Took my wife and daughter there last night. Food was delicious and good presentation. Service was…read moregood too. I forget the girl's name that got us to-go boxes but she was super nice and attentive. We will be back!

Food is great! The Lomo Saltado is my favorite. The Botanical Chicha Morada is awesome! It is a…read moregreat blend of purple corn and spice. Love it! Thanks for the recommendation from Mikella!

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.

I was so excited to try Anime. I've been following it since it first opened, but I really hadn't…read morehad an occasion to go and I feel like this is more of a special occasion spot. Fast-forward to now and a friend had a birthday so a few of us opted to take her there. We thought parking would be hard because there was a Padres game but we did see plenty of street parking even though we opted for the $25 valet parking. The outside was a bit hard to find since the neon signs aren't on during the day and it looks pretty non-descript outside. Our gps also took us up the street to a private residence building and they directed us to the correct spot. When we walked in, it felt like we were walking into a club more than a restaurant. There were animae plastic toys inside the hostess stand. The hostesses were all in black with shorts and short skirts and very low cut tops. I didn't feel like they matched the class and beauty of the inside of the restaurant. The restaurant was gorgeous inside, beautiful dark green layered velvet curtains everywhere. A long bar upon entering. There were round lighting features and a lot of black and gold accents. Some of the booths were also green velvet and other seating at the windows were off white colored velvet settees. We were seated at an ordinary table for four. As a whole, It's very Art Deco. Several staff members came by and introduced themselves and explained their positions. We decided amongst ourselves if we would have cocktails or wine and we decided on wine. So we ordered a bottle and studied the menu. It was so dark in the restaurant that we had to use our phones to see the menu and the music was very loud, again more club like. When our server came to take our order, she was very soft spoken so we could not hear her. Even when we asked her to speak up, we still could not hear her. It was quite frustrating. She was very nice, but hearing what she was saying was almost impossible. After some back-and-forth, we finally decided what we wanted. We started with the Taiwanese chicken and the tuna appetizers. The chicken was phenomenal. It had a very light breading on it that was perfectly crisp. It was so flavorful, tender, and juicy. We wished we'd gotten at least one more order. The tuna on its own was good, but the sauces with it completely drowned out the flavor of the tuna. It was a beautifully presented dish though. For our main, two of us got the short rib, and two of us got the Seabass. Everything was was again beautifully presented. I loved my Seabass. It was crisp on the outside, yet flaky and tender on the inside. The turmeric sauce was delicious as well. The two that ordered the short rib wished that they had ordered the Seabass. I tried the short rib and it was good, but it was very salty and super fatty. I get that that's what short ribs are, but it just was a little bit unpleasant as the fat was kind of crunchy more like gristle in the bites I had. We agreed that we all liked the seabass best. Trying to order dessert was challenging, as again, we could not hear our server. We ordered the pandan, the chocolate cremeaux and we were brought a matcha cake for the birthday girl. The presentations were gorgeous. I loved the cremeaux, it was decadent and the crunchiness of the crushed cookie and nuts went together beautifully. The pandan was our least favorite. The matcha dessert was good too, but my table didn't like it as much as I did. I would come back and try more items, and definitely get the Taiwanese chicken again. It does feel a bit more pricey than warranted for Filipino fusion though.

I'm sincerly sad that Choi's has closed. We've met Jiwoo Choi multiple times, he's kind, truly…read moreengaged in his craft and very creative. We've eaten here on our anniversary a few times - It seriously was the best Asian restaurant we've tried in San Diego, bar none. I'm a chef as well and this guy impressed me. To Chef Choi - I hope you pick yourself up and rebuild. I know the industry is tough, but you have what it takes. Good luck!

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

really great service! Tim was very attentive and our food was brought out within 10 minutes of…read moreordering. Lychee Lemonade is really good and comes with free refills

great place. really hot inside though. needs air conditioner. ordered happy hour food.read more

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!

