It’s a fish taco so long, it comes wrapped in two corn tortillas, laid end to end. So blackened by squid ink tempura, you might never guess that impeccably cooked white fish lies within. So …

As I drive along El Cajon Boulevard through North Park, a swirl of pink neon lets me know that it’s not just the same old deli making sandwiches within the ABC Market & Deli. Rather, …

It’s after 4pm, and I’m sitting in a booth at the Omelette Factory, the egg-centric breakfast restaurant that’s been operating in Santee for some 28 years. Of course, nobody’s eating omelets at 4pm, and no …

They say a lot of Americans took up baking, roughly two years ago this month. I’m not one of them, but during the pandemic I did start paying closer attention to the bakeries doing business …

The word sánguches will be new to most of us, but if you say the word quickly it’s not hard to tell what sánguches means to the people of Peru: sandwiches. Knowing this makes it …

Thank the kitchen god, our days of mediocre phở have come to an end. One year ago, my family moved from central San Diego to East County. Though we occasionally miss the walkability of our …

The last time I tried Burmese food, I had to drive hours to get it. But on this sunny afternoon, the car only has to make it as far as Rancho Bernardo. Still, I’m impatient …

In the parking lot, it takes me a moment to realize what’s missing. I’m standing beside the old power plant in Carlsbad, only I don’t recognize it at first, because the stack is gone. The …

Given the recent tourism features in several travel magazines and the Los Angeles Times, Oceanside looks on a mission to raise its profile with out of towners. However, the city’s local-oriented developments may be more …

Zad Mediterranean Cuisine sits several hundred feet down a peculiar, obsolete offshoot of Campo Road that dead ends beneath highway 94. Technically, Zad is visible from the eastbound lanes, but the storefront’s muted hues are …

It’s easy to imagine that some who drive the North Park section of Adams Avenue still think clothes are being washed in An’s Dry Cleaning. However, a legion of loyal fans know that, four years …

For those who haven’t yet found the time to check out the new-look Mingei International Museum, here’s a sure-fire way to make room in your busy schedule: by leveraging your appetite. Following a couple failed …

It was the heart-shaped pizza that brought me to Paradise Valley, a southeastern San Diego neighborhood roughly at the halfway point between National City and Spring Valley. Aside from single-family homes and apartment complexes, there …

For differing reasons, mussels and chicken wings were not what I imagined eating when I first heard about Golden Hill restaurant, Kingfisher. Granted, it has been nearly three years since word got around a modern …

Birria — a Mexican dish of shredded goat or beef, stewed in a broth warmed by chili peppers and adobo spices — has been around for hundreds of years. But only since the foodie internet …

Time was, you wouldn’t expect any remarkable effort from a kitchen trailer parked outside a brewery taproom. Particularly if its menu were limited to sliders and dirty fries. So, why have I driven to Bay …

“Chubby, round, and very pretty.” That’s how Google translates gordita redondita y bien bonita, the Spanish words written in pink neon on the wall of Barrio Donas. The shop’s name itself translates to “neighborhood donuts,” …

As of late January, work crews had finished installing the last leg of buffered bike lanes along 30th Street, in North Park. I noticed the new lanes, added just south of Adams Avenue, while slurping …

There were no other customers present when I walked into fast casual salad shop, Head Lettuce. But, make no mistake, the lunch rush was underway. The small eatery does business in University City, where it’s …

You can slap just about anything between two slices of bread and call it a sandwich, but that doesn’t mean all sandwich making arts are equal. I pointed the car south toward Chula Vista this …

Hailing from a cuisine characterized by the likes of schmaltz, schmears, corned beef, and brisket, the staples of a Jewish delicatessen would not appear to be likely candidates for veganization. Nevertheless, the newest addition to …

Wander the tightly packed, urban neighborhoods of Paris, and you may expect to find a boulangerie on nearly every city block. Drive the sprawling blocks of Scripps Ranch, on the other hand, and it’s a …

A certain fried poultry chain garnered buckets of free press last week for announcing it will be serving vegan chicken options at its restaurants. Really, KFC is just the latest fast-food brand to make hay …

It’s 2022, and we’re all more or less accustomed to ordering food from touchscreens. That could mean delivery order placed from our phones, fast food order made at digital kiosks, or — thank you, pandemic …

