San Diego Restaurants

 Someone wrote:

 >I'm going to San Diego in a week and would appreciate any advice on good restau
 >rants there.  I'm mainly looking for good food (inexpensive if possible),
 >ambiance is secondary.  Thanks.

 If you want cheap, super-no-frills, GREAT Mexican food, go to any one of the
 Roberto's Taco Shops.  If you can find one where no one speaks English,
 the better.

 There are 2 on Miramar Rd. and 1 on El Cajon Blvd. that I frequent (when I'm
 there).  The Alberto's on Convoy is good.  I also like the Royberto's on
 Genesee (across from Home Depot/Target, near Balboa).

 Alfonzo's in La Jolla (on Prospect) is good but more expensive.  It's a
 regular sit-down-type restaurant.

 Hope this helps.

 Roy Kinoshita
 Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
 Troy, NY

 Someone wrote:
 >I'm going to San Diego in a week and would appreciate any advice on good
 restaurants there.  I'm mainly looking for good food (inexpensive if possible),
 >ambiance is secondary.  Thanks.

 Saved from the net earlier (posted by Steve Lamont, SciViGuy --
 (619) 534-7968 -- [email removed]

 >Can anyone recommend any good/interesting restaurants (especially ethnic)
 >in San Diego for folks on a "university" budget?  We'll be out for
 >EDUCOM and would like to sample some good food.  At least one person in
 >our party has a special interest in Mexican food.

 Well, if you're mobile, I'd suggest heading up to The Market Cafe in
 Solana Beach.  Great Mexican food!  The Blue Bird (El Pajaro Azul) is
 right next door and some argue that it is better than The Market Cafe
 -- I like them both.  They are a few miles north, however.

 Here's excerpt from the UCSD "Student Food" list from the local group
 sdnet.eats:
 -------------------------- someone else's work ------------------------------
 Further Away

 Chinese restaurants that come recommended are Miss China (on Avenida
 de la Playa in La Jolla Shores), Mandarin House on La Jolla Blvd. (a
 bit noisy), Double Happiness in Del Mar (not quite so impressive, and
 expensive), Tin Ching in Pacific Beach, and Chang Mai (50th and
 University).  Sun's Kitchen on La Jolla Blvd. is also supposed to be
 great, but was recently sold and supposedly has gone downhill.  Peking
 Palace at UTC, and the Mandarin House downtown come with lesser
 recommendations.  The Mandarin Garden in the Mira Mesa mall is a bit
 dirty, but their soups are supposed to be good.  There's also a lot of
 ``real'' Chinese restaurants on Convoy in Kearney Mesa; some of these
 serve Dim Sum.  Try San Choy, the Emporer's Palace, and Woo Chee
 Chong.  In general, the dim-sum in San Diego isn't as good as that in
 L.A. or San Francisco.  Imperial Mandarin has good dim sum on
 weekends.  There's also some good restaurants in Clairemont and Linda
 Vista.  There's also a Korean restaurant on Convoy, and a Vietnamese
 restaurant called Pho Pasteur in Linda Vista.  More Vietnamese
 restaurants can be found out in El Cajon or on University Avenue
 beyond 40th Street.

 For Thai restaurants, the best and cheapest may be Siam and Chang Mai
 down in San Diego on the East part of University Avewnue.  Also, try
 House of Bangkok on Garnet in Pacific Beach, Siamese Cuisine in
 Clairemont, and Bankok Palace in Serra Mesa, Saffron Chicken, on India
 Street (near El Indio) has Thai-style chicken and daily specials.
 It's a thai-fast-food place, but it's good.

 Japanese:  Go to Convoy between Clairemont Mesa and Balboa Aves.  There's
 three good Japanese noodle houses within a couple blocks of each other.
 Chopstix has the lowest prices; the restaurant across the street from it has
 the largest portions, and a restaurant just north of Chopstix (at the back of
 the strip mall with the French Gourmet) supposedly has the best food.
 There's another Japanese restaurant in UTC, and another in the Vons Shopping
 Center on Regents.  The one on Regents is reasonable ($6.00 for dinner including
 miso soup, salad, entree such as ginger chicken, and tempura or sushi.)

