Prices are per person for a main course at dinner.

Once known better as a comfortable resort town than a dining destination, San Diego has retained its reputation as a vacationer's paradise even as it has grown to be both the seventh-largest city in the United States and a magnet for restaurateurs and chefs from around the globe. A good deal of the new talent also is homegrown, and it's not unusual for local youths to attend leading culinary academies and return home fired by the desire to remake San Diego cuisine.

The variety of dining possibilities offered by a city that once regarded a "surf 'n' turf" combination as the ultimate in classy chow is staggering, and while the town as yet fails to offer a Tibetan eatery, it now takes for granted exotic cuisines such as Cambodian, Ethiopian, Afghan, and Laotian. Many of these far-flung cuisines are served outside the center in the city's ever more diverse neighborhoods. Downtown, the dramatically restored, lively Gaslamp Quarter offers vigorous nightlife and some 90 restaurants. The eateries range from a few down-at-the-heels holdouts from the days when this historic area had declined to Skid Row status to stylish establishments priced for expense-account types doing business at the nearby San Diego Convention Center.

A stroll down the 5th Avenue restaurant row (which now extends both to 4th and 6th avenues) reveals San Diego's preference for Italian cuisine above all others, but the choice nonetheless is cosmopolitan and extends to casual and haute French fare, Spanish tapas and paellas, traditional and nuevo Mexican cuisine and all-American steaks cut thick enough to choke a horse. Really fine, expensive steak houses are still the hot San Diego trend, thanks partly to prosperity in the local high-tech industries, and perhaps partly to boredom with the warnings of health mavens. Seafood abounds, and there's a whole lot of "fusion" going on, which is to say that many menus now present their chef's own rendition of contemporary cuisine, which borrows idiosyncratically from a mixture of culinary traditions.

Near the waterfront on the upper western edge of downtown, the rapidly gentrifying Little Italy district has become a center for excellent, affordable Italian dining, both traditional and more contemporary. The area has a few surprises to offer, too, such as an authentic English pub that is the unofficial headquarters for Commonwealth loyalists from around the globe and a Southwestern-style grill that is the ultimate in trendiness.

In addition to downtown, other areas of San Diego share in the keen sense of energy, fueled by a collective caffeine high acquired in the coffeehouses (some of which are listed in Chapter 4) springing up everywhere from the Gaslamp Quarter to the gas station on the corner. The uptown neighborhoods centered by Hillcrest -- a lively, urbane district with a hip San Francisco flavor -- are marked by increasing culinary sophistication. Mission Valley, the city's commercial heart, abounds in big restaurants of varying quality, interspersed by smaller establishments devoted to superior fare. And rich, elegant La Jolla, with many of San Diego's most expensive restaurants, offers some of the best dining in the city. To be sure, great cooking blossoms beyond the city's official borders. In nearby Chula Vista, look for authentic, palate-pleasing Mexican fare, while Coronado -- the peninsula city across San Diego Bay -- has both casual, neighborhood-style eateries and grand hotel dining rooms with dramatic water views. And to the north in the plush suburbs of Del Mar, Solana Beach, and Rancho Santa Fe, elegant surroundings seem to encourage good fare.

The proximity of Mexico and the city's many ties to Japan, China, Vietnam, and other Asian countries account for the influences that San Diego's chefs add to a local cuisine well grounded in classical French technique. The Asian restaurants that abound along and near Convoy Street in the Kearny Mesa area are worth a visit, too.

San Diego is an informal city and few other American cities can offer so many outdoor dining options. The advised attire at most of the restaurants listed below is casual. Reservations are always a good idea, especially on weekends. Restaurants are grouped first by neighborhood, then by type of cuisine.