Michelin Star Restaurants San Diego (2026): The 18 We Recommend
San Diego is a three-star city. Addison was the first restaurant in Southern California to reach the Guide's highest honor, and we book eighteen of the Guide's 38 area listings.
San Diego is a three-star city, which still surprises people. The MICHELIN Guide's San Diego area selection runs to 38 entries, four of them across the border in Tijuana, and at the top of it sits a restaurant that reached the Guide's highest honor before anywhere else in Southern California. Below that are two one-star rooms, a deep Bib Gourmand bench, and a long Selected list that covers most of Little Italy and La Jolla.
We book eighteen of them, and all three of the Guide's starred San Diego rooms are among them: Addison at three stars, Lucien and Soichi Sushi at one star each. That is a claim about the starred rooms only, not about the 38-entry selection, which runs much wider than our roster. This page lays out each of the eighteen by its exact tier, what the kitchen does, and a direct link to the table. Outside Las Vegas the restaurant reservation sits with the venue, not with us. Last updated October 2026.
Three Michelin Stars
Addison by William Bradley was the first restaurant in Southern California to reach the Guide's highest honor. Bradley earned the first star in 2019, the second in 2021 and the third in December 2022, and Addison holds three stars in the 2026 Guide. He has led this kitchen since 2006, which is rare consistency at this level, and the cooking has only deepened with time. The restaurant is a Relais and Chateaux member, a distinction that speaks to the hospitality as much as the food. Dinner in the main room is a contemporary California tasting menu of ten courses that evolves with the seasons.
This is the reservation to build a trip around, and the first one to book.
One Michelin Star
Lucien took its first star in the 2026 California selection, announced in San Diego that June. It is a thirty-seat room on Girard Avenue in downtown La Jolla and the first restaurant from Elijah Arizmendi, who cooked at Per Se, Robuchon and Restaurant Daniel before opening his own. The format is a tasting menu of ten or more courses built on local farms and fishermen, with a shorter six-course menu midweek and an a la carte option at the bar for walk-ins. At thirty seats the kitchen can hold a standard a larger dining room could not.
Soichi Sushi holds one star on Adams Avenue in University Heights, well away from the downtown dining strip. It is a small counter built around a seasonal omakase, courses chosen by the chef and balanced for texture, temperature and taste rather than ordered from a list. Seats are released in a monthly block rather than a rolling window and are taken quickly, so the booking date matters more here than at almost any other table in the city.
Bib Gourmand
The Bib is the inspectors' mark for good cooking at a fair price, and San Diego's bench here is genuinely strong. We book three of them.
Callie is chef Travis Swikard's Mediterranean dining room, opened in 2021 in the East Village. A San Diego native, Swikard spent more than a decade in New York cooking alongside Daniel Boulud and Gavin Kaysen, and at Boulud Sud he fell for the flavors of Greece, Spain, Italy, Morocco and the Middle East. Callie brings that palette home to the farmers, fishermen and ingredients of Southern California. The name is Greek for the most beautiful. The menu is built for sharing and opens with spreads and a house pita: hummus with roasted garlic and spicy green zhoug, avocado labneh with pistachio.
Cesarina is a neighborhood Italian trattoria in Point Loma, opened in February 2019 and named for chef Cesarina Mezzoni, who leads its kitchen. It holds a Bib Gourmand in the 2026 guide. The room is convivial and unfussy, with bistro tables and custom booths inside and two dog-friendly garden patios. The heart of it is the open-air pastificio, a working pasta factory where guests can watch the dough being made and the pastries shaped. Pasta is made fresh every day and the format is mix-and-match.
Cucina Urbana has been part of Bankers Hill since 2009 and was one of Southern California's first restaurants built around a retail wine shop. The menu pairs the flavors of Italy with California seasonality. The wine model is what makes the reservation worth it: the shop carries more than 200 labels, with an emphasis on Italian and California bottles, and you can pick any bottle at retail price and drink it with dinner for a small corkage.
