September marked one year since we have moved to San Diego! The time has flown by and we have barely scratched the surface of what San Diego (and surrounding area) has to offer. August and September were by far the slowest months we have had to-date in terms of seeking out new adventures around town. August I wasn’t surprised about since we had two weekends were were out of town, but September was a bit unexpected. With the move and then me being sick, we basically only had one weekend where I felt like getting out and then I was pushing to make sure 100% of the house things have been taken care of. So, this Discovering San Diego post will be the shortest one I’ve had. We plan on getting back to it in October, we have to make up for lost time 🙂 I debated whether or not I’m going to keep up with the series, I decided I do want to. I like being able to look back and see all we have done, plus it keeps us trying new places 🙂
Food
Krakatoa
A hidden gem, tucked away in Golden Hill, a sandwich shop/coffee shop. They have a great outdoor area, and their sandwiches are tasty. This is a place we will definitely go back to, and I have (as I took Shannon one day). Just very casual spot to drop in and grab a sandwich. I want to go back and try a coffee drink one of these days too.
Big Kitchen Cafe
The Big Kitchen Cafe shows up on a ton of lists for best breakfast, and usually seems quite busy all the times we have driven by. We finally decided to give it a go one morning before heading off on a hike. It’s very diner in feel. I wasn’t blown away by our dishes. I liked our breakfast at Antique Row Cafe better, for a diner type breakfast. I had sausage and gravy and wasn’t impressed with the biscuit or the gravy. P’s omelet was not well balanced with stuffing, and had WAY too much spinach. That was all I could taste. With that said, I still want to return and try their pancakes, which I was lusting over from afar. I have a feeling those might the item to order. Also, the waitstaff was nice and the owner was there, making sure everyone felt welcomed.
Rustic Root
Newish spot in the Gaslamp District. Good, but not blown away. The egg was overcooked on my biscuit and I just wasn’t wowed overall. We still want to try it for dinner though and their cocktails look really good.
Shorehouse Kitchen (Brunch)
So good!! This is one of the better brunches we have had in town. Spot on flavors and interesting menu. I highly recommend the Crispy Parmesan Risotto & Honey Cured Bacon Benedict (we have had it on two visits). This place gets busy fast, no reservations, so I suggest you aim for earlier morning. Despite them being busy, we have found the hostess and servers extremely friendly.
Not a restaurant, but our neighborhood fish taco truck. I’m mentioning this here, because they fed us probably for half the month. Seriously good fish tacos, and for $1.75. How crazy is that?! I’m sure you are thinking it can’t be that good, but it is. Always fresh and hot, also they almost always have a line going, so it’s popular. I get the fish taco and shrimp ceviche ($3.00), sometimes the ceviche is better than others, but you can’t get better “fast food”. They park at the convenience store on Texas and Meade.
Booze
Ballast Point Tasting Room (Little Italy)
Ok I’ve been here a number of times, we even went on our househunting trip, however I have never mentioned it in a Discovering San Diego post! So, I am righting that wrong and we even ordered lunch so I had the food+beer to talk about. I really like the Little Italy tasting room, I love that they almost always have a good selection of R&D beers available, beers I can’t find at the store or our local bars. Service is always friendly and it’s a great spot to grab a beer. Their food has been good too, this is the first time we got sandwiches, and I was not disappointed.
Bay City Brewing
Oh my, hardest to find brewery in San Diego 🙂 This is tucked away on a one way street, we ended up cutting through the casino parking lot. I would recommend looking this up and look at the map before heading over. Even though I wasn’t really feeling drinking when we went, I still thought all their beers were good. Which is saying something. It was so hot and I just was not 100%.
Border X Tasting Room
This is the transitional neighborhood of Barrio Logan. Really friendly service and patrons, the beer was good. Some were better than others, but overall a good offering.
Cellar 3
This is Green Flash’s dedicated sour and barrel-aged production tasting room/brewery. It was very cool, in addition to a great list of rare sour/barrel-aged offerings, they also offer some Alpine and Green Flash brews. And they have their own food truck (what?!). Super impressed with the cheese and meat board and the deviled eggs. Really great quality of products and I’m sure their sandwiches would be tasty too. This is one I know we will seek out again. Nice outdoor space, but not a huge about of seating.
Other
Baseball Game
Thanks to Shannon’s invite, we finally made it to a Padres game! We had a great time. The ballpark has a great beer selection, and I really enjoyed my hotdog and nachos. I’m so glad we got the opportunity to go, and such good seats!! It’s a nice ballpark, and it did feel overly crowded.
Hiking
We made it to the other trail in Torrey Pines, which I will do a separate post on. I enjoyed the first trails we did on our first trip to Torrey Pines more though.
San Diego has treated us well this year! When are you coming to visit? 🙂
