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SP's Approved Eating Places in SoCal
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SP's Approved Eating Places in SoCal.md

SP's Approved Eating Places in SoCal

List is not ranked. At this level, food preference dominates.

Chinese

  1. Chun's Seafood and Grill - 9355 Kearny Mesa Rd, San Diego, CA 92126. Good Shanghainese. The Lion's Head Casserole is decent. On weekends, the brunch is excellent with reasonable soy bean curd and deep fried fritters.

  2. China Max - 4698 Convoy St C101, San Diego, CA 92111. The only reasonable dim sum place in SD. Jasmine down the street is ok and offers an authentic "cart-style" experience, but extremely busy. Personally, think China Max is better food-wise.

  3. Emerald Chinese Cuisine Bar & Lounge - 3709 Convoy St #101, San Diego, CA 92111. About on par or perhaps even slightly better than China Max on certain dim sum. But ~10-20% more expensive.

  4. Village Kitchen - 4720 Clairemont Mesa Blvd, San Diego, CA 92117. Very authentic Hunan Chinese food. Very spicy and reasonably priced.

  5. Double Happiness - 1011 Camino Del Mar # 110, Del Mar, CA 92014. Reasonably good Chinese closer to North County area.

  6. Little Sheep Mongolian Hot Pot  - 4718 Clairemont Mesa Blvd, San Diego, CA 92117. Nice hot pot place.

Sushi

  1. Sushi Ota - 4529 Mission Bay Dr, San Diego, CA 92109. Best sushi, some say in US. I don't buy it. I have had much better. But in SD, they are reasonable.

Korean

These are merely ok options in San Diego. Seriously, the options are pretty bad. Tofu soup is barely passable in most places.

  1. Buga - 5580 Clairemont Mesa Blvd, San Diego, CA 92117. Good korean BBQ.

  2. Grandma Tofu - 4425 Convoy St, San Diego, CA 92111. Same as Do Re Mi. The Kalbi Tang is good.

Indian

  1. Biryani Factory - 9474 Black Mountain Rd, San Diego, CA 92126. Serves the best biryani in San Diego (try the lamb one). Be careful about the spice level. Even for a seasoned Singaporean, the default "Indian" spice level is overwhelming.

  2. Sitar Indian Cuisine - 9450 Scranton Rd #114C, San Diego, CA 92121. This unassuming Indian place in a food court near Qualcomm serves excellent Biryani as well (close to Biryani Factory's standards).

  3. 8elements - 9160 Mira Mesa Blvd, San Diego, CA 92126. The Dosa and Biryani nights (buffet style) are nice, though Biryani factory's biryani is still better.

Noodles

  1. Santouka Ramen - 4240 Kearny Mesa Rd, San Diego, CA 92111. Try the Salt Ramen Toriniku.

  2. Menya Ultra - 8199 Clairemont Mesa Blvd m, San Diego, CA 92111. This new place serves excellent back to basics Tonkotsu ramen. The eggs are to Japan standards. Go early as lines are extremely long.

  3. Tajima Ramen - Several locations. The one at 4681 Convoy St, Ste I San Diego, CA 92111 is good but very busy. The one at 4411 Mercury St, Ste 110 San Diego, CA 92111 is a few blocks away, but much less busy, usually without the wait. The thin noodles are better than Santouka. Soup-wise, it's a matter of preference.

  4. Ramen Yamadaya - 4706 Clairemont Mesa Blvd, San Diego, CA 92117. Good black garlic ramen.

  5. Luong Hai Ky - 10606 Camino Ruiz #2, San Diego, CA 92126. Good Chinese-style noodle place I have found. Order the dry Wonton and dumpling noodles. There is also authentic Singapore/Malaysia-style hor fun!

  6. Tim Ky Noodles - 9330 Mira Mesa Blvd, San Diego, CA 92126. Similar to Luong Hai Ky and just as good.

  7. Pho Ban Mai - 8991 Mira Mesa Blvd, San Diego, CA 92126. Best pho in San Diego area.

Fine dining excluding Steakhouses

  1. Market - 3702 Via De La Valle, Del Mar, CA 92014.

  2. Georgia's California Modern - 1250 Prospect St, La Jolla, CA 92037

Steakhouses

I have been extremely comprehensive about this. Steak is my thing. Tested Marine Room, Donovan's, Ruth Chris, Flemings, Island Prime, Stake Chophouse, Cowboy Star, and many others. Bottom line, the ones that I have written the names for are all reasonable, but none of them will beat Peter Luger in New York.

For absolutely the best meat, I like Stake Chophouse - 1309 Orange Ave, Coronado, CA 92118. For best view with great steaks, go for Island Prime, Marine Room, or Donovan's.

Further afield

If you are willing to drive within a 2-hr radius from SD (easily accomplished for a Singaporean foodie), the following have been vetted:

  1. Belacan Grill - 17460 17th St, Tustin, CA 92780. Only reasonable Malaysian/Singapore cusine in SoCal.

  2. Din Tai Fung - several in greater LA area. Nearest is in South Coast Plaza Mall in Irvine. The line is super long, and no reservations. But you can put down your name and cell first, and you can shop around until you are called. Oddly, DTF in SoCal is much better than the chains of DTF in Singapore. DTF SoCal Xiao Long Bao rivals that of the top non-chain restaurants.

  3. Huge Tree Pastry - Suite 105-106, 423 N Atlantic Blvd, Monterey Park, CA 91754. Best taiwanese style breakfast.

  4. Park's BBQ (955 S Vermont Ave, Los Angeles, CA 90006) or Kang Ho Dong Baek Jeong (3465 W 6th St, Los Angeles, CA 90020). A significant leap over any of the SD options for Korean BBQ. Seriously, these are worth the trip by themselves.

  5. Daikokuya (327 E 1st St., Little Tokyo). Consistently one of the top rated ramen in LA!

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