Cloak & Petal
Cloak & Petal
Little Italy
This beautiful airy high end Japanese restaurant serves small plates and creative cocktails under a large cherry blossom tree in a dining room decorated like an abandoned underground Tokyo subway.
The SD Experience
With its indoor cherry blossom tree surrounding the bar, Cloak & Petal is one of the most exciting restaurants to enter the food scene in the hot & trendy Little Italy neighborhood over the last year. Thrillist listed it as one of the Best Restaurants in San Diego right now and readers of Eater voted it one of the Most Beautiful Restaurants in town. The decor is reminiscent of an abandoned underground Tokyo subway with a dining room which appears to be an outdoor seating area. As you travel back behind the main bar with the cherry blossom tree you head through a gate to the Japanese whisky and sake bar. Here the room is decorated in brick and subway tiles, graffiti art and Japanese subway posters. It's truly an amazing experience that provides a different feel from day to night. This is a popular new venue, so I recommend making a reservation several nights in advance. However, we have noticed if you get there before 7 p.m. you can often find a seat at the bar where they will also serve the full menu.
The Food
The first time we went, we started with the Australian Wagyu lettuce cups which were absolutely amazing. They are served with marinated eye of round wagyu, garlic chive kimchi and pine nuts. We enjoyed this so much we had to order it again on our second visit. Our next dish was the crab & cheese korokke which are basically upscale crab cakes served with mozzarella, garlic and shishito mentaiko aioli. They were quite good and probably the most filling of the plates we explored. From there we moved on to sushi. We ordered the Golden Hill roll along with salmon, yellowtail and blue fin nigiri. It was all excellent high quality sushi that was enhanced by the real authentic wasabi. Once we figured out how to manage the Golden Hill roll, it was quite tasty. It had spicy salmon, asparagus, fresh salmon, jalapeño, mentaiko aioli, yuzu tobiko and crispy leaks.
The Drinks
The craft cocktails here are just about as beautiful and unique as the bar itself. Each are served with their own garnish, usually consisting of a colorful flower. I ordered the High Kick which included woodsy genmaicha infused reposado tequila, lime citrus, spiced ginger, cucumber and pinch of salt. Nick had more of a tiki cocktail called the Born & Dayzed which was a blend of rum from Martinique and Barbados, fresh passion fruit, citrus lime, caribbean spiced falernum and hint of absinthe.