Such a special evening at ANIMAE…read more Led by Executive Chef and James Beard Award Finalist Tara Monsod, ANIMAE brings a personal, deeply cultural perspective to San Diego's fine-dining scene. One of the things I appreciate most about Chef Tara Monsod is how she stays true to the Filipino dishes and flavors so many of us grew up with, while still finding a way to elevate them beautifully. The Tuna Kinilaw, Crispy Pig Ear, Short Rib Kare Kare, and Pork Tomahawk Tocino were all standouts. Each dish still felt unmistakably Filipino, but Tara brought her own creativity through technique, texture, presentation, and refinement. The Short Rib Kare Kare felt familiar and comforting, but completely elevated. And the Pork Tomahawk Tocino was such a fun interpretation of a flavor so many Filipinos recognize instantly. Then came dessert. We tried the Sticky Rice Crème Brûlée, Chocolate Crémeux, Buko Pandan, and Matcha Mousse. I especially loved seeing Buko Pandan, another familiar Filipino favorite, presented in such a polished and creative way. And we absolutely LOVED our waitress, Joy! Her enthusiasm for the menu was contagious. She was genuinely passionate about recommending the different dishes and explaining them to us, which made the experience even more fun. And I have to give her extra credit because her Filipino pronunciations were on point! We noticed, Joy! That is what I love about Tara's food. She respects where these dishes come from and keeps the heart and soul of the flavors intact, while still making them feel fresh, sophisticated, and completely her own. And what made the evening even more special was Tara taking the time to come visit with us after coming over from her other restaurant, Le Coq. She was gracious enough to stop by our table and spend some time visiting with us. Such a thoughtful gesture and such a wonderful way to end an already memorable evening. Amazing food, incredible service, beautiful surroundings, wonderful company, and a chef helping Filipino cuisine shine in such a beautiful way. Definitely a night to remember.

The lighting was okay, not as inspired as it could be but it will do. Just to give context, I am a…read morelighting designer so I am more focused than others in this area. The velvet booth/seats were comfy! The staff was super friendly and knowledgeable. The cold start tuna kinilaw (coconut, calamansi, cilantro oil, tiny copped cucumber) is one of the most delicious bites I have EVER had! Some say that it's overpriced. It was a fair price for such fresh tasty tuna et al. The wagyu fat washed bourbon, koji, bitters old fashioned was extraordinary! I look forward to next time!

Nice to have a solid Peruvian spot in San Diego. The ambiance has a Latin vibe to it with all the…read morefoliage and decor. The presentation of the dishes were excellent. The dishes we had are not quite as they add a modern twist. The vegetarian soltado protein were "steak strips" versus just veggies/tofu/mushroom. It ate more hearty without a loss of flavor. We also ordered arroz chaufas de pato (Duck fried rice). The flavor was spot on but the duck was a tad dry. We did have Yucca Fritas and that was good. The spicy Aji had a long lasting kick and a smoky flavor. We definitely recommend this location for the food and experience!

Come here on a Sunday with my friend for lunch. It has such chill vibe to it, beat away the heat of…read morethe day. I really enjoy it here. My friend ordered a beef saltado and i ordered a saltado vegetarian, both dishes are amazing, more than we expected. The services are good too, our server was excellent and very helpful. I would love to come again!

My second time at Choi's was not as memorable as the first, but still one of my favorite…read morerestaurants in the entire Southern California region. Not sure who was the chef today but the food in general needed a pinch of salt. Food Birria tacos - A bit underseasoned and dry but some bites were so good. 4.4/5 Dolmas - Very punchy app that is a good one to try. I've never quite had something like this before. 4.5/5 Mexican corn - This was a bit underseasoned too but after adding some salt it was the best corn dish I've ever had. Balanced poblano flavor with creamy notes. 4.7/5 KFC - An absolutely incredible dish... but... a tiny bit underseasoned. 4.8/5 Octopus taco - I only had a bite of this but holy fuuuu this was the best bite of the night. 4.9/5 Peachy lemonade mocktail - An excellent elevated drink for happy hour. 4.7/5

I'm not too sure what happened to this place, but unfortunately it went down hill. Maybe a new chef…read moreand new management? We came back and ordered the crispy chicken again since we enjoyed it last time and also the birria sandwich which was new. The chicken tasted nothing like before and the flavors were all wrong. The birria sandwich was completely inedible- not sure who decided to slap a little bit of meat into this stale burger bun with old smelling cheese and call it a sandwich, but we could not eat it. We had to send back our food and leave unfortunately. Our server was nice about it and let us leave but really sad about this place. Seems like they might've gotten their alcohol license removed as well, so no more alcoholic drinks here either. Overall would definitely not recommend this place. There was a reason there was no one there on a Friday evening for dinner.

