A Valentine’s Day line formed almost the minute the shop opened for business. Probably, most people who wanted to mark the occasion with a box of chocolates had bought one days ago. Those of us …

Finally, I caught up to Lia’s Lumpia. As a food truck, it’s repeatedly eluded me: starting service after I’d left a food truck park, or ending service before I showed up at a brewery where …

“But have you been to The Yogurt Mill?” My wife noticed that I’ve recently spent more time writing about food in her hometown, El Cajon. However, as I’ve mainly focused on skewered and rotisserie meats, …

Spring Valley is the new North Park About three months ago, the bar donned a large sign reading “The Bancroft” next to Fannie’s old marquee, which now entreats — perhaps tongue-in-cheek — “I assure you …

It’s no secret that our region’s best Mediterranean and Middle Eastern food is most often found in El Cajon. Though, for a while, some of it was found in the Gaslamp. For a few years, …

This menu can’t be pinned down. I see both pasta and chow mein, kabobs and wings, tacos and “artisan pizza.” But mostly, there’s Indian food. A drink at the bar might shed some light on …

There always seems to be something new at Liberty Public Market. Of the 35 vendors currently doing business in the Liberty Station food hall, only eight remain from its original, 2016 lineup. Like so many …

While noodles, dumplings, and other savory fare draw the most attention to the Convoy District, you could practically fill a guidebook to the neighborhood based solely on singular Asian dessert restaurants. I’ll have to circle …

Call it a case of mistaken identity, but I’ve been sleeping on Tahini. A byproduct of writing about food week after week is that my brain has become a de facto restaurant map, where any …

At first glance, the arrival of La Central Birrieria & Menuderia doesn’t seem momentous. Birria, after all, has spent the past few years becoming the most talked about Mexican meat dish on the planet. We’ve …

Mission Trails is the sort of place that gets a lot of January action, largely from people who resolve to spend more time outdoors and exercising in the new year. I might have fallen into …

Bay Park remains a mere neighborhood Bay Park was around long before there was any movement in Clairemont. Bay Park has history going back to 1877. Clairemont wasn't developed until the 1950s. Ocean Beach lives …

People get attached to their favorite dim sum. That’s certainly one reason many San Diegans who seek out the dim sum experience are happy to drive to the Convoy District to seek out their favorite. …

Facing the tumult of school kids on break for the holidays, I had an ace up my sleeve this year: Belgian chocolate. More than that, thanks to the recent arrival of the growing Southern California …

Just about every sushi joint makes room on its menu for temaki, better known as hand rolls. However, there is a point to going to a dedicated hand roll bar. While a conventional sushi restaurant …

“Family owned and operated since 1986,” it says on the hard-cover menu. Actually, this place, Carnitas Uruapan Family Restaurant, opened little more than a year ago, on that section of El Cajon Boulevard that sits …

Decisions do not come easy inside National City’s Market on 8th. A year since the food hall opened, its vendors have proven themselves masters of temptation. Would you rather indulge in the rich pork bone …

San Diego appears to be experiencing a golden age of baked goods. At least, I’ve had trouble keeping up with all the capable bakeries doing business around the county. Every other week seems to find …

Over the top burgers probably make up the biggest draw to Funky Fries & Burgers. A bacon cheeseburger topped with mac n cheese ($13.50) first lured me in, when I was specifically searching for out …

There’s a term particular to The Philippines, bayanihan, which describes the spirit of a community working together for the common good. It springs from a centuries old practice of an entire village showing up to …

This sandwich is almost making me wish I’d pursued a career in life sciences. If I had, then perhaps I’d be working in this niche bio campus on Science Park Road, barely a mile from …

If we were going to drive 50 miles, at bare minimum I wanted to find a decent meal at the other side. I don’t feel like that was too demanding — there didn’t need to …

Early on a Friday night, and I approach the back end of a line cars waiting our turns at a drive-thru window, a hundred feet below the interchange linking highways 94 and 125. Lemon Grove …

For better or worse: the late-night Cali burrito I'm not sure who first came up with the California burrito, but I'm pretty sure that's what they were going for – stuffing a cheesy burrito with …

A favorite, dog-friendly coffeeshop that emerged during the pandemic has quickly grown into a three-location dog-friendly family of coffeeshops. Chiefy Café — named after its owners’ dog — opened just shy of two years ago …

