The Cherry Blossom Crew reveals their top four San Diego food cravings
If you live in San Diego, or if you’re planning a trip soon, this post is for you. It also helps if you appreciate delicious, fresh, well-prepared food. Today, we’re spilling secrets. Yup, we’re letting our readers in on our four favorite things to eat in this grand city we live in. Big secrets…
We’re getting specific, too. Not only are we sharing four of our favorite San Diego joints, we’re going right into the menu and telling you what to order. Don’t worry, we’ll also share options if the dishes we post aren’t perfect for you. But really, this stuff is good. Extremely good. These four restaurants are quite different, but have one thing in common: they focus on local, quality, non-processed ingredients. And we love that most of all!
Here are the four dishes we choose time and time again. Are you ready?
1. The Place: The Crack Shack
The Deets: http://www.crack-shack.com
The Dish: The Señor Croque Sandwich
So, this is the best thing ever. The Crack Shack is about all things chicken, but this sandwich is just the very best of what they do best, all in one messy, calorie-laden-but-we-don’t-care package. The Señor Croque is the shack’s special take on the classic, French Croque Monsieur. What’s inside? Heaven A Brioche bun, stuffed with melted white cheddar, fried chicken patty, bacon, fried egg, and miso-maple butter. Truthfully, we’ve eaten this sandwich for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. And you should, too.
The Shack also has plenty of gluten free options and a few healthy menu choices. But if you’re gonna splurge, this is the thing to order. What are you waiting for?
2. The Place: Raki Raki
The Deets: http://www.rakirakiramen.com
The Dish: The Premium Black Edition Ramen
There’s ramen and then there’s Raki Raki ramen. This joint takes its time and uses only the best ingredients. We’ve tried a few types of ramen off the menu, and they are all amazing, but the black edition will always be the one we order, time and time again. I’ll let Raki describe it:
To be clear, this is not your typical deep dish or Pizza Hut or Dominos variety of pizza. Nope. Caffe Calabria serves authentic Naples style pizza, featuring a thin crust – slightly charred- and fresh ingredients. Calabria is a huge, full service coffee shop by day. But at 5pm, it transforms into an authentic pizzeria. The food, service, and atmosphere make you feel like you’re on the Amalfi coast of Italy.
This Margherita pizza features Calabria’s signature fresh tomato sauce, which we think possesses the perfect balance between sweet and spicy. Then, they top it off with imported buffalo mozzarella and basil.
Calabria also offers pizzas with meat and other fun toppings. We love to order those, too. But we keep going back to the perfectly simple Margherita version because it’s just that good.
October 2016 NOTE: As we were putting together this post, we found out that Calabria is temporarily closing their nighttime pizza service for a quick kitchen remodel. They assured us it would be, indeed, quick and they’ll be back serving the best pizza in San Diego very soon. Check our Instagram. We’ll announce their return to dinner service as soon as we find out.
4. The Place: Pokirrito
The Deets: http://www.pokirritosd.com/#eat-together
The Dish: The Poke Bowl
This joint is the sister restaurant to Raki Raki and fits into our notion of – try something new and different. Pokirrito is new, different, and so fabulous we are true addicts and hang out here regularly. Think of this place as Chipotle means Hawaii meets Asia. Chipotle, in that you work your way down a line where servers help you build your own creation. Besides some bento box appetizers or small bites, you basically choose from one of two options for your meal: either a poke burrito(poki-rrito, get it?) or a poke bowl. You can see both in our picture.
We’re talking about the poke bowl today. It comes in two sizes, and starts with a base of either rice or kale. Then, you get to pile on your choice of fresh, sustainable seafood. Our favorites are the ahi poke and shrimp. If you don’t like raw fish, don’t worry! They have cooked shrimp and other choices. Next, you get to build your bowl with toppings as you move down the line. Some examples: traditional Asian sauces, seaweed salad, ginger sesame avocado, cucumber and onion salad, crunchy won ton bits, and fresh veggies.
Everything is homemade here. Then they present your creation with potato chips and serve it on a cool metal tray. Add one of their signature, infused iced teas! Oh, and try the sushi burrito version, too. It’s so big, we end up sharing.
Something else we love about Pokirrito, it’s healthy. These dishes are comprised of clean, unprocessed, vitamin rich, low carb ingredients. But what we love most of all – food should be fun. And this place is fun.
We hope you’ve enjoyed our four San Diego favorites. If you visit one, let us know. Tell us about it. Happy eating!