15 Best Restaurants in San Diego, California

For Paris-perfect cakes and tarts embellished California-style with fresh flowers, head to this sleek, serene branch of Karen Krasne’s pastry shop and café. The space with soaring ceilings hosts breakfasts, lunches, and light dinners, accompanied by a wide selection of teas, coffee, organic wines, and craft beers. For those who don’t want to start with dessert, there are sandwiches, soups, salads, and artisanal cheeses, plus a kids' menu of grilled cheese or free-range turkey served on local bread. When it’s time to satisfy your sweet tooth, try a slice of passion fruit ricotta cake, a mini-banana cream pie, or helping of croissant bread pudding. The original shop near Balboa Park, at 2870 4th Avenue, serves only desserts, coffees, and teas.

This café lives up to its name, which explains why there's often a line, despite the ample seating. Paris-trained Karen Krasne turns out award-winning cakes, tortes, and pastries of exceptional beauty, while the Japanese-theme patio invites you to linger over yet another coffee drink.

The desserts are magnificent at this small, charming shop in operation for nearly 50 years, where dessertier Michele Coulon confects wonders, using organic produce and imported chocolate. Snack on cookies, cupcakes, brownies, chocolate-dipped strawberries, and mini-desserts. But this is not just a place for dessert: lunch is served Tuesday through Saturday (the store is open 9 am to 3 pm), and the simple menu includes quiche and salads. Other irresistible treats found here are a chocolate-lovers’ Torte Lion Belge, pear-frangipane tart, and Marjolaine Torte with layers of meringue, chocolate ganache, and buttercream.

The doughnuts at Nomad are big, fluffy, colorful, and would make Homer Simpson drool. Its rotating menu of internationally inspired doughnut flavors is made with natural ingredients, like real fruit, and almost all of them have a vegan counterpart as well. Just make sure to show up early—doughnuts this good don't stick around for long.

San Diego’s love affair with artisanal bread began when Charles Kaufman, a former New Yorker and a filmmaker, opened this artsy urban bakery and café two decades ago. Ovens imported from France produce irresistible aromas as you choose among classic baguettes and focaccia, delicious assorted pastries and Vienoisserie, and a wide selection of breakfast and lunch specialties.

Be prepared for lines and limited parking at peak hours.

The exterior of Communal Coffee reads "Coffee + Flowers," and though that's not the name of the café, it's also not inaccurate—you actually can pick up a bouquet while you're there. But while there's plenty to keep patrons occupied—including a curated selection of housewares, books, and chocolates—the main attraction is still the fresh-brewed coffee and flaky, buttery pastries.

The scent of fresh-baked bread whets the appetite of customers at this Liberty Station bakery and café seeking rustic scones or raisin brioche cinnamon rolls for breakfast, or one of the hearty lunch sandwiches like almost-grilled cheese with melted Brie and Gorgonzola on warm rosemary--olive oil bread. All can be enjoyed inside or on the sunny patio with hot or cold drinks including the house-made lemonade. The bakery turns out 21 different loaves; among them are the popular Pt. Loma sourdough, Gruyère and chive, and the Pane Cioccolata with Belgium and Swiss chocolate (only available weekends). Box lunches with a sandwich, chips, and cookie, perfect for picnics or other outings, are $14 to $19 each.

A youthful crowd gathers here for authentic Italian ice cream, espresso, and a second-floor view of the Downtown skyline. The place is usually occupied by regulars who stay for hours at a time.

Housed alongside boutique retailers in The Space, a warehouse-like shopping center, James Coffee Co. and its aromas of fresh-brewed house roasts might very well prove too enticing for nearby shoppers to pass up. Take a seat while waiting for a cup of flavorful pour-over coffee, frothy espresso, or a variety of teas, and savor a morning bun or a flaky, buttery croissant. Or if you're on the go, they offer a seasonal rotation of different bagged roasts for you to take with you.

One of the few San Diego coffee shops that's open 24 hours a day, this Normal Heights mainstay also has a great selection of baked goods and a neighboring music venue that stages acoustic and comedy acts seven days a week. Lestat's also has locations in University Heights and Hillcrest.

La Jolla's outpost of this local coffee chain is open until 11 pm and sports a full bar, which means that customers can spend a pleasant evening sipping a true-blue Irish coffee complete with whiskey at one of the many tables or couches. On those foggy marine-layer days, request one of their homemade soups and watch the waves roll in from the second floor. 

For a deliciously sweet pick-me-up, check out the rich ice cream, frozen yogurt, and sorbet made fresh daily on the premises. Dessert nachos made from waffle-cone chips are an unusual addition to an extensive sundae menu. Just look for the statue of Elvis on the sidewalk in front.

A popular meeting place for casual connections and grab-and-go goodness, this café–bar–market is a great place to start your day with an energy boost like avocado egg cups on toasted sourdough or smoked salmon toast with jalapeño and micro greens. Later in the day, place your order at the counter for “not an ordinary sandwich” like the prosciutto with stracciatella and pesto, afternoon nibbles like smoothies and charcuterie boards, or cocktails and wines by the glass. If you’ve ever grabbed a bite at a café and wished you could replicate it at home with signature ingredients, the market portion of this space will make you very happy.

Decked out in dinosaurs and featuring a mosaic dragon on the wall, The Invigatorium is as much a showcase for tasteful whimsy as it is for tasty treats. A partnership between brewery/coffee roaster Modern Times and local restaurateurs Consortium Holdings, the East Village spot is essentially two small eateries in one: the eponymous coffee and breakfast bite purveyors as well as its sibling bar, J & Tony's, which serves up Italian cold-cut sandwiches and classic cocktails while vintage vinyl spins on the hi-fi. Show up early enough to ensure you walk out with a breakfast taco—they go fast. Or come after sundown for a meat and cheese board and a round of negronis.