Where can I buy smoked salmon?

[karaethon]

I'm looking to make an appetizer featuring smoked salmon and I'm wondering if anyone has a good recommendation on a store in SD to buy a good smoked salmon. I haven't decided if I want it pre-cut or if I want to cut it myself. Perhaps people can make a recommendation on that also (I'm leaning towards thin pre-cuts though)

Thanks ahead of time!

[alegramarcel]

Keils on Clairemont Mesa also has good smoked salmon (not lox). $20/pound I think. Pretty sure it is Atlantic farmed.

[Cathy]

You are getting responses for both cold smoked and hot smoked fish. Which type do you want?

[karaethon]

Cold smoked. It's going to be for an hors d'oeurves pot luck and I'm doing "research" this weekend. However, since it's a pot luck it will need to travel so the cold will be much better than the hot

[juantanamera]

Try Omega Me Well - they sell delicious smoked wild salmon (and some other smoked seafoods) at farmers' markets. I find them at Little Italy on Saturdays.

[Alice Q]

hot smoked isn't served hot - it's just the way it's prepared. My hunch is hot smoked is actually more travel safe than cold, but I'm not absolutely sure about that.

[karaethon]

I tried my dish with the cold smoked and it seemed better. The hot smoked that they had at Costco had some spices that you could still see on the salmon and I didn't want those flavors to interfere with the elements I was adding myself. Also, the hot smoked was not pre-sliced so for my dish in particular that would have made it more challenging.

[cstr]

Curious how did you like the flavor of the cold smoked salmon? I really enjoy it, one of my favs..

[karaethon]

Yeah, I liked the flavor a lot and so did all the coworkers I enlisted for criticism.

If I had smoked salmon at some really high quality restaurant, I would expect something better, but I feel the quality was on par with what you might find in an upscale hotel's dining room.

[P Macias]

This thread makes me hungry for graved lox. Do any local restaurants serve it? I can make my own but it's nice to have it served.

[Cathy]

Ikea...but you serve yourself.

[ospreycove]

Believe it ...or not; Target (superstore, I think they are called) with a full supermarket, hasprivate label"Archer Farms" Wild Alaskan Cold Smoked Sockeye Salmon that is just as good as Ducktrap, Echo Falls, and others. It is packed in 7 oz. packs and is under $6.00 regular price and sometimes, on sale, it is under $5.00/pack, We load up as the dating is always at least 5-6 weeks. We use it when a "pop up" brunch or other unplanned gathering at our house occurs.
Worth trying.

[sdnosh]

Point Loma Seafoods smokes their own fish, including Salmon. All of the smoked fish I have tried has been delicious and falls under the locally made category.

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Point Loma Seafoods
2805 Emerson St, San Diego, CA 92106

[SDGourmand]

The smoked salmon belly is amazing at PLS..

[karaethon]

Hmm Point Loma might be good to check out. It's been about a year since I've been there...

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Point Loma Cafe
4856 N Harbor Dr, San Diego, CA 92106

[Beach Chick]

PLS smoked fish is some of the best I've ever had..pricey but exceptionally good!

[Alice Q]

PLS does hot smoked fish - I am sure it is good but I prefer Lox style. In my lobster searching, I noticed that The Fish Market makes Nova Lox. It's the only local source that I know of - will have to pick some up and try it out sometime before I order from the E. Coast again.

[foodiechick]

A few different and tasty smoked fishies at El Pescador. Salmon, Albacore, Mahi-mahi. Husband can't be trusted to go buy fish for dinner without buying a chunk of smoked fish.

[SIMIHOUND]

Quite coincidentally I have recently tried TJ's, Costco's and Smart and Final and I liked S&F much better.

[SaltyRaisins]

Interesting...my first thought was Costco, too, because I like some things there. But then, I got to thinking...

There is a lot of discussion around here about the relative food knowledge and awareness of San Diegans being reflected in the (in view of some, pretty limited) spectrum of restaurant quality and creativity offered to them. I don't always agree with the naysayers since we have our things that we do well here or items that are as good as their parallels in other cities. But with regard to karaethon's question, I had hoped that there was something else to offer that is better along the lines of Russ & Daughters or Barney Greengrass. This is kinda the only time I feel that San Diego is truly lacking. Granted, even a lot of big cities don't have a selection like that, but it's just that SD sometimes lacks in "purveyors" of excellent ingredients. There are lots of exceptions (Elizabethan Desserts, a smattering of great Mexican places, goodish classic seafood, Venissimo Cheese, Assenti pasta, Mona Lisa, the uni guy, Nijiya...there's more...what else?), but generally, this is the case for me. It really has gotten better as far as restaurants are concerned, though.

Cheers, and good luck, karaethon!

[Victor Lieberman]

Though it's not Russ + Daughters or Barney Greengrass, if you stand next to the glass case at Milton's in Del Mar and watch them cut the lox and insist on it being sliced paper thin and not from the ends of the fish, you and Karaethon will get closer to the experience you are looking for. On a Costco note, their lox is good and very cheap, but I was just there Sunday and they have a whole smoked White Fish from ACME in NY not the Lasco they used to carry. It's amazing. 11 bucks for a whole fish and its moist and smoky and exceptional.

[Ewilensky]

La Jolla Whole Foods has a nice selection of smoked fish.

As does the counter at the Downtown Fish Market.

As others said, Costco has good smoked salmon.

From time to time, so does Trader Joe's

[daantaat]

if it's lox you're looking for, Costco's is pretty decent and pre-cut.

[cstr]

2nd that, Costco carries Norweigan Smoked Salmon, excellent.

[Beach Chick]

3rd that...just bought some from Costco which is quite good..
Finding a decent onion bagel in town is another story.

[karaethon]

Sounds like Costco is the popular recommendation. I'll go check that out first tomorrow

Thanks guys!

[karaethon]

So I went to Costco and they had 5 different types of smoked salmon:
- Norweigan cold smoked (pre-sliced)
- hot smoked (next to the Norweigan) (not sliced)
- A double pack of Wild Alaskan Coho cold smoked (pre-sliced)
- Smoked Salmon pinwheels
- Alaskan (not sure if this was hot or cold smoked) with some herb marinade on the outside (pre-sliced)

I was originally just going to check the prices at Costco, but since everything was $20 or less for the big Costco package, I just purchased the Norweigan one as it looked good.

[Petifur]

Norwegian is the best, but recently made a potato, capers onion salad with the hot smoked (whole) and it was the bomb.

[oerdin]

I'm going to have to go to Costco and pick up a couple of those.

[scottca075]

Old topic, but Bristol Farms in La Jolla has great smoked salmon too.

[cstr]

A real bagel?? where... served warm with thin sliced smoked salmon with a schemere!