From the bull market on hot pots, to futuristic space tiki bars on acid, to the return of an iconic San Diego chef, to Japanese-inspired listening bars, even just a little fish shop from a fifth generation local fisherman who hit all-time low and turned his life around to grow to be one in every of the world’s foremost experts in sustainable seafood…
San Diego’s foods and drinks world rose back up in 2022. Not without struggle. Not without hefty competition for workers and a drastically modified world and holy-damn inflation.
Right before the world broke, Michelin and the Recent York Times and national media were sending emissaries to San Diego to kick the tires on the food scene that had finally managed to get their attention.
That fever pitch continues. These are our picks for best recent restaurants, bars and venues of the yr.
Part Time Lover
Know that friend who loved music with their entire soul, talked about vinyl as if it’s a burning bush, after which grew up and got a job and spent their more money turning a room of their house into the best music room on the planet (that’s not a vinyl painting of Jesus eating a burger, it’s an acoustic panel of Jesus eating a burger)? How one night you all drank whiskey in highballs in there and listened to some Hungarian jazz and it was such as you’d never even heard music before that Like Rick Rubin’s studio, but without the overbearing smell of weed?
That’s listening bars, an idea began by the isle of audiophiles—Japan. A gorgeous room built to ricochet an attractive sound system, turntables manned by uber music nerds who re-birth you into that cool Miles Davis talked about.
For this North Park concept, Consortium Holdings partnered with one in every of the legendariest (it’s a word now) record shops in town (Folk Arts Rare Records) to create Part Time Lover. Consortium-level cocktails (they made their name with them), appropriately including Japanese high balls and whiskeys.
It filled a spiritual hole left in North Park by Bar Pink, the beloved musicians hangout that didn’t make it through the pandemic. But Consortium brought on Pink owner Dang Nguyen to administer it. Inside is moodlit with wealthy woods, soft chairs, and shadows.
Convoy Music Lounge
Same concept, different neighborhood, different vibe. Walk past the Taco Stand, past those alley dumpsters, and just if you begin to wonder about crime statistics you end up on this little sliver of room joy.
Convoy Music Lounge is a vinyl records-and-cocktails experience by the Taco Stand people (Showa Hospitality). There’s a dress code (no sandals, no cargo shorts despite their incredible capability for snacks). Records and records and more records handpicked by Showa’s Yuichiro Edamatsu, with glassware and records imported direct from Japan. It’s a slender joint. Sit, sip, listen.
White Rice Bodega
San Diego Magazine’s 2020 “Chef of the 12 months” is beginning to materialize his dreams (and ours). National City native and Phil Esteban (who cooked at Momofuku, then got here to San Diego to be the R&D chef for Consortium Holdings, then spent his time making hot meals for people in need through the pandemic) is starting with White Rice. The primary outpost went into Liberty Public Market, after which he expanded right into a tiny-mighty footprint in Normal Heights (an entire 600-square-feet).
It’s the spot for lechon kawali (crispy deep fried pork belly cubes) and that famous ube pandesal (among the best bites of baked goods within the country). It doubles as a bodega (selling provisions and alcohol, some housemade pickles). Even higher, every meal purchased at White Rice, Esteban and team donate one meal to San Diegans facing hunger. A virtually flawless tiny thing for a neighborhood.
Kingfisher
Jonathan Bautista earned this one. The chef worked his duff off in a number of the city’s top kitchens (most notably at George’s on the Cove under Trey Foshee). Through the pandemic, he fell right into a dark place like the remaining of us, pulled himself out on top of a Peloton.
Why’s that essential? Since it was a present from the family that owns Crab Hut (an area success story). They’d been eating at George’s for years, loved his cooking. The Peloton was a form gesture and a form of promise ring that said, “soon as we’re out of this, do something.” And that they did, opening Kingfisher, a knockout modern Vietnamese/pan-Asian restaurant in Golden Hill.
The entire place has an Asian Golden Girls vibe, marvelously gold and floral. I won’t be so gross to say that San Diego Vietnamese food in some way wasn’t good before Kingfisher, because many mothers and pops are cooking improbable Bún bò Huế across town. But fact is Bautista’s skill set is higher than most humans, and it shows in dishes just like the beef tartare (a kick of fish sauce, Thai chiles, toasted quinoa, pickled ramps, crispy shallots, cured egg yolks) and the improbable cold diver scallop dish where the salty funk of fish sauce is ideal with pineapple. Order the smoked duck (or attempt to not less than, it sells out every night).