Selected by the MICHELIN Guide
Twelve of the rooms we book carry a Selected listing, which means the inspectors put them in the book without a star or a Bib attached. It is the widest tier on this page and the most spread out. Little Italy holds three of the twelve and La Jolla another three, with the rest in Hillcrest, Mission Hills, Golden Hill, Bird Rock, Coronado and out on Harbor Island, and this is also where the city's wood-fire cooking lives.
Herb & Wood is built around rustic, wood-fired cooking that brings Mediterranean flavors and a California ethos of seasonality to the plate. A grand central bar anchors the space beneath a barrel-vaulted ceiling, the kitchen shows its work through storefront-style glass, and a courtyard with a two-sided fireplace works as both lounge and dining room. Culinary Director Aidan Owens grew up on a small farm outside Byron Bay, Australia.
Juniper & Ivy occupies a once-abandoned warehouse on the northern edge of Little Italy, and the kitchen calls its cooking refined American with a Left Coast edge. A big open kitchen anchors a warm, lively room. Executive Chef Alex Penkin cooks alongside Chef de Cuisine Khine Moore, and the menu rotates daily around what local farmers and fishermen bring in each morning, so it reads differently each night. There is a chef's counter and a covered patio, and the bar seats are first-come.
Born & Raised opened in September 2017 in Little Italy, a two-story steakhouse with mid-century, Art Deco bones designed by local architect Paul Basile. It calls itself an ode to the high church tradition of European fine dining and West Coast hip hop, and the main dining room shows it, lined with black-and-white photographs of old-school rap legends and backed by a glassed-in meat cutting room. Dry-aged beef drives the menu, anchored by the 20-ounce bone-in ribeye. An open-air rooftop bar looks out over the neighborhood.
Trust is the Hillcrest restaurant where chef Brad Wise put wood-fired cooking at the center of the menu, and the flame still anchors the whole experience. The idea is bold flavors cooked simply over an open flame, with wine and cocktails chosen to pair with each plate. Wise fell for Santa Maria-style grilling on California's Central Coast, and after serving as executive chef at JRDN and Belmont Park he opened Trust in 2016. It was his first restaurant.
Fort Oak is the second Brad Wise room on this page, and the one where the fire sets the plan of the building. It stands at 1011 Fort Stockton Drive in Mission Hills, part of Wise's Trust Restaurant Group, and carries a listing in the 2026 California selection. The kitchen calls itself an ode to the fire and the sea, and the menu holds to both halves of that: the hearth is the center of the room, the smoky wood-fired cooking that defines Wise runs the length of the list, and a seafood and raw bar program sits alongside it.
The building was a Ford dealership in the 1940s, and the U-shaped, 23-seat bar is built into what used to be the showroom. The main dining room is Mid-Century-inspired, with retractable windows and two patios open to the sky. The Gold Canyon spiced dry-aged ribeye comes with chermoula, aleppo oil and lemon, and the Koshihikari rice risotto is finished with spiny lobster, panang curry, lobster jus and chili oil. Hearth roasted carrots arrive with quinoa, Humboldt Fog, pickled fennel, carrot top pesto and smoky yogurt. Dinner is the only service, from 5:00 pm, and the room is dark on Tuesdays.
Kingfisher is a Vietnamese restaurant at 2469 Broadway in historic Golden Hill, listed in the 2026 California selection. The kitchen takes root from the culinary heritage of Vietnam and sets out a classic take on that cooking with French influence and a California sensibility, working from traditional dishes and ingredients toward a balance between the soulful and the intricate. Executive Chef David Sim took the role in March 2023 and was Kingfisher's first official employee, and Sydney Imlay is chef de cuisine.
The room is organized around a striking central bar, and that is where the craft cocktail program sits, built to stand alongside the kitchen. The name belongs to the kingfisher bird, common across Southeast Asia and a symbol of transformation, resilience, creation and prosperity. Dinner is the single service of the day, from 5:00 pm on Monday and Wednesday through Saturday and from 4:00 pm on Sunday, with the room dark on Tuesdays. There is no lunch window to work around, so the only decision at the booking stage is which night.