 Pizza: did you know that there are neighborhoods in La Jolla where
 only Domino's delivers?  A fate worse than death.  Luckily, if you're
 on campus, there's others that deliver.  BJ's sells Chicago style deep
 dish pizza as well as thin crust.  Their deep dish pizzas get a bit
 dry, so make sure to ask for extra sauce.  They will deliver to AP\&M,
 supposedly take credit cards, and always seem to have \$2 off coupons
 in the Guardian.  The pizza also is pretty good.  The restaurant is
 also a pretty good place to take a group to eat.  Papachino's in the
 Von's Shopping Center on Regents makes a better traditional pizza and
 is a good place for groups to sit and talk.  Their beer selection is
 seriously lacking, and the dining room is pink and green with lots of
 mirrors.  The Straw Hat Pizza (551-0125) in a hole in the wall off Avenida
 just off Avenida de la Playa in La Jolla Shores make strange pizzas -- Thai
 Chicken Pizza with peanut sauce, chicken pesto pizza, fresh tomato and basil
 pizza, and so on.  They're also close to the beach.

 Other people have mentioned Carino's on La Jolla Blvd. south of Pearl
 Street, and Mario's Ristorante in LaJolla Village Square.  All of
 their Italian dishes are quite good, and they are very reasonably
 priced, especially considering portion sizes.  Pizzeria Uno on Mission
 in PB has some exotic pizzas: seafood, broccoli and spinach, and a
 very good sausage, worth trying.  There's also a deep-dish pizza place on
 Prospect near Hunter's books.

 If there's one thing you'll always be able to find in San Diego, it's
 a cheap taco stand.  Roberto's is the largest chain, though there's
 similar shops called Alberto's, Umberto's, Rodrigo's and the like
 around the area.  Everyone seems to have their own favorite.  Once
 you've tried the different Roberto's, try Alberto's, Cojita's, Don
 Pedro's, Juan Carlos', and Taco Salsa in Pacific Beach.
 Unfortunately, these places tend to have a hard time keeping the
 quality consistent.

 El Indio's on India Street (take I5 south to the Sassafras exit, turn
 left on Sassafras and left again on India Street) is much less of a
 hole in the wall and has a bigger menu.  Alfonso's in La Jolla's a bit
 pricey, but it's gotten some good comments.  El Tecolote in the Big
 Bear shopping center on Governor has better food than the taco shops.
 When you want fish tacos, go to Rubio's (in Pacific Beach and
 elsewhere.)

 When you want to try something a bit more interesting, try Lorna's
 Italian Kitchen (noveau italian) near Vons at Governor at Genesee.
 More traditional italian food can be found on India Street in Little
 Italy.  Filippi's Pizza/Deli seems to be really good, and has a
 full-on deli in the front.  The smell is heavenly -- you have to walk
 through the deli to get to the restaurant, and by the time you sit
 down to dinner, your mouth is already watering.  As you might guess,
 there are other Italian suppliers in those two or three blocks of
 India street as well.

 If you want to go to a brew-pub, try the Old Columbia Cafe and Brewery
 downtown.  The Cheese Shop on Avenida de la Playa in La Jolla Shores
 gets good reviews for its lunches.  For a change of pace, try the
 Hungarian restaurant on 15th (?)  Ave. in Del Mar, across from the
 Post Office.  If you like seafood, you want to get dressed up, and you
 have some money to spend, try Jake's in Del Mar, across from the train
 station.  Across the street (from Mandarin Garden in Mira Mesa Mall)
 there is a Fuddrucker's for really good burgers and other stuff (avoid
 the ``steak'').  There are other midling chains in that area too, like
 Red Lobster and Black Angus, if you like that sort of thing.

