NFT: San Diego / LA recommendations

and non-pretentious... you have to pick one. : )

In comment 13874635 LG in NYC said:

Quote:

and non-pretentious... you have to pick one. : )

HAHA - I see your point, but the rule is always defer to good beer.

any cool spots that you think I should check out are welcome.

I'm staying over Friday night to see the Mets play the Pads. You definitely want to hit the Gaslamp district, tons of good restaurants and bars. Searsuckers is a little pretentious, but has an interesting menu. La Puerta is a taco and tequila joint, decidedly unpretentious. Greystone is a good steak place, and Blue Point has a great raw bar.

Ballast Point has a tasting room in Little Italy, closer to the airport. In addition to the great beer, their food is pretty good too. As you would imagine, a lot of good restaurants in Little Italy, Peppalacco's is one of my faves. And the Fish Market Restaurant by Seaport Village is very good too. Have fun!

has both craft beer and is a shithole. I love it

Two I like...

Hinano in Venice. Very much a dive bar, cash only, but with really great burgers (LA Magazine ranks it among the best) and a very interesting local scene. Music on the weekend. My go-to for pre-redeye flights.

Rainbow Bar and Grill on Sunset in West Hollywood (near Doheny). Really cool step-back in time to the heyday of '80's metal. Has Lemmy's Lounge and an amazing Chicken Parm sub. I've been there relatively early in the evening...heard it gets real crowded later on.

Both locations easy on the wallet and I'm sure they carry some craft beers – what place doesn't these days – but that is not their primary appeal. Neither is worth going way out of the way for, but if you're in the area, check them out.

My favorite bar is the Red Fox room. It's built with the remnants of an old English Inn that got shipped to California by a silent film star in the 20's. On Friday and Saturday night they'll have a piano player and some locals will usually sing old standards. The food is pretty solid steak and potato fare.
I'm also partial to the Turf Supper club. It's a horse racing themed bar and steak house where the gimmick is you cook your own food on a communal grill in the middle of the bar.
I would also be remiss if I didn't recommend the Ocean Beach Bar and Grill. Every time I visit San Diego I happily go back there to stuff my face with baja fish and then bar hop up and down Newport Ave or walk down the OB pier.

stop by at Towne Park Brewery, just off I-5 in Anaheim. My son helped them open up in 2017. Quality suds.
Link - ( New Window )

My wife & I are flying over from Las Vegas to catch Sat & Sun games!

I definitely welcome more recs but this is awesome. I especially appreciate clueing me in on the serendipity of the Mets being in town to play the Padres. That is awesome.

Check out the restaurant Herringbone in La Jolla.

there are some good buffets and strip clubs you can hit up.

I have a tech who is totally into the San Diego microbrew scene. His recs are Alesmith in the Miramar area. Added bonus here is there are a lot of other spots within a 5 mile radius, kind of a hub of the microbrew scene in San Diego. The other place he mentioned was Modern Times, in the sports arena area of Point Loma. Hope that helps!

of non-sanitary conditions and hepatitis.

read up

You can have great dining experiences from high-end white tablecloth places to hole-in-the-wall joints. Check out columns by Jonathan Gold for the latest and greatest.

Some places I happen to know: Jitlada, a hole-in-the-wall neighborhood Thai place in a strip mall in Hollywood, hired a new chef a few years back, introduced a very unusual regional menu and became a place that Thai food fans come to from all over the country.

Jitlada http://jitladala.com/

You can get great, truly authentic Chinese food in the San Gabriel Valley. World-class sushi in Little Tokyo and in the San Fernando Valley, sometimes at world-class prices. Delicious ramen for cheap on Sawtelle West L.A., which is another traditional Japanese enclave. East L.A. for traditional Mexican. I hear you can get great roast goat there. I'm not a big goat guy, so I haven't been.

Gourmet pizzas at Pizzeria Mozza on Melrose, usually with long lines. (Worth the wait IMO, if you have the time.)

Fine dining: Redbird downtown is very, very good and a great place for a romantic evening, but pricey. The Bazaar by Jose Andres at the SLS Hotel in Beverly Hills is also very very good, and even pricier.

At the insane-bordering-on-ridiculous high end, if you have a small fortune to spend on a dinner/art/performance experience, there's Vespertine. I haven't been, because I am not independently wealthy.

http://vespertine.la/

Culver City has a thriving restaurant scene with some good gastropub type places, like Public School 310. And on and on.

Karl Strauss Red Trolley Ale...yum! Old Town Mexican Cafe pork carnitas...yum!
Tiajuana pharmacy... thumbs up!

check out El Segundo Brewing, Hopsaint, Smog City, Absolution, Monkfish. Good bar called The Library in Santa Monica

thanks again to all for all the recs. I really appreciate it.

but my daughter, who lives in San Diego, says she can't find good Chinese food. Whenever she comes home we have to go to out and sit down for Chinese food. Especially dim sum. And yet, when I go visit her in SD, practically ever third person I see is Chinese. Why is that? (That there's no food, not that everyone is Chinese).

and really good Chinese food is scarce on the west side, close to non-existent. Drive to the San Gabriel Valley and you can get food that rivals what you'd find in China. It's weird.

The big trend in L.A. is Korean fusion. I'm not big on Korean food but I do enjoy the kimchi nachos from Komodo.

I should have mentioned that there's great cheap Korean barbecue. Not my thing but my wife and daughter are crazy about it.

I really like Monkish. Smaller on the light end of pretension for craft beer and very good.