Best Restaurants for Local Ingredients in San Diego

This was our first time at Arlo. It is to the left side of the hotel entrance and down a short walkway. It isn’t clearly marked in the evening. You park in the parking garage nearby and Arlo validates. We started with drinks and I had the blood orange gin fizz. It was very good. My husband had the Arlo old fashioned and liked it. We started with the bread appetizer. It was a small round split in four pieces and crisped in a wood fired oven before it came to the table. It was crispy on the outside and soft inside. It was served with sea salt and a compound butter. For dinner two people had the Wagyu meatloaf with mushroom gravy and I had the Calabrian chili shrimp pasta. Both were excellent. The pasta had some heat but not too much and the pasta was Al dente. We were too full for dessert but my mom had the espresso martini and said it was perfect. I tried some and agreed not too sweet with the perfect strength of coffee to balance the taste. The service was wonderful. We didn’t wait too long before our server came to the table. She gave us highlights of the menu and her recommendations. They were very good about keeping our water glasses filled and clearing dishes without us feeling like we were being rushed. We will be back to try other menu items like the mussels and Brussels sprouts!

Third time and by far the most consistently excellent dining experience we’ve had in San Diego. The sourdough was lovely, especially the butter that came with… the biscuit also had great texture and a lovely sage butter. The baba ganoush plate was great though a little bread heavy and not quite enough BG. Pork belly outstanding on all accounts. The large steak for two was cooked perfectly, though the potato skin on the stuffed potato was a bit oily (probably just needs higher temperature on the oil or a change of oil). We are dessert people (hey Claire Saffitz) so we had the apple pie ice cream, orange creamsicle sorbet, and the “Ferrero Rocher.” All outstanding. Still our favorite celebration spot in SD.

Best French onion soup in California, just fantastic. Excellent roast duck breast in huckleberry sauce with Swiss chard gratin, tremendous. Seafood cannelloni overpowered by tarragon, the herb not mentioned in the menu description — in a sign of truly great service, when my wife could not eat it the restaurant offered an alternative and did not charge for the dish. Truly superb Grand Marnier soufflé for dessert. Good wine list w mix of French and California wines. This is a great restaurant! 

I have been here 6 times since it opened in June, the food and service is amazing!

It was an amazing experience I recommend it very much. The worker are actually Italian and know what they are doing, and the food is incredibly good, highly recommend.