Valle

After a long day at the beach getting sand in every bodily crevice possible, a meal at Valle will make you feel like a brand new person (just please shower first). The oceanfront view is perfect to impress on date night, even though you might fight over who gets to face the water.

When it comes to the food, they do an eight-course tasting menu that puts a Baja California spin on surf and turf: tamales with mole coloradito, braised lamb in birria broth, and plates of fish so artsy they deserve to be in LACMA. For $120 you can add on the wine pairing, which is worth it to try Mexican wines from Baja California’s Valle de Guadalupe, an area that’s not too far away but whose bottles still aren’t too common in San Diego yet.