6 Best Restaurants in Northern San Diego, San Diego

The line out the door is the first sign you’re at San Diego’s best ramen spot, and the sight of thick organic mochi noodles soaking in deep pots of tonkotsu broth and garlic oil is sure to seal the deal. Original, red, or black edition ramen are local choices, each topped with bean sprouts, pickled egg, wakame seaweed, garlic chips, and crushed sesame. If there's one "must-try," make it the black edition ramen fermented with garlic oil and roasted with bincho charcoal for 18 hours. The menu covers spicy curry, donburi rice bowls, and sushi rolls. Start with crispy gyoza served with house ponzu dipping sauce. For a front row to the action, grab a seat at the counter and watch chefs char sushi aburi style. Just about everything pairs well with sake or a cold beer.

Opened in 2001, this Japanese restaurant helped pioneer San Diego’s ramen movement as the first noodle house on Convoy to set down roots without compromising the purity of Japanese cuisine. All ramens are made from scratch, and you can taste it with every slurp of the flavorful broth. Whet your appetite with the pan-fried gyozas, the teriyaki chicken wings, or the signature Tajima fries topped with minced pork, onions, and mozzarella. Move on to the spicy sesame ramen with just enough kick, or opt for the original with tonkotsu pork broth, egg noodles, pork or chicken chashu, and all the traditional fixings. Their poke bowls and fried rice dishes soak up those rare imported Japanese craft beers or premium sake. If you’re lucky, grab a seat at the bar or communal table centering the lively restaurant.

Since 1994, this family-owned restaurant has been serving fans of traditional northern Chinese food who drive hours to sample dumplings made by hand every morning with fresh dough and filling; top sellers include the signature xiao long bao, the pork pot sticker, and the deep-fried beef curry. After dumplings, move on to house specialties like sea bass with black bean sauce and salt-and-pepper calamari. This former hole-in-the-wall moved next door, virtually taking over the strip mall with seating for over 300 people, and adding a full Shanghai Saloon with 30 beers on tap and over 60 types of whiskey. Among rare Japanese whiskeys is their own private Maker's Mark label.

This much-praised, popular Vietnamese restaurant offers over 200 dishes so that choosing a meal here can be difficult. Waiters steer diners to familiar tasty offerings like traditional pho, kung pao chicken, garlic-butter fried chicken wings, and fresh pork or shrimp spring rolls. For the adventurous, more exotic options abound, like the broken rice dishes, and bo luc lac, sizzling cubes of beef served with a chunk of butter melting on top. Families can build-their-own spring rolls with the oven-roasted whole catfish served with vegetables, dipping sauces, and rice paper. The large, relatively spare dining room gets packed, especially on weekends, but service is usually prompt, if sometimes curt, typical of almost all Convoy Street dining spots.

Get bold Sichuan flavors with loads of chili peppers at this restaurant, where food is served family style, and “mild” is not an option. If you speak Mandarin, you're in luck, but if you don't, simply point at the menu with full color photos of every dish, including the top selections like deep-fried chicken cubes with hot pepper, or the fish fillet with chili. The duck with spicy sauce has a kick, as do most items on the massive 175-item menu. This authentic Chinese restaurant liberally uses both spicy chilis and Sichuan peppercorn-like peppers in their dishes, so get ready for a tingling, but pleasant numbing effect with every bite. Fortunately the menu is marked with chili pepper icons as warnings.

Zab Linda may be a bit out of the way and lacking in atmosphere, but the northeastern Thai dishes featured on the menu—noodles, curry, and the spicy larb (think meat salad), which comes with pork, chicken, beef, catfish, or duck—make the trip worth it. Pick your spicy level, from 1 to 10 to add extra heat to your dish. After house favorites like drunken noodles, nam tok (beef salad), or tom kha gai (coconut soup), cool your palate with sweet rice with mango.