The Pantry has always been a go to for our family. Great burgers, good salads, eclectic wine list, great patio and nice people.

Disturbing dinner last night. Staff gone, choppy service, inexperienced servers, food not up to par. I guess we owe the new owner some time to smooth things out, but last night was not encouraging.

The RB Inn is still owned by the Colachis family. The new chef is Nick Boer, who is a real talent. The restaurant is going to be remodeled early next year. My most recent meal was on a par with Gavin Kaysen's food.

The Inn's owners have a long tradition of hiring great culinarians, boing back to the 70's. Don't coin t El Biz out!

There are a number of hotels that have great outdoor dining venues. The Veranda at Rancho Bernardo Inn, 1540 at L'auberge Del Mar, Torrey Pines Inn, plus I like sitting outside at Blue Ribbon Pizza

I have done big tasting menus all over the world....Charlie Trotters, Taillevent, French Laundry etc. I am not a big fan...especially with wines attached. A five course tasting menu is plent for me.

Had an incredible dinner at El Biz...every bit as good as when Gavin Kaysen was there. The five course tasting menu was plenty, and a good value ($95). The presentations were completely "deconstructed"...which was a contrast to the staid ambiance of the dining room.

Normally I would include more details on the food, but it has been a week, and the food presented on the plate would be hard to describe under the best of circumstances. Easily one of the best meals I have eaten in San Diego, dating back 25 years.

Perhaps someone who dines there should take some pictures, words don't do the flavors and presentation justice.

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El Bizcocho
17550 Bernardo Oaks Dr, San Diego, CA 92128

Rojas had interesting food, and yes their business is way down,but don't write off the El Bizcocho. The RB Inn's ownership has a long history of hiring excellent chefs: Andre Mena, Christian Gaborit, Jacques Cornelis, Patrick Ponsetay, Gavin Kaysen etc. Rojas was a mistake. They will be back.

I am late to this board but I wanted to put in my two cents:

95% of restaurant patrons (including foodies) dine locally. With the .08 drunk driving laws and our busy freeways, there are considerable barriers for any restaurant to overcome.

Tapenade, Cavaillon and El Bizcocho get almost all of their local patrons from their own backyard Advertising does not work for high end restaurants. Hiring a PR firm doesn't work like it did ten years ago. Having a great website (Like Jayne's Gastropub) helps to create a community of loyal patrons, but it is still local.

By the way, don't dismiss the El Biz due to Stephen Rojas or Gavin Kaysen leaving. That restaurant has had a long history of hiring great culinarians. I had a great dinner out there last week. They have an executive chef who used to be at La Valencia, and he is holding the fort down nicely

My daughter plays for Surf. It's funny how most parents are when travelling to out of town tournaments and you don't get to eat where you want to (must keep the team together!). If I have to eat at Bucco de Beppo (you can always find one in upscale suburbs where most girl's soccer is played) I am going to kill myself!

I have used this site for many soccer tournaments. We got rained out at WAGS one year and ended up on our own eating many wonderful meals.

Assuming that you are eating with the team for all meals (except the one with your son) and you are on a budget, I would suggest the following:

In & Out Burger: A california icon a couple of exits south of the UCSD campus

Roberto's: Great take out mexican a couple of miles north on the southern edge of Del Mar

Pat & Oscars is a good choice for a team dinner

The food court at the UTC mall. Many choices and kids love a mall on a soccer trip

Asian Food: check out the threads on this site for dining in Clairemont Mesa..there are many fine choices: China Max is located close of of the 56 freeway and 15 minutes from UCSD

The strip mall on Torrey Pines Road in La Jolla: Rimels (good seafood and grilled chicken), Porkyland (great mexican) and a great little neighborhood joint: Come on In, which is very nice for breakfast.

For Mom & son: Tapenade (french) Roppongi (fusion) or Nine- Ten in the Colonial Hotel

Best of luck in the tournament, Hope many college coaches are there to watch!

