The Best Places to Eat and Do in San Diego
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Burma Place is a casual Burmese restaurant in Rancho Bernardo where the salads are the main event, which is a sentence you rarely get to write about a strip-mall dinner. The tea leaf version tosses crisp romaine in a fermented green tea dressing with crunchy fried peas and nuts. The samosa salad is for heavier appetites, and most salads run under $17, so wear whatever you wore to work. Eater counts it among San Diego's best salads.
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Choice Juicery is a laidback organic juice and salad cafe in Carlsbad Village, with sibling locations around San Diego County. Salads sit ready in the case at around $13, with a gluten-free wrap upgrade for a few dollars more, and online ordering means you can skip the line entirely. The menu is plant-based, so the taco "meat" is walnuts and the cobb gets coconut "bacon." Eater put it on a list of the best salads in San Diego.
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Daofu is a casual Adams Avenue restaurant where a salad shows up before you've finished deciding what to order. It's free, built on house-made tofu and curly greens with a pulpy raspberry dressing, and it works as a warm-up for the bolder spices on the main plates. The salad menu stays under $11, which makes it an easy place to wander in on a weeknight in whatever you were already wearing.
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Gourmet Island is a weekday-only lunch counter in a Ruffin Road business park, where the salad menu runs long enough to need its own filing system. Eater put it on its list of the best salads in San Diego. The family behind it has been at this for ages, and the daily specials that catch on get promoted to the permanent menu. Order at the counter, then take your arugula and beets out to the open-air patio, ideally before the cubicle rush.
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Haven Farm and Table is a daytime restaurant planted on a three-acre working farm in Encinitas, with a glass ceiling that lets the sun in and a menu that mostly walks over from the rows outside. Salads are the main event here, which is a sentence that usually ends in disappointment elsewhere. Eater has put it on its list of San Diego's best salads. Expect farm-adjacent casual, not a tasting menu.
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Rank 200. Knotty Barrel
Gastropub
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Rank 200. Lotus Cafe & Juice Bar
Vegetarian Café
Lotus is a casual, order-at-the-counter cafe and juice bar on Encinitas' main drag, where the menu runs mostly vegetarian and the salad list reaches ten. Names like Soulful and Spiritual tell you exactly what town you're in. You can add tofu, tempeh, or vegetable "chicken," or blackened chicken if the vegetables have been judging you. Eater has named it among San Diego's best salads.
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Loving Hut is a casual, fully vegan counter-service spot on El Cajon Boulevard, with a menu that wanders the globe without ever touching an animal. The Heavenly salad piles shredded cabbage, fried tofu strips, and Vietnamese mint under a sweet-and-sour tamarind dressing, which is how Eater landed it on a list of the best salads in San Diego. The room is mellow and unfussy, and nobody will ask you to explain your lunch.
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This is a salad shop on La Jolla's Pearl Street, and the sizes start at 32 ounces, so nobody here is ordering a side. You can build your own bowl or pick from a long house list, with the Chinese chopped salad and its wonton strips doing the heavy lifting for people who need a salad to feel like a dare. There's a second location in Ocean Beach, and Eater has named it among San Diego's best salads. Order at the counter, then eat in the cozy room or take it down to the water.
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Rank 200. OB Noodle House Bar 1502
Pan-Asian Noodle Shop
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Parakeet Cafe is a counter-service salad spot in Carmel Valley's Paseo Place, one outpost of a small California chain with bird motifs on the walls and a laidback, flip-flops-acceptable energy. The salads run to crispy brown rice and turmeric dressing rather than sad iceberg, and anything can be upgraded with chicken, tofu, or avocado. Eater has named it one of the best salads in San Diego, which is a sentence that exists.
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Rank 200. Phuong Trang
Vietnamese
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Rank 200. Rosemarie’s Buns and Brews
Burger Joint
Rosemarie's is a casual beach-town burger and beer joint on Coast Highway, the kind of place where flip-flops count as dressing up. The wings are fried in duck fat and come in flavors like honey buffalo with ranch zig-zags and blue cheese crumbles, teriyaki, and mango habanero. Eater listed them among San Diego's best chicken wings. A dozen runs under twenty bucks, and the draft list rotates, so the pairing tends to sort itself out.
