The 15 Best Restaurants In La Jolla San Diego 2024 - San Diego - The Infatuation (2024)

La Jolla is often called the “jewel by the sea,” known for gorgeous beaches and retirees driving custom Ferraris. As such, restaurants are on the pricier side—some places charge $10 for a single taco—but a lot of the upscale spots with outstanding views are worth the cost (and just might make you daydream of cruising down the California coast in your own bright red convertible). Despite all that, there’s still a good variety of casual spots with incredible fish tacos, charcuterie trays perfect for beach day, and one of the juiciest smashburgers around.

And if you’re looking for recommendations to San Diego outside of this neighborhood, we also have guides to the best breakfast and restaurants all around the city.

Marisi is La Jolla luxury, but trendy enough to impress someone visiting from Silver Lake. The menu of excellent pastas changes often, but it’ll almost always include the simple rigatoni, cooked to a perfect al dente and punched up with some calabrian chili. The cappelletti is another standout—we loved a recent version stuffed with cheese and lemony escarole, and wading in a rich parmesan. Appetizers here are also great, like fluffy focaccia served with an herby, aromatic bagna cauda and plump prawns made even juicier with an orange-honey glaze. Ask for a patio table to catch the magic hour glow, or hang out at the bar inside if the sun’s already clocked out for the day.

The Museum of Contemporary Art in San Diego has a number of masterpieces: a polka dot pumpkin from Yayoi Kusama, an Andy Warhol lithograph, and the view of La Jolla Cove from their restaurant, The Kitchen. Their summer corn torchio pasta is a refreshing pick that gets a slight spice from salsa verde. But brunch on the weekend is the move, when they open at 9am and serve a spicy sausage and egg sandwich with oven-dried tomatoes and garlic aioli. Their outdoor area with oceanfront views is the best spot for a meal, but beware of the opportunistic seagulls—they’ll snatch any unattended fries.

There’s nothing quite like the $165 High Tide meal at The Marine Room, a special occasion dinner that’s usually bookable between June and September. Dinner’s entertainment includes watching water levels rise and waves crash into the floor-to-ceiling windows like you’re riding a glass ship on the way to Atlantis. The kitchen cooks up four courses that use a lot of local seafood, such as glazed swordfish with Oaxacan chilis or bluefin tuna with edamame and pickled ginger. If it’s off-season or securing a High Tide time slot didn’t work out, you can still make a reservation for the dining room and order a la carte dishes like creamy lobster bisque. There’s also a newer lounge space with similar oceanfront views and a smaller menu.

El Pescador is a San Diego institution that’s been serving fish to the neighborhood for over 40 years. The best way to get the daily catch is on a sandwich—pick a fish and enjoy it on a torta slathered in a tangy tartar sauce and loaded with lettuce, tomato, and onion. You might even see a cook pull whatever snapper or salmon you requested from the display case before filleting it in the back. Avoid the evening and weekend shrimp-frenzied crowds by coming on a weekday afternoon when it’s more relaxed.

Oscar’s might be across the street from what’s technically the La Jolla border, but it’s on this guide because they make the best tacos around. Go for the smoked fish: chunks of tuna wrapped in a melty layer of cheese are balanced by crisp cabbage, sweet tomatoes, and sharp red onions. The battered fish is also great, and makes a satisfying crunch with every bite. And when it’s hot out, cool off with their ceviche loaded with plump shrimp and slices of white fish drenched in a tangy-and-salty citrus marinade. This laid-back spot has limited seating, so get an order to go and bring a towel over to Tourmaline Surf Park.

Mention Wayfarer and someone will immediately say, “Everything’s usually gone by 11am!” And they’re right. Wealthy nanas, board shorts-wearing teenagers, and French Bulldog puppies all line up early at this tiny bakery run by the former head of the bread department at San Francisco’s Tartine. Skip the crowd by placing an online order for kouign-amanns with golden, caramelized exteriors, buttery almond, chocolate, and strawberry pistachio croissants, and seasonal treats like tomato and white cheddar tiles. Even if you don’t plan ahead and have to join the queue spilling out onto the sidewalk, you’ll probably reach the cashier within 30 minutes.

