The 15 Most Iconic San Diego Food Experiences

There's a reason San Diego nabbed the title for America's Finest City, and no, it's not just because of our perfect weather and gorgeous beaches. SD is rife with excellent culinary experiences, including killer burgers, the best Mexican food this side of the border, loads of craft beer, and amazing pizza that'll have New Yorkers shaking in their boots. Lots of us have a travel bucket list, but we’ve also created a food bucket list of all the can’t-miss dining experiences: the places we go when we’re celebrating a special occasion, friends from out of town come to visit, or we just want to show off our amazing city. These are our picks for the 15 best, most quintessential San Diego food experiences to cross off your list ASAP.

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Over the top cocktail experiences, in all their Instagrammable glory, are enjoying a renaissance around the city. Botanica highlights jenever, one of Europe’s oldest distilled spirits, served in elegant flutes, as well as one of San Diego’s most diverse selections of gin and other botanical spirits sourced from around the world. The chic lounge area features an art gallery of carefully curated pieces by local and international talent. The centerpiece of Wilma’s Carousel Bar in Little Italy is a dazzling 24-seat, carousel-shaped bar that rotates slowly, giving you a 360-degree view of the room every 14 minutes, plus New Orleans-inspired cocktails, including the Pink Pony Club, Fig & Cig and C’est La Vida. Wormwood explores the mysterious green fairy, absinthe in the traditional manner of early 20th century Paris: served from slow-drip fountains with a cube of sugar, or in cocktails showcasing revisited absinthe classics, as well as a selection of non-absinthe drinks.

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When you’re choosing a place to eat and have to please everyone, food halls and communal spaces are the perfect solution. Market on 8th in National City showcases an array of restaurants like Donburi Rice Bowls, Coleta Brunch, Poppy’s & Cream and seven more unique eateries. The Liberty Public Market in Liberty Station boasts more than two dozen food stands ranging from bao to empanadas, plus Bottlecraft, a boutique beer shop/tasting room/cocktail bar featuring 24 rotating craft beers on draft and hundreds of bottles of hard-to-find local, domestic and international craft beer. North County’s Windmill Food Hall in Carlsbad hosts The Mill Bar, a craft cocktail bar with a great weekday happy hour, Wine Down Wednesdays and brunch-inspired drink specials every Saturday and Sunday, plus pizza, pho, and nearly every other kind of food shop you can imagine. In Little Italy’s gorgeous Piazza della Famiglia you’ll find the Little Italy Food Hall, where you can enjoy trivia or live music most weeknights, along with paper-thin Milanese-style pizza from Ambrogio15, craft cocktails at the Little Italy Food Hall Bar or Bobboi Natural Gelato.

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San Diego’s most popular food is, without a doubt, the humble taco, and one of the best ways to experience San Diego’s taco scene is to hop in the car and hit up as many taco stands and restaurants as your gas tank and stomach can handle. A great jumping off point is Las Cuatro Milpas in Barrio Logan, where they’ve been slinging rolled and regular tacos since 1933 and the ever-present line out the door tells you it’s legit stuff. Head east to Chula Vista for Aqui es Texcoco’s authentic nose-to-tail lamb barbacoa: choose from shredded lamb meat, rib, cabeza (head meat), pancita (tripe and giblets) or sesos (brain). Other must-have tacos can be had at North Park’s El Comal for Baja-smoked marlin and excellent mole, or Seafood la 57, the taco truck that hangs out in the Target Express parking lot in South Park. Or Mitch’s Seafood, or Ed Fernandez Birrieria, or…well, you get the idea.

Banker’s Hill
Mr. A’s 18-seat sunken bar and 72-seat indoor-outdoor lounge is hands down the most spectacular view in San Diego, spanning the entire city, from the airport to the bay. Executive chef Stephane Voitzwinkler artfully blends American, French and Alsatian influences into dishes—think rosy pink duck breast and Dry-Aged Ribeye, or modern takes on wild caught Alaskan halibut and Georges Bank scallops. There’s also an argument to be made for brunch—each month executive pastry chef Amy Simpson and pastry sous chef Adrianna Hebbert create a new menu’s worth of handmade pastries, breads and donuts.

Carlsbad
Like the chicest, easiest camping trip you’ve ever experienced, almost everything on Campfire’s menu is finessed by flames. Whole-grilled fish, roasted broccoli and vegan sprouted porridge bread are must-trys, along with s’mores for dessert, of course. The delightful cocktail list also utilizes fire and smoke to create some of the most unique libations to be found anywhere in San Diego. 

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Getting your oyster fix in San Diego couldn’t be easier. Whether you love British Columbia’s briny Kusshis, Carlsbad’s creamy Lunas, or sweet, nutty Kumamotos from the Pacific Northwest, you’ll find an amazing assortment of oysters from a number of coastal regions. The Fish Shop has three locations and a sublime oyster shooter that comes spicy or mild with cocktail sauce, horseradish, a fat, lightly poached shrimp on top and a beer chaser, plus $1.25 oysters on the half-shell every Thursday from 4pm until they run out. Arguably the county’s most extensive selection of oyster styles is at Q&A Restaurant & Oyster Bar in Oceanside, where you’ll find Gulf Coast oysters from the Louisiana coast, East Coast varieties from the Virginia coast and West Coast selections from Sequim Bay in northwestern Washington, served as ceviche or on the half shell, a trio of boozy shooters, and char-grilled four different ways. Pacific Beach’s Duck Dive adds some tangy heat to their half-shells with a citrus-jalapeño mignonette and Oysters Rockefeller topped with shrimp, spinach, chipotle jack cheese and breadcrumbs, broiled golden brown and crunchy. Other local favorites include Sandpiper Wood Fired Grill & Oysters at La Jolla Shores, Ironside Fish & Oyster in Little Italy and laid-back TJ Oyster Bar, with two locations in Bonita and one in Chula Vista.

