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The Trails 7389 Jackson Drive, San Diego, CA 92119 (San Carlos) 619-667-2233 Dinner prices: Appetizers, soups and salads, $3 to $7; sandwiches and entrees, $8 to $18 By Frank Sabatini Jr. For restaurant owners that bare their financial troubles on Food Network’s “Restaurant Impossible,” the experience is both tearfully humiliating
Parkhouse Eatery 4574 Park Blvd. (University Heights) 619-295-7275 Breakfast side and entrees: $3.50 to $13.95 Good Morning, Sunshine By Frank Sabatini Jr. Sleeping in on Sunday mornings will work to your advantage for seizing a fast table at Parkhouse Eatery, especially if you’re angling for a coveted seat on the
By Frank Sabatini Jr. | Good master Venissimo Cheese in Mission Hills and Downtown has begun carrying several curds available now and through the holidays. Among them is Rogue River Blue, which won “best of show” at this year’s national American Cheese Association competition. The cheese comes wrapped in brandy-soaked
Brazen BBQ Smokehouse & Bar 441 Washington St. (Hillcrest) 619-816-1990 Dinner prices: Starters, soups and salads, $4.49 to $9.99; burgers and sandwiches, $6.99 to $8.99; entrees, $8.99 to $20.99 By Frank Sabatini Jr. The all-smoke, no flames preparation of ribs, brisket and chicken has become as much of a criterion
Nami 501 University Ave. (Hillcrest) 619-297-7888 Dinner prices: Appetizers, $3 to $8; sushi rolls, $4.95 to $14.95; entrees, $8 to $15 By Frank Sabatini Jr. Nami, a Japanese fusion restaurant that keeps its prices way below what you’d expect, occupies one of the choicest plots of commercial real estate in
If you can live without the claw and knuckle meat of Maine lobster, the spiny species (a.k.a. rock lobster) served regularly at Ortega’s Mexican Bistro will feed you decent measures of tail meat plus yummy chunks from the base of the animal’s antennae
Since opening for breakfast and lunch in Pacific Beach three years ago, the Fig Tree Café has branched into Hillcrest with a dinner menu that isn’t available at its mother location. At least not yet.
Fans of celebrity chef Aaron Sanchez of the Food Network (“Chopped” and “The Best Thing I Ever Ate”) can now taste his food at House of Blues, which contracted the New York-based toque to completely revise its menu companywide.
Follow your nose to the corner of Washington Street and Fifth Avenue in Hillcrest, where Brazen BBQ Smokehouse & Bar recently opened to the tune of Southern-style brisket, ribs and chicken. Owners John Bracamonte and Brad Thomas ditched their aviation supply business a couple years ago to set out on the barbecue competition trail. As avid meat smokers, they garnered top awards on the state and national levels before bringing their recipes and cash wins to the restaurant. “When we say that our barbecue is award-winning, we can back it up,” notes Bracamonte
The hungry miners who flocked to this area for rich surface ores more than 150 years ago are long dead,
although their legacy is loosely acknowledged through smoky tritip and other meaty meals at the Old Town Mining Company
Taking its cue from the original café founded 129 years ago in Chieri, Italy, the two-month-old Caffe Vergnano 1882 in Hillcrest is giving coffee drinkers a jolt of Italian tradition in a chic and artful setting.
If a devastating earthquake trapped me inside BICE Ristorante for an extended period of time, I’d want it to be within a breathable space alongside the dining room’s well-endowed cheese bar.
Buonissimo2 in Hillcrest may still take several months before it reopens after a roof fire occurred earlier this month. General manager Lisa Nelsen says most of the restaurant’s Italian-imported memorabilia was spared
The pickings are slim in San Diego for late-night dining. And the list grows even shorter if you’re looking for a hot meal past the witching hour, say on a Monday. Yet in the hub of Hillcrest we find Saigon on Fifth, open until 3 a.m., daily and located on University Avenue—not “Fifth.”
If you’ve never eaten poutine, Alchemy in South Park is one of the few places in San Diego that you’ll find the French-Canadian dish, available in a teased-up version during weekend brunch.