Lucien
CITY GUIDES | CALIFORNIA
20 Restaurants That Prove San Diego's Dining Scene Can’t Be Stopped
By Mei Chen | Jan. 20, 2026
AUTHOR BIO: Mei Chen has worked for nearly a dozen start-ups in as many years, taking her to several West Coast cities. While she’s sure her current day job is permanent, she also has her eye on Carmel.
San Diego’s food scene is one of those things locals get evangelical about, like perfect surf breaks and the inferiority of L.A. burritos. It’s a city that takes tacos as seriously as it takes biotech, and yet it’s just as likely to impress with a perfectly executed omakase or a slice of pizza worthy of a New York transplant’s begrudging approval.
I’ve spent enough time eating my way through this town to know that for every overhyped tourist trap, there’s a spot turning out legitimately great food, the kind that makes you reroute your plans just to eat there again. Here then are the 28 best restaurants in San Diego right now.
Addison
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Addison stands as Southern California's only three-star Michelin restaurant. Under the guidance of Chef William Bradley, the Carmel Valley restaurant offers a 10-course tasting menu that exemplifies California gastronomy. The ambiance is as refined as the cuisine, making it a pinnacle of fine dining in San Diego.
Best for: A once-a-year blowout tasting menu
Callie
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East Village’s Callie is the kind of restaurant that makes you question why you don’t eat more saffron. Chef Travis Swikard spent over a decade in Daniel Boulud’s kitchen empire before bringing his Mediterranean sensibilities back home to San Diego, and it shows. The menu leans into big, sunny flavors—think kanpachi crudo kissed with fermented serrano chili and citrus. If you’re the type who judges a restaurant by its bread service (which, frankly, you should), the bubbly, blistered pita alone is worth the trip.
Best for: A date night built around big Mediterranean flavors
Cori Pastificio Trattoria
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Cori Pastificio Trattoria makes pasta the way it was meant to be made—by hand, with heritage grains, and enough patience to make you rethink your grocery-store rigatoni. Chef Accursio Lota, a Sicilian with an obvious love for flour and water, keeps the menu tight, which means everything is done well. You’ll leave full, happy, and slightly annoyed that you ever settled for dried pasta.
Best for: Handmade pasta and the satisfaction of ordering “just one more” bowl
Cucina Urbana
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Cucina Urbana is where Italy meets California in a delicious culinary love child. With a wine shop boasting over 200 labels, you might forget there's food too. But don't, because their contemporary Italian dishes are worth remembering. Open daily with a happy hour that'll make you actually look forward to Mondays, it's no wonder they first snagged a Michelin Bib Gourmand way back in 2019. It's like the participation trophy of the culinary world, but way tastier.
Best for: A wine-forward meal that turns into an unplanned second round
Deckman’s North
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This North Park spot opened as 311, then rebranded as Deckman’s North at 3131, now less special-occasion theater and more of a neighborhood spot. Chef Drew Deckman and co-owner Paulina Deckman hang the whole thing on a “zero-kilometer” idea—Southern California and Baja ingredients. The menu moves around, but the tone is consistent: seasonal plates, a serious cocktail program, and a bone-in bourbon-glazed pork chop that keeps showing up for a reason.
Best for: When the goal is simply great cooking and strong drinks
Dija Mara
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One of the best restaurants in Oceanside is a Balinese-inspired spot where the grilled roti is so good it should come with a warning label. The menu doesn’t play it safe: beef rendang is cooked down until the coconut milk forms a deeply caramelized crust, and the nasi goreng arrives topped with a perfectly runny egg, just begging to be mixed into the charred rice. If you want something lighter, there’s a citrusy sea bream ceviche that delivers just the right amount of makrut lime punch. Dija Mara’s laid-back surf-town vibe might lull you into thinking you’re just here for a casual meal, but the food is serious business.
Best for: Oceanside’s most craveable Balinese plates
Fleurette
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Fleurette is chef Travis Swikard’s love letter to “cuisine du soleil,” which mostly translates to French Mediterranean food that feels sunlit even at night. The menu reads like a confident flex of comfort and restraint at the same time: “Oeufs & Eggs” (soft scrambled eggs with San Diego uni, black truffle, and PX sherry sabayon), Hope Ranch mussels in vol-au-vent form with garlic-persillade butter, and egg yolk fettuccine slicked with Meyer lemon butter and topped with golden Ossetra caviar. For the big swing, the San Diego “Bouillabaisse” arrives built around slow-baked red sheepshead and spiny lobster with saffron bourride, which is the kind of dish that makes nearby plans feel negotiable.
Best for: French technique that feels bright, not heavy
Formoosa
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San Diego’s Taiwanese food scene isn’t exactly sprawling, but Formoosa makes the case that it should be. The beef noodle soup is the kind of thing you start thinking about halfway through your first bowl, wondering when you can justify coming back for another. The broth is rich but not overwhelming, the noodles just chewy enough to fight back a little. Gua bao come stuffed with a slab of pork belly that threatens to melt at the mere suggestion of a bite. It’s a cozy, casual spot where everything on the menu feels like a dish someone’s perfected over generations.
Best for: Beef noodle soup and gua bao when the craving will not let go
Jeune et Jolie
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If you’ve been to Carlsbad, you know it has all the excitement of a well-maintained cul-de-sac. But Jeune et Jolie, a one-Michelin-starred spot, is one reason to go. The restaurant delivers French food that feels fresh rather than fussy, with foie gras made for people who actually like foie gras and butter-soaked pastries that remind you why the French never gave up on carbs.