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Rank 200. Tenkatori Miramar
Yakitori
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Rank 227. LEILA
Middle Eastern
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- San Diego Magazine San Diego Magazine: Top 5 Restaurants · The Best Restaurants in San Diego
- San Diego Magazine San Diego Magazine: Best Design · The Best Restaurants in San Diego
- San Diego Magazine San Diego Magazine: Best Middle Eastern Restaurant · The Best Restaurants in San Diego
- San Diego Magazine Top 5 Restaurants · The Best Restaurants in San Diego
- San Diego Magazine Best Design · The Best Restaurants in San Diego
- San Diego Magazine Best Middle Eastern Restaurant · The Best Restaurants in San Diego
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- San Diego Magazine San Diego Magazine: Best Bar · The Best Restaurants in San Diego
- San Diego Magazine San Diego Magazine: Best Chips & Salsa in San Diego · The Best Restaurants in San Diego
- San Diego Magazine Best Bar · The Best Restaurants in San Diego
- San Diego Magazine Best Chips & Salsa in San Diego · The Best Restaurants in San Diego
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- San Diego Magazine San Diego Magazine: Best Desserts · The Best Restaurants in San Diego
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Rank 230. Alforon
Middle Eastern
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Rank 230. Awash Ethiopian Restaurant
Authentic Ethiopian
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Rank 230. Barrio Donas
Mexican-American Bakery
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Rank 230. Birrieria Y Menuderia Guadalajara
Guadalajara-Style Mexican
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Rank 230. Bistro Du Marché
French
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Rank 230. Blind Lady Ale House
Beer Bar
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Rank 230. Bonjour Patisserie
French Bakery
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Rank 230. Corvette Diner
Throwback Diner
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Rank 230. Crab Hut
Seafood
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Rank 230. DJK Korean BBQ
Korean
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Rank 230. El Tianguis
Mexican
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Rank 230. Flying Pig Pub & Kitchen
Elevated Southern
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Rank 230. Grand Ole BBQ
Central Texas Barbecue
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- San Diego Magazine San Diego Magazine: Best Barbecue · The Best Restaurants in San Diego
- San Diego Magazine San Diego Magazine: Best in City: El Cajon · The Best Restaurants in San Diego
- San Diego Magazine Best Barbecue · The Best Restaurants in San Diego
- San Diego Magazine Best in City: El Cajon · The Best Restaurants in San Diego
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Rank 230. Havana 1920
Cuban
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Rank 230. Hawaiian Fresh Seafood at Liberty Station
Hawaiian Seafood
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Rank 230. Ironside
Seafood
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- San Diego Magazine San Diego Magazine: Best Raw Bar · The Best Restaurants in San Diego
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- San Diego Magazine San Diego Magazine: Best Breakfast · The Best Restaurants in San Diego
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Rank 230. Marigold Bagels
NY-Style Bakery
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Rank 230. Marisi
Italian
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Rank 230. OB Noodle House
Creative Pan-Asian Noodle Shop
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Rank 230. Plumeria Vegetarian Restaurant
Vegetarian Thai
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- San Diego Magazine San Diego Magazine: Best Thai Restaurant · The Best Restaurants in San Diego
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- San Diego Magazine Best Bar Food · The Best Restaurants in San Diego
- Spirited Awards 2026 · Regional Top 10 Honoree · Best U.S. Hotel Bar – U.S. West
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- San Diego Magazine San Diego Magazine: Best Steakhouse · The Best Restaurants in San Diego
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- San Diego Magazine San Diego Magazine: Best Cheese Shop · The Best Restaurants in San Diego
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Rank 230. Steamy Piggy
Contemporary Chinese
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Rank 230. Sushi MARU
Sushi
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Rank 230. Tacos El Panson
Mexican
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Rank 230. The Kebab Shop
New-School Mediterranean
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- San Diego Magazine San Diego Magazine: Best Cheap Eats · The Best Restaurants in San Diego
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Rank 230. Wormwood
French
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Rank 271. Amalfi Cucina Italiana
Coastal Italian
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Rank 271. Casa Gabriela
Innovative Mexican
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Rank 271. Giardino
Italian
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Rank 271. Herb & Sea
Seafood
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- San Diego Magazine San Diego Magazine: Best in City: Santee · The Best Restaurants in San Diego
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Rank 271. Ju Feng Yuan Dumpling Cafe
Chinese Noodle Shop
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- San Diego Magazine San Diego Magazine: Best in City: Poway · The Best Restaurants in San Diego
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Rank 271. Pho Truc Xanh
Vietnamese Noodle Shop
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- San Diego Magazine San Diego Magazine: Best in City: Vista · The Best Restaurants in San Diego
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Rank 271. Poke Etc
Hawaiian
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