Il Postino has an excellent and huge wine list. Go elsewhere for food. El Take It Easy has a well curated wine list.

Grant Grill would be my pick - they're well equipped to get people out in time for the 7 PM curtain and have excellent cocktails. Murder in the Cathedral is excellent. Enjoy.

One time my wife (who is vegetarian) asked "do you use lard in your beans?"

Their response, was a classic: "as much as you'd like."

I'd cut out Extraordinary Desserts. They look amazing but I find the desserts aren't that tasty. Save the calories and have another local beer or a fish taco. Heck, it's vacation. Have both.

Mama Testa's would be a good stop for dinner after the zoo and kid friendly. As would Blind Lady Ale House or Bruno's Pizza. Pt. Loma Seafood would be nice after SeaWorld kid friendly and the patio up top is a nice view. Usually a seal in the water as well which makes for entertaining diversion.

- The downtown (Gaslamp)

Neighborhood, Craft and Commerce, Cowboy Star

- Coronado

Burger Lounge

- Seaport Village

Sushi bar at the Fish Market

- La Jolla

El Pescador, Whisk and Ladle

- Mission Beach

???

- Balboa park

Bruno's, Mama Testa, Marsicos German Truck

Yes, plan on renting a car if you want to get around.

Safe travels!

I'd suggest hitting up some of the places in North Park. Carnitas Snack Shack, El Take It Easy, Urban Solace, Smoking Goat, Alcemy (technically South Park) and then head back to El Take It Easy of 7 Grand for cocktails.

Lafayette Hotel would be a central place to stay.

Cabs are found easily enough but the cost adds up fast.

What are some of the things you plan on doing here in San Diego? I'm sure we can direct you to some great places to eat that fit into your vacation plans.

And your English is better than my French, so no need to apologize.

Burger Lounge, or further down the road, Blind Lady Ale House would be my two picks. Bar at Kensington Grill would also be a good consideration.

Windmill Farms in the College Area/Del Cerro has them in the standalone freezer across from the (awesome) beer fridge.

The Museum of Contemporary Art (downtown - bit of a walk from the Convention Center) often has a "Loading Dock Lunches" with a single food truck. Check their website.

The parking lot at 4th and B (about a 15 minute walk) has a single food truck most days.

And that's all I know of.

Fresh and Easy in North Park now carries POG in the juice section in the big milk carton like containers.

New pizza joint "coming soon" to the corner unit in South Park across the street from Alchemy and next to the tea place. I think this used to be a coffee roaster, IIRC.

Name is up on the banner but wife drove by rather quick so I did not catch it.

8:30 on a Wednesday should be fine. We usually eat there around 7 PM midweek and have never had a wait. Friday/Saturday, are a different story...

+1 on Alpine Brewey. We often make the 30 minute drive from San Diego proper for growler fills and the Stone South Park store is a five minute walk from us...

Downtown for beers you'll want to try Downtown Johnny Browns (excellent taps, pretty meh bar food) or The Neighborhood (nice selection of taps and much better food), Avoid the Yardhouse at all costs.

Pretty cakes, but usually dry and bland.

+1 on Craft and Commerce, and a short walk from the hotel.

Burger Lounge has a location a few minutes from the Convention Center. Good grass fed burgers.

Chocolat is my mid-afternoon ritual when visitng the convention - decent gelato and an outdoor patio to watch the madness. They also have booze which helps...

Sunday (also maybe Saturday?) is a farmer's market on 3rd and J St. which has plenty of tasty food.

Bollilo Torta is very close. Tasty (but expensive for a torta.)

There's a Ralph's Supermarket up the street with a full service deli and salad bar.

Cost Plus World Market has snacks and cookies for nibble during the day.

Also search this board for "Comic Con: and also "Gaslamp" (also try "Gaslight") as these are very common topics.

Take two advil in the morning and wear the most comfortable shoes you can.

Lately been enjoying the pour over coffee at the Roast Coach located in front of SeaRocket in North Park. There Monday-Saturday, mornings until about noon-ish. Not Blue Bottle quality but some of the better coffee in town.

Uni pasta at Izakaya Sakura is one of my favorite local dishes,

I DON'T THINK IT GETS ANY LOUDER THAN- oh, sorry - at Wang's in North Park.

The Grant Grill bar is an excellent choice.

Currant is also nice for pre opera dining and usually validates parking.

