Next week - family vaca to San Diego - beach time!!! September - girls weekend in Playa - more beach time!! October - maybe London & Scotland - but would be for work (would try to get some fun in as well) November - Las Vegas for a friend's birthday (and mine - but hers is a 40th)
Fun! Do you need any restaurant suggestions for SD? Hopefully you arent arriving this weekend since we will be in the throes of Comic Con madness for the next 5 days
Thank you! I'd love a few that are family friendly (2 - 8yr old boys) - they are good eaters and we eat anything. We are staying on Mission Beach and get in on Tuesday night. seafood recs would be awesome!
Fun! Do you need any restaurant suggestions for SD? Hopefully you arent arriving this weekend since we will be in the throes of Comic Con madness for the next 5 days
Thank you! I'd love a few that are family friendly (2 - 8yr old boys) - they are good eaters and we eat anything. We are staying on Mission Beach and get in on Tuesday night. seafood recs would be awesome!
This is my standard SD recommendation list- I'll add a few things that will be more kid friendly since this is geared more towards adults.
We have a ton of breweries all over the county. Pizza Port has good beer and good pizza. Stone is my favorite and they do have a restaurant in Liberty Station over by the airport; their main location is up by my house and is good 30 minutes north of downtown. Stone up in Escondido has a really nice garden and they are kid friendly. They also show movies at the Stone in Liberty Station on Tuesday nights and its family friendly-they rotate between comedies and animated flicks- next tuesday is Ferris Buellers Day Off.
Fig Tree Cafe has good breakfast items. They have 3 locations- Liberty Station, Hillcrest and Pacific Beach. You can get to the Liberty Station and Hillcrest ones easily from downtown. Nice little breakfast place. They do have fancier items as well as breakfast staples
Kous Kous in Hillcrest for Moroccan food. Not super kid friendly but good food and if they are adventurous eaters they might like it.
Bencotto is ok Italian; it seems to be really popular with people who grew up eating East Coast Italian. Also in Little Italy is Filippis- its a local pizza joint that is fairly cheap and always seems to be busy.
El Agave for upscale Mexican. This is not you local taco joint; they specialize in Mexico City cuisine and they have an amazing tequila selection. A good place for Moles, Huachinango and Huitlacoche. Old Town Mexican Cafe is standard mexican food- they do have the tortilla makers on display in the front window. Its a mix of tourists and locals.
Las Cuatro Milpas for your taco fix. This is a hole in the wall restaurant in Barrio Logan (just south of downtown, can be reached via trolley). They are only open Mon-Sat for breakfast and lunch (they close around 3pm) and it is CASH ONLY. Basic menu- tacos, burritos, taquitos, tamales, rice, beans and homemade tortillas. Their salsa is crushed up chilis in oil; none of that wussy pico de gallo crap. If you go for lunch there will be a line stretching down the street but the wait is worth it. This is my go to when I want old school, cooked by grandma mexican food.
Panchitas Bakery for Pan Dulce. There is one right down the street from Las Cuatro Milpas. Stop in, grab a tray and some tongs and go wild. Everything is good.
Extraordinary Desserts has 2 locations but I prefer the Little Italy location. They do a sunday brunch and have added a wednesday night cheese bar. This place is always packed at night. If you have a big sweet tooth visit during the afternoon.
Hash House A Go Go gets mixed reviews on here; some of us love it and others bitch that its 'too much food'. If you like big breakfasts you will get more bang for your buck here. They do take breakfast reservations on saturday mornings. Jay the bartender is a sweetheart and he occasionally helps out as a server; we try to either sit at the bar or in his section whenever we go. Their biscuits are huge and yummy.
There is a ferry that you can catch over by the cruise ship terminal that will take you to Coronado. The Hotel Del Coronado does a fabulous Sunday brunch and they have a nice wine bar. ENO (the wine bar) added a pizza oven a few years ago but I have yet to try their pizza; they offer a nice selection of wine flights, a few beers, cheese and other goodies. The kids will probably enjoy running around on the beach. There are a ton of restaurants along the main drag and there is also an ice cream shop at the Hotel del.
I like Happy Hour at The Brigantine. They have multiple locations around the county and there is one in Coronado.
If you like wine Temecula wine country is about an hour north of downtown San Diego. There are tours that you can book or you can rent a car for the day to check it out.
Little Italy Farmers Market on Saturday mornings is always fun. There are a few food trucks and vendors that have good stuff to nosh on. The Indian stall has really good samosas and they also make a meal sized samosa loaded with veg/non veg items and rice. There is a vegan bakery that has a really good carrot cake and they also have some gluten free items.
Another transportation option is Amtrak or the Coaster. You can take either up to Solana Beach, Encinitas, Carlsbad or Oceanside. The Belly Up Tavern in Solana Beach is a great venue for live music- they have a good mix of smaller bands and big name acts. There is a great little Peruvian restaurant in Oceanside called Panca Peruvian Cuisine. O'Sullivans in Carlsbad is an Irish pub with live music and good food.
Balboa park would be a good place to spend a day. There are playgrounds for the kids, lots of museums, a few small rides (train, carousel) and the SD Zoo.
I am not a seafood eater but there is Oceanair in downtown for seafood. Fish tacos are prevalent in almost every single hole in the wall mexican place.
We are just finishing up our big summer trip. We spent 1 week in D.C. and then 1 week in the Florida Keys.
We are spending Labor Day weekend on Mandalay beach in Oxnard.
We are still researching places for Thanksgiving and the week after Christmas. I think we will do Palm Springs for one of them. I want to do Cabo but plane tickets are ridiculously high right now.