I eat at Jake's a couple of times a year. It isn't Tapenade, but I find the food and service very solid. The great view tends to minimize the sensory experience with the food and wine. I find the same thing to be true of many restaurants with spetacular views.

The core experience of San Diego's best restaurants are on the plate. The ambiance in these restaurants are typically tastefully decorated but neutral in decor.

Might make a good topic in a separte thread

Gavin is still at El Biz for a couple of more weeks. Better go while you can.

I expect that the folks who run the hotel to come up with someone who can perform at a high level (likely without Gavin's personality). They have been hiring great culinarians since the mid seventies

Old Trieste might be the last of the old-line restaurants left in San Diego (remember Lubach's?). Old Trieste is still a pretty good call when you are out on a Saturday and don't have a reservation somewhere. Their liver and onions are outstanding...the last time I was there, half the orders were liver and onions and all of the cars out front were cadillacs and lincoln continentals. The clientele averages 70+.

Thanks to all for the suggestions. We ended up at King's Fish House in Mission Valley. It was a safe choice, but a good one. The restaurant is owned by Santa Monica Seafood, and the fish is always perfect.

Living in the North County, I am unfamiliar with the restaurant scene near S.D State. Looking for something chowish, with friends flying in that day for the Wilco concert. Thanks in advance for any help.

Here is my North County list for overrated:

Sbicca: (I just don't get it)
Paradise Grille: No redeeming qualities
Pamplemousse (the entrees are ok, but add a starter and dessert, it is way overpriced and I always feel a little queasy afterward).
Fidel's (as bad as Old Town Mex). Don Chuy and Tony's are far superior.
Papachino's (does anyone local ever go there?) How do they stay in business?
Pacific Coast Grill (kind of like a Cohn restaurant concept)
Parioli (going down hill for years)

The chef at El Bizcocho was named on of America's top new chefs in Food and Wine magazine, and is the first ever named in San Diego while cooking here (per the S.D Union. Here is the blurb in Food & Wine:

Gavin Kaysen, El Bizcocho (San Diego, CA)
After graduating from the New England Culinary Institute in Montpelier, Vermont, Gavin Kaysen, 27, traveled to Switzerland to work under chef Jacky Vuillet at Auberge de Lavaux and then to London to work at the Michelin-starred L'Escargot with Marco Pierre White. In 2002, he returned to the United States and began working at El Bizcocho at the Rancho Bernardo Inn and within two years was named chef de cuisine. Kaysen’s menu is French-inspired and fanatically seasonal.

El Bizcocho is a bit stuffy, but if you are looking for interesting food, it is the best choice in San Diego.

Up in the North County, Chief's in Solana Beach is very good. For a quick burger fix at home, we like Bubba Burgers (yeah, they are frozen) which you can buy at any grocery store. Get a great bun and you can pile everything on them. Once you try them, you might never bbq a burger at home again.

Instead of the neighborhood potluck christmas party, we went down to Paradise Grille. I had not been there for 6 months, as we had given up on the place. Pretty restaurant, nice concept, but uninspired food.

We spend $110 per person (sounds hard to do, but we drank some pretty good wine) and the wine was the only thing decent about the place. Jerk chicken was dry, the steaks were overcooked, the salads were run of the mill, just totally mediocre.

I hate to say it, but for the price, I would rather go to Papa chino's, the other mediocre eatery in the mall. Paradise Grille is just missing the mark, although they seem to be busy enough.

I won't be back until there is a change of chef or ownership.

I have always found Bernard's to be wildly inconsistent. The new chef at Bernardo's is talented, but has bounced around town with a number of different restaurants. He should really help the food there.

French Market Grille is always on the money, and is one of the best neighborhood restaurants in the County.

Maitre D has been around for twenty years. I am unsure if they are still open on a regular basis. The venue is great for private parties. The restaurant used to be run by Louis Zelejack and his partner. Louis was the Maitre'd at the El Bizcocho at Rancho Bernardo Inn and also at Arnauds in New Orleans. He was a great old school hospitality guy. I am unsure if he is still running the place, as he has to be in his late 70's by now. The food (this is going back 15 years) is old school continental.

