San Diego loves to call itself a “world-class food city,” and on paper, it has the raw material to back that up: serious chefs, tons of money, eclectic neighborhoods, and a dining scene that can compete with bigger markets on talent alone. But there’s one thing we still don’t have, and until we do, we’re going to keep getting treated like a sunny outpost where restaurants are marketed, not evaluated. San Diego needs a real food critic.
Not a hype merchant. Not a networking columnist. Not an “expert” whose job is to keep everyone smiling so the next invite and a constant flow of freebies keep flowing. A critic. Someone who can walk into a room without being recognized, pay their own bill, and write with enough independence that the piece doesn’t read like it was approved by a publicist before it went live.
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Originally published on February 13, 2026.
