Happy holidays from us at SDM. We got you this—a mouthwatering roundup of a few of the best bites and sips the county has to offer. It has a couple soups, because ’tis the season. And it’s packed with lots of seafood, because most of us don’t live spitting distance from the ocean to not stuff our gullets with sushi at any given opportunity. And, to wrap it up (get it?), a very cozy cocktail and an easy mall bite (looking at you, last-minute gift shoppers). So, throw on a hoodie (SD’s version of a coat), put the Hallmark marathon on a temporary pause, and go get some.
Roppongi
Polynesian Crab Stack
Sami Ladeki of Sammy’s Woodfired Pizza fame is bringing back his old flame in La Jolla. Roppongi was one of the city’s top pan-Asian restaurants, a modern see-and-be-seen spot where many of the best sushi chefs in SD learned their craft (including Davin Waite of Wrench & Rodent Seabasstropub). Chef Alfie Szeprethy is reviving the restaurant’s iconic dish, as well: a giant ring-mold tower of mango and tomato and avocado and fresh crab meat, with a fish sauce– forward, ginger-lime dressing poured over the top. Still damn delicious. Welcome back. —Troy Johnson
Phở Saigon Express
Rare Steak Phở
On our first date, I brought my now-boyfriend here because I knew if I was going to teach him to use chopsticks, I had to introduce him to a dish that would be worth the fight from plate to mouth. This bowl from Phở Saigon Express in Escondido hits the spot with its comforting, rich broth that warms up any winter night. It was the first phở I ever tried, and every single one since hasn’t quite measured up. —Arianna Hull
Witherby Restaurant
Crab Cake
The crab cake is a distinctly American food—as far back as at least the 16th century, Indigenous women near the Chesapeake Bay would roll a mixture of crab, veggies, and cornmeal into balls and fry them in bear fat, crafting the progenitors of what’s now known as a delicious but somewhat stodgy steakhouse staple.
Not so at Witherby, where the crab cake goes global: The hockey puck– sized medallion of tender crab arrives in a wading pool of slightly spicy green curry sauce and a dusting of Thai basil, mint, and cilantro. The herby, bright revamp of an old classic is fitting for this chic, Prohibition-era-themed restaurant inside The Beau Hotel, a restored 1886 Gaslamp Quarter building rumored to be a favorite haunt of Al Capone. —Amelia Rodriguez
Lana
Organic Half Chicken
The noble chicken dinner, while not as sexy as showier aged proteins, still bodies. It’s the Air Supply of food, the flavor of ancient human comforts. When two vets of San Diego’s food scene—Travis LeGrand (ex-Searsucker and The Marine Room) and sommelier Mark Wheadon (ex-The Tree Room at Sundance Resort, as well as many other places)—took over the old California Pizza Kitchen on Highway 101 in Solana Beach, it was a no-brainer move.
That stretch of 101 deserved better. And Lana is absolutely popping. This roast chicken—cooked in the 32-year-old wood-fired oven that birthed millions of barbecue chicken pizzas before it—comes with a golden tan, a tuft of wild mushrooms, and butter masquerading as mashed potatoes, all ladled with jus. All due respect to CPK, but Lana’s a boon for Solana. —Troy Johnson
Crafted Coupe
Kin You Dig It, Sucka!!!!!
Tucked way in the back of Caffè Calabria in North Park, Crafted Coupe is the in-the-know spot for cocktails that taste like art and love. This aggressively named offering tastes oddly cozy, like if an old fashioned, an espresso martini, and a piece of biscotti hybridized into one clarified tincture served to you in a sexy après-ski cabin by the fire. Warm, comforting, complex, it’s the perfect balm to a chilly night that could function as either aperitif or dessert. Come back and try more of the menu for a screaming $8 on happy hour. —Samantha Lacy
The Bowl Ramen & Izakaya
Black Sabbath Ramen
It’s soup season, which means oversized sweatshirts, Mariah Carey on the airwaves, and gigantic bowls of ramen filling our bellies. Owned by the same team as The Joint in Ocean Beach, The Bowl on Newport Avenue is its sister restaurant serving up izakaya-style dining, including sushi and rice bowls. Owner and chef Jeff Shaefer brings 18 years of experience here (he trained under master ramen chef Rikisai Miyajima in Osaka, Japan).
Get the Black Sabbath with tonkotsu broth, shoyu tare, black garlic oil, pork chashu, a soft-boiled egg, menma, fried garlic, wood ear mushrooms, and negi. It’s rich, enjoyably salty, and subtly spicy. Bonus: The Bowl has gluten-free noodles, so those with dietary restrictions can still get their soup fix.—Nicolle Monico
Dashi
Omakase Sashimi
Sushi is only as good as the fish, and I put Dashi to the test with its chef’s-choice sashimi platter. The newly opened Japanese restaurant anchors a lively Hillcrest corner alongside Asian staples HiroNori Craft Ramen and Dumplings N More. Inside, Dashi pairs modern design with traditional sensibility and a communal spirit—where chefs and guests share dishes and tea across the bar. Dashi passed my exam with flying colors of amber-hued salmon, ruby-red tuna, and yellowtail that shimmered like glass, plus white fish, Hokkaido scallops, uni, and salmon roe. —Cole Novak
FiveO3 Pupusas
Pupusas
One of the great universalities of humanity is the impulse to wrap stuff in dough. In El Salvador, the delicious result of that urge was the pupusa: The country’s national dish, it’s quesadilla-adjacent, but breadier (despite being made from gluten-free corn masa), filled with wonderful things like red beans and melty cheese and seasoned pork and tender steak and the edible flowers of the Central American loroco vine.
PARTNER CONTENT
FiveO3’s versions aren’t the fastest bite at the Fashion Valley mall food court; nevertheless, the fluffy, freshly griddled pupusas are worth the short pause in your urgent holiday present shopping sesh (plus, you can load up on unlimited accompaniments, such as thin tomato sauce and curtido, a zesty vinegar-based slaw, while you wait). Pair with a big cup of Salvadoran horchata—it’s made from several different seeds, including the toasty, bittersweet seeds of the morro fruit, giving it a nutty, earthy flavor that’s more complex than its Mexican counterpart. —Amelia Rodriguez
