The Best Places in Marina & around

A converted warehouse in Little Italy with barrel-vaulted ceilings and enough candlelight to make everyone look good, Herb & Wood is a wood-fired New American restaurant where the menu swings from blistered pizzas to venison over buttermilk polenta without losing its footing. The PB&C dessert, chocolate-whiskey cake with peanut butter mousse, has its own following. The Michelin Guide has it on their list, and the room tends to fill early with people who look like they come here often.

1. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant
2. San Diego Magazine Top 5 Restaurants · The Best Restaurants in San Diego
3. Eater The 38 Best Restaurants in San Diego

The original Crack Shack is a counter-service fried chicken spot on Kettner, built around an outdoor courtyard with picnic tables, lawn games, and the general mood of a backyard cookout run by someone with a spreadsheet. You order sandwiches, bone-in trays, or a bowl for the one friend who's being good, and everything involves pasture-raised chicken. It's casual, loud, and fine in flip-flops.

1. AAA Approved
2. Eater The Best Restaurants for Lunch in San Diego
3. San Diego Magazine Best Chain Restaurant · The Best Restaurants in San Diego

Tuxedo jackets, Converse sneakers, and a glassed-in meat-cutting room in the back: Born & Raised is an upscale steakhouse dressed in mid-century art deco bones with black-and-white portraits of rap legends lining the walls. Waiters push tableside carts for cocktails and starters, and the open-air rooftop overlooks Little Italy. The steaks are the main event, but the tartare, finished tableside with quail egg and capers, holds its own.

1. AAA Three Diamonds
2. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant

Two faux cherry trees in bloom flank the bar, old-school rap plays overhead, and graffiti covers the walls: Little Italy's Japanese fine dining scene is apparently not interested in your expectations. Cloak & Petal runs shareable plates, sashimi, and tableside Wagyu alongside creative maki rolls for the kind of crowd that books a month out and still acts surprised when the bill arrives.

1. AAA Three Diamonds
2. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant

A champagne vending machine and a few strategically placed skulls: Morning Glory knows exactly what it is. This Little Italy brunch spot in San Diego earns a Michelin Bib Gourmand for soufflé pancakes and a potato-au-gratin slab drowned in sausage gravy that has no business being on a morning menu. Pink marble floors, plush booths, and a line out the door most days, so arrive with a plan or a lot of patience.

1. Michelin Guide Bib Gourmand

Redwood beams and curved leather booths fill a converted 1920s warehouse in Little Italy, and the room feels like it's been here forever without trying to look like it has. This is a lively California restaurant where the kitchen folds Latin and Asian flavors into SoCal ingredients without making a fuss about it. The menu reads casually, the execution is anything but, and a Michelin Selected nod backs that up quietly.

1. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant
2. San Diego Magazine Best Wine List in San Diego · The Best Restaurants in San Diego
3. James Beard Awards 2022 · Semifinalist · Best Chef: California · Anthony Wells

1. AAA Three Diamonds

1. AAA Three Diamonds

1. AAA Three Diamonds

1. AAA Three Diamonds

1. AAA Three Diamonds

1. AAA Three Diamonds

1. AAA Three Diamonds

The harbor view from the second floor runs from Coronado to Point Loma, which means you're picking at your salmon while watching container ships drift past. This is an upscale seafood restaurant where the fish comes straight off local boats and the room dresses to match. Steaks and roasted chicken hold down the menu for anyone who wandered in under protest. Save room for the citrus olive oil cake.

1. AAA Three Diamonds

Taxidermy specimens on loan from the Natural History Museum share wall space with mounted trophies, giving this gastropub the look of a library that got lost on a hunting trip. The Contemporary New American menu leans hearty, with Asian inflections woven through comfort-food staples. The Michelin Guide has noted it, and the crowd skews stylish. Maybe leave your most ethically sensitive friend at the hotel.

1. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant

1. AAA Approved

1. AAA Approved

A tree grows through the middle of the second-floor patio, which tells you something about the vibe here. Kettner Exchange is a bi-level progressive American restaurant in Little Italy where Asian techniques quietly run the kitchen, and the rooftop draws a crowd that came to be seen but stays for the food. Downstairs buzzes; upstairs breathes. The menu moves between crispy rice and dumplings with enough conviction that you forget this place doubles as a nightlife destination.

1. Eater The 38 Best Restaurants in San Diego

1. San Diego Magazine Best Bar · The Best Restaurants in San Diego
2. San Diego Magazine Best Chips & Salsa in San Diego · The Best Restaurants in San Diego

1. San Diego Magazine Best Raw Bar · The Best Restaurants in San Diego

1. San Diego Magazine Best Wine Bar in San Diego · The Best Restaurants in San Diego