Catania sits on the top floor of the La Plaza center, on the La Jolla corner of Wall and Girard, with panoramic views over the village to the Pacific. The kitchen cooks coastal Italian drawn from a two-week, 1,400-mile road trip the founders took across Italy, anchored in the idea that simpler is better. At the center sits Beatrice, a 5,000-pound wood-burning oven that turns out the pizzas.
Nine-Ten is chef Jason Knibb's restaurant at 910 Prospect Street, set inside the historic Grande Colonial hotel, and it carries a listing in the 2026 California selection. The cooking is seasonal California cuisine drawn from flavors around the world and built on fresh, locally sourced ingredients. Jamaican jerk pork belly is plated with baby carrots, Swiss chard, plantains, black-eyed peas, spicy jelly and sweet potato puree at $21, and tuna poke arrives in a guava-ginger-soy marinade with guava and habanero jus, pickled habanadas, scallion and curried popped sorghum at $25.
The dining room is small and high-ceilinged, with an ocean-and-fauna panorama by the local artist Dana Montlack and a palette of emerald green and light wood. There is a sidewalk patio as well, and an outdoor terrace with peek ocean views. The restaurant runs from 7:00 am to 9:00 pm every day, across breakfast and lunch Monday to Friday, dinner nightly from 5:00 pm and brunch on Saturday and Sunday, and the bar opens daily at 11:30 am. Private dining rooms are available, the Sun Room takes cocktail receptions, and a full buyout holds up to 65 guests.
A.R. Valentien is the signature restaurant at The Lodge at Torrey Pines, at 11480 N. Torrey Pines Road, and it carries a listing in the 2026 California selection. The kitchen cooks regional San Diego cuisine, served in a timbered indoor dining room and on an outdoor terrace that looks over the 18th hole of Torrey Pines Golf Course. Executive Chef Kelli Crosson leads the culinary team, which sources local provisions, and the menu changes frequently with the seasonal fare available, so what is on it follows the growing year.
The restaurant is a tribute to Southern California heritage and craftsman architecture: metal-strap post-and-beam structure, handcrafted wood-framed windows, stained glass lanterns, a frieze painted with pine boughs. The layout breaks it into several small rooms and plush booths. The name belongs to Albert R. Valentien, an early twentieth-century California artist whose works are exhibited throughout. Service begins at 8:00 am Monday through Friday and at 10:00 am on Saturday and Sunday, and runs to 9:30 pm daily, with dinner from 5:30 pm. A private dining room inside the restaurant takes up to 12 guests.
Paradisaea is on La Jolla Boulevard in Bird Rock, and it has been recommended in the MICHELIN Guide since 2023, with a listing again in the 2026 California selection. The kitchen describes what it does as French modern California cuisine, and the cocktail list is given equal weight, so the bar holds its own against the dining room. The look is upscale tropical, down to the floral pattern on the bar chairs.
Petrossian royal ossetra caviar is served with accoutrements, 30 grams at $200. The jalapeno Caesar carries two-year Parmigiano Reggiano over gem lettuce with bread crisps, lemon and anchovy at $31, and the garden beet risotto brings Sage Hill beets, aged rice, confit fennel, parmesan espuma and rye at $38. There is also a Chef's Menu at $150 a person, Wednesday through Saturday, with a curator's wine pairing at $80. It is a whole-table format, so every guest in the party takes it when it is ordered, which is worth settling with everyone before the reservation is made. Service runs Tuesday through Sunday from 4:00 pm.
Serea is the one Selected room on the beach side of Hotel del Coronado, across the bay from the city. The Guide files it as Fish and Seafood with a Mediterranean leaning, which is a fair reading of the menu: avgolemono and wood-grilled octopus on one side, Baja kampachi and a daily oyster selection on the other, and whole fish off the wood grill as the clearest statement of what the kitchen is for. It is chef JoJo Ruiz's restaurant, as Lionfish in the Gaslamp Quarter is, and the two share a commitment to seafood landed nearby and handled lightly.
