Feast! Restaurant Reviews
Whether you’ve read about it in the New York Times, or in the new Michelin Guide California, it’s impossible to walk into El Jardin without high expectations. Its chef, Claudette Zepeda-Wilkins, has appeared on Top …
Third time’s the charm? I’m hoping so. I’ve come early, around 5:30 pm, to put my name on the iPad outside the front window. It comes right back at me, “Guest #371: Welcome to Kura …
Late last year, news spread that longstanding Point Loma rotisserie chicken joint, Natural Style Chicken, was opening a second location on a busy corner of Hillcrest. The new space boasts a larger kitchen than the …
For over thirty years, Mama's Bakery & Deli has been dishing up Lebanese food just off El Cajon Boulevard in North Park, and I’ve been ordering chicken shawarma there nearly half that time. However, it …
It’s admittedly been a few years since I stumbled out of a Pacific Beach bar in search of something heavy to quench an inebriated late-night hunger. But if I were looking to stave off a …
Oceanside’s jamming tonight. Everybody’s out and about. This is Friday, around eight. “Jesus saves!” yells this kid. He’s not alone. A whole bunch of them are making a hullabaloo in the plaza outside the Regal …
The other day, a friend asked where I was off to in such a hurry. “I’m gonna check out a restaurant I’ve heard good things about,” I told him. It’s an answer he’s learned to …
Perhaps the most overused cliché in all food writing is to call a restaurant a gem. One might be an absolute gem, or a neighborhood gem. Most trite of all would be the term “hidden …
Fans of tea and coffee have an intriguing new flavor to explore in Pacific Beach. Yerba Mate Bar opened last week, San Diego’s first café dedicated to the caffeinated beverage of choice for the southern …
Aztec drums thunder out from Chicano Park. Conch shells honk. It’s eight o’clock at night. People dance barefoot. Their ankle rattles sound like sleighbells. Now a woman steps forward with a smoking incense burner. It …
We can argue all day whether the American carnival classic corn dog was worth riffing on, but a Korean reinterpretation of hot dog on a stick has already arrived in Kearny Mesa with a world …
I’ve paid lip service to vegan ramens before. Interesting, I’ve said. Oh, that is good,” I’ve agreed. But I haven’t meant it. Not to the extent that I would choose to order one over a …
Macaroni. I’m not talkin about the feather stuck in Yankee Doodle’s cap, but the cheesy pasta dish. The one that’s somehow both originally Italian and OG American. The one that, when I see it on …
You can see that David’s proud of his dad. “His name’s David, too. He started off not far from here as a dishwasher. He was born and raised in Tijuana, then his parents brought him …
A musician plays acoustic guitar ballads on the patio, while servers shuttle drinks to a mixed crowd, ranging in age from their 20s to 50s. There are no seats left at the bar, where busy …
Last week, I found myself at the Del Mar Fairgrounds, feeling dizzy. Funny thing is, I hadn’t even made it on any of the rides yet. What addled me were the sights and smells of …