Restaurant suggestions in San Diego?

Not strictly a wine topic, but my wife and I will be in SD this coming weekend for three nights for a meeting, staying near the convention center. Won’t have a car but able to Uber/Lyft. Would love to have some excellent Italian, Mexican, and something else delicious. Nothing fussy, just great food. Appreciate any suggestions. Thank you!

Two I recommend:
The Lion’s Share
Water Grill (no corkage, as I recall)

Phil Jones

Juniper & Ivy
Bracero Cocina da Raiz

KILLER

Ironside Fish and Oyster is a newer place and I thought very good.

http://ironsidefishandoyster.com/

I went to Herb and Wood a couple of weeks ago and thought it was good/very good. We were rushed toward the end of the meal, but I think that was due to a large conference being in town.

Solare at Liberty Station. Tell them hello for me. Great pizza and southern Italian food and nice wine list and they’re super friendly. Chef from Sicily and wine director Petra is from somewhere in Italy. They grow their own herbs and source as locally and organically as they can. Best roast chicken I’ve ever had. We’ve become good friends.

Sbicca in Del Mar has no corkage on Sunday and it’s good.

Lion’s Share is nice but more of a bar-looking place - dark and simple. Food’s good though.

This

Also Crack Shack for casual fried Chicken, next to Juniper and Ivy, same owners.

Juniper and Ivy food and atmosphere very wine friendly, good stemware, exc service. Intelligent wine list and I would assume you can BYO but we didn’t.

Bracero was the best meal I have ever had in SD. I’d consider not going crazy with great BYO wine there and enjoy either some of their very well chosen less expensive wines, beer or cocktails, but I will go there every time I visit SD from now on.

In another thread, referenced above, there was some mention of the chef at Bracero having left citing creative differences…anyone know if this is true and/or whether this might affect things?

Maybe too late but Oscar’s octopus tacos are stuff of legend.

Jason

Trying Solare tonight, oh fo four trying to find good tasting food so far.

Let us know how it is, I keep hearing about it. I’ve been to Buena Forchetta and it’s good, not great.

That’s what I’d say about Solare, really good but not great.

Now the wine list and people there are great and I’d go back to try pasta or a second course but the pear/Gorgonzola pie I ate was just good.

Honestly, that seems to be the biggest issue around San Diego. Lots of average, some good to very good, very few (if any) great places. And I am not just talking about high end dining, but even street food stuff and hole in the wall type food (which I prefer frankly). I’ve had excellent ramen at Menya Ultra and great sushi at Ota, but French has been middling, Italian somewhat better (especially the Cucina Enoteca group of restaurants, and their wine lists are really interesting), and surprisingly good Thai at Bangkok Bay.

It’s very frustrating, especially coming from NYC where there’s a ton of easily accessible great food at great prices.