South Park
Kindred’s Victorian/goth décor and death metal playlist garner so much attention that it’s easy to forget they also have an outstanding cocktail/mocktail program and some of the most inventive vegan dishes in the city. The Mind Melt grilled cheese crushes your carb cravings and pairs perfectly with Good Soup tomato bisque, Egg Roll Burger is a big umami bomb and for dessert, Baklava Cheesecake will satisfy your most hardcore sweet tooth.

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With more than 150 breweries at our disposal, putting together a stellar brewery crawl in San Diego is a no brainer. We recommend choosing a neighborhood, then mapping out your favorites to save time between stops. North County boasts Stone Brewing World & Gardens’ IPA-centric pours, traditionally brewed Belgian styles at The Lost Abbey and the always outstanding Pure Project. For collaborations with neighboring breweries as well as their own beers, head south to Barrio Logan for traditional Latin flavors infused in Border X Brewing’s beers, Thorn Brewing Co.’s perfect pale ales and Mujeres Brew House, San Diego’s first Latina-owned brewery. The Point Loma/Liberty Station/Midway area is home to Eppig Brewing and their spectacular bayfront patio, Oggi’s offers San Diego-style IPAs plus Ketch Grill and Taps for a varied beer menu alongside bobbing sailboats on the bay. Other great neighborhoods to fulfill your beer dreams include North Park (Belching Beaver Brewery, North Park Beer Company, The Original 40 Brewing Company), Little Italy (Ballast Point, Bolt Brewery) and Ocean Beach (Kilowatt Brewing, OB Brewery,Mike Hess Brewing).

Del Mar
When you have to pull out all the stops, do it at Addison, San Diego’s only three Michelin-starred restaurant. Chef and director William Bradley creates a contemporary California gastronomy ten-course prix fixe tasting menu that evolves over the course of each season. No detail is left to chance; the most luxurious ingredients are used in meticulously planned and perfectly plated dishes. Service is choreographed to be attentive without being intrusive and most dietary requests can be accommodated with at least 48 hours notice. 

Little Italy
Juniper and Ivy was one of the first restaurants to open in the north end of Little Italy more than a decade ago and still garners high praise both locally and nationally, including a Michelin Guide Bib Gourmand designation. Chef emeritus Jon Sloan changes the menu almost daily, taking advantage of whatever local seafood, seasonal fruits and vegetables are available. A few signature dishes are nearly always on the menu though, like the delectable dry-aged whole roasted duck, the off-menu In-N-Haute burger and of course, the wildly popular dessert, Yodel.

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Convoy Street is best known as a go-to destination for Asian cuisine, but it's also a hub for trendy ice cream shops serving creative scoops and inventive cones so delicious you might just want to skip dinner and head straight for dessert. For the lightest, fluffiest Taiwanese shaved snow ever, stop by Iceskimo, where owner Robert Yang still hand-makes each ice block for the freshest quality. The Hong Kong bubble waffles, filled with creamy soft serve, are also popular. SOMISOMI’s ah-boong is a cute, fish-shaped waffle cone filled with nutella, custard, red bean, or taro, topped with soft-serve in flavors like ube, black sesame, matcha, or milk tea and showered in crumbles or sprinkles. Also popular are taiyaki, or Japanese fish-shaped pancakes. Bing Haus specializes in Thai-style rolled ice cream and a spectacular seasonal bingsoo—milk shaved snow, mochi, vanilla soft serve, frosted flakes or fruity pebbles and red beans under a mountain of watermelon or honeydew balls, all doused in condensed milk.

Coronado Island
Serēa’s airy, sophisticated dining room, with a cleverly raised floor in the main dining area and a multi-level outdoor patio, means that everyone gets a great view of gorgeous sunsets from Coronado Island. Enjoy world class sea-to-table cuisine, either lightly grilled on an open wood fire or flash-fried and beautifully composed by Chef Jojo Ruiz, a James Beard Smart Catch Leader recipient for his commitment to sustainable seafood practices. Pair your meal with a selection from the eclectic wine cellar or a luxurious hand-crafted cocktail. 

Little Italy
Devilishly delicious cocktails from a tableside cart, in-house aged prime cuts and an over-the-top, opulent atmosphere keeps Born & Raised firmly in the ranks of San Diego’s see-and-be-seen hotspots. Even their cheeseburger is a must-have—ground dry-aged ribeye for luxurious flavor and mouthfeel, topped with gooey melted Gruyere and Bordelaise onions will reset your standards for this humble hamburger. End your meal with a sky-high slice of carrot cake or a giant macaron emblazoned with the Wu-Tang logo and a nightcap on the rooftop deck. 

Pacific Beach
Rocky’s Crown Pub has been serving one of San Diego’s best burgers since 1977. The 80/20 blend of chuck is hand-pattied daily and comes in two sizes, one-third or a half-pound and with or without gooey melted American cheese. Mayo, leaf lettuce, tomato, raw red onion (ask if you want it grilled) and pickle chips make this the burger you loved as a kid and still crave as a grownup. Fries can be added as a side order and there’s a decent selection of beer to wash it down. Be warned, in exchange for a classic burger you'll deal with small quarters and a parking-challenged location. 

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Carne asada fries are served at just about every taco shop in the city, but Lolita’s Mexican Food claims to have originated them in the late 1990s and its version is still one of the best in the city featuring thinly sliced strips of seasoned Black Angus steak, shredded cheddar, cotija, sour cream and guacamole over French fries. All you need to do is top them with some green and red salsa and you’re good to go.

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