 For breakfasts, try The Big Kitchen, 30th and Grape.  The best
 breakfast joint in San Diego.  Honest to God, it'll make you think
 you're in Berkeley (or at least the 60's.)  The help will quit as soon
 as they get their big break in show business; Whoopi Goldberg worked
 here and has a menu item named after her.  Expect to wait an hour for
 a table on weekends, but Judy the Beauty on Duty will ply you with
 coffee meanwhile.  Go there.  Now.

 Cafes in Hillcrest: Soho, on University around 10th?  Late night coffeehouse
 open from 6:30 am to 4 am.  Artsy types, academics, smokers, noise.  If you
 like this sort of thing, it can be a great place to study.

 Vegetarian: 3 choices.  (1) Grain Country, 30th and Upas.  Strictly
 macrobiotic, so you can get perfectly prepared brown rice and weird
 vegetables that you don't know the name of.  Adjoining grocery has
 more kinds of soy sauce than anywhere but Woo Chee Chong Market.  (2)
 Govinda's, 31st and University.  Run by
 your friendly Hare Krishna brethren.  Reasonably priced
 all-you-can-eat specials for lunch and dinner, including complementary
 brochures on karmic dietary principles.  (3) Jimbo's, 30th and
 University.  Pizzas in various grades of normalcy, including one with
 whole wheat crust, macrobiotically balanced red sauce containing no
 tomatoes, and tofu cheese.  Pasta dishes, salad bar, and a better than
 average selection of beers.

 Of course, if you find any really cool restaurants, make sure to tell
 us about them, okay?

 -------------------- end of someone else's work ------------------------------

 Someone wrote:
 > I would like to know about "don't miss" restaurants in San Diego.

 There's a (now slightly out of date but still useful) restaurant guide
 at the San Diego Supercomputer Center FTP site (ftp.sdsc.edu).  It's
 called sd.eats and it lives in pub/sdsc/docs_and_education/sd_info.

 If you give a little more information on your tastes, where you'll be
 staying, available transportation, and price range, some of the SD
 gourmands can probably steer you in the proper direction.

 For myself, my current favorite restaurant is Cafe Japengo -- sort of
 nouvelle Pacific Rim, as one of my friends puts it.  A cross-cultural
 mix of Southwestern and Asian, I guess.  If you're mildly adventurous
 and have a reasonably generous budget, I'd definitely point you there.
 Cafe Japengo is in the University City/La Jolla area, near UCSD on La
 Jolla Village Drive, across the way from the Hyatt hotel.

 There are three other restaurants in the same complex -- I've tried
 only one of them, an Italian place (Papparazi, I think it's called).
 I was unimpressed with the food -- okay but not great -- and the noise
 was almost unbearable.  I don't know why, but there seems to be a
 trend in restaurant architecture to make things as noisy as possible.
 Maybe they think it makes people think that everyone is having a good
 time.  Personally, I like my good times a little quieter.

 Of the other two, Kiva Grill has a bad reputation.  One collegue said
 that the only way he'd ever go back would be "to loot the smoking
 ruins."

 A runner up favorite is George's at the Cove on Prospect in La Jolla.
 There are actually three parts to George's.  The downstairs is
 California formal (meaning that coat and tie is nice but I've been in
 there dressed more casually on several occasions).  I guess I'd call
 them California Cusine, for want of a better term (Mike C, wanna chime
 in on this and correct me?).  The Terrace part is much more informal
 (burgers and the like) and has a spectacular view of La Jolla Cove, to
 boot.  The bar also serves a subset of the Terrace menu.  [In the
 spirit of full disclosure, the head chef is a friend of mine and my SO
 does occasional graphics work and Macintosh consulting for them, so I
 do have a personal but non-financial connection with the place.]

