Realm of the 52 Remedies, San Diego

 

The drinks were divine!  The food is excellent!  The ambiance is intriguing!  Realm of the 52 Remedies is a really fun speakeasy, located inside the Common Theory Public House.  You begin the experience in a bright room lined with shelves of bottles containing the ingredients of traditional herbal medicine....

Then, you are invited to pass through the secret door...

On the other side, the room is dimly light.  After a few moments, you can make out the bar in a golden light, a movie screen (now showing a Korean crime drama) and groups of tables.  It is beautiful!  We started with drinks - the yuzu and the mandarin.  The yuzu was topped with a smoke bubble and was slightly spicy, with citrus and smoke notes from the sotol.  The mandarin was delightfully citrusy and sour.  Both drinks were excellent!  All the cocktails from the menu looked fantastic and we enjoyed observing what other people were drinking.  They also have traditional cocktails and even made made a wonderful mocktail for our non-drinking friend with pineapple and chili.

For dinner, we ordered the KFQ (Korean Fried Quail),  mushroom fried rice and charred broccoli, The quail was great.  It had a honey sambal glaze and was served on a bed of amazing gremolata.   The mushroom fried rice had lots of meaty trumpet mushrooms and so was a very hearty dish.  The charred broccoli was also delicious.  We ordered three plates to share among three people and is was just right.  Each dish is quite substantial.

For me, this place gets a A+ for drinks, A for food and A+ for ambience.  I've been to speakeasy-style places before and found the food tended to be not great.  At Realm of the 52 Remedies, the atmosphere is cool; the drinks were creative and well crafted and the food could stand alone at any fine Asian fusion restaurant.