.
Thank
you.
Let you go here.
I have my eyes on that
guacamole. Do you have a secret to your recipe? What's in that?
Well, the secret is that we use fresh avocado from Mexico
and of course, we use the Mexican flag colors
come
my way
and I just invited myself to come try the,
everything is fresh.
This looks really good.
And then I'm trying the lobster right after I expected
Carlene to come out here and steal some food.
But she's not honest with me,
she
has to lay off this one for me.
What do you think? That's the real deal? Right there.
That's the good stuff. Do I need to wash it down?
I think so. I think you should with pomegranate margarita. Is
that what
that
is? We
have a,
for like a non alcoholic drink? I thought
this is absolutely delicious.
We make it in house. My name all over it. As soon as we hit the commercial,
I knew you were on your way down
would be one of your
driving
is
Yes.
And everything is made fresh in house.
All of our sauces, all of our drinks, beverages.
Oh,
so that's a thumbs
up
and
she got it all in one.
Hey, guys, thank you so much for coming in.
Thank you for getting involved in Restaurant Week.
I do want to let you know that a lot of these menus are right on
the West Restaurant Week website along with all
of the other restaurants that are participating.
Go to San Diego Restaurant Week dot com
or
dot com. Car
in the studio.