Frequently Asked Questions
The fish taco is San Diego's defining food. Baja-style fish tacos — beer-battered white fish in a corn tortilla with cabbage, crema, and lime — arrived from Tijuana decades ago and became the city's culinary identity. You'll find them everywhere from beachside shacks to upscale restaurants. The California burrito (carne asada, fries, cheese, and guac in a flour tortilla) is the other essential — invented here and found almost nowhere else.
The border. San Diego sits just 17 miles from Tijuana, and that proximity shapes everything. The Mexican food here isn't Tex-Mex or Cal-Mex — it's directly influenced by Baja California cuisine. You'll find TJ-style street tacos, birria, and mariscos that taste like they crossed the border that morning. Layer in Pacific-fresh seafood and over 150 craft breweries, and you get a food scene that doesn't exist anywhere else in the state.
Street tacos and food trucks: $2–6 per item. Casual taco shops and burrito joints: $8–14. Mid-range seafood restaurants: $15–25 per entree. Upscale dining in La Jolla or Little Italy: $30–50+. Craft brewery taprooms with food: $12–20. A comfortable daily food budget for two is $60–100 if you mix casual spots with one sit-down meal.
Barrio Logan for authentic Mexican food and birria. North Park for the California burrito and craft beer scene. Ocean Beach for fish tacos and Pizza Port. Little Italy for oyster bars and upscale Italian-seafood. Old Town for traditional Mexican like carnitas and elote. Point Loma for fresh-off-the-boat seafood. Kearny Mesa is the under-the-radar pick — it's the city's best corridor for Asian food and brewery-hopping.
Yes. San Diego has over 150 craft breweries — more per capita than almost any city in the country. Stone Brewing, Ballast Point, Modern Times, Karl Strauss, and Pizza Port all started here. The beer culture is woven into the food scene: breweries pair IPAs with fish tacos, stouts with desserts, and Belgian ales with charcuterie. Brewery-hopping is as much a San Diego activity as going to the beach.
That depends on what style you want. For the classic Baja-style beer-battered fish taco, Ocean Beach and Pacific Beach have the most options. Rubio's Coastal Grill, which started as a stand in Mission Bay, popularized the style in the 1980s. For grilled fish tacos, Point Loma and La Jolla lean upscale. For the crispiest, most no-frills version, head to the taco shops along the border in San Ysidro and National City. Every San Diegan has their own favorite — that's half the fun.