Surprised there was no long line outside since today was the Sunday brunch and read from other…read morereviewers to come prepared to wait. Upon walking up to the door, we noticed the closed sign but there was some tables filled already. Asked the young man if they were open or had a private party, he didn't even realize the closed sign was still on. He asked if we had reservations, we did not then he told us to wait outside to be called on, there were tons of empty clean tables, but we didn't argue. As soon as we stepped outside, before I could sit down we got called right back in by the other lady to come inside. Okay. Weird quick game of musical chairs lol. She explained to us how it goes. Drinks on this side of the room. Food on that side. Check. First plate: garlic fried rice (Sinangag), fried eggs, longoniza, Filipino spaghetti, lechon, and a bowl of arroz caldo. Also grabbed two cups, one for water the other for what the waitress said was mango ice tea (spoiler alert: no mangoes were hurt in the process of making this ice tea). Second plate: watermelon and pineapple slices, menudo, kare kare, ube pancake. First the sinangag tasted like it's been left out too long even though it was just brought out. Lots of hard pieces of rice. I decided to not finish it. Next, the fried eggs and longaniza. Fried eggs felt too rubbery for maybe just me. And the longaniza didn't taste anything like longaniza. No spices no garlic. Just a basic sweet hot dog. Maybe I'm wrong and it's just a hot dog. I can say the Filipino spaghetti did taste somewhat like actual Filipino spaghetti, sweet. But not too sweet but also didn't see any hot dogs in there! Now the lechon. Tasted exactly like fried pork. That has zero spices and kinda been out for a while. The arroz caldo had some shreds of chicken I think but I had to fetch for it in the pot. Unfortunately there's no boiled eggs to add but you can add everything else to it like the fried garlic, spring onions lemon etc. Now the drinks. What's up with the non mango mango iced tea? It just tasted like iced tea and if I was told that id be okay. But I love mango drinks and was looking forward to it. The water is the only thing I could say I wasn't disappointed with and only if I didn't have to get it myself I guess would be the only downside lol. I did try to get a second plate. Consisted of some watermelon slices and pineapple slices, menudo and kare kare with white rice. The kare kare and menudo did look like what they were called and that is about it in comparison to what I've had in the past. The menudo had no tomato paste taste to it and was rather bland and the kare kare was also bland. Their kare kare sauce was very watery, missing the thick savory peanut buttery taste. And unfortunately, it was the watermelon slices that made me quit and lose my appetite. It had a weird rotten taste to it. I almost had to vomit. First I thought it was soaked in something maybe vinegar, or I dunno. But I just could not eat anything else. I hope today was just an off day and the food is better. Unfortunately, I doubt I'll ever come back or even recommend my friend or family to come eat here.

This was my second time coming here. This time I brought my wife's family for my birthday. They are…read moreFilipino and really wanted to try it. Everyone enjoyed it. Obviously there were things they have had differently or things they wished were served, but overall everyone was happy. The food was hot and delicious just like last time. I was happy to see they had different dishes this time around too. Although I enjoyed everything from last time, it was nice to try some new stuff too. The place was slam packed. Multiple birthday parties going on, so the atmosphere was very alive with conversation. It was like one big family picnic in there. Initially, they could not find my reservation, but they found it and accommodated us with a table right away and even threw in a Halo Halo for my birthday. The hostess was really nice and jovial. With the amount of people in there it got really warm and unfortunately with the door swinging open over and over there were flies, but there isn't much they could do to prevent that.

Wings are fire Wings are fire Wings are fire Wings are fire Wings are fire Wings are fire Wings are…read morefire Wings are fire Wings are fire Wings are fire

The food is what makes this a 5 star rating for me. I agree with all the great reviews about the…read moredelicious dishes. They are the reason my family keeps coming back. Our favorite and always a must-have is the pork xiao long bao. But the variety of Japanese/Chinese menu items keeps it fresh each time we come. The QR code menu and call button ordering makes service efficient. Despite some of the poor reviews about slow wait times, we had a very different experience. Our server patiently answered all our questions about the dishes (noting carefully the food allergies at our table). She came with our foods within 15 minutes of ordering. She was kind about our request for a quick pack up when we had to leave suddenly for an unexpected airport drop-off. Overall, this cozy bistro is worth a visit or two or three, even if parking is tight and the unassuming front entrance blends with all the other Convoy shops. It's a hidden gem amongst Convoy gems.

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!

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!

Both dishes I got were very good. I really like the lumpia. The beef was good but it wasn't too…read moreseasoned. Overall, I would definitely recommend!

Shank & Bone have very modern decor for a Vietnamese restaurant but it was very fitting for North…read morePark. We ordered Com Dac Biet, Bun Dac Biet, and their Wagyu Picanha Pho. I absolutely loved the rice dish and noodle bowl. Their fish sauce was flavorful and their meat was seasoned very well, especially their shrimp. I thought their pho was ok, the wagyu had a nice smokey flavor but their broth was lackluster for me. Sometimes they can be very busy but we were able to be seated right away on a Sunday evening. Parking might be an issue as well. Even though Shank & Bone is on the pricier side, I would definitely come back again.

In little Italy. Street parking only. Dogs allowed in their small patio area…read more My friend got their wagyu pho special which she really enjoyed. You can choose flat or thin noodles. Broth was very flavorful. I got the tri tip and bone marrow special with chimichurri. It was rich but good. Ok amount for the price but would've preferred a little more meat. Service was good and I liked the decor.