I came here to celebrate my birthday, and it was such a great choice! I absolutely loved the Asian…read morePinoy fusion--every dish was flavorful, creative, and beautifully prepared. You can really tell they put thought into combining traditional Filipino flavors with modern Asian influences. The atmosphere made the celebration even more enjoyable, and the overall experience exceeded my expectations. If you're looking for something unique and delicious, I highly recommend giving this place a try. I'll definitely be back!

My family stopped in today for a late lunch (around 2:30 pm) so the place was empty except for us…read more The lady at the counter took our order promptly and she later brought out our food. Water was self service but she did make sure to check in on us a few times. The establishment had a decent amount of seating/tables. They were the tall ones. I had the pork belly rice bowl whereas my husband and kids got the waygu burger, adobo bowl and chicken karage bowl. The waygu burger was done perfectly - juicy with a pretzel bun. The pork belly and chicken karage were tasty as well though I feel like the rice could have been a better texture/consistency. My son was just ok with his adobo bowl - he wasn't super fond of the consistency of the egg on top. Overall though, very solid spot to order food from.

Alyssa was a fantastic service and made our group of 7 feel very welcome! Thank you for having us!read more

Best resturant I've been to in so long! Service was splendid & the ambiance was top tier. Our…read moreserver James was so wonderful and made sure that we were very well taken care of!

Steamy Piggy is a great restaurant and their service was wonderful, the food was also great…read moreespecially the soup dumplings and kawaii buns, our waitresses Katherine was really kind and friendly when taking our orders, and the atmosphere of the restaurant was so nice it felt like you were getting served in a garden.

Our server was very good and attentive. The food came out…read morequick. The ambiance of the seating look great. We got the salt and pepper wings, red braised pork belly and beef chow fun. Red braised pork belly was good, just a bit too salty. Beef chow fun was good. Last is the salt and pepper wings. I felt like things were over cooked. I'm not sure if it's because we ordered at 8pm and they were cooking them fast to close the kitchen? We'd come here again to see if the timing of the day would change the food situation.

First time eating at this spot on cable street, and happy I was able to find parking as it seems it…read moremay be a bit tough on weekends/busy nights. 10/10 spicy garlic wings for me!!! I asked for the most spice possible and my server brought a side of the sauce, and it's indeed spicy in the perfect way :) the sauce is a bit cooked into the skin, so it's not a "saucy" wing, but I personally love that & it was cooked perfectly! The margarita fell a bit short but I didn't mind, the wings and dive-vibe this place gave me enough joy :)

I haven't been here in a very long time. Almost a decade. So, I was excited to bring the hubby…read more Parking was horrendous. We went on a Thursday night and there was absolutely no parking. After circling several times, we finally found a spot about two blocks away. Once we arrived, we were immediately seated. Our server brought over waters and the menus, and I was a little overwhelmed by all the options but that's not necessarily a bad thing. We decided on the pan-seared crispy noodles with beef and egg rolls. I also ordered a Spritz to accompany my meal. I wasn't a big fan of the crispy noodles, but my husband loved them. The flavor itself was really good but there was something about the texture of the crispy noodle that wasn't my jam. The egg rolls, though, were fantastic. They were perfectly crunchy and flavorful. There are so many other dishes on the menu that caught my eye, so I will definitely come back to try some of their other options.

