Sitting proudly on a corner just down the street from the new PETCO ballpark, this tiny French spot, opened in December 2004, is the realization of the owners' dreams to create a neighborhood bistro that locals could call their own. Café Chloe serves breakfast, lunch, dinner, and everything in between. The menu is a cross between dainty cuisine and comfort food in modest, European-sized portions: an ahi niçoise plate, steak frites, smoked trout cakes, and a macaroni, pancetta, and Gorgonzola gratin (three-cheese macaroni). With a sea of bistro-style chairs and small round tables packed inside the dining room and spilling out onto the sidewalk, it can feel a bit cramped at dinnertime.

If you're looking for bottomless baskets of chips and salsa and enchiladas swimming in cheese, look elsewhere. El Agave serves delicately and artistically prepared fine Mexican nouvelle cuisine (dinner for two will run upwards of $60). Ask for fresh corn tortillas for dipping with the rich and creamy Sopa de Cilantro, a fresh cilantro Mexico City soup. Moles are what they do best here—try the Mole Rosa de Taxco, pink cream sauce over a moist chicken breast. There's also a menu of more than 1,700 tequilas (the most extensive collection in the U.S.). Most are fine sipping tequilas, though, so it'd be a travesty to have one made into a blended margarita.

Reopened in February 2007 after a gut renovation, the dining room (now called George's California Modern) at this three-level place set blissfully on the ocean is regarded by many as San Diego's best restaurant. Chef Trey Foshee was an enthusiastic pioneer of the move to patronize local farmers and producers, as evidenced by the freshness of his inventions such as Peking-style duck breast with ginger-coconut rice, sugar snap peas, and rhubarb-fennel salad. One floor up, the soigné George's Bar serves a full menu with its cocktails, while the casual Ocean Terrace bistro does ceviches, tacos, and "George's Signature Soup" (smoked chicken, broccoli, and black bean), followed by the likes of Thai curry, marinated skirt steak, and grilled mahimahi. At every level, it's an institution, but a worthy—verging on unmissable—one.

Located across the street from the Pacific's crashing surf, this ultrapopular restaurant is aptly named—Las Olas means "the waves" in Spanish. It was founded in 1981 by a pair of surfers, and was one of the first restaurants to bring fish tacos to San Diego (now arguably the city's official entrée). They come either broiled or batter-fried (go with fried) and are served with guacamole, yogurt, salsa, and cabbage. There's also plenty of chips and salsa, decadent Mexican classics such as chile relleno burritos stuffed with cheese and charbroiled chicken, and a wide range of healthy selections. Las Olas is a favorite of locals and tourists alike, so it's always busy. Your best bet is to have a late dinner and take a stroll on the beach afterwards.

The gloriously named Amiko Gubbins's insistence on cooking only what may be found on the globe's 33rd parallel is no empty conceit—it makes for fun and varied menus. There may be a Moroccan b'steeya (a spiced phyllo pie of chicken ground with saffron, nuts, and raisins, here finished with not just powdered sugar but also house-made preserved lemons), mussels steamed in tamarind-ginger broth, or an appetizer of ahi poke with Asian pear, mango, and wasabi dressing. The high-ceilinged minimalist place is a bit out of the way in Mission Hills, but consensus says: vaut le detour.

Right on the waterfront near Shelter Island marina, Point Loma Seafoods has been a San Diego tradition since opening in 1963. Part fish market, part restaurant, when it's busy (pretty much every day) it can be a bit of a free-for-all. There's no waitstaff, so muscle your way toward the big glass cases of fish to order clam sandwiches, smoked fish salad, fried shrimp plates, and the like. When your food is up, eat on the picnic tables in their "dining room," or better yet, find a spot outside and watch the fish being brought up from the trawlers docked just outside the front door.

Chef Stephen Window, already beloved for bringing Asian-ish "tapas" to SoCal, further raised his restaurant's popularity with the unveiling of a full sushi bar in 2005. Try miso-marinated hamachi with shaved bonito or the Roppongi Roll of shrimp tempura, cucumber, avocado, spicy tuna, and black tobiko. At the main restaurant, those tapas still rule the roost: Polynesian crab stack with ginger-lime dressing; Chinese pot stickers and crispy onion rings with wasabi aïoli are perennial favorites. There are also bento boxes at lunchtime and bigger dishes at night, several of which are not remotely Asian (boneless beef short ribs with honey-mustard glaze and buttermilk mashed potatoes).

Founded in 1996 by a brother/sister team from Gunma, Japan, a small town north of Tokyo, Taka is one of San Diego's premier sushi spots. The action centers around the 16-stool sushi bar where upscale patrons eye the irresistible sushi, sashimi, and rolls turned out by four skilled chefs, including Special Battera, a "roll" of shrimp, tuna, crabmeat, and rice topped with seaweed and caviar that's pressed inside a box and cut into small rectangles. End with green tea crème brûlée for dessert. Weekend, weekday, it doesn't matter—Taka is always packed. The turnover at the sushi bar is quick, but if you want a table, make a reservation. Otherwise, give the hostess your cell phone number and have a cocktail at one of the Gaslamp bars nearby. Taka will call you when a table is available.