For San Diego...
Lunch Friday was the aforementioned Pizza Port Carlsbad. We regularly go to the northmost one in San Clemente (the southernmost town in Orange County). We were going to try to hit a Mexican joint in Old Town (I'll discuss later) but traffic sucked so that would have been too late for lunch. Pizza Port is always a winner. Great beer, great pizza.
Dinner Friday was
Barbusa, in Little Italy. Holy smokes this place was awesome... It wasn't even fancy. We got a burrata caprese to start, my wife had gnocchi with a pistacio pesto cream sauce, and I had the rigatone with sausage (which oddly enough isn't listed on their online menu). It was, to be frank, one of the best restaurant meals I've had in a long time. So simple, but so amazingly good.
@847badgerfan they call themselves modern Sicilian cuisine... If this is what Sicilian is like, I need more of it in my life...
We headed over to Coronado Island Saturday, and had lunch at
Coronado Brewing Co. Overall pretty good... Had a big Bavarian-style pretzel and then we each had burgers. The burgers were good, although I had the one with serrano peppers and it was on the edge of too spicy for me--and I'm usually pretty heat-tolerant.
Saturday dinner we went to Brigantine Seafood & Oyster Bar
Brigantine Seafood & Oyster Bar. Delicious, but seemed underwhelming after Barbusa lol. Started with baked oysters, and we each had a salad... My wife had the coconut shrimp appetizer as her entree, and I had the crab-stuffed tiger prawns wrapped in bacon. Overall pretty good, but not "wow" good.
And then Sunday on our way out of town, we stopped at
Cafe Coyote in Old Town. We were on the road early enough that we ordered breakfast. She had the sunrise quesadilla while I had the chorizo breakfast burrito. Again, really solid. This is my wife's favorite place in Old Town, so we usually try to stop on our way into, or way out of, town.
We also hit
a wine bar before dinner Friday which we'd been to once... But it was a total snooze fest, honestly. And
a brewery before dinner Saturday that was pretty solid. But given that these were pre-dinner stops, no food was consumed.