The 9 Best Seafood Restaurants in San Diego, Ranked

The Fishery in Pacific Beach is a fish market and a restaurant under one roof, and that setup is why it sits at the top of this list. The kitchen cooks from what the market bought that morning, so dinner changes with whatever is good right now.

The story goes back further than the restaurant. Judd Brown is a fourth-generation La Jolla fisherman, and in 1980 he started his own seafood wholesale company, Pacific Shellfish. In 1997 he opened The Fishery in a mid-century warehouse in North Pacific Beach that the Browns bought and restored. It's still a family place. Annemarie Brown-Lorenz and Nick Lorenz run the restaurant today, and Pacific Shellfish, still family-owned, supplies the kitchen directly. That's a short line from the wholesaler to your plate.

The cooking got a fresh push in November 2024, when chef Mike Reidy came back as executive chef and partner. Reidy first reimagined the menu in 2020, left to cook at Callie, then returned to lead a menu revamp, with an upstairs private dining room for wine dinners in the plans. San Diego Magazine has named The Fishery the city's best seafood restaurant in both its readers' and critics' picks, and it's in the Michelin Guide too.

Start with a crudo. The kitchen has done a Sicilian-style version with nectarines, burrata and spicy arugula, and the praise centers on the crudo, the market fish and the seasonal plates. From there, ask what's strongest on the current fresh sheet and build the meal around it. The staff's product knowledge gets a lot of love too, so lean on them. For the table that wants a little of everything, Michelin points to the starters: calamari with spicy aioli, oysters, and a seafood tower from the raw bar.

This is a dinner to plan. It's closed Monday and Tuesday, reservations get tight at peak times, and the bill lands in splurge territory, so save it for the night you want to celebrate. Cass Street sits a few blocks from the Pacific Beach shoreline, which makes a walk by the water an easy way to start or finish the evening.

Mabel's Gone Fishing is the seafood-and-gin spot on North Park's 30th Street, and it lands at number two on oysters, whole fish and a menu with a real point of view. The restaurant calls itself a "ginoteria," which gives you a good idea of how seriously the bar takes its cocktail list.

It comes from a team North Park already knows. Co-owners Chelsea Coleman and Rae Gurne are behind the wine bar The Rose, also on 30th Street, plus Bodega Rosette and Secret Sister. Coleman shares the kitchen with Dan Luong, who came over from The Rose, and Ross Garcia, who cooked at Marlow & Sons and Diner in Brooklyn. The food leans Californian and Iberian. One example from the Michelin Guide: swordfish schnitzel with salsa verde and tonnato, caper berries and shaved fennel. Michelin noticed early. Mabel's was flagged as a new discovery the year it opened, then earned a Bib Gourmand in the 2023 California guide, one of only 10 new ones in the state that year.

The smart move is Oyster Hour, from 4 to 5 PM. Get there right at four, order a half dozen and a gin cocktail, then decide whether the table is ready for the whole fish, which gets its own share of praise. The raw bar goes past oysters to dishes like kampachi, and the hot and cold snacks come out in a pintxos style, so it's an easy place to graze.

If The Fishery is the market dinner, Mabel's is the date night. The room is intimate, and fans of the place like it that way. As for Mabel herself, the restaurant tells its own tall tale about a character by that name who was swept out to sea and came home with a taste for seafood. Consider it the house legend.

At the end of Scott Street in Point Loma, behind a tackle shop on the Point Loma Sportfishing dock, Mitch's Seafood serves the most San Diego lunch on this list. Boats from the marina bring fish straight in, you order at the counter, and the working dock is the view.

Three local fishing families opened Mitch's in 2008, and they have a long history working the waters off Point Loma. That history shapes the menu. It sticks to sustainably caught fish from San Diego and northern Baja waters, mostly caught by the owners, their families or fishermen they know personally. That's a direct line from the boat to the counter, about as short as a supply chain gets.

The day's fish is the order, and it's the dish people bring up first. After that, you've got good problems: fish tacos, chowder, a Fisherman's Stew, steamed clams and mussels, or a grilled fish salad. Early risers get a bonus. The smoked-fish breakfast, served in the morning window, is a reviewer favorite, and a morning visit beats the noon rush.

If The Fishery is the dinner you plan a week ahead, Mitch's is the lunch you decide on at 11. Around noon, lines, seating and parking all tighten, and service moves at counter pace. Build a little patience into the plan, or come early and beat the lunch crowd.

El Pescador Fish Market on Pearl Street in La Jolla started with two teenagers and a homemade fish case, and it's the Village spot where you see your fish before you order it. Pick from the case, have it grilled simply, and add chowder for the table.

The origin story is a great one. In July 1974, a 19-year-old surfer named Jeff Norris opened the first El Pescador in Del Mar. He bought refrigeration equipment for under $1,000 and hand-built the first display case out of wood and fiberglass with 16-year-old Jim Mahoney. The first thing it ever sold was a shrimp cocktail and lemonade, for a dollar. Sean Shannon joined as a teenager in 1978, and in 1985 the shop moved to Pearl Street, where it's been ever since. Two teenage surfers, more than 50 years, and one very busy fish case.

El Pescador is still a market first. The fish comes in daily from local fishermen and other purveyors, and you can buy it from the case to cook at home or have the kitchen prepare it on the spot. The praise here centers on the freshness, the grilled fish, the chowder and a staff happy to steer you toward the best thing in the case. The sandwiches are the more casual lunch route.

