Ratings are on a scale of 0 to 24.  The scale used to be 0 to 10, so restaurants written about before 2012 may have only had their ratings adjusted by formula and not by hand (hence all the 2s, 5s, 8s, etc.)  The scale works as follows:

An asymmetrical 0 to 24 scale may not be intuitive, I realize.  But as a rule of thumb: a double-digit score means I liked it, while a single-digit score… less so.  Also, as you might expect, scores from many years ago may not be very reliable, so do check the dates.

San Diego County

It's sort of like the South, only with lower humidity and more pandas.

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Name	Cuisine	Address	Last update	Score
Cantina Panaderia	Latin/Asian	Felspar & Cass, San Diego	2007-11-11	14
Pressed into service after Spread stopped serving brunch without mentioning it on its web site, this place turned out to be a better backup option than we probably had a right to expect. I had custardy coconut French toast with raspberry puree, while Elizabeth had some potatoes with avocadoes and beans and things that she mentioned favorably several times during the rest of the trip.
Don Carlos Taco Shop	Mexican (taqueria)	Pearl btw Eads/Mabel Bell, La Jolla	2015-02-13	8
Read some rave reviews, but maybe I ordered the wrong thing: the taquitos I got seemed a little industrial and were topped with an equally industrial cheese.
Extraordinary Desserts	Dessert	5th & Palm, San Diego	2007-11-12	8
Thumbs up for the variety — I got blood orange cake after eyeing a chocolate pecan pie and a pistachio almond chocolate thingie. But it is pricey and the actual desserts themselves, while not bad, were somewhat underwhelming.
Mamá Testa	Mexican (tacos)	University & Richmond, San Diego	2013-12-19	13
Many many varieties of tacos. Both times I've gone I've had the combination of four tiny steamed ones with different fillings — surprisingly good considering how simple they appear.
Sunny Side Kitchen	Breakfast/lunch	Orange & 2nd, Escondido	2020-01-02	14
This place specializes in panini, and apparently the panini are sufficiently special that this hole in the wall in Escondido has landed in Yelp's top fifty restaurants. I had half of an avocado, egg, and cheese panino. It was pretty dang tasty. I would go here again if I were in Escondido. I would be unlikely to go here if I were not in Escondido.
the Mission	Breakfast/lunch	local chain, San Diego	2013-12-19	12
Here I had the "papas loco," rosemary potatoes topped with burrito fillings, accompanied by scrambled eggs. At the best Mexican breakfast places this sort of thing becomes greater than the sum of its parts, but here it was pretty much exactly what it sounds like. Which is still plenty good.
Tommy's Mexican Food	Mexican (taqueria)	Voltaire btw Famosa/San Clemente, San Diego	2013-12-19	7
This place is known for its thick handmade tortillas — more of a grilled flatbread than a tortilla, really. I got a standard veggie burrito; the special tortilla was tasty, but the fillings were subpar. Yelp, with its 4½ stars, is being silly again.

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