Delectable menu choices and sparkling ambiance await diners at Garden Center Café!

Sparkling, full of light and pleasant – the Garden Center Café is all this and more. The food is adeptly prepared by the chefs who use fresh and innovative ingredients; and the staff and owners work very hard to keep the menu exciting. This establishment has been welcoming diners for over twenty years – Bill and Vicki Porter have owned it for fifteen. Their son, Clay Porter, is general manager.

In addition to a sunny, sparkling, indoor area, the Garden Center affords a garden patio for alfresco dining. I have enjoyed many lunches in this delightful area. In fact, when my cousin Johan visited from Sweden last summer I took him to the Garden Center. We sat in the patio area where we enjoyed the salads and the gurgling fountain.

If you are like me, you have your Garden Center favorites and don’t even need to take a look at the menu. However, the Porters and their chefs have gone to great lengths to create new items for the menu. My suggestion? Even before you visit, take a look at the Garden Center’s online menus – they will inspire you and make you wish you could just blink your eyes and, at once, be seated at one of the tables.

Clay said that their goal is to give their diners more of a variety to "keep the guests excited about the food." That is why, every so often, they will add a new menu item. So for people like me, who have favorites, or think they have the menu memorized – I say look again – you might find a new favorite!

Sandwiches are new on the dinner menu. The entrées, such as the popular Dinner for Two, have stayed the same, but the change was made to give diners more choices.

"We are trying to give our guests more options – if they are not as hungry, they can still have dinner," Clay explained. "There is a lot of value on the dinner menu."

The dinner menu offers reasonably priced burgers made with a Certified Angus Ground Beef patty, salmon patty, or chicken breast. A new dinner sandwich is the "Prime Rib French Dip" made with Certified Angus Prime Rib, grilled onions and Monterey jack cheese.

The Garden Center is committed to giving their guests the best they can get, and that includes serving the highest quality of beef.

"As far as I am aware, we are the only restaurant in town that serves Certified Angus Beef," Clay noted. "It is only the top six percent that falls in that category. Angus beef is different than Certified Angus Beef, and Certified Angus Beef prime rib is the best you can get."

The luncheon menu has been enhanced as well. The delicious BBQ Pork Sandwich starts with a pork tenderloin, then it is sliced thinly. The slices are layered with caramelized red onions, then cheddar cheese is melted on the grilled sourdough bread.

Crisp, delicious, and healthful, the Chinese Chicken Salad is a new item served on a chilled plate layered with mixed greens, kale slaw, mandarin orange wedges, toasted sliced almonds and crispy wontons. The slaw blends beautifully with the other ingredients and is house-made with finely chopped kale, brussel sprouts, broccoli, and carrots. The salad is not only delicious, but filling. The salad is slightly sweet because of the sesame dressing – which includes a hint of pineapple. There is no skimping on the dressing, but it isn’t soaked either – it is just the right amount. This salad has a natural sweet flavor and crunchy goodness.

Ramon, a Garden Center chef, (dubbed the 'sandwich guru' by Clay), has developed a new addition to the menu – Ramon’s Chicken Portabella Sandwich. Some delicious items are tucked away between two slices of fresh-baked squaw bread. Grilled chicken breast is followed by a balsamic vinegar marinated portabella mushroom. Pepper jack cheese, tomatoes, and chipotle ranch sauce meld wonderfully with the other ingredients to create something quite memorable. It is rich tasting, messy, and just dripping with good things.

Their "Chipotle Ranch Sauce" is quite remarkable with a sweet, spicy, smoky flavor. Don’t let the word "chipotle" frighten you – it is not scary hot at all, but just very flavorful.

What else is new? Clay mentioned that they recently bought a fryer. A what? In the entire twenty-year history of the restaurant a fryer has never appeared in the kitchen. But now, in response to pleas from (mostly male) diners they have decided to offer fries.

"We were always one-hundred percent health conscious, but people were asking for it," explained Clay. "So many of the comments were the same, they said they liked the sandwiches, but would prefer to have fries instead of salads with them."

So, fries are now on the menu. But, these aren’t ordinary fries. Great care has been taken to assure that the quality is high, beginning with fresh russet potatoes. The potatoes are sliced, then prepared. Garden Center fries are crisp and flavorful. They are served with ketchup, but certainly don’t need it.

At the Garden Center Café, a provocative dinner with a touch of elegance, or a savory lunch with a dash of sunshine, has to be a wonderful experience!

The Garden Center Café is located at 1625 S. Mission Rd. in Fallbrook. Phone is (760) 728-4147; visit www.gardencentercafeandgrill.com for hours of operation.

Garden Center has a special menu prepared for Christmas Eve, which is available online. (Reservations are highly recommended.) Special menu items will also be available on New Year’s Eve.