Quote:
Originally Posted by swisswife
you're making me really excited about our planned trip to Vegas now.... maybe 3 nights isn't going to be enough to sample all the places .......
Since you are in San Diego and we plan a drive from San Francisco to San Diego - any culinary hotspots we need to stop by ???
We eat anything apart from Chinese - (3 years living in Hong Kong put an end to that for us !!)
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Are you taking the coastal route or I-5 down? SF has a ton of really good restaurants (as you probably already discovered!), as does Monterey/Carmel and the LA area.
If you stop in Carmel/Monterey, check out the
Misson Ranch. You definitely need reservations, I can't wait to eat here again in June! Another place in this area we loved is the
Red House Cafe. It's like eating in someone's house, such a cute little place!
In Santa Barbara, we loved
Palazzio for dinner. We were there only for 1 night, so not much time to explore, but this one was a hit. We're going back in June and plan on trying many more restaurants! For breakfast,
CrushCafe was really good. It's a laidback kind of local place, where most of the ingredients are organic and local. They also have a cupcake shop attached to them, and those were very good as well.
LA has so much good food that it would take forever to list. Really, it's hard to go wrong. Your best bet is to figure out what you're craving, and go to Chowhound for specific restaurant recs.
Since I live in San Diego, I think I can give you great, local recs for my own city.
For Italian, go to
Il Postino in North Park. We are so excited to finally have a really good Italian place in this city! Most tourists flock to Little Italy, but the food there is terrible. The only passable restaurant there is
Bencotto, however Il Postino is so much better!
A very popular local favorite is
Cucina Urbana. However if you want to eat here, make reservations as they are fully booked every single night. It's well worth it though, as the food is really good.
Of course, you can't come to SD and not eat Mexican! The best street tacos you will ever have are at Tacos El Gordo in Chula Vista. It's the same owners as the one in Tijuana, except you don't have to cross the border to get them. This is as authentic as it gets!
For a more touristy spot,
Lucha Libre is the place to be. We used to go here all the time, until they were featured on one of the food shows and now everyone and their mother wants to taste the food!
If you want a really fun atmosphere with some really good drinks/food, then head to
Baja Betty's in Hillcrest.
Another great place in Hillcrest is
Amarin Thai. Hands down my favorite Thai restaurant in all of San Diego.
We also have a ton of Asian food, ranging from Vietnamese (Pho) to Korean (bulgogi) if you're into that kind of thing.
And lastly, seafood. You would think that being right near the ocean, we have plenty of great seafood restaurants. Not so. But, ones I would recommend are the new
Fish Shop in Pacific Beach, where you can sit on the patio and enjoy freshly grilled seafood just blocks from the beach. And the
Crab Hut, where they dump buckets of seafood (crab legs, shrimp, etc.) on the table and you dig in. There are two locations now, but I'm only familiar with the Kearny Mesa one.
Oh, and one more thing...we have a local, grass-fed burger chain called Burger Lounge. They have several locations throughout the city, so you are bound to find them no matter where you are.
And if you are here on the weekend, I highly recommend that you check out the Little Italy farmers market on Saturday or Hillcrest on Sunday. We have the best farmers markets anywhere, with a ton of prepared food vendors, lots of samples, and just so much to see. Definitely worth the trip!
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