One of the greatest joys of Comic-Con is the quest for food, as regular Beat readers know. From a filling lunch consisting of a handful of carrots to a hearty dinner of clawing at the last crumbs of chips at the Wired Cafe happy hour, Comic-Con is a food orgy for the hardworking folks at Stately Beat Manor.
Luckily some people have a clearer idea of where to go to grab a bite. The folks at CCI haveput up an exhaustive list of restaurants, including many con specials where you need to just show your badge to get extra goodies or a discount. The locals love Comic-Con –it’s official!
Comics gourmet C.B. Cebluski has teamed with iFanboy’s Ron Richards, Top Cow’s Filip Sablik and Joshua Sheehan for a guide to good eats around town. It is a great guide but do these guys EVER eat anything besides burgers, fried things and steak? The Beat does better on our diet of scraps than all that red meat. However, it is agreed that the fish tacos at Tin Fish are among the best eats of the con. And that octopus carpaccio at Nobu sounds yummy, too. Got a suggestion for where to eat chicken or fish? Sound off in the comments!
Finally, the unofficial Comic-Con blog has a guide to the food carts which, like everything else, will be out in force.
A “Food Truck Food Court” will be at San Diego Comic-Con this year! Here are the details: Location: the lot located at the 1st/Island/2nd/J lot. When: Thursday, Friday, and Saturday (some trucks will be there on Sunday but most won’t) They can be selling from 10:00 am to 10:00 pm although most trucks will be gone by 8:00pm The entrance will be off 1st Ave, right next to the Comedy Central interactive park. Warner Brothers and Disney will also be doing projects in the lot. Trucks scheduled to be there include: Chop Sooey, Patty Melt, Super Q, Asian Persuasion, Two For The Road, Devilicious, SD Street Eats, Flippin Pizza and Green Truck. This list may change! Important note–there is NO public parking in the lot.
Glad to see someone using my suggestion about the food trucks…
http://www.mediumatlarge.net/2010/10/tips-tricks-for-nycc-from-lance-please.html?showComment=1286374740419#c6218346382716495218
(I made a similar suggestion here in April during MoCCA.)
Is that “truck stop” on official Con event? How do they avoid conflict with the convention center vendors?
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I’ll also repeat my dining strategy:
Stop at Ralph’s (or any decent convenience store) on the way to the Con. Purchase a box of “naked” (no chocolate covering) breakfast bars. Empty the individually wrapped bars into your bag, toss the box.
The bars are cheap ($4-5 a box), nutritious, tasty, not too messy, and one can easily snack while walking. A box will usually last the entire day of the con, until dinner time, allowing one to save time and money by not waiting in line to get overpriced food of questionable character. Whatever is not consumed one day can be consumed later… these bars require no refrigeration.
As a San Diego resident and Food Truck fan, from the above list I would recommend these options: Asian Persuasion, Two For The Road, Devilicious and Green Truck.
Just be aware that none of the trucks are particularly speedy, so aim to hit them during off-peak hours.
My Burning Kitchen posted a nice guide too:
http://myburningkitchen.com/2011/07/18/crisis-on-infinite-plates-where-to-eat-downtown/
I’m gonna go ahead and say that CB Cebulski does not ever eat anything besides burgers, fried things and steak.
I was at the beach here in San Diego two months ago and the food truck Flippin’Pizza was there selling (if I remember correctly) $2.00 pizza slices. Thin crust and not too greasy. Better than convention pizza.
No ideas for specifically chicken or fish, but a good choice for a casual lunch or dinner would be Bub’s. It’s new this year, fairly good sized, and off the beaten path of 5th Ave., so it may have less of a wait. At 7th and J, it’s still close to the convention center. It’s a sports bar with lots of TVs, free peanuts, and a big bar. They have a typical American sandwich menu, burgers, wings, and tater tots, similar to Dick’s on 5th. And according to the link, they have a 15% discount with the Con badge!
I’d also second Hodad’s for awesome burgers and Sushi Deli for good inexpensive sushi, but both of these are on Brodaway, so a bit more travel.
http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_o94oNp20g6w/TP-5EnE60vI/AAAAAAAAAcA/F3sa0vFVgE8/s1600/eataku_cbcebulski.jpg&imgrefurl=http://geekmatic.blogspot.com/2010/12/stgcc-2010-update-eataku-man-cb.html&usg=__Bi8Kd6p_CgsKHsZOsZ5B8hIdbo4=&h=537&w=720&sz=70&hl=en&start=27&sig2=Xp0UWG6MxRs-lrKzgJEyJg&zoom=1&tbnid=zMb8u4DkBrC3KM:&tbnh=129&tbnw=165&ei=85AkTuuyC_O00AGO6-yjAw&prev=/search%3Fq%3Dcb%2Bcebulski%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26safe%3Dactive%26sa%3DN%26biw%3D874%26bih%3D570%26tbm%3Disch&um=1&itbs=1&iact=hc&vpx=482&vpy=137&dur=20&hovh=194&hovw=260&tx=139&ty=119&page=3&ndsp=14&ved=1t:429,r:7,s:27
The best bet for the buck is Torsten’s suggestion of Ralphs for the wham bam meal style. They are expecting the crowd so it will be efficient. And YES, the ballpark is finally playing… well, you know what I was about to say, with the Con and that big parking lot next to the bridge that is finally done is going to have a load of video game tents and food, AND portapotties.
This year the Gaslamp Quarter Association is embracing it more too. Here is a collection of offsite events that may help.
http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?msid=210756181766596851307.0004a85f566ed2c539be9&msa=0&ll=32.711821,-117.160113&spn=0.01188,0.027788
My joint, Industry Showroom, is hosting the Sega Lounge and right next door there is a massive display of Marvel themed monster trucks which is way cooler than I thought it could be.