Photograph Courtesy Herb & Wood

Our critic’s favorite main: roasted branzino at Herb & Wood.

This year makes it 10 that I’ve been visiting San Diego restaurants and writing about it for the Reader’s Feast column, so I’m taking a look back at a few the best things I’ve eaten while on the job. These are my standouts from the past 10 years, by course.

When it comes to nicer restaurants, appetizers have been more likely to stand out than main courses in my recollections, so I’ve had a few to choose from. It’s been only a couple years since I spooned mussels out of a cold coconut broth at Kingfisher in Golden Hill, but I’ve thought about that moment often since: my surprise both at the mussels’ firm texture and the chili spice knifing through the cool coconut. I’d have forgotten what I ordered next if I hadn’t written it down.

For the pasta course, the only place my mind goes is the uni pasta at Nine-Ten, which has kept up admirable continuity as the hotel restaurant of La Jolla’s Grande Colonial since I first visited a decade ago. I can’t say how often they bring back those noodles coated in emulsified sea urchin, but I’ve never met a better food pairing for the sweet ocean air of Southern California.

When it comes to mains, I do remember quite enjoying the whole branzino roasted from the wood-fired kitchen of Herb & Wood, back when it first opened in 2016. I’ve ordered branzino in the Mediterranean several times since but never had it cooked so well.

As it happens, my most memorable side dish likewise came out of a woodfire restaurant that opened in 2016: this time Campfire in Carlsbad. I’ve dined at Campfire a number of times, but all I remember is the broccoli. And it’s not just me. I’ve found people posting copycat recipes online, hoping to recreate the charred florets and the savory North African chermoula sauce that makes it go.

For dessert, my thoughts turn to one of San Diego’s many homemade ice cream shops. Mutual Friend, another Golden Hill business, debuted in 2018 with a roasted banana and peanut butter cup ice cream that beats anything Ben & Jerry’s ever concocted. And yes, I am surprised as you to discover that my favorite ice cream flavor is banana.

Finally: I hope I am not alone in adding a taco course to my dinners. (This takes place after dessert, when I stop by a taco stand on the way home from the restaurant to pick up what you might call a taco digestif.) Either way, biting into a fried oyster taco for the first time at TJ Oyster Bar in Bonita clearly stands out as a moment when all the world fell away and it was just me and a taco alone in the universe. It’s a cherished memory.

Not incidentally, my best taco moment in Tijuana was trying the adobada from Tacos El Franc, a taco stand now recommended by Michelin. All year, the place has teased opening a States-side location in the Plaza Bonita Mall in National City. If and when it does finally open, I look forward to writing about it.