Hell’s Kitchen
This is precisely the sort of recent restaurant Americans needs to be demanding of our casinos. Truthfully, once I’m throwing down major blackjack wagers ($5) and hitting on 16 because everyone’s clairvoyant after two drinks… undecided I’m in the best mind frame for a quaint farm to table concept with rosemary sprigs and chapbooks concerning the grower. I need a show.
And Gordon Ramsay’s Hell’s Kitchen at Harrah’s Resort SoCal is certainly that—an 11,360-square-foot signature restaurant for the Funner, California casino (they really renamed town). It’s built across the Michelin-starred chef’s TV show on Fox.
The entire joint is ringed in flames, with hero shots of the contestants, a curated wine wall, two private dining rooms, and two chef’s tables. They do a fairly improbable seared scallop, through which they present you simply with one of the best a part of the sear (a la muffin tops) with celery root puree, braised lardons, and pickled Granny Smith apples. Also, they convey back the meat Wellington—a fabulous pastry-wrapped steak that never must have been abandoned within the ’70s. Delicious. Funner “mayor”—actor Jane Lynch (Glee, The Marvelous Mrs. Masel)—helped create a menu of zero-proof cocktails in case you wish just a little less clairvoyance.
Ambrogio by Acquerello
After a pair a long time of lovable red sauce, San Diego’s Italian food scene has been modernizing step-by-step at spots like Bencotto, Solare, Civico1845, Buona Forchetta, and Amalfi Cucina Italiana. Ambrogio is one other one, began in 2016 in Pacific Beach as a Milan-style pizza joint from three friends who moved here from Northern Italy.
That success spun off a couple of more locations (they’ve now got five throughout the county, and have plans for Phoenix next yr). Ambrogio by Acquerello is their real step up, a partnership between the owners (Giacomo Pizzigoni, Andrea Burrone, Luca Salvi) and the culinary team behind Milan’s Michelin-starred Ristorante Acquerello (partner chefs Silvio Salmoiraghi and Choi Cheolhyeok) . The menu is a combination of 5 cuisines: Italian, French, Korean, Japanese, and Californian.
Shancheng Lameizi
Order the mild. I do know you’re from China or have been to China or have watched every episode of Hot Ones. Still, order a combo of mild and spicy broths since the mild is definitely spicy and the spicy has dissolved people’s heads. Hot pot is one in every of the unique communal meals, how civilizations began, huddled over a hot pot of food until they were forced to converse and start to construct a culture. And Shancheng is a breakout concept from Beijing, with over 20 locations worldwide now.
That is San Diego’s first, a beautiful sliver of a hot pot restaurant (positioned, in Convoy tradition, in a strip mall). Hot pots are done Chongqing style. Select your broths (mushroom, pork bone, milk, etc.). Then your protein (Shancheng has prime western-friendly cuts like ribeye and Wagyu and lamb leg, but in addition traditional Chinese cuts like beef tongue and pig brain and chicken gizzard). The star is the sauce bar with soy garlic and spicy fire and a dozen other options—drizzle nearly each one, or follow the instructions on proven combos.
Haidilao San Diego
It’s the yr of the recent pot in San Diego’s food scene. Haidilao is the opposite massive arrival at UTC Westfield (which, despite my original skepticism, has grow to be a hell of a destination and seemingly refuses to stop recruiting big names).
From the Sichuan province of China, Haidilao is the Din Tai Fung of hot pot, their largest export. Sit within the chic lobby, sip a cocktail (spiked lychee iced tea), be alternately charmed and creeped by the spaceman teddy bears.
Hot pot is a splash-zone food, especially for those just learning the trade, and so they provide you with all you wish (aprons, hair ties, plastic baggies for electronics). For meats they’ve got all of it, sourced from the best places (Kobe belly, Australian lamb, organic chicken, korubata pork). They’ll hand-pull noodles at your tableside for show.
Tunaville
A fifth generation San Diego fisherman who’s spent the last 50 or so years championing local, sustainable seafood just opened a fish shop at the side of one other local-boat lifer and seafood icon. That’s truthfully all you really want to know.