Best for: A Carlsbad trip that ends in French dishes
Kingfisher
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Golden Hill’s Kingfisher is sleek, stylish, and serving some of the most exciting Vietnamese food in the city. Lemongrass-marinated grilled pork collar come out smoky and impossibly juicy, turmeric-dill fish is bright and fragrant in all the right ways, and the cocktail list feels like it was designed by someone who actually enjoys drinking. It’s not trying to be traditional, but it’s also not trying too hard to be different—just a well-executed, thoughtful take on Vietnamese cuisine that happens to be one of the best meals in town.
Best for: Vietnamese food with swagger and cocktails that keep pace
Lucien
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Lucien is a small, high-intent tasting-menu restaurant run by chef Elijah Arizmendi, with a team stacked with Michelin-kitchen alumni and the confidence to match. The experience leans hyper-seasonal California through French and Japanese technique, anchored by a wood-fired hearth and a menu that tends to land in the dozen-plus-courses range, with signatures that have included an eggshell egg custard topped with caviar, California spiny lobster aguachile, and Japanese eggplant ice cream. There’s also a bar component for walk-ins and à la carte, but the point is the full procession, the kind of meal that starts beneath a calamansi tree and keeps escalating from there.
Best for: A big-night tasting menu that feels like new-school San Diego
Mabel’s Gone Fishing
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If gin bars and Spanish seafood had a love child, it would be Mabel’s. This North Park spot is all about gin-based drinks and fish that doesn’t need much dressing up. The swordfish schnitzel is oddly perfect, and if you’re into raw stuff, the seafood towers here could double as centerpieces at an upscale wedding.
Best for: Gin drinks and Spanish-leaning seafood
Matsu
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In Oceanside, Matsu is the kind of place that makes you question all other sushi you've ever eaten. The 10-course tasting menu is a journey through flavors that'll make you forget you're not in Tokyo. At $185 a pop, it's not cheap, but neither is a plane ticket to Japan. They even offer a vegan option for $140, because apparently, plants can be fancy too. Open Thursday through Monday, it's the perfect excuse to call in sick on a Friday and pretend you're a food critic.
Best for: A hand-it-over tasting menu night when you want to be surprised
Morning Glory
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This is the breakfast place you come to when you want breakfast to be the highlight of your day. Morning Glory takes morning meals and turns them into something entirely new: soufflé pancakes that wobble like Jell-O, breakfast fried rice that’s better than most dinner entrees, all of it served in a pink neon dining room that looks like it was designed by someone who only works in pastels.
Best for: Breakfast as a full production, including the pancakes
Nine-Ten
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Nine-Ten has been quietly turning out some of San Diego’s best fine dining for years, though it still feels like it hasn’t quite gotten the hype it deserves. Inside La Jolla’s Grande Colonial Hotel, it’s the kind of place where you want to linger, preferably over a bottle of something well-aged and a plate of whatever chef Jason Knibb has decided to send out that night. The seasonal tasting menu is always a good bet, but if you’re ordering à la carte, don’t skip the wild king salmon—it arrives perfectly medium-rare, nestled against a tangle of heirloom tomatoes that actually taste like summer.
Best for: Quiet, grown-up fine dining
Soichi
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Soichi is an intimate Japanese restaurant where Chef Soichi Kadoya curates an omakase experience that has earned a Michelin star. The sushi here at this University Heights spot leans straightforward, impressive, and flaunts much skill, providing an authentic taste of Japan in the heart of San Diego.
Best for: A serious omakase night with zero distractions
Sushi Tadokoro
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Sushi Tadokoro doesn’t mess around. This Old Town spot specializes in Edomae sushi, meaning the fish is aged, marinated, or otherwise tweaked for maximum flavor. Chef Takeaki Tadokoro serves it in a no-frills setting where the focus is on quality rather than theatrics, which is rare in a city where sushi spots are starting to resemble EDM festivals.
Best for: Edomae sushi with no theatrics and maximum focus
Tribute Pizza
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San Diego’s pizza scene doesn’t get the same breathless coverage as the city’s taco game, but Tribute Pizza in North Park might just change that. It’s named for the owner’s habit of paying homage to his favorite pies—hence creations like the ‘Lady Diavola,’ a calabrese-and-pepperoni beauty that wouldn’t be out of place in Brooklyn. The crust has just the right amount of chew, the toppings are well-sourced, and the whole operation feels like it’s run by someone who actually gives a damn about doing pizza right. If you’re a purist, there’s an excellent margherita, but the move here is to trust the kitchen and order whatever special they’re pushing that night.
Best for: Pizza for people who take pizza seriously
Trust Restaurant
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The name sounds like something from a corporate team-building exercise, but you can have faith in the matchup of chef Brad Wise and pastry chef Jeremy Harville. A Hillcrest favorite, Trust lands with wood-fired everything, meaning your vegetables, seafood, and meats all get a good dose of smoke before they hit the table. The beef tartare is a must, unless you have strong feelings about eating raw things, in which case, maybe skip right ahead to whatever Harville is doing that night for dessert.
Best for: Wood-fired everything and a menu that rewards trust
Valle
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Near the Oceanside Pier, Valle is Chef Roberto Alcocer's homage to Baja California's Guadalupe Valley. The restaurant earned its first Michelin star in 2023, with a menu that features dishes like a fluffy tamal paired with earthy mole and bright herbs. The wine list is exclusively sourced from the region, enhancing the authentic experience.
Best for: Baja-leaning tasting menus and a wine list that stays on theme
Wrench and Rodent
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If the name doesn’t make you hesitate, then you’ll probably love this place. Wrench and Rodent is a scrappy little sushi bar in Oceanside where chef Davin Waite does whatever he wants—often with seafood scraps that other chefs wouldn’t touch. The result? Some of the most inventive, oddly compelling sushi in town, served in a spot that looks like it was decorated by an angsty teenager with a soft spot for Japanese punk rock.
Best for: Sushi that is a little feral, in the best way
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