Best Lunch Restaurants in Encinitas

We love Valentina! We ordered their beyond yummy baguette, actually two of them. ;). Then the mussels and sea bass. Everything was absolutely delicious. With this said, our server could have stepped it up a bit. He seemed annoyed that we asked for tastes of wine, and, our rezie was at 5:00, so they were not busy. He did not self correct his ‘attitude’ throughout our dinner. This is the first time after many years of dining here that I have experienced something like this. One other note is while the sea bass entree was beyond delicious, it was an extremely small piece of fish. If you have not dined with Valentina, you must do so. The room is quaint and buzzing with lively energy!

My girlfriend and I go there a lot. We usually split the Caesar salad, which is the best ever Caesar! Today we split the avocado toast. It was pretty bland for our taste. We usually think of avocado toast as having some sort of little kick, but this had none. Salt and pepper helped a little, then we asked for some aoli, which was chipotle mayo, which also helped. But we both decided that we wouldn’t order it again.

The waitress was very knowledgeable of their menu and the ambience of sitting outside almost on the beach at night was so romantic. We will definitely go back and will tell our friends about the restaurant.

Gluten-free pasta was delicious as well as chocolate mousse. Only complaint, steel seats or wood benches: no cushions. Back was a little soar after dinner. Otherwise great!

Great place to watch sports for sure. Cocktails and beer selection is fantastic! We had crab cakes for an appetizer, outstanding. The shrimp and grits is very authentic New Orleans style. Great burger too. We are adding this to our rotation.