Jai By Wolfgang Puck

Great food! You must order the bluefish — it’s spectacular. Crave it! The wait staff are always on their game. Diners may be sparse after the playhouse events start but don’t be afraid. The food and service is top notch! Unfortunately only one big booth in the whole restaurant.

Cauliflower «T-​Bone» steak sounds like it could be good right? Maybe a steak with some kind of cauliflower seasoning or sauce? Well, when it came, no steak, just a slice of the middle of a head of cauliflower grilled like it was a steak… ummmmm this is $ 18??? My wife ordered a glass of wine ($ 10), and they removed the large wine glasses from our table and presented her with another very small glass of wine, that would maybe be ¼ a normal wine glass size (2to3oz), really? I had the pork steak, SUPER dry, $ 26…yeah…My first wedding anniversary… Nice atmosphere, but I would maybe suggest somewhere else for a special occasion.

Read here if you plan on going soon!!!
My wife and I finally realized the best way to evaluate this place: If Wolfgang Puck visited this restuarant and ate the food would he like it? Answer: No.
Risotto came out crunchy.
Shrimp toast: Sounds awesome, but inevitabley tasted like nothing more than toast. That should never be the overriding flavor.
Heirloom tomatoe and peach salad: Had yesterday’s tomatoes on it. (You can tell by the droopy skin on it.
Iced Tea: Refilled once.
Entrees: Made up for it. Short Rib Special was fatty, tender, and melt in the mouth. New York Strip was tender, grilled correctly, and seasoned well.
Dessert: Comped by manager after two bugs flew into our entrees. Tapioca pearl with caramel, mango, and coconut rounded out the night well. It could not carry the rest of the meal.
Wolfgang Suck’d.
Go elsewhere.

This place is so overrated. A word to Wolfgang: Fix it!
My Miso Salmon had no sauce. My vegetables were over-​sauced. The salmon was so dry that it was inedible.
Flavorless bread served cold with hard butter. Our salad was good, but the dessert was not.
My friend’s food looked better than mine and she seemed to enjoy it. I did not want to say anything because she was paying and I did not want her to feel like I was not appreciative of her choice of restaurants.
If I had been inclined to send my dish back it would have meant that the server would have actually checked back in with us while we were eating…
Next time we go to a play at La Jolla Playhouse, we will not go to Jai.

Jai provides an uneven experience. The food, by and large, is inventive and adequately prepared. The wine list, while packed with standard price-​point wines, did have a few satisfying selections not available at your local Chili’s.
Service is the weakest point of the experience. It was amateurish. It felt as if none of the staff had experience with fine dining. A simple example, the waitress retrieved my silverware from the first course plate rather than refresh with new. This oversight was indicative of the service, more diner than dining.
The bar service was the only slooowww service, in the bartender’s defense, while he only had two customers at the bar they were wearing skinny jeans and flashy tops.
Parking is a pain but the restaurant setting is nice. The glass walls give the feeling of alfresco dining without the drawbacks.
If you’re going to the theater do pass up your usual haunts and worth the effort is my 4 star criteria even if worth only minimal effort.
Mike

The food was decent but the reservations experience was not so perfect…
A girlfriend and I were out for girls night– dinner and Sleeping Beauty Wakes. We ordered a bottle of red, shared two appetizers and the salmon. Overall, the food was good– we really loved the salmon and the fried rice. Their menu changes frequently so you aren’t guaranteed to get the same thing each time.
The bummer about the resos was that I had made them online a couple days in advance… no issues. My gf was going to get there earlier than we planned and didn’t know I had reso so she called ahead and asked for 6pm… they said no, but they could do 5:45pm. When we were eating the restaurant wasn’t even ½ full. Probably just a miscommunication, but didn’t ruin our evening.
SUPER great location too. This is perfect if you’re attending a play because you only need to park once and then can just walk to theater.
We’ll probably be back.

Six of us ate here before the theater and our server Melanie was outstanding, however, the food was not
The beet salad was over vinegared and not even sure why it is served with another dressing
The Spicy Noodles were not so spicy and the noodles were overcooked.
The fish of the day, trout, was cold and way under seasoned. But the fried rice was delicious.
And then the Peach Crumble or should I say «soup» was so watery. Chef tried again but it was just a tad thicker but not much tastier.
WP needs to visit the restaurant for a tune up
We have eaten here before and the quality of the food has gone way down

That’s all I could really say. A-​OK.
I was close to rating a 2 simply because they used comic sans on their menu. Comic sans?! For reals?! That’s up there with papyrus.
The presentation of the food was nice. Our waitress was not.
The food was decent. Decent enough for me to try it again because it looked like it had so much potential. So until then!

Exceptional food. Great service. Weird location. Terrible operating days/​hours.
I believe they are only open when a play is going on next door (UCSD playhouse?).
WP is amazing when it comes to Asian/​Fusion cuisine. Food was right on par with the Source in Washington DC and a bit better than Chinois on Main.
I ordered crispy sea bass… or some fish, don’t remember — but I was served the entire fish. Huge. Delicious. I had to share and was unable to take it to go as I was in town on a mini-​vacation.
Of course, overall, WP never fails.

