It’s always a good sign when the parking lot is full. Due to the pandemic, Super Cocina converted part of its lot to a patio, which makes parking trickier, but worth it as ever. The homestyle dishes are deeply seasoned and taste like your grandma made them, if your grandma was an abuela and she was the best cook ever. The menu changes frequently, but recent offerings have included a goat soup in a chestnut brown, umami-rich broth, carnitas (that had a hint of heat), four kinds of enchiladas, two kinds of empanadas (chicken and cheese, drenched in sour cream, shredded lettuce and crumbled cheese), a smoky, subtly spicy, fork-tender adobo pork and a homey beef stew that whispers “autumn,” miraculously, without pumpkin spice.

A few miles north of San Diego’s Filipino dining destination (also known as National City), Fredcel offers many of those same dishes in a very different venue: no long lines, no buffet. Just the food behind a display case, ready for consumption. This family-run kitchen, in a bright yellow building around the corner from a dollar store, churns out Filipino standards like beef lumpia, pancit and chicken adobo. While a quick lunch is one way to go, Fredcel is especially geared toward catering. Trays of various sizes, with prices written in large sans serif labels, make figuring out quantities easy.

The name says it all: pupusas and more. And yet the name doesn’t reveal that there’s also a selection of Mexican standards, plus El Salvadoran-style tamales. Fillings are half of what makes a pupusa great; here they include broccoli, chicken, fish, chicharron, and cheese with pepperoni. The other half is the masa. Put them together, heat until everything gets gooey, and you get pockets of goodness that are best consumed in groups of at least three. The Mexican side of the extensive menu has beef birria and options like tacos, tostadas, quesadillas and burritos. Worth a sip: atol de elote, a warm breakfast drink.

The first thing to know about FireBirds is that the chicken may be the main draw, but it’s far from the only thing worth exploring on the menu. About that chicken: The sandwiches and sliders are stacked and smothered with toppings like diced bacon, buffalo sauce, and fresh veggies. (For people who like their chicken unsmothered, The restaurant also has simple fried tenders with a side of coleslaw, toast and a sauce on the side.) Beyond chicken there are fried pickles, loaded fries in four styles (simple or drizzled with onion strings, blue cheese and various sauces), coleslaw and mac and cheese.

El Borrego and barbacoa. The two are inextricably linked in City Heights. Perhaps in San Diego. It’s hard to think of one without the other. That’s all due to the exquisite care that the owners, Rodnia Novarro and her mother Rosario Sotelo, put into every dish, from the slow roasted lamb to cafe de la olla. The menu is a window into Mexican cuisine that goes beyond carnitas and menudo, with nopal (cactus) salad, pozole and the juicy meat that makes this place the go-to spot for lamb barbacoa.

Tucked inside Donut Star at Fairmount and University Avenues, Ali’s chicken hits the trifecta of craveability: tender (despite being breast meat), flavorful (seasoned with a bit of a kick but not to the point where it burns), and golden (because that also matters, right?). The kitchen, which is halal, has other Southern essentials like mac and cheese and cheesy shrimp and grits and waffles, plus Thai Tea and Ali’s fries, topped with cheese sauce, corn pico, diced chicken and chipotle mayo, because why not? Sauces, 50 cents each, include herb mayo, chipotle mayo, Ali sauce and coconut syrup. That syrup, by the way — it’s transformative.

Meats are the draw at this taco shop: adobada, lengua, birria, cabeza, tripa, the list goes on. It’s not just about the meat, though. It’s how the kitchen handles them: drench them in cheese and slap tortillas around them, and you get mulitas. Plop them between buns and you get massive tortas. The restaurant’s set up, with a counter at the front and a dining room with about eight tables and a TV in the back, is pandemic-friendly (easy for ordering takeout right by the front door). And the prices are budget-friendly, too: around $2 a piece, and hefty enough that customerscan have a solid meal for under $10.

True to its name, this Tijuana-style coffee and dessert shop fills a much-needed gap in the City Heights caffeine landscape, considering this zip code of 65,000 has only a handful of independent coffee shops (and a Starbucks). As a cafe, it serves two styles of espresso prepared with beans from James Coffee Co.: the classics, plus Mexican twists like cajeta and mazapan lattes. As a dessert shop, it doles out locally sourced ice cream scoops in flavors like passion fruit, cappuccino and horchata. The small, colorful back patio is a quiet oasis, perfect for co-working or a moment of calm. Above all: the cold brew float is the perfect fix for days that simply require coffee AND ice cream.

Eli‘s serves traditional Peruvian dishes with appetizers costing between $3 (for sweet corn tamales) and $18 (for halibut ceviche with sweet potato and Peruvian corn) and entrees priced between $14 for a quarter of a Peruvian-style rotisserie chicken and $19 for lomo saltado. Other offerings include a trio of sauces (green, red and yellow), chicha morada (Peru’s traditional purple corn drink), a lucuma ice cream and a Peruvian lager.

When San Diego gets chilly (read: the weather dips below 70), pho is always the answer. Full stop. One of several Vietnamese restaurants that line Little Saigon, Phở Ca Dao Restaurant (not to be confused with the chain of that same name) excels in classic dishes like its namesake pho, which it serves with brisket, tripe, tendon, oxtail, meatballs, and many combinations thereof all topped with fresh basil leaves, bean sprouts, cilantro, jalapeno, and lime. Rice noodles, broken rice, a broad kids menu and a mix of rolls (fresh and fried) round out the offerings, where portions tend to be on the bigger side.