There was never any doubt I would try the place. Whether restaurateurs Cinzia Zolfanelli and Kuniko Holmes intended to be provocative when they mashed their names together to open CinKuni, it’s impossible to ignore the …

When was the last time I ordered a salad this far east? Usually, I’m in El Cajon for Middle Eastern food, or a cheeseburger. But here I am, out on Jamacha Road, which is technically …

If you’d happened to pass by Pacific Beach restaurant La Clochette du Coin last week, you might have spotted me, leaning over a sidewalk table, paying unusually close attention to a ham and cheese croissant. …

I made it nearly nine years and a thousand Feast stories without ever having to reference the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. But that all ended the moment I walked into Gnarly Girl Pizza. The New …

As a longtime food writer, I’d love to pretend that I have tried all the great traditional dishes of the world. But as I eat my way around San Diego every year, I inevitably meet …

It’s not the ceviche we’re most accustomed to seeing around these parts. Most of the ceviche in San Diego draws its influence from a Mexican variation: citrus-cured seafood served with a tostada or tortilla chips, …

I first caught on to Donutopolis a few months ago, but I had to wait for a special occasion to justify visiting the Poway donut shop. That’s because I needed an excuse to order the …

I pretty much had to be dragged to Sovereign Modern Thai Cuisine. Despite strong recommendations — from trusted foodie friends, the Michelin guide, and even my wife — I harbored reservations toward trying the East …

It is known that, since the day it opened, University Heights restaurant Madison on Park has been one of the best places in the city to start, finish, or spend your evening. Especially when said …

Prevailing wisdom tells us the classic burger cannot be made better. That, once you move past lettuce, tomato, pickles, onions, and any of your thousand island condiments, the only topping that improves a hamburger is …

Seems like only last year I was writing about a plucky birria food truck that drummed up all its business on a single afternoon each week. In fact, it was only ten months ago that …

You can probably be forgiven for thinking the new taco shop in Bonita is called Taco Machine, because with only a quick glance at the sign, it reads close: Taco Machin. Don’t bother consulting Google …

Most of us have eaten dim sum off a pushcart, so how much different could it be eating it off a food truck? Depends on the food truck. When I spotted the Nom food truck …

Idling into the golden hour of another sunny afternoon on Mission Bay, we sat down to dine at a prime table, only a few feet from the water. “What’s popular here?” I asked, out of …

“Don’t notorious and inglorious kind of mean the same thing?” The question’s come up thanks to the quirky pairing of restaurants on a stretch of El Camino Real in Carlsbad’s La Costa neighborhood. The first …

Would a donut by any other shape taste as sweet? A new food addition to the Zion Market food court makes the case that’s an emphatic yes. Unless, that is, you prefer it salty and …

Once, when I was writing a news story about an early morning raid to arrest a drug dealer, a police officer explained to me that whoever who moved into the newly vacated house could expect …

Driving around Alpine, it starts to dawn on me that there are a lot more restaurants out here than I thought. Chalk that up to a decade-plus of only going up that hill for beers …

The allure of Ethiopian food, I once wrote, has as much to do with presentation as it does spice. I was but a baby writer at the time, living in Los Angeles, visiting the restaurants …

My plan for the day had been to check out a roast duck shop I wanted to write about, one that recently opened up in the suburbs. But first, my wife insisted, I needed to …

Despite a partly fishy name, Sandpiper Wood Fired Grill & Oysters is not strictly a seafood restaurant. Items cooked on its wood fired grill most prominently include pork chops, steak, and fowl. But the menu …

The first time he knocked, my wife and I were brainstorming dinner ideas. He must have approached cautiously, or the creaky porch would have given him away. As it was, our conversation choked to a …

The first time I walked into The Dancing Yak, I didn’t stay long. The Miramar restaurant opened this winter, an expansion by Taste of the Himalayas, the local Indian restaurant chain currently operating six county …

The past couple months, the name of a Canadian pizza shop has stared back at me from a perpetually growing list I keep of new restaurants to try. Steveston Pizza Company started out in a …

Good Mexican food. This is something San Diego has in abundance. In our part of the world, even the average taco shop glows with an aura of desirability, particularly when you’re hungry and it’s the …