Think of it as the casual La Jolla cousin to The Fishery: the same buy-it-here, eat-it-here idea, with a counter and a handful of seats. Lunch is the busy stretch, when lines build and parking around the Village gets tight, so aim a little earlier or later if you can.

Kiko's Place Seafood is a Mission Valley truck with a recipe book that started on a beach in Baja. The family recipes were first put together beachside in San Felipe, Mexico, in 1983: Baja-style fish tacos and seafood soups, later carried north and set up on a truck at the corner of Hazard Center Drive and Mission Center Road.

The octopus taco is the order reviewers keep bringing up. Pair it with a ceviche or a tostada so the meal has contrast, and don't forget the consommé. Orders come with a free cup of it, a light broth with tender white fish and carrots, and it's become a running favorite. If one cup leaves you wanting more, the seafood soups are right there on the menu.

Fans also point to generous portions, good salsa and fish tacos that hold their own next to the octopus. There's a happy hour too. The Infatuation reported it running daily from 2 to 5 PM, with two fish tacos and a drink for $13.99. It's a nice bonus on top of a truck that earns its spot on flavor.

If Mitch's is the dock lunch, Kiko's is where this list picks up its Baja accent. Plan like it's a truck, because it is: parking and seating are limited, waits happen, and weather matters. Hours can shift, so check the same day before you drive over to Hazard Center.

Blue Water's original shop on India Street, in the Middletown and Mission Hills stretch of town, is the choose-your-fish counter on this list. Point at the best fish in the case, let the counter tell you how they'd grill it, and decide whether it lands on a plate, in a taco or on a sandwich.

Brothers Matt and Judd Braun opened it in 2004. They're Point Loma High School grads who grew up surfing, diving and fishing San Diego and Baja waters alongside the city's Portuguese fishing families. They started with $300,000, mortgaged their own houses and their parents' houses to get the doors open, and had $700 left by opening day. It worked out. Blue Water has grown into a small local chain, and this is where it began.

Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives came through for an episode that aired in April 2009. Guy Fieri called the sea bass taco with lemon-garlic butter "outstanding" and singled out the cioppino, spicy and loaded with wahoo, mahi mahi, ahi tuna and scallops.

Reviewers praise the fresh fish, the made-to-order grilling, the tacos and sandwiches, the staff's advice and the value. It's an easy pick for a mixed group, since the fish lover gets the case and everyone else gets a taco. Lunch is the crunch, with a line, cramped seating and street parking, so an early or late lunch makes the whole thing easier.

It's Raw Poke Shop is Ocean Beach's Hawaiian-style poke counter on Newport Avenue, and it's here because it keeps poke focused: well-seasoned fish over rice, from people who care about doing it the island way. The owners describe their food as "local island style kine grinds," and the menu stays true to that.

It started with three friends, who call themselves braddahs, selling poke at San Diego farmers markets and local breweries in late 2014. The following they built, plus help from sponsors and the neighborhood, got them into a brick-and-mortar shop on OB's main strip. It's still family-owned and operated.

Poke fans point to the quality of the fish, the seasoning, generous portions and how Hawaiian the whole thing feels. Order the current poke plate with rice, and if you're sharing, add a second preparation so you can compare.

Where Hawaiian Fresh Seafood, at number nine, is the poke counter backed by a fishing fleet, It's Raw is the neighborhood version that grew up at farmers markets. The shop has almost no seating, parking on Newport takes patience, and the hours are short, so go early and take your plate to go.

Mariscos Mi Gusto Es is a Mexican-style mariscos truck on Home Avenue in City Heights, and one dish puts it on this list: the aguachile verde. It's the order reviewers call out by name more than any other, and it's the reason to make the trip.

Build the meal around it. Get the aguachile and a ceviche tostada, then add a fish taco or a mixed tostada if you're hungry. The praise also covers the ceviche, the tostadas, the quality of the seafood, the generous portions and the warm hospitality. Feeding a group? A second tostada makes the order easy to share.

It's one of two trucks on the list, and the pair makes a fun contrast. Kiko's is the Baja taco-and-soup stop in Mission Valley. Mi Gusto Es is the ceviche-and-aguachile stop in City Heights. Hit both and you've covered a big slice of what San Diego does with Mexican seafood.

Parking and seating are limited, as they are at most trucks. Truck schedules can shift day to day, including which day it's closed, so check the same day before you drive over.

Hawaiian Fresh Seafood runs a poke counter in the Centerpark Labs office park on Flanders Drive in Mira Mesa, and the setting makes sense once you know the backstory. This is a seafood company with its own fishing fleet, and the counter is where the public gets a taste. Order the rotating poke plate and ask which fish came in strongest that day.

Frank Procelli founded the company on Oahu in 2006, starting with a simple idea: give customers direct access to fresh-caught fish. By 2016, the company says, it had become the first Honolulu seafood wholesaler to bring its own fleet of six fishing vessels into the business. In 2019 it relocated to San Diego and opened its retail market that December. Today it runs a boat-to-table model with its own longline fishing fleet and ships sashimi-grade fish overnight to restaurants around the country.

The Mira Mesa counter is one of three in San Diego, alongside Point Loma and Poway, plus a wholesale division and a catering truck. Reviewers keep mentioning the freshness of the fish, the rotating poke, the staff and how authentic it all feels. If you're after something beyond poke, the Hawaiian-inspired plate lunches are the other way in.

It's a counter in an office park, so plan for that. Follow the exact Flanders Drive address, go early before the favorites sell out, and take lunch to go.