The Best Places to Eat in National City
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The best places to eat in National City, according to the experts: San Diego Magazine, Eater, and The Infatuation have all weighed in, and their honors are what rank this list. Royal Mandarin comes out on top.
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Friends Of Friends and Guanatos Mexican Grill hold the next two places. Eater and San Diego Magazine show up on more of this list than any other guide.
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Rank 1. Royal Mandarin
Chinese
The awards
- San Diego Magazine Best Wings in San Diego · The Best Restaurants in San Diego
- Eater Where to Find the Best Chicken Wings in San Diego
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Rank 2. Friends Of Friends
Coffee
A National City coffee shop wrapped in mid-century breezeblocks, hanging plants, and jungle mural art, which is a lot of ambience for a place you can also order a latte at. By day it's a room of people with strong opinions about espresso, and some nights an R&B DJ turns up. The popups rotate with the week, the ginger thyme latte stays put, and there's a burger with crispy garlic chili peppers that coffee shops don't usually bother with.
The awards
- The Infatuation The Infatuation: The Best Coffee Shops In San Diego
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Rank 2. Guanatos Mexican Grill
Mexican
Guanatos is a tiny, unfussy Mexican grill in National City where lunch means a tostada piled with ceviche or octopus, then something heftier like a torta or a mound of fries buried under carne asada and marlin. The service is friendly in a way that suggests nobody here is in a hurry. On weekends there's fish soup, which the regulars treat as medicine, and the Eater lunch list has noticed.
The awards
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Rank 4. Poke Etc
Hawaiian
The awards