Best Restaurants for Local Ingredients in University Heights

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!

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! 

Isola has the best pizza in little Italy. The wood fired grill adds something special to the flavor and the crust is perfectly crisp, the ingredients fresh and flavorful. The service was impeccible. Great dinner or date spot.

Our GO TO for Italian food in San Diego! Always good

Attended the 5-course Christmas Eve dinner. It was worth every penny- from start to finish it was coursed beautifully, ingredients were fresh and cooked perfectly to temp, plating was festive and colourful; and all this with just the right timed check-ins from my bartender/server James. The couple next to me did the wine pairing and everything was explained nicely and paired well... along with some fun history & stories- I opted for the cocktails which were creative and utilized some lovely ingredients as well as being well balanced.