Coasterra sits on the tip of Harbor Island, a bayfront Mexican restaurant at 880 Harbor Island Drive operated by the Cohn Restaurant Group, and it carries a listing in the 2026 California selection. The venue bills itself as the best seat in San Diego, and the case for that is the water: the dining room looks across the bay at the downtown skyline, and the whole floor is arranged around that view.
The ceviche trio covers shrimp aguachile, clasico and campechana. The campechana cocktail is built from scallops, octopus, shrimp, cucumbers, pico de gallo and avocado in cocktail sauce, and the shrimp aguachile pairs white shrimp with serrano, cilantro, cucumber and red onion. The macho salad brings kale, roasted red and gold beets, red peppers, crispy farro, red onion, queso fresco and smoked onion vinaigrette. The kitchen runs from 11:30 am to 9:00 pm Sunday through Thursday and to 9:30 pm on Friday and Saturday, one continuous service that takes in lunch, the late afternoon and dinner. Beyond the restaurant the property holds more than 25,000 square feet of indoor and outdoor event space, including the Skyline Terrace, the Bayview Ballroom and a floating space called Harbor Float, and group bookings run from parties of 20 up to 1,500 guests.
How to plan a San Diego Michelin run
Addison is the constraint. It is a ten-course tasting menu in a Relais and Chateaux property, it runs on a release calendar rather than a rolling window, and it is the hardest table on this page. Fix that date first and let the rest of the trip settle around it.
Most of the eighteen sit close together, which makes this an easy city to eat well in. Five of them are in or beside Little Italy, so a lunch and a dinner on the same day is genuinely comfortable, and Trust in Hillcrest, Fort Oak in Mission Hills and Kingfisher in Golden Hill ring the same central neighborhoods.
La Jolla is the other cluster, and it is worth treating as its own day. Four of the eighteen carry a La Jolla address: Lucien and Catania share the same Girard Avenue building in the village, Nine-Ten is a few blocks over on Prospect Street inside the Grande Colonial, and A.R. Valentien is north at The Lodge at Torrey Pines with its terrace over the 18th hole. Paradisaea is a short way south of the village on La Jolla Boulevard in Bird Rock.
Two rooms sit away from both clusters. Serea is over the bridge on Coronado and Coasterra is out on Harbor Island looking back at downtown, and both pair better with the water than with a second Guide room the same night.
Browse the rest of our San Diego restaurants to fill in the nights around these.
Frequently asked questions
Does San Diego have a three-Michelin-star restaurant? Yes. Addison by William Bradley holds three stars and was the first restaurant in Southern California to reach that level.
How many Michelin-starred restaurants are in San Diego? Three in the city itself: Addison at three stars, and Lucien and Soichi at one star each. All three are on this page. The 2026 California selection adds two more one-stars up the coast in Carlsbad, Jeune et Jolie and Lilo, and removed the star Valle in Oceanside had held since 2023.
Which San Diego restaurants have a Bib Gourmand? The Guide's San Diego selection includes several. The three on our roster are Callie, Cesarina and Cucina Urbana.
What does a Selected listing mean? A Selected restaurant, such as Herb & Wood, Nine-Ten or Serea, appears in the MICHELIN Guide without a star, Green Star or Bib Gourmand. It is a recommendation from the inspectors rather than a lower grade of cooking.
Why do Tijuana restaurants appear in the San Diego guide? The Guide's area selection for San Diego reaches across the border, so four Tijuana entries sit in the same list. They are a separate trip, not a same-night option.
The MICHELIN Guide in our other cities
The Guide publishes a selection in 12 more of the cities we cover. Each of these lists is built the same way, checked against the Guide's own entries rather than against reputation, and says plainly which tier a room actually holds.
Bangkok - Chicago - Dubai - Las Vegas - London - Los Angeles - Los Cabos - Mexico City - Miami - New York - Saigon - Vancouver
Build a custom itinerary around the venues above, or see every San Diego venue we list.
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