Neighborhood Guide: El Cajon

El Cajon (Spanish for “the box,” so named because it is “boxed in” by foothills on all sides) served as fertile ranchland for decades before being incorporated in 1912. Once a sleepy farming town, the city is now the largest in East County, housing more than 100,000 residents and an unrecognized wealth of eateries (especially of the Mediterranean and Middle Eastern variety), shops, and visitor-friendly farms and gardens. 

Here’s where to explore next time you’re in El Cajon:

El Cajon Restaurants & Bars

Ali Baba Family Restaurant

This Mediterranean spot known for its big portions offers excellent bang for your buck. Try Ali Baba’s chicken tekka, pompano fish with rice, and tannour bread. Feeding a crowd? Order a feast for up to ten people with kabab skewers, shawarma, cream chop, salad, rice, burghul, and hummus. 

421 East Main Street

Sahara: Taste of the Middle East

At this haven for Middle Eastern bites, start with hummus, tabbouleh, and cucumber salad and follow with kabobs, chicken tikka, or falafel. Drench it all with unlimited sauces from the Sahara‘s self-serve bar.

2990 Jamacha Road, Unit 116

The Breakfast House

Stepping inside this quaint breakfast spot feels like traveling back to a 1950s diner. The extensive menu at The Breakfast House offers nearly every classic American breakfast dish imaginable, as well as lunch choices like salads and sandwiches. 

1464 Graves Avenue

Royal Sweets

Royal Sweets offers not only royally good Middle Eastern desserts, but also a variety of other pastries and cakes. Stop by for baklava, tiramisu, or gelato, or order a custom birthday cake that is sure to impress. 

110 South Mollison Avenue

Grand Ole BBQ Flinn Springs

Inspired by the BBQ he ate in his youth, Andy Harris bought a smoker and set out to bring the flavors of Central Texas to San Diego County. Make sure to arrive early at Grand Ole BBQ to beat the long lines and get your share of some of the best pork, brisket, ribs, and sides the city has to offer. 

15505 Olde Highway 80

Funky Fries and Burgers

Funky Fries and Burgers lives up to its name with creative combos like a bacon mac n’ cheese burger and a Philly cheesesteak burger, but the true stars of the show are the extravagant milkshakes. Piled precariously high, each “Funky Freak Shake” is topped with enough candy and treats to feed a first-grade birthday party.

101 West Washington Avenue

Hacienda Casa Blanca

Happy hour and Mexican food go together like peanut butter and jelly, especially at Hacienda Casa Blanca, which offers sweet deals Monday through Saturday from 3 to 6 p.m. and all day on Sunday. They also serve brunch on Sunday mornings, laying down chilaquiles and huevos rancheros. 

700 North Johnson Avenue, Suite A

Antonelli’s Deli

The Antonelli family brought their classic, East Coast–style deli to California in 1984. Tucked away between motor shops in El Cajon, the old-school locale has almost 50 unique sandwich options, including capocollo subs, liverwurst sandos, and a French dip.

1354 North Magnolia Ave

Burning Beard Brewing Company

Head to Burning Beard for punk rock vibes and good brews, from hoppy IPAs and lagers to seltzers. Pair your drink of choice with bites like smashburgers, truffle and garlic fries, and chicken tenders.

785 Vernon Way

The Yogurt Mill

The Yogurt Mill vends a rotating menu of classic fro-yos such as vanilla and strawberry, plus more off-the-wall flavors: toasted marshmallow, Irish mint kiss, banana cream pie. Keep an eye on their Instagram page to get the inside scoop on the flavors of the day.

935 Broadway

Al Azayem

If you find yourself craving stuffed chicken, breakfast lentil soup, or baba ganoush, head to Al Azayem. The Middle Eastern dishes at this counter-serve joint come with a small price tag and a big flavor profile. 

550 East Main Street

Mal Al Sham

In addition to popular Mediterranean eats like falafel, pitas, and meat kabobs, Mal Al Sham serves the hard-to-find quzi—a roasted lamb and rice platter that’s one of Iraq’s national dishes—on weekends and holidays.

388 East Main Street

Things to Do in El Cajon

Summers Past Farms

Stop by Summers Past Farms to see what the farmers are planting, harvesting, and crafting. There are shops, gardens, and wildlife to explore here, and the farm can serve as a background to any photo shoot, as it changes each season depending on what plants are growing. 

15602 Olde Highway 80

Water Conservation Garden

The Water Conservation Garden offers fun ways to learn about saving H2O. Play and learn with the six-acre farm’s four hands-on exhibits, or simply observe the beautiful landscape as inspiration for your own home garden. 