I am so happy I was able to make last minute reservations to Kingfisher for right when they open at…read more5pm on a Saturday! They only had a table for 5 but we ended up having 6 people in our party. They were so kind to be able to accommodate the additional person! They had personalized menus that greeted my party and it wished my friends a happy birthday!! They actually got to take the menus home! This was really a nice touch, I appreciated the details. We family-styled everything which is honestly the way to go so everybody can try a little of everything! It was majority of our party's first time dining there. We started off with some drinks, I got the Non-alcoholic Guava Mocktail and I got to try what was the equivalent to an espresso martini too. Definitely liked the guava drink better because it tasted like guava nectar juice (kind of like Kerns or Jumex). The Expresso Martini had fresh mint in it and it tasted earthy which wasn't my cup of tea. For food we started off with the Heirloom Tomato Salad which was DELICIOUS!! I don't know what they put in the Vietnamese Green Goddess (probably fish sauce since all the dishes basically had this) but it was magnificent and one of my favorite dishes of the night. Then the Scallops and the Black Cod came out. The Scallops came in a set of 3 and we cut them in half so we could all have a taste. The sauce on this was DIVINE!!! It was citrusy but still really flavorful bursting with umami. I'm literally starting to drool reminiscing about it xD We wanted to keep it to use on other dishes because it was so good. The Black Cod was also delicious. It had fried skin attached and a sesame soy glaze. Next up came the Beef Tartare and the Wagyu Steak. The Beef Tartare was probably the least flavorful out of everything we ordered, but it was still well seasoned. My friend said it was really spicy but it might have just been her bite because I didn't think it was spicy at all. I like that the give you the option of leafy greens or shrimp chips to eat it with. The Wagyu though, was an all-star dish. It was the crowd favorite for sure, we all enjoyed not only the steak but the picked baby eggplants that come with it, and the sauce was phenomenal!! Lastly came the Dry Aged Duck which is what they're known for. It was definitely the biggest fish out of all. You were able to eat the duck with two different sauces, one they called a "Fish Sauce Chimichurri" and "Vietnamese XO sauce" which is more so satay. My friends liked the XO sauce but I liked the Chimichurri better. They had actually forgotten about the side of Buttered Rice but I was told it was incredibly flavorful on its own so we still asked for it. It had more than just butter in it, there was dried shrimp and sesame seeds, and it was made with coconut milk or something because it had a sweet but savory taste to it. I saved some of my duck and Wagyu to eat with it which was actually pretty good. Overall I liked that they brought out the dishes from lightest to heaviest and especially after they brought out out 2 sides of Buttered Rice we were all satisfied and full. It was the perfect amount of food. Honestly EVERY dish was different but amazingly dank and I think it's the fish sauce in everything. They were also sweet and kept the cake we brought in the fridge, placed the candles on it for us, and even after we sang they cut the cake for us!! 10/10 would recommend coming here for not only the food but the impeccable service!! Since we had a larger party there's an automatic 20% gratuity already added to the bill, which came out to be $555! (Look at that angel number!)

We came here during Restaurant Week which was probably our first mistake. For $75, it just wasn't…read moreenough food. Looking at pictures from other nights, most of our food was half the size or missing some major component. For example, the egg noodles had only a few very thin truffle shavings compared to what I saw online. They also lacked the real truffle flavor. The chocolate dessert was half of its normal size. Overall, everything is extremely overpriced and lacks flavor. The food was so bland across the board and it felt like we were being skimped out not on just the size but the flavor too. We eat a lot of Asian food and the taste wasn't even close to matching our expectations. All the workers were very friendly, but the food came out very slow. They also gave us a printed out menu for our anniversary with our last name on it which was spelled wrong. I don't care about that, just thought it was very funny. The restaurant was smaller than we expected, but we did enjoy the colors, the layout and the overall ambiance. Wouldn't go back!

Starting off ambiance is perfect, good overall feeling, they do what they can with the small space…read more Service is awesome, workers are friendly, welcoming, and considerate. Food is also really good, their chicken wings are nicely seasoned and flavorful. To future customers. ((Parking is limited & hard to find)) ((And please if waiting in line leave the sidewalk open for pedestrians))

I came here with a good friend to celebrate our birthdays. We sat on the patio & it was the first…read morecool night in weeks! Lovely! We ordered garlic string beans, lo mein, honey walnut shrimp & general tso's chicken. Food comes out in the order it is done which can be a little off kilter. In our case, the chicken and shrimp came out first, then the lo mein, and much later, the green beans. All of the food was just okay. Nothing was truly a show stopper. I did not taste any honey or walnuts in the shrimp, just a lot of mayonnaise. The lo mein was the best dish of the night. We took some leftovers home in the cute packaging. The branding here is definitely a strong suit. As we were sitting on the patio, there was a steady stream of customers ordering & picking up takeout. Service was fine. We sat for quite awhile once we were done, and we had to ask for to-go boxes. Then about ten minutes later, our server came by to run our cards. Verdict: FS is cute and bustling. The food is adequate but honestly pretty basic. The prices are quite reasonable. One restroom for the whole place. Paid street parking on Adams Avenue until 8pm & free parking on some side streets. Just check for the parking signs. Peace.

We had such a great experience at Sago! The ambiance is beautiful and makes it the perfect date…read morenight spot. The cocktails were amazing, and every dish we tried was so fresh and flavorful. Our favorites were definitely the tuna tartare and the lobster bao buns but everything was absolutely delicious. We'll definitely be back!

We ate dinner here for our friends bachelorette and Kate is the best server we've had. So many good…read morerecommendations, treated us the best and the sweetest girl ever. If you come by ask for Kate!! She's the best. Food and drinks both 10/10, will definitely be back.