The desserts is what tickles my belly here. I have never had a better chocolate truffle cake as moist and delicious as the one at Jai’s. I go here from time to time when I’m sad or depressed and this is my cure fr sadness.
The soft shell crab is a good item to try also if you have a heart for seafood like me. I love soft shell crab because you don’t get your hands dirty and also it saves time.
Beef salad was also a treat and my only complaint for Jai would be to give the people larger portions.

My boyfriend and I got a $ 25 coupon for $ 2 on
— something we love to do so we can try out new places that we couldn’t normally justify spending the money — and we loved it!
They are only open when the La Jolla Playhouse has a show going — important to know! If you are NOT seeing a play — make your reservation for 8 p.m. There is a MAD rush from 5:30 ish to 7:30 with hungry playgoers in a hurry!
We sat down at 8p.m. and it was quiet in there — only about 4 other tables. My only complaint is that servers were seen around doing side work and it took about 10 minutes for us to be greeted after being seated. We’re pretty low maintenance so we didn’t particularly care.
We ordered drinks — I got the mango martini and thought it was refreshing and generously poured. We ordered the crab pot sickers — loved them! The bf got the salmon — loved it! and I got the Mongolian Lamb Chops — LOVED it! I get lamb almost everywhere that offers it because I love it and this was arguably the BEST I have had. The cilantro mint vinaigrette was fabulous! It came with a side of greens and some eggplant which were also very good but the portions were very generous so I almost had no room!
We didn’t get dessert — we were too full — but we ordered a bottle of wine with dinner and it was fabulous also. Their wine list is excellent and it has bottles in all price ranges.
Food — Awesome!
Service — Good
Overall — Great Experience!

I came here on Valentine’s Day ’09 with my boyfriend.
The place was really fancy and the food was delicious (minus the beets)! The interior was very modern and clean looking, and it was really quiet. Jai had a pre-​fixed menu which was a SIX course meal for $ 60. You had the option to add on their suggested wine pairings for an extra $ 20. We thought why not, it should be worth it. It definitely was!
The Valentine’s Day ’09 prefixed menu came with the following:
Ceviche — My favorite part of the meal, and possibly one of the best ceviche I’ve ever had.
Buttermilk Squash Soup — Pretty good, but I got tired of the taste midway. My bf however lovvved it.
Beets Salad — Both my bf and I hated it, but that’s only because we hate beets. The only part of this dish I liked was the goat cheese.
Salmon — Moist and just right. I love salmon!
Prime Rib — Tender and really flavorful. Loved it.
Red Velvet Cake — I was surprised with the size of the cake! It was bigger than the prime rib! The cake was delicious.
It was a good meal, with perfect portions. We were stuffed!

We found this place after reading other reviews on Unilocal as well as getting a coupon on
. This place is great. Park in the UCSD parking lot, pay $ 2 at the station for parking (you don’t have to annoyingly run back to the car to place the ticket), and enjoy a nice walk through the eucalyptus trees over to the restaurant. We had reservations at 8 pm, got there at 7:45 and were immediately seated. The thing is, they’re only open when plays are going on at the LJ Playhouse, so the big crowd comes in from 5:30 to 8, then by 8:30, there were maybe 4 or 5 tables left. Also, there’s a good happy hour so those people are in there too earlier.
That said, comfy chairs, nice floor to ceiling glass walls, and good décor litter the inside. Ned was our waiter and absolutely killed it. Great recommendations, friendly, and pretty funny too. For appetizers we had the lobster bisque and mahi lettuce wraps. Insane. Could have ordered that twice and made it our meal. For dinner, we had the lobster and duck special. Presentation and taste was flawless, we couldn’t decide who had gotten the better dish. Topped it off with the chocolate truffle dessert which came with strawberries and ice cream too.
Drink wise, we had a mango martini (special there) and a vodka/​sprite. Good amount of alcohol, not so overbearing that you wince when you sip it but not weak either. The total for the whole meal (including 20% tip) was around $ 120, which is well worth it, especially with the coupon from
.
All in all, a great experience and we’ll definitely be going back.

My husband and I went here on Valentine’s Day and they had a 6 course Prix Fixe menu which included Butternut Squash Soup, Slow Braised Short Ribs and a Heart Shaped Red Velvet Cake for dessert. Everything was delicious.
The wait staff and chef made the evening extra special.
The bill can get to be pricey, but would definitely go back with a
coupon or on special occasions.

If you are into Wolfgang’s trademark style of asian influenced food, this is where to go.
I really really like the look and ambiance of the place. Service is good too. Handroll app was great. I had the braised lamb shank with mashed taro. It was phenominal. The fruit crumble was standard but good and huge. One of the top 5 dining experiences i’ve had.