 A restaurant I've recommended in the past is Cilantro's.  However, the
 last couple of times I've been there, the food has declined somewhat
 (from being excellent to being merely good) and the service has become
 lackadaisical.  They're owned by the same people who own Epazote in
 Del Mar and I think some of the wait staff from there has been
 imported to Cilantro's, much to the detriment of Cilantro's.  [As you
 might guess, I don't particularly like Epazote].  Still good but not a
 "don't miss."

                                           spl

 A neat place for lunch is Point Loma Seafood, a block or two off Rosecrans.

 For dinner, I recommend The Brigantine, located on the way to Shelter
 Island from Point Loma, or on Coronado Island.  They have a nice early
 bird special.

 For prime rib and steaks, there's the Butcher Shop.  I think it's on
 Hotel Circle in Mission Valley (used to be in National City).

 For fish there's Anthony's at several locations including LaJolla, downtown
 SD on Harbor Drive, and Rancho Bernardo.

 At Seaport Village there's the Harbor House; I recommend the Cioppino.
    /|/| /||)|/  /~ /\| |\|)[~|)/~   |   Everyone's entitled to MY opinion.
   / | |/ ||\|\  \_|\/|_|/|)[_|\\_|  |      [email removed]
 ========Imagination is more important than knowledge. - Albert Einstein=======

 There are several good Thai restaurants in San Diego

 Spices Thai in del mar
 Karinya in Pacific Beach

 One of the finest restaurants I have ever eaten in is the Belgian Lion in
 the Point Loma area of San Diego.  Another fabulous restaurant is the Wine
 Sellar and Braserie in the North County area.

 Adele T. wrote:

 > My husband and I will be in the San Diego area.  What are some good
 > places to eat.  We eat all types of food.
 >
 > --
 > -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
 >     A     RRRR  TTTTT
 >    A  A   R R     T     Adele Tuchler
 >   AAAAAA  RR      T     African & Afro-American Studies
 >  A      A R R     T     Campus Box 1109, e-mail [email removed]
 > A       A R  R    T
 > -----------------------------------------------------------------------------

 It really depends on where you will be staying in San Diego...but there are a
 lot of new restaurants in Downtown San Diego.  Here's a couple of suggestions
 to get you started:
 Fio's - on 5th Avenue, downtown, Italian cuisine with a flair - pricey
 SFuzzi's - on 5th Avenue, downtown, California cuisine, great atmosphere -
 medium
 Chart House - downtown, Harbor Drive, Steak and Seafood, restored Rowing Club
 with great memorblia..medium to expensive
 Old Venice - Point Loma on Canon, wonderful pizzas and super bar, medium
 The Fish Market - Del Mar, Via de la Valle, amazing seafood, medium
 California Pizza Kitchen - Solana Beach, California "personal gourmet" pizzas,
 very casual, medium
 Piatti's - La Jolla, fun Italian cuisine, meduim to expensive
 For great Mexican food you should try Bazaar del Mundo's Casa de Bandini - Huge
 Margaritas and great portions. Mariachi's too!!
 Have fun in San Diego!  Let me know if there is anything else you need!

 [email removed]

 Someone wrote:
 >
 >My family and I are traveling to San Diego next weekend
 >and I am looking for some small "jewels" in the San Diego
 >restaurant scene. Prefer seafood and/or Italian food and must
 >be suitable for a 3-year-old.
 >
 >Thanks in advance.
 >

 Two jewels right next to each other are Pacifica Del Mar (792-0476) and
 Il Fornaio (755-8876).  Pacifica has excellent fresh seafood and a
 beautiful view of the ocean.  The sugar spiced barbacued king salmon is
 one of their signature dishes, and my personal favorite.  Il Fornaio
 has excellent fresh pasta and basil and a beautiful view of the ocean
 (hey, these guys could be neighbors or something!).  Go for one of
 their inventive pastas.
 Not having children myself, I don't really know how child friendly
 these places are, but you could always call and ask.
 Happy eating!

