Tom If you’re asking “What to eat in San Diego California?“, you are at the right place! In this post, we’ll let you in on some of the best places to wine and dine in San Diego – famous ones and the ones where locals go!
What we ate in San Diego California
Bencotto Italian Kitchen San Diego
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Bencotto Italian Kitchen was our first stop when we visited San Diego over the weekend. Located in Little Italy, San Diego, Bencotto Italian Kitchen serves up freshly-made pasta (made daily in house) with chef customization. This time, we ordered the Mista Salad with Chicken ($13) and the Tagliatelle Tartufo ($23). We started off with some warm bread and house butter, which we wanted a second basket but were too pai seh (shy) to ask 😛
Next came the Mista Salad with Chicken. The salad itself was $8 but for only $5 more, you’ll get a generous portion of breast meat (notice the large chunks?) which were tender, juicy and well-marinated. Next came the star of our lunch, the Tagliatelle Tartufo. The Tagliatelle Tartufo was complemented with white truffles and shiitake mushrooms. Grated cheese was added on top to give this dish a rich and decadent taste. The truffle also permeated through our taste buds with every bite, so much so that we would let each bite stay in our mouths as long as possible. Yum!
Address: 750 W Fir St San Diego, CA 92101 (Little Italy San Diego)
Opening Hours:
Mo 5pm – closing
Tu – Su 11:30am – closing
Tacos El Gordo San Diego
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Being close to the border of Mexico, San Diego boasts many authentic Mexican joints. But nothing comes close to Tacos El Gordo. Almost anyone and everyone who could speak Spanish, ordered their food in Spanish. In fact, the young man in front of us, ordered for a really long time but mostly conversing with the chefs, as though he had been eating at this joint since he was a little boy.
The other reason why we think Tacos El Gordo is authentic is because each taco was pressed by the MASA machine and made fresh. For those, who do not know what we mean by the MASA machine, you can read more about it on our Norwegian Cruise Line : Mexican Cuisine Workshop & Tasting (Cooking Class) @ Playa Mia Grand Beach and Water Park Review post.
Lastly, we pretty much enjoyed every single thing we ordered. At $2.10, each taco had generous servings of meats and sauces. We loved the Quesadilla ($4) which was like 2 tacos combined but had more cheese on it. But if you only have time for one taco, go for the steak. It was flavourful and tender! Joints should not serve small chunks of steak if they’re not tender (think Subway) but at Tacos El Gordo, they were cut and grilled to juicy perfection!
Tip: You’ll notice several queues in Tacos El Gordo. Depending on which meats you’d like to have, just go to that particular queue. Most newbies will just stick to the main queue (eventhough it is the queue for the steak tacos). But if you do not want to wait for too long, the spicy pork is quite decent as well (queues on both left and right side)!
Address: 689 H St, Chula Vista, CA 91910
Opening Hours:
Sun – Thur: 10AM – 2AM
Fri – Sat: 10AM – 4AM
Crest Cafe San Diego
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Crest Cafe is a highly recommended joint for breakfast in San Diego. It offers a full menu and not only breakfast stuff which is great for us! We ordered the Not Your Grandmas Pot Pie ($11) and Chicken and Waffles ($11) that morning. If you only have 1 choice, definitely go for the Chicken & Waffles. The chicken was tender on the inside and crispy on the outside eventhough the sauce was drenched over it. Coupled with the waffles, this dish makes a strong contender to the chicken & waffles from Hash House A Go Go, with a price that’s hard to beat! You can give the pot pie a miss, though we really liked the huge portion of salad that went with it.
Address: Crest Cafe 425 Robinson Avenue San Diego, CA 92103
Opening Hours: 7am to Midnight Daily
World Famous San Diego
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World Famous is a highly recommended restaurant at Pacific Beach because of the awesome views of sunset from its large boardwalk windows and mostly because of its happy hour deals from 4pm to 11pm from Mondays to Thursdays. You’ll be able to enjoy 50% discounts off shrimp and lobster tacos (Tuesdays and Wednesdays respectively) during happy hours!
We arrived at the restaurant at 5pm (slightly early to avoid the sunset crowd) and started with drinks. For a restaurant with awesome views, the prices aren’t that steep. We ordered the Tower 10 IPA ($5.50) and World Famous Caribbean Mai Tai ($7.75) which both tasted great. We were initially seated away from the window seats but upon request, the seats which were originally “reserved” were released to us.
For our meal, we had the crab cake appetizer ($12.50) and the Spicy Mardi Gras Pasta ($19.50). The crab cakes were fresh and the creamy sauce complemented the dish really well. The pasta on the other hand was slightly spicy (even for our standards) but we thoroughly enjoyed it! Fresh seafood and slurpilicious pasta sauce made this dish irresistible!
Note: Tacos are only served at the bar area. To be seated at the window seats, you’ll have to order from the dinner menu.
Address: 711 Pacific Beach Dr, San Diego, CA 92109
Opening Hours: 7am to 11pm
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We hope you have enjoyed our coverage of the food to eat while you’re in San Diego. If you’re thinking of visit San Diego and not sure where to stay, why not check out the Fairmont Grand Del Mar San Diego?
Let us know if you have any other food recommendations in San Diego, using our comments section below!
