Attending a Dishcrawl in downtown San Diego is a fabulous way to get a feel for the culinary options in the area. The last downtown Dishcrawl was less than a week ago and I have already been back to two of the restaurants. We went from seafood, to comfort food, to Indian with a finale of sushi.
Our first stop was Spike Africa’s Fresh Fish Grill & Bar. This was probably my favorite spot of the night. I have not had any really good seafood in a while. Spike’s food was incredibly fresh and flavorful. We tasted the smoked salmon spread, fresh fish ceviche, onion dip with house-made BBQ Chips (bomb!) and Carlsbad oysters. The salmon spread was so good! I loved that you could really taste the salmon and it had big chunks of salmon meat. The spread was served with a baguette.
With items like mango BBQ Mahi-Mahi, Shrimp & Bacon Mac & Cheese and Pan Seared Sea Scallops with Bacon & Brussels on their menu – they can count on me to be back for more.
Our second stop was Magnolia Tap & Kitchen. We had some tasty samples of jalapeño corn bread, crispy chicken wings and melt in your mouth BBQ ribs. Magnolia really knows their comfort food. Think California food meets Southern spirit with simple, fresh, local and sustainable hand-made dishes. I will head back to try the cajun vegetable linguini and the ginger and bourbon cured salmon. They also have an extensive bar menu filled with “Scratch Cocktails”.
Photo by Michael McKenna
Our next stop was Gourmet India. My mom and I absolutely loved the atmosphere. There are only a few spots where you can sit on the floor cushions and when we saw a spot open up we ran right over. We wanted to get the full experience and we did. The food was pretty great too. We had the Mini Aloo Tikki (Potato pancakes with onions, green chili and tamarind chutney), Chicken Lamb Kebabs and cheese filled Naan. I have to go back to try their vegetable samosas and tikka masala.
Our final stop of the night was Kamikaze 7 Sushi (K7). We tasted the seasoned edamame, the big eye tuna roll and the edamame guacamole (Holy Guacamoly) with house-made taro chips. I loved the edamame guacamole. It is such a simple concept, avocados mixed with purred edamame – yet so delicious. The taro chips really made it unique with the added flavor. K7 is definitely mixing it up as far as sushi bars go. There is nothing boring about it, how could there be with 15 custom sake bomb options!
Check out these restaurants for yourself and let me know what you liked best!
I received tickets to the event. All opinions are my own.
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