 Derek

 Someone wrote:

 > My family and I are traveling to San Diego next weekend
 > and I am looking for some small "jewels" in the San Diego
 > restaurant scene. Prefer seafood and/or Italian food and must
 > be suitable for a 3-year-old.
 >
 > Thanks in advance.

 Try La Terrazza in La Jolla. It's Italian and very casual. The busier they
 are the better the service.  Franco (chef/owner) usually shops for fresh seafood
 everyday and usually has some very fresh tuna.  It is not inexpensive though.
 No more pricey than any good Italian.

 Have fun.
 Lisa

 Old Columbia Bar and Grill aka Karl Strauss Bar & Grill on Columbia
 St. and B.

 CBrunelli wrote:

 >We will be going to San Diego next week and staying downtown.  Does
 >anybody have recommendations of good restaurants.  We like either Mexican
 >or Microbrewery type restaurants.  Thanks.

 Walter Hanig

 NetManage, Inc.
 12651 High Bluff Drive
 San Diego, CA 92130, USA

 Phone: 619-793-3173             FAX:  619-755-3998
 Email: [email removed]        URL:  http://www.netmanage.com
 BBS:   619-755-9188             FTP:  ftp.age.com
 Blood Type: O+

 I know I'll pay for this (Mike), but if you're in or near downtown, try Cafe
 Zucchero at 1731 India St. (near Date St.), 619-531-1731.  If you're visiting
 Seaport Village, try lunch at Sally's in the Hyatt hotel.
 Linda, Buffalo or Cortland, New York

 Eric,

 I am sorry you had such a bad dining experience in San Diego. From what
 you have posted I can only surmise that you didn't find a single place
 to your satisfaction.

 Picky eater? An attitude? Some other problem affecting your taste buds?

 To correct a few factual inaccuracies in your report... NOT you
 judgements.

 Eric H. wrote:

 > Having just returned, let me tell you some places NOT to
 > go.
 >
 > The SPOT

 SNIP never been there

 > The Marine Room had a nice view. The food was outrageously over priced,
 > the interior was very 60's and the service was barely adequate. A
 > tourist spot to be sure.

 The Marine Room is hardly tourist supported. It is a long time favorite
 for many San Diegans, period. DO tourists go there, you bet, but they
 are not the backbone of The Marine Room's business.

 > Paulino's

 SNIP never been there

 > Papagallo's

 SNIP never been there

 > Old Town Mexican Cafe- tourist joint, abrasive service, terrible
 > carnitas, good tortillas. Avoid it.

 When you know what to look for, you will find that the Old Town Mexican
 Cafe is packed with locals. What is the ratio? Don't know, but when I
 drop in I keep seeing a lot of the same people. This restaurant in in
 the middle of a tourist area. What's remarkable about it? The locals go
 there, despite the tourists.

 > PF Chang's- a chain chinese place- but I actually liked it quite a
 > bit. Good value, great service, moderate to awesome food. I'd go
 > again in a heartbeat.

 To call PF Chang's a "chain" is a disservice. I think this is a local
 which family owns three (?) places. "Chain" is usually reserved for a
 group of restaurants you canfind anywhere. Is there a PF Chang's near
 you? RailHaRRy will probably send a note about this. (BTW, was this the
 source of your information?, If so, it is based upon a lot of different
 people's input, not just his. I have found his list quite sound and wish
 there were ones like this for many cities I travel to.).

 Glad you enjoyed at least one meal.

 > Most of these meals were paid for by someonone else- so I wasn't
 > choosing where we went. I did receive some good sounding recs
 > but didn't get to try them. I'll post another message after
 > I find that list.

 REMARKABLE... You didn't pick the places, yet this many came from "one"
 list you received? ABSOLUTELY REMARKABLE!

 Better dining next time.

 jim

 I forgot to mention Jasmine, which I think is one of the best Chinese anywhere
 (4609 Convoy St., San Diego 92111, 619-268-0888), especially for dim sum!  Not
 too close to downtown, but worth a cab ride.
 Linda, Buffalo or Cortland, New York