12122 Cuyamaca College Drive West

Olaf Wieghorst Museum & Western Heritage Center

Self-taught artist Olaf Wieghorst, born Denmark in 1988, drew upon the aesthetics of the American West in his paintings of landscapes, humble abodes, cowboys, and lonely travels. This museum honors Wieghorst and fellow Western genre painters with exhibitions, workshops, and tours.

131 Rea Avenue

Sycuan Casino

El Cajon is home to Sycuan, a resort and casino to rival those in Sin City. Get gaming, attend a concert, or relax at Sycuan’s full-service spa and lazy river pool. You’ll also find a wealth of dining choices, including pizza, Mexican food, and steak.

5469 Casino Way

A Simpler Time Alpaca Farm and Mill

Alpacas never make the list of oft-spotted wildlife in San Diego, but this family farm on the outskirts of El Cajon provides private tours that give you the chance to get up close and personal with the critters. Don’t forget to browse the store, where you can purchase yarn, clothes, accessories, toys, and dryer balls spun from alpaca wool.

1802 Alta Place

Parkway Bowl

Reserve at this family-owned El Cajon bowling alley and entertainment center for an evening of all-ages fun. Not a fan of bowling? Hit the arcade, play a round or two of billiards, or grab a meal and drink at the in-house restaurant and bar. 

1280 Fletcher Parkway

El Cajon Shopping & Boutiques

Off the Shelf Games

Board game store and tabletop lounge Off the Shelf offers table reservations and a retail shop with a unique library of more than 1,500 games. Join the shop’s membership program to enjoy three-day board game rentals for $20 a month and $6 a game.

173 Fletcher Parkway

El Cajon Guitars and Music

Owned and operated by musicians Maria Hart and Frank Cogliana, El Cajon Guitars and Music is a friendly, community-driven spot for both guitar newbies and seasoned shredders. In addition to vending instruments and accessories, the store provides instrument repairs and guitar classes.

172 East Main Street

Harvest International Market

Taste flavors from around the world at the Harvest International Market, a one-stop shop for fresh local produce and imported goods. Visitors will discover a tasty Middle Eastern bakery onsite, too.

733 East Main Street

Parkway Plaza

A rare enclosed mall in SD County (good for rainy days!), Parkway Plaza is home to more than 130 stores, from major chains like Best Buy, Ulta, and H&M to small local businesses such as 619 Underground Clothing.

415 Fletcher Parkway

Comics N Stuff

Calling all comic fanatics: San Diego’s largest comic and collectibles shop is right here in El Cajon. Expand your comic collection with fairly priced, new and vintage books.

1020 El Cajon Boulevard

Often the first city that comes to mind when we think East County, El Cajon has developed into one of our region’s more complex communities. On the one hand, “The Big Box” is characterized by classic cars cruising its Main Street every Wednesday night, and by its pride in hometown sports heroes, including auto racing icon Jimmie Johnson, and Padres ace Joe Musgrove.

On the other, thanks to a three-decade influx of Middle Eastern immigration, its box-shaped valley has earned a newer nickname: “Little Baghdad.” An estimated 30 percent of its 105,000 residents hail from abroad, led by Chaldean and Arab Iraqis, followed by more recent thousands fleeing wars in Syria and Afghanistan.

Their contributions have transformed the suburban valley into San Diego’s epicenter for Middle Eastern cuisine. Not every El Cajon restaurant hails from this tradition, but thanks in large part to those that do, there’s never been a better time to eat here.

Tekka at Ali Babba

For going on 20 years, this Arabian Nights-inspired family restaurant has introduced Iraqi fare ranging from lamb shank quzi to lamb offal pacha. But Ali Baba’s standouts are also its most accessible dishes: beef, chicken, and sumptuous lamb kababs, which are long strips of seasoned ground meat. The charcoal-grilled skewers featuring hunks of meat go by the name tekka.

Masgoof at Nahrain Fish & Chicken Grill

Despite the name, the modest Masgoof at Nahrain Fish & Chicken Grill eatery wins its fans by roasting fish and fowl in a clay tandoor oven, in particular the Iraqi whole fish preparation, masgoof. In the style of San Diego’s beloved fish markets, customers may peruse a glass counter filled with fish and decide which will wind up on their plates. Popular choices include red snapper and striped bass, but it’s worth remembering the word Nahrain translates to “two rivers.” For freshwater fish traditionally associated with the Tigris and Euphrates, choose carp.

