Recommendations for fine dining/ haute cuisine in San Diego?

This company owns the best restaurants and bars in San Diego, IMO. Born and Raised is high end and quite a fun experience simply because of how it is decorated.

If you have time, their other bars and restaurants are all stunning. Noble Experiment is notoriously hard to get into, as it only has like 12 stools, but you can go online and make a reservation. False Idol is also a speakeasy you want to reserve, but it is slightly more laid back and tiki themed. It is located inside of another bar they own called Craft and Commerce, which is so badass they have a whole stuffed mountain lion in the glass behind their beer taps.

They also have a brunch restaurant I haven't eaten in, but if you wake up and want to continue the upscale, it is very beautiful.

I could easily go to San Diego and hit all of these people's spots and never go anywhere else.

Beyond these people's places, I really enjoyed Juniper and Ivy. They've won a lot of awards and been recognized nationally, just like Born and Raised above.

Beyond those, there are some really cool places that are "upscale" on like the Baton Rouge scale but maybe not in a larger city. Kettner Exchange, Nobu, Searsucker, etc.

I've been to San Diego 9(?)ish times now and it is really my favorite city to hang out.

There's some place that always comes up on my searches called Mister A's that looks pretty high end and the menu looks great, but I haven't been.

Born & Raised remains my #1 by far - your wife will swoon over the decor. But I also just remembered another spot great for drinks. It is technically a Japanese restaurant but I wasn’t really interested in the food. It’s called Cloak and Petal. They have this huge (artificial obviously) Japanese cherry blossom acting as the ceiling above the bar.

Almost all of the suggestions I’ve given so far except for Nobu are in Little Italy. But if you’ll be downtown, two more recommendations. Fifth and Rose is a high end bar inside of The Pendry hotel. It’s right outside of Petco Park. Speaking of which, if you will be there during baseball season, go to the top floor of the Gaslamp Marriott and visit The Altitude Sky Lounge. It directly overlooks Petco Park and you can watch the games from the roof.

This is the view from last time I was there -

Asti is a very good Italian restaurant in the Gaslamp District.

the food scene in Tijuana is much Much MUch MUCh MUCH better than San Diego. San Diego is overpriced and overrated for food. That is not up for debate

If you want Mexican We like Café Coyote in Old Town.

Cafe Cyote