I would actually give this place 3 ½ stars. For americanized asian fushion, this place was pretty good.
The hostess was absolutely lovely and the food was good. We came here for restaurant week because their fixed menu looked good.
I had chosen the salad for my appetizer and it was actually… really salty. Disappointed? I was. It was a salad. Wth? Anywho… my friend had the short ribs and that was good. Good choice. For my entrée, I had the London steak and that was absolutely delicious. And they were not stingee with their portions. YUM. Last but not least, for dessert we had the chocolate truffle cake. It was good. but not great.
Overall, it was a good dinner. the extra ½ star was for the Londson steak. mmm.

Nice. Nice that you can feel the energy — a symbiotic synergy (use of big words is an ode to my alma mater, UCSD) between Jai and the theater. I get it. Peeps want to feast before or after the theater. I get it. There’s a revenue relationship between the two. I get it. But what I don’t get is the synergy at Happy Hour. Not so much. Kinda like Christmas in July. Rimshot.
With a group that was as large as ours being about ½ dozen for a goodbye for a friend, you’d think we could take advantage of what was perceived as slow, but what we got instead was slow as in service.
I wanted to believe that they were seemingly understaffed with priorities elsewhere. The diners seemed content and those at the bar seemed content, but we sat outside? Was that the problem?
Regardless, at HH, employing one bartend to handle the diners and HH patrons is not enough. Maybe HH isnt their strength? If so, why purport to have an HH? Maybe we just misunderstood what HH really is?
Interestingly, they ran out of Stella, which was ok with me because I personally think Stella is overrated. I ordered and enjoyed Hue, a Vietnamese beer (
), which at $ 3.00 was far better than I could have imagined!
Happy Hour was although delicious with the limited yet inviting menu — where that simple adage of keep things simple and sticking to your strengths is true. The staff was friendly. They were accommodating. They brought our orders out incrementally which was fine because we did order a lot of stuff.
All the HH appetizers varied between $ 2 and $ 4. Awesome.
To close, the strength of Jai at Happy Hour is simply drinks, a few quick eats, and the atmosphere. Then why am I disagreeing? It’s best spent with a couple or trio of friends. Nothing more.

Happy hour:
No bueno =(

I can’t believe they actually opened a fine dining restaurant on campus, but I guess it caters to the theater-​goers since it’s right next to the Mandell Weiss Theater. It has a very modern look, but eerily reminds me of Ikea furniture. A quick look at the menu also gave me déjà vu — P.F. Chang’s. The cuisine was Asian fusion, except it was more on the Chinese side than anything else. The restaurant week menu consisted of a short three-​choice selection for each course for a three-​course meal. We added two appetizers from the regular menu, which might have been overboard in terms of amount of food.
For appetizers, we started off with Tataki-​Style «Kobe» Beef Carpaccio with a Szechwan Ginger Vinaigrette, which was good. It was small and light enough to be not filling. Next we tried the Crispy Shrimp & Scallop Spring Rolls with Ten-​Spice Honey Dipping Sauce. Interesting twist on your usual spring roll. The scallop was nice, but I couldn’t really taste any spice, let alone ten from the honey dipping sauce. It was more of a vinegar and soy sauce mix — it could have been better if they added more honey and made it a thicker sauce because it just dripped off the spring rolls. For $ 15 and $ 13, you get 5 pieces of carpaccio and 2 spring rolls cut in half respectively. Expensive, but a good start to dinner.
For our first course, I had the soup of the day, which was butternut squash soup with lobster. The soup was a bit on the sweet side and the portion size was too large. They were cheap on the lobster meat. I also tried some of the pan-​toasted pork potstickers and they were average. For the main course, I got chow fun noodles with brown velvet pork and prawns. I didn’t really like this dish because it was way too salty and the noodles were too chewy for me. I tried the steamed Atlantic salmon as well and the dish was way too bland. Maybe they would have been good if you combined the two. For dessert, we both stuck to getting seasonal fruit sorbet, which came with fresh fruit.
There was nothing majorly wrong with this place besides the disastrous main dishes. I don’t think I enjoy Chinese/​Asian food in a fine dining setting, especially if it can be done the same or better by traditional Chinese cuisine. The high price tag is another deterrent from coming here. It’s more expensive than P.F. Chang’s and I could probably get more satisfaction if I went to Sam Woo’s. A minor note: I think our waitress got in trouble because she forgot to take away our seasoned green beans when we were served our dessert. The place was also pretty empty for a time when restaurant week is going on.

The Location is perfect for theatre go-​ers. The restaurant is contemporary with clean lines, and has a cool indoor/​outdoor patio. Chairs were comfy, like they don’t mind if you stay and drink. I mean eat… a while.
Food was a solid 4 stars. I was there for a Concierge event, so It was only tray passed hor’dourves (Tempura shrimp with a creamy cilantro sauce, simple sushi, seared albacore with pickled jalapeño, veggie spring rolls and more)
All in all, a nice place, but the location is weird. Worth checking out once whether or not your seeing a play and absolutely perfect for pre or post theatre at La Jolla Playhouse
Oh Yeah… Try the caramelized Miso cones filled with Big Eye Tuna… YUM!