Tommy Gomes and partner Mitch Conniff (Mitch’s Seafood) opened Tunaville as an outpost for local catch. You’ll see slices of bluefin sashimi, mussels, clams, sheepshead, whatever’s are available fresh. They’ve also got ceviches and salads, and a small collection of dried foods (salts, pasta, oils, beans, sauces).
Sensible Ox
This was a pandemic pivot that went wild. Chef Brad Sensible has made his name a couple of alternative ways, but in any respect his restaurants (Trust, Fort Oak, Rare Society) he’s had marinated meats and sauces (which he often then places over a pile of fancy burning wood).
Sensible Ox is a butcher and sandwich shop that makes a speciality of those recipes. This town’s got a ton of Boar’s Head delis that’ll do in a pinch, but when a whim or a mood calls for much higher than a pinch, Sensible Ox is it.
Starbread National City
Oh dear god the señorita bread. They’re gonna give you a box of 200 or so. Don’t take heed to them—get 400. The buttery, creamy tiny footballs of sweet baked goods at Starbread—somewhere between a Parker House roll, a Mexican doughnut, and an almond croissant (without the flakiness)—are ok to break a couple of lives.
The concept was began in South Sacramento by Romy and Nelly Romanan, and it’s a combination of Filipino and Spanish concepts—the important thing being sugar, butter, and breadcrumbs that create a gooey interior. So easy, and price every little bit of the hype.
Marisi
There’s fish dry-aging upstairs, next to a table of cooks hand-rolling pasta. Downstairs there may be whiskey that’s rarely ever seen except on collectors’ web sites, more whiskey aging in a barrel within the courtyard. Exec chef Chad Huff was a line cook at two-star Michelin Windfall, then studied pasta under Evan Funke at Felix Trattoria; beverage director Beau du Bois comes from three-star Michelin The Restaurant at Meadowood.
Marisi was surely the Italian opening of the yr, an obsession.
Tacotarian San Diego
If Taco Bell had been invented after the “higher food” movement and the vast quality escalation of plant-based cuisine, it’d look and taste quite a bit like this. The vegan riff on fast-casual tacos (they do a jackfruit quesabirria with bits of Beyond meat, a plant-based fish taco, a California burrito, seitan asada, etc.) was a runaway hit in Vegas.
That is Tacotarian’s first location in San Diego, going right into a North Park spot that has played host to 2 vegan restaurants before it (Modern Vegan and Chicago Not Dogs). They’ve got full cocktails, arroz con leche for dessert. Plant-based fast food is coming, and that is one (they’ve made sure to incorporate employees within the ownership structure as well).
Mothership
Kindred has done all types of special things with vegan food (most significantly, they made it feel like a side-stage party at a heavy metal show), and with their partners Arsalun Tafazoli and CH Projects they created an alien tiki otherworld in a tiny dive bar in South Park. Mothership has a small menu of vegan food, however the bar is the predominant attraction here.
It’s hard to overstate what they’ve done. They tapped designer Ignacio “Notch” Gonzalez, whose company Top Notch Kustoms crafted the famous tiki bar other-worlds in San Francisco (Smuggler’s Cove, Whitechapel) and Seattle (Inside Passage). The result’s like Land of the Lost meets Star Wars meets highly anesthetizing tropical drinks.
Xin Chao Eatery
It could not appear to be much, taking up a small footprint next to a Jamba Juice in Del Mar Highlands, but pho is life. And in Del Mar, there are only two places I do know of to get it: Le Bambou and Xin Chao Eatery, a recent concept from local couple Joyce and Justin Nguyen. And having just one option for pho is like only having one coffee shop. Crimes.
Their house special pho is a meat lovers’ special full of filet mignon, meatballs, brisket, and topped with a Flinstonian, tender beef rib where the meat soaks up the broth just like the innards of a french dip. Also try the pho product of oxtail, essentially the most delicious cut of meat known to meat. Del Mar Highlands is now principally north county’s version of Westfield UTC, a grown-up mall that’s compensated for the challenges of retail by inserting some truly good places to eat.