Dobson's is also an option.

The opera's website also has a list of places to eat under the "Your Experience" header broken down by walking distance.

Have fun at Renee Fleming - actually listening to the rehearsal right now.

The parking lot at 4th and B (the venue) which is located on 3rd and B St.. hosts the MIHO truck on Fridays from 11:30 AM - 2:30 PM - this is a good truck and worth checking out.

Wednesday and Thursday usually hosts Pearson's (sp?) truck - quite tasty Southern fried fish and hush puppies but looking out at the lot from my office window I do not see them today.

And that's all we get downtown, I'm afraid.

Usually have a veggie special of the day that's very well executed and tasty. Sometimes I even chose it over sweet sweet pork.

Big fan of Lucy's. Not a big fan of Lucy's fish tacos - last time I ate one could swear it was a fish stick deep fried out of the box.

Closed weekends. And closed evenings.

Yeah, their hot sauce is perfect. Ask for the green they keep behind the counter. Might be better than the red even...

I'm still looking for a goof fish taco D-town. Usually just hop in the car and hit the Mariscos German truck in South Park or Benny's in Golden Hills.

The Fish Market has an excellent sushi bar - super fresh fish, excellent rice, nice cuts. Order off the chalkboard above the bar for some interesting fish. Mostly traditional rolls. Plus, it should be walking distance from you and on the water - nice views. The main establishment is pretty fair to average but the sushi bar and oyster bar are quite excellent.

Further afield Sushi Ota
Kaito (best in town but quite a drive)
Hane Sushi as already mentioned

The duck was still on the menu. As I was sharing plates with my SO who is pecatarian there were a few items we had to pass on - this was one of them. Came highly recommended by the bartender however.

The house manhattan was sweet - but a perfect liquid dessert and I'm glad I ordered it after my meal.

As for price - we found it reasonable. Dinner with four glasses of wine and cocktail came to $130 pre-tip. It's hard to compare as there are very places of this caliber in San Diego so for me dinner was a bargain. My SO, who is very price sensitive (she puts me on a food budget when we visit), didn't balk at the price. Agreed it was very good and asked when we would be coming back.

San Diego Chowhounder reporting in.

Had a great dinner tonight - on a whim - our hotel is 20 yards away and we were feeling lazy.

Lucky us!

We had great service at the bar over a nice leisurely dinner.

Shared the charred avocado with squid, grapefruit with turnip purée; the toasted barley with crab (was told going off the menu tomorrow); and the cauliflower in different textures. Later, we split the Cobia with spinach and salsify w/ black garlic.

Everything was excellent and I would order all of them again - my favorite being the charred avocado with squid - loved the textures, and the bright favors. SO loved the barley crab dish - similar to risotto and very warming. The cauliflower reminded me of a dessert I had at Ubuntu last year - a study in carrots - and it really could've been a dessert - sweetened with raisins it had what seemed to be a cauliflower mousse, braised cauliflower, roasted cauliflower and raw romanesco. Incredibly fun and tasty.

Corbia was a perfectly cooked piece of fish, meaty with nicely braised salsify on a bed of puréed spinach.

We ended with the thyme blancmange and huckleberries - totally fun plating that was a play on caviar and eggs - three small rounds of blancmange, like hardboiled eggs, with mounds of individual huckleberry seeds in the center - like caviar. We were impressed that someone in the kitchen was tasked with separating each seed. The dish was finished with toffee hazelnuts, brown butter ice-cream (amazing) and caramel.

Nice, reasonably priced wine list with lots of unusual wines to this Southern CA diner - we did glasses of a nice Spanish white. Ended dinner with the house Manhattan - great winter drink full of cinnamon, nutty pumpkin seeds and a hint of raisins.

Good looking spot. Word is a whisky lounge is moving in downstairs.

This was a very good meal - the attention to detail was impressive from front of house to the back. We lucked out by picking dinner based on proximity to our hotel. Next time up, where ever we stay, this will be one of our destinations.

Plus the whole cooking at the table together thing is kind of fun on a date as well. Good call, Josh.

Burger Lounge makes excellent burgers, for what it is worth however...

Quickest/easiest bet might be Lucha Libre which is pretty close to the airport. Not really a fan of LL but friends rave about them, usually after a night of drinking...

I'm sure others will know of food trucks/stands around town.