Makkliyah at Mal Al Sham: The Taste Of Damascus

This Syrian kitchen at Mal Al Sham: The Taste Of Damascus is dominated by a pair of shawerma rotisseries, and skewered meats on the menu likewise reinforce the link between Arab and Mediterranean cuisines. For something more distinctly Syrian, look to the kibbeh makkliyah: fried dumplings stuffed with seasoned ground beef and crushed walnuts. Better yet, if you have 30 minutes to spare, wait on the grilled version: kibbeh mashweeyeh.

Salad at Crafted Greens

It’s not al halal in El Cajon. This scratch kitchen at Crafted Greens on Jamacha Road embraces modern terms such as grass-fed, organic, free-range, and sustainable. That said, the keys to Crafted Greens’ success are its myriad salads, flatbreads and hot sandwiches loaded with house-made dressings and vibrant produce sourced from California farms.

Baklava Taco at Al Sultan Baklava

Not to be confused with downtown El Cajon’s stylish baklava bakery Sultan Baklava, Al Sultan sits farther east, just off Jamacha Road. This Turkish dessert specialist offers little to look at beyond bare walls, meaning all eyes are on its rich phyllo-dough pastries, decadently soaked in honey and simple syrup, stuffed with ground nuts, and perhaps drizzled with chocolate.

Phở at Grandpa Táo Kitchen

Another of El Cajon’s refugee populations recently scored a win with his new restaurant devoted to Vietnamese fare, alongside a limited assortment of sushi. But reason number one to pay attention is Grandpa Táo Kitchen‘s phở menu. Whether based in chicken or beef stock, they’re made fragrant thanks to long hours steeped with clove, onions, and star anise—and the best noodles east of the 15.

Not all monsters have to be scary. In fact, entrepreneur Pinyada “Ada” Primpray’s is delightful.  Sea Monster, a small cafe that will serve poke bowls, fresh spring rolls, and matcha, will open in Mission Valley by the end of the year. 

“The concept is a Hawaiian- and Japanese-style cafe,” Primpray  explains. She calls it Sea Monster in homage to her friend’s popular restaurant Big Monster Sushi & Thai in Hawaii, but “the idea really started to take shape after I came back from a solo trip to Italy,” she says. The experience inspired her to start her own concept that mixed her culture, experience, and passion for food.

Sea Monster will be her first restaurant as an owner, but Primpray has worked in restaurants for 15 years in places like Kauai, Chicago, New York, and San Diego. She realized a similar health-conscious, seafood-forward, quick-service restaurant could work here, especially in that corner of Mission Valley where pizza and burgers reign. Plus, she points to the massive development plans for the area—between Riverwalk bringing thousands of new homes to the area and even more coming from San Diego State University, there are lots of new locals looming on the horizon.

She brought on Head Chef Wasu Gibb Palipote from Sushisamba in Los Angeles to develop the menu and signature sauces, like ink wasabi and a larb sauce. “Every couple of months, we plan to introduce a new signature sauce created exclusively for Sea Monster by [Chef Palipote],” she says. All the sauces will be homemade, including a basil creamy sauce and sesame vinegar.

Sea Monster’s menu centers around fresh poke bowls—mostly locally-caught bluefin tuna and hamachi as well as salmon, served California-style rather than Hawaiian-style (the sauces are added to order rather than marinating on the fish, which can overpower its flavor). Toppings will range from the usual, like edamame and green onion, to upscale, like uni (sea urchin). She’ll also serve fresh salad rolls, a popular light snack in Vietnam and her native Thailand, with vegetables and seafood like salmon, shrimp, and imitation crab. Everything will be served to-go, although there will be very limited seating for people who want to dive in right away. 

The matcha program will start small, with six iterations planned for opening and potentially more in the future. “I really want to have mango sticky rice,” she adds. Beyond adding items to the menu, Primpray says she hopes Sea Monster will be more than a restaurant. “I want it to grow into a lifestyle brand with its own little world,” she says, pointing to the restaurant’s mascot, Smoo. A monster with aspirations of growing bigger and bigger until it takes over? Yeah, sounds about right. 

Sea Monster will open daily for lunch and dinner in late 2026 at 6110 Friars Road in Mission Valley.