One of the best outdoor terraces in La Jolla is on the third floor of a shopping center. It's at Cantania, an Italian restaurant with a powerhouse wood-fired oven (named Beatrice) turning out blistered, thin-crust pizzas. Order the Sicilian Pistachio with bubbling burrata, salty mortadella, and dollops of pesto. In terms of starters, they're known for their meatballs, but the crispy octopus charred in that same oven, served with merguez and briny capers, is a better choice. Enjoy the ocean breeze, and count the palm trees on the horizon in between bites of their creamy duck sugo orrechiette.

Grab an outdoor seat at this elegant La Jolla institution and soak in the stellar views—the patio is perched high enough to study the nooks and crannies of Torrey Pines Golf Course and a sliver of the Pacific Ocean. The food could be terrible and we’d still come here for the atmosphere, but the menu is simple, good, and a little bit luxurious. It rotates often, but expect dishes like chicken on a bed of vibrant cavolo nero (that’s fancy talk for Tuscan kale) and spaghetti with chanterelle and black trumpet mushrooms mixed in.

The perfect beach day consists of sun, proper UV protection, and a charcuterie tray from Small Goods. They have limited seating anyway, so stock up on food, head down the block and over to the water. Their beach box includes meats and cheeses for two, along with other snacks like dried fruit, nuts, and mini baguette slices. This spot is technically a cheese shop, but they’ve racked up a handful of “best sandwich” awards, too. Our favorite is the Golden Gate Phoney Baloney, a tasty combination of fatty mortadella with sharp red onion and a mellow finish of apple butter worthy of any sandwich trophy.

There are tacos on just about every corner in San Diego, but Puesto stands out because of its costra. They add a thin, pan-crisped round of Oaxacan cheese to their tacos, which wraps around the fillings and gives a bit of gooey structure to each bite. Think of it like a blanket, swaddling crispy battered shrimp tossed in sticky sweet tamarind-chile sauce or mushrooms dressed up with stone fruit serrano salsa. This is a fun place for a night-out-on-the-town dinner, so kick the evening off with their classic margarita or a dark Mexican-style lager.

San Diego’s best smashburger lies hidden in the back of a bougie grocery store that sells a pack of grain-free tortillas for $20. Valley Farm Market’s kitchen counter grills up two wagyu beef patties and tops them with gooey melted cheese and caramelized onions. It all gets pressed together between pillowy King’s Hawaiian buns, which sop up some of the juices that’ll drip down your elbow like a ripe summer peach. With a side of crispy fries included in the $16 price, it’s one of the best deals in the neighborhood.

At Public House, you can get your name on their wall of fame by drinking 80 beers in 80 days. You can go ahead and make that commitment, but we’re just fine coming here for an IPA and the chicken fingers with a perfect crispy beer batter-to-meat ratio. This is also a great place to watch sports—just arrive early to snag some seats, since Public House doesn’t take reservations. Unsurprisingly, there’s no trophy for successfully juggling a flight of beer in this mostly-outdoors bar.

This beach-adjacent Victorian house-turned-restaurant is a beloved neighborhood breakfast spot. Expect things like boozy strawberry compote stuffed inside french toast, or antojito benedict served with chili braised beef on housemade sopes instead of an english muffin and jalapeño crema swapped in for hollandaise. You’ll find us and all the other Cottage devotees milling around the sidewalk on a weekend morning, coffee from Brick and Bell in hand, waiting for our name to be called.

Duke’s has one of the better patios for watching the neighborhood seals sunbathe on the cove’s sandstone cliffs. Take in the stunning views, and order at least two rounds of the crispy coconut shrimp for the table (along with crab cakes plopped into a lemon remoulade if the dinner service has started). The best way to end a meal here is with the generous slab of macadamia nut ice cream, perched on a chocolate cookie crust, and covered with the holy trinity of whipped cream, chocolate fudge, and toasted macadamia nuts.

Cove House is one of those casual spots that feels straight out of a beach vacation movie. Swing by for brunch and ask for an outdoor picnic table under the yellow-and-white striped umbrellas. The move is to go for something like their BLT upgraded with baja stone crab and creamy avocado spread, which goes down nice alongside a vodka-spiked strawberry lemonade. After the meal, it’s just a short walk over to Scripps Park.