However much I might like a restaurant these days, it’s tough to achieve regular customer status with a food writing gig that always has me on the lookout for new and different. But when Underbelly …

Not that I need encouragement, but the late year rain and chill reminded me that New Year’s is the traditional time of year to feast on pozole. Which meant the thing to do was aim …

If there’s a fine line between tradition and cliché, no action straddles it better than ordering Chinese take-out on December 25th. Noodles, dumplings, mistletoe — all swirl together in whichever part of the brain nostalgia …

Hot chocolate and Oreo pancakes might not be what my wife had in mind when she sent me off with the children in search of breakfast. But it’s a chilly morning, and we’re dining outside, …

How much does Lemon Grove like Italian food? The answer may be forthcoming, as a new restaurant and market has set up shop in the neighborhood. Inpasta Artisan Pasta and Pizza opened this month a …

Having recently moved out of San Diego’s urban center, I’ve spent much of this year reconciling myself to the idea that, beyond the city proper, sometimes independent restaurateurs manage to outdo competition within suburban shopping …

It’s fair to assume that the Michelin Guide will never revisit San Ysidro. Nor that any restaurants in the small border district will again receive attention from magazines including Food & Wine, Fortune, or GQ. …

It probably says something about which stage of the fried chicken craze we’ve entered that I can squeeze in a couple of minutes of grocery shopping while waiting for my hot chicken sandwich to be …

People under a certain age might know them as Hungry Man dinners: frozen meals sold in partitioned, microwave-safe trays, in order to keep entrees and side dishes separate as they’re reheated. But, back in the …

I’d like to be disappointed, but my surroundings won’t allow it. There’s Mission Bay, spread out to the west, with the first shade of sunset color taking form overhead. I’m seated in a spacious patio, …

This wasn’t intended to be a story about a robot. When Tofu House opened a new location near SDSU this October, this Korean food fan was elated. Usually, I’m happy to leave college area restaurants …

If seems as though Perry’s Café has always been there, always easy to spot from the 5-North to 8-East freeway interchange. They say the family-owned breakfast diner has been in business over 35 years, and …

“We got a tiii-iip!” sings out the cashier, after the customer at the front of the line drops cash in the jar. “We got a tip!” sings back the makeshift kitchen crew, in unison and …

Earlier this year, I moved to a new neighborhood across town, and one by one I’ve been trying all the area taco shops. But I’m still trying to identify my new go-to. Everyone in San …

Most afternoons, I would be disappointed to make the trek into La Jolla only to find the peninsula sheathed in fog. But on this day, I would welcome the chill, because there’s a new tea …

The vibe is feeling real along 8th Street, National City, as we circle the block to find parking. I’ve been hearing for nearly two years now about this aspirational project coming together: a public market, …

Wander into any American grocery store, and you’ll have no trouble identifying dozens, if not hundreds of snack foods that pair well with beer. But I would bet you can’t find any trace of one …

We hadn’t planned on stopping at K Sandwiches. But as our car crested the hill at Linda Vista Road, and its sign came into view, our reactions were spontaneous and simultaneous: let’s get lunch. Minus …

Eighteen months ago, we all saw the pandemic make things tough on restaurants, a few of which never made it back. However, if we liken that to a long winter of attrition, what we’ve been …

If you’ve happened to cruise Lake Murray Boulevard on a regular basis in the past couple years, it might be easy to presume that ten-year-old eatery The Vine Cottage didn’t make it through the pandemic. …

Did you know San Diego is home to “America’s #1 black-owned gourmet vegan cookie company?” I did not, until I found the website for Maya’s Cookies, a cookie bakery operating out of an industrial park …

An email about plant-based poke bowls caught my attention. Which is weird, because I didn’t actually stop to read the thing. But it must have made an impression, because days later I found myself driving …

Honestly, I thought the matter had been settled: that the parade of restaurants rolling through the corner shack at 25th and Market Street had come to an end. Following half a dozen ill-fated concepts in …

It must have been creeping toward late afternoon, because traffic began to clog the streets around San Diego’s shipyards. The early risers who service Navy vessels and other massive boats were clocking out for the …

If you told me last week I would show up in Encinitas to find a long line of people waiting to order food, I would have offered a few guesses what that food might be. …

“It’s a cacao bar,” I tried to explain to the kids, as we approached Maya Moon Collective. They shot me a funny look, pretty sure I was either promising them cocoa or a candy bar, …