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San Diego Restaurant News & Food Events

Beth’s Bites

• Oktoberfest season is closing in fast, and one of the first dirndl-laced events of the year kicks off at AleSmith Brewing Company this weekend. AleSchmidt Oktoberfest runs every Saturday from September 12 through 26, and the family-friendly event is chock-a-block with German food vendors, live oom-pah bands, stein holding, and a whole lot more. The free event starts at 11 a.m. each Saturday, and from personal experience, I recommend posting up on the early side to snag a seat.
• Japanese fine dining restaurant Shio soft opened in August, bringing elegant plates and sunset views to La Jolla. (The area was hardly hurting for either, but I think we could always use some more sushi in our lives.) Has anyone checked it out yet? Let me know what I should order by dropping me a line at [email protected].
• Restaurateur brothers Danny and Dante Romero have been on a tear the past few years, consulting at places like Una Mas and taking over The Lion’s Share last summer. It’s understandable to see they recently decided to pause their recurring pop-up concept Two Ducks to recalibrate and figure out its future in a permanent location, but it’s still a bit bittersweet. If it’s “see you later” and not “goodbye,” I can live with that (for now).

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Listen Now: The Latest in San Diego’s Food and Drink Scene

Have breaking news, exciting scoops, or great stories about new San Diego restaurants or the city’s food scene? Send your pitches to [email protected].

“A sharp knife is a safe knife,” says Joshua “Jhun” de Andres, owner of Kuya Sharpens. It only takes a light touch to guide a properly-sharpened knife, while dull knives require much more force to cut through an object, increasing the likelihood and severity of an injury. “If you slip, that’s a lot of force that is now going into your finger, your hand, and that’s where it becomes extremely dangerous.” 

De Andres started sharpening knives as a meditative practice during a time of personal grief, a way to zone in on a task with a useful and satisfying outcome. “[It was a] reminder to myself that you can fix something that’s broken and give it purpose again.” Once he ran through his own collection of knives, he started asking friends and family if he could sharpen theirs. When he’d sharpened everyone’s knives he could think of, he started posting videos on TikTok, where his first professional chef customer found him: Chef Tanner Stanich, chef de cuisine at Michelin-recognized Bib Gourmand Mabel’s Gone Fishing.

“That’s when things really started to take off,” he laughs. He uses whetstones rather than motorized belt sanders to sharpen, which gives him the ability to make microadjustments during the process for a more customized and controlled result. Whetstones also preserve steel more efficiently than other mechanical processes, which are faster, but take off more of the knife’s edge in exchange, reducing the lifespan of the knife. 

Learning how to master whetstones takes a lot of time and practice, and while de Andres specializes in sharpening Japanese knives, he’ll sharpen a knife from anywhere. “Every knife deserves to be sharp,” he says. 

Japanese kitchen knives are designed for extremely specific purposes: there’s a knife to break down a fish (deba), cut through boneless raw fish for sushi and sashimi (yanagiba), slice vegetables (nakiri), carve meat (sujihiki), debone poultry (honesuki), and even knives only the executive chef can use (kiritsuke). Few other culinary cultures utilize such ultra-specialized tools, and Japanese steel is prized for its extreme hardness and ability to maintain a razor-thin edge for decades when properly cared for. 

De Andres is still figuring out different ways to expand his business: hosting workshops at Home Ec on Adams Avenue, creating knife restoration tutorials, and launching private lessons, all while continuing to sharpen knives people bring to him or even send from across the country. And he knows that for both home cooks and professional chefs, sharpening a knife that may have cost hundreds of dollars on a whetstone can feel overwhelming. Will I ruin it? Will I break it?

“You’re most likely not going to break it,” he promises. “But you are going to make it yours, and you have to kind of be okay with that.” Knives age and change just like humans do. Sharpening is an essential part of maintenance, and shaving away the dull edges to restore a shine takes care. And de Andres cares a lot.

“It’s just been really life-giving to me,” he says. “I know it seems really silly that taking a knife and putting it on a whetstone can change your perspective on how you view the world, but for me, it came to me at a time when I needed it most.”

San Diego Restaurant News & Food Events

Beth’s Bites

• Mesa Agricola, a tiny taqueria in Escondido, made this year’s New York Times 50 best restaurants in the US list. If you’ve had the privilege of eating the guisado delicacies from chef Juan González and Megan Strom, you’ll understand why. Congrats on the recognition—and happy first birthday!
• Kids Free San Diego is about to kick off, and if you haven’t already taken a look at all the month-long deals on food, activities, and hotels, you have two more weeks to make a game plan. Between kids eating free at places like Crab Hut and the Waffle Spot, staycation deals at places like San Diego Mission Bay Resort, Belmont Park discounts, free fishing, whale watching, and more, I know that my dance card for the month is pretty much full. 
• Ranchito Milkyway, a farmstand in Bonita, also has plenty of events to pencil into your calendar, starting with an Indian cuisine-inspired farm-to-table dinner on September 19 with chef Kanta from Sattvik to an Italian cooking class on October 17 with chef Elisa from Balsamico Italian Kitchen. If you’re chock-full of things to do over the next few weeks, there’s always the option to snag one of their CSA boxes for an abundance of winter greens, vegetables, and herbs for home cooking.