Temaki
Chef JoJo Ruiz of Clique Hospitality (Serea, Lionfish, Joya Organic Kitchen) has made a reputation for himself in San Diego as probably the most sustainable seafood chefs around. With Temaki in Encinitas, he’s specializing in hand rolls and things ordered on the bar from the sushi case.
The spicy tuna crispy rice is so good it’s almost a unclean trick: crispy-fried rice is arguably than movie popcorn and plenty of types of sex, and you then pile it with well-seasoned sushi grade ahi with a kick and a citrus ponzu. It’s a social hangout, with beer, wine, sake, Japanese soda (Ramune, which looks like all forms of radiator fluid and is beloved), and mochi ice cream for dessert.
Paradisaea
Very like Worcestershire, no human can properly pronounce the name of this recent restaurant, which took over the enduring piano showroom in Bird Rock. Try Paradisaea’s design, from the patterns on chairs to the tiles from acclaimed local ceramicist, Josh Herman.
Bird Rock, which has gave the impression of one other planet on account of the long road to accessing it through La Jolla or P.B., is putting together a just-right sized foods and drinks scene with standouts like Wayfarer Bread and LJ Crafted Wines alongside the solid and beloved Beaumont’s. Paradisaea’s team is stellar, with culinary director Mark Welker (former pastry sous at three-star Michelin Eleven Madison Park and pastry chef at NoMad) and bar woman Dannika Underhill (formerly of Kindred and highly educated and hilarious star of this HHH podcast).
The kitchen stars with the sauces, and it’s got all the things you’d want from a marquee restaurant—oysters and pastas, a dry-aged cheeseburger, scallops in vadouvan curry, bone-in ribeyes in veal jus. Definitely try the tempura halibut in green curry aioli.
Gold Finch
Tracy Borkum is just one in every of the higher restaurant operators in town, has been since she ran Ken Grill. Really made her name with Cucina Urbana in Bankers Hill, though. The polenta plate has kept a pair families together. Her most up-to-date project is a tackle a contemporary Jewish deli, an idea that San Diego needs ten or 12 more of.
Just the phrase “shmaltz crusted potato” warms a chilly heart. It’s a weekday breakfast-lunch thing, with early morning loaded latkes, corned beef hash wrap, but in addition acai bowls, baked goods (honey cakes, baklava, regelach, knish). Then for midday it’s bowls and salads and sandwiches (brisket French dip, reuben, etc.) and snacks (muhammara spread, smoked trout rillette). And in fact, blintzes.
Hard to beat the team of chef-partner Tim Kolanko (years because the chef de cuisine at AR Valentien), Jeff Armstrong (ex-Parakeet), Frankie Becerra, and pastry chef Adrian Mendoza.
Carbon BBQ
A protracted while back, chef Hanis Cavin stopped working at fancy restaurants, opened a tiny little window in North Park, served pork belly out just a little North Park window, and called it Carnitas Snack Shack. He’s long since moved on from that glory, even moved out of town and made some people cry.
Now he’s back and teamed with one in every of the highest Italian restaurant groups, Buona Forchetta, for a Texas-style barbecue concept. Get the brisket sandwich, get the mac ‘n’ cheese, watch these two talented partners evolve it at Carbon BBQ.
Mabel’s Gone Fishing
Chelsea Coleman’s been doing natural wine right in San Diego for an extended while, starting with The Rose Wine Bar in South Park. She was one in every of the creators of Nat Diego wine festival that brought one in every of the world’s top natural wine experts to town (Alice Feiring). But her cooking chops aren’t to be underestimated, having cooked in Europe and done time within the kitchen at two former standouts in San Diego (The Linkery and Whisknladle).
Now she’s expanded together with her co-chefs Dan Luong (also of The Rose) and Ross Garcia (formerly of Brookyn’s Marlow & Sons) to this gin-centric Spanish and Portuguese-influenced small plates joint (yes, oysters)—with standout dishes like blistered padron peppers in goat cheese, swordfish schnitzel with creamy tomato sauce (all of those change repeatedly with season and whim, but you get the purpose).
The cocktail list at Mabel’s Gone Fishing is from Tony Roehr, a longtime barkeep with CH Projects (get the “G and T,” with Nordes gin, lemon, grape, and sage). Oh, and the burnt Basque cheesecake for dessert.