"Los Dos" is a very popular Taco stand across from the grocery store.

For all the dough in La Jolla, most of the restaurantrs in the Village are supported by visitors.

Birdrock restaurants just aren't supported by locals. The old "Ocean Fresh" site (which burned down) was the site of at least five restaurants (BBQ, fish, japanese, california cuisine). In the end, none of the failed restaurants in Birdrock were any good, save for Cindy Black's.

Pernicano's (aka the "Pizza Boat") is known for the gondola in the middle of the dining room that kids play in. The pizza is awful, but tolerable when you have a bunch of kids hungry after a soccer game.

We live nearby, and dropped into Blackhorse a month ago, expecting to order our usual hamburger and bottle of zin. The restaurant has been taken over by the chef at Arterra (the name escapes me).

The menu has been completely retooled. We had a wonderful tomato soup (broth based) with Chino's vegtables and very good short ribs. Of course, our dinner was $140 instead of $80.

My hope is that the final product for Market Restaurant will end up being a nieghborhood place with high quality and value, rather than another pricey alternative to Pamplemousse, Mille Fleur and Blanca.

Donavon's does a nice job, but let's face it, the ambiance at all of the high end steak houses are pretty boring. Consider Red Tracton's on Via de la Valle: Totally old school, great steaks, green goddess dressing (I miss the 70's) and some very interesting dining patrons. The last time I was there the piano man was playing a musak version of "Doctor in my eyes".

The best lobster eating experience is the lobster with snow peas and a vanilla sauce at Tapenade in La Jolla.

Savory was great when it first opened. Then it became impossible to get a reservation. Demand allowed them to raise their prices. Three years ago there was no quality "bistro priced" restaurants in the North County. Now we have Cavaillon, Bastide and Blackhorse Grille. I have no quarrel with the food at Savory, but they have raised their prices 30-50% with no change in the quality of their food.

The Sky Room at the La Valencia is a great old school spot, which would be especially good for your older guests. Traditional formal service in a room that seats about 30 diners.

It's located on the top floor of the hotel. The food is credible, and the ambiance is wonderful.

I attended a wedding at the Admiral Kidd Club a couple of weeks ago. I have lived in San Diego for 30 years and had never been there. It is a nice venue. The wedding was fairly upscale. The apps were run of the mill, and were right out of the Cisco truck. The entree was chicken, and it was memorable: a mystery sauce and an incredible amount of salt. One of the worst things I have eaten in the past decade. Really awful!

That said, you could probably make it work if you had something like prime rib.

Hope this helps.

This is a North County list:

Cavillon
El Bizcocho
Samurai
Chiefs (great Burgers)
Tony's Jacal
Roberto's
Pizza Nova (better than Sammy's, same concept)
Savory
Trattoria Positano
China Max (worth the drive to Clairmont)
Bongiorno's Pizza
King's Seafood (superior to the Fish Market)
Taste of Thai

We are sorely lacking a decent deli and interesting Chinese food in the North County.

Amen. El Bizcocho and Tapenade are the two best French restaurants in San Deigo. The two best bistros are Cavillon (the former sous-chef at Tapenade) and Patick Ponsetay's Bastide in Scripps Ranch (the former chef de cuisine at El Bizcocho).

Gavin Kaysen (the el biz chef) is representing the United States in the Bocuse d'or competition in France later in the year.

The Marine Room and Mille Fluer are very good, if somewhat overpriced French restaurants.

Don Chuey's food and ambiance reminds me of the mexican restaurants in Phoenix and Tucson.

The best thing about Red Tracton is the lounge pianist. Last time I was in he was singing a musak version of "Doctor in my Eyes"....classic. Red Tracton's might also be the only restaurant still serving green goddess dressing. The place still seems to attract a few "wise guy" types from the track with some pretty interesting fashion choices on the women.

Their steaks are on par with the best in San Diego.