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Listen Now: The Latest in San Diego’s Food and Drink Scene

Have breaking news, exciting scoops, or great stories about new San Diego restaurants or the city’s food scene? Send your pitches to [email protected].

Tickets to the Del Mar Wine & Food Festival get you in the door. The real fun is figuring out who you’ll run into once you’re there. This year’s weeklong schedule of exclusive events, running September 30–October 4, includes dinners, tastings, and loosely-supervised chaos where celebrity chefs and local icons finally let their hair down.

The festival has a track record of the unexpected: Bryan Cranston and Aaron Paul once toasted their mezcal brand Dos Hombres with an intimate dinner at the Lodge at Torrey Pines (and then, evidently unsatisfied, kept drinking it on the cliffs above Blacks Beach with a rotating cast of San Diego and Food Network chefs. Alex Morgan showed up for a dinner under the lights honoring the country’s most badass women chefs). Drew Brees ran a celebrity pickleball tournament where the guy from It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia got absolutely humbled by locals.

If you scored a ticket to last year’s Grand Tasting, you might’ve caught Guy Fieri doing exactly what Guy Fieri does: strolling the grass, signing t-shirts and foreheads, and hanging off the DJ surf van like it was built for him. Meanwhile, local chef Ethan Yang of Glass Box walked off with the Chef Competition surfboard.

So whether your plan for 2026 is to corner legendary San Diego chefs like Victor Jimenez of Cowboy Star and Jon Sloan of Juniper & Ivy in person, or just aim for a spontaneous golf cart ride with a Food Network star—here’s your cheat sheet for where to run into a celebrity chef, TV personality, award-winning winemaker, or pro athlete at this year’s Del Mar Wine & Food Festival.

Troy Johnson, Karen Krasne

Signature San Diego Opening Night Party

September 30 | 6 – 9 p.m. | Monarch Ocean Pub 

Consider this your soft landing into festival week—the walk-around tasting that eases you in before things get chaotic later on. Monarch Ocean Pub hands its patio over to the flavors that define San Diego eating: Baja seafood done right, coastal bites, Mexican flavors with some heat behind them, all the staples locals will fight you over. 

The celebrity sightings here lean more “bump into” than “spot from across the room.” Troy Johnson—Food Network judge, San Diego Magazine chief content officer and co-owner, Emmy-winning host, a man who has eaten his way across the entire country professionally—is the type to materialize at whichever station has the longest line, because he already knows it’s worth the wait. Ask him what he’s had so far. He’ll have opinions.

Then there’s celebrity pastry chef Karen Krasne, owner and executive pastry chef of Extraordinary Desserts, James Beard House alum, and a woman Forbes once ranked among the top 10 pastry chefs in the country—which tracks, because you might find her holding court next to a tray of her roasted pecan shortbread dipped in white chocolate, explaining exactly why this is the flavor combination. You will listen to every word, too, because you’ll want to try that cookie.

This is an opening night party where the person next to you in line might just be the one who baked the thing you’re about to eat.

Bryn McArthur, Mawa McQueen

Chateau Montelena’s 50th Anniversary Celebration

October 1 | 6 – 9 p.m. | Fairmont Grand Del Mar

Fifty years ago, a Napa Chardonnay beat France at its own game and rewrote what the world thought it knew about wine. This dinner is that legacy, poured by the family who built it, course by course.

Under the arches at Fairmont Grand Del Mar, Ernie Hahn and the Hahn family, who partnered with the Barretts to revive Chateau Montelena into the Napa powerhouse it is today, host an evening built entirely around the winery’s most iconic pours. Every course gets its own pairing straight from the Montelena portfolio, so you’re not just hearing about the Judgment of Paris, you’re tasting the wine that started it.

Chef Mawa McQueen, a former James Beard Best of the West winner out of Aspen, brings globally inspired cuisine and serious technique to the table. Alongside her, Fairmont Grand Del Mar’s executive chef Bryn McArthur leans into farm-to-table sensibility shaped by a career of global kitchens. Together they’re building a menu meant to hold its own against wine that already changed history once.

This is the rare dinner where the wine isn’t just accompanying the meal, it’s the reason the meal exists. Fifty years after Paris, the rematch is happening right here in Del Mar.

Karen Krasne, Martin Munguia

Rioja Uncorked

October 1 | 6 – 9 p.m. | Rancho Valencia