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Food + drink calendar
Dates, ticket prices, and what actually happens at every major eating-and-drinking festival in San Diego County — starting with the Del Mar Wine & Food Festival, September 30 to October 4.
The Del Mar Wine & Food Festival runs September 30 – October 4, 2026, with the two-day Grand Tasting at Surf Sports Park on October 3–4 and general admission starting around $185 per day. The San Diego Bay Wine & Food Festival follows on the downtown Embarcadero in November, and San Diego Restaurant Week returns each January and late September at 180-plus restaurants.
If you are planning around a specific trip month, this is the shortcut. Dates shift by a week or two year to year, but the pattern holds.
| Month | What's on | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| January | San Diego Restaurant Week (winter edition) | Prix-fixe lunches from about $15 and dinners from $30 at 180-plus restaurants. The single cheapest week of the year to eat at the city's expensive rooms. |
| February | Lunar New Year Food Festival (Convoy), San Diego Beer Week satellites | Convoy District street food, lion dancing and Vietnamese and Chinese bakeries running special menus. |
| March | Ocean Beach Restaurant Walk, St. Patrick's Day block parties | Small neighborhood tasting walks. Cheap tickets, walkable, and rarely sold out. |
| April | Adams Avenue Unplugged, Earth Fair food row (Balboa Park) | Free entry, food-truck heavy. Balboa Park's Earth Fair is one of the biggest free gatherings in the county. |
| May | Cinco de Mayo Old Town, Fiesta Old Town, Gator by the Bay | Gator by the Bay in Spanish Landing is the crawfish-and-zydeco one; Old Town is free and packed. |
| June | Chula Vista HarborFest, Taste of Downtown, San Diego County Fair opens | The Fair's food row runs through early July and is the deep-fried headline of the summer. |
| July | Little Italy FESTA! previews, Comic-Con pop-up menus | Downtown restaurants run Comic-Con tie-in menus in the third week; reservations are essentially mandatory. |
| August | Taste of North Park, Julian Blues & Brews | North Park's wristband walk is the best value tasting event in the city. |
| September | Del Mar Wine & Food Festival opens Sept 30, Restaurant Week (fall edition), Turf & Surf Lobster Festival | The busiest food month of the year. Book chef dinners in July or August. |
| October | Del Mar Grand Tasting (Oct 3–4), Little Italy FESTA!, Oktoberfest in La Mesa and Ocean Beach | FESTA! shuts down India Street and is free to walk. |
| November | San Diego Bay Wine & Food Festival, San Diego Beer Week | The Embarcadero Grand Tasting is the largest single pour event in the county. |
| December | Holiday markets, December Nights food row (Balboa Park) | December Nights draws 350,000 people over two nights and the international food court is the main reason. |
The county's biggest culinary week: five days of chef dinners, guided tastings, and a two-day Grand Tasting with hundreds of bites and pours, chef demos, and lawn games.
Official site & ticketsLobster and steak served trackside during the Del Mar race meet — the easiest way to combine a food festival with a day at the races.
Official site & ticketsBack for the first time since 2019: bayfront food vendors, a classic car expo, lucha libre, and family activities. The best free food event in the South Bay.
Official site & ticketsThe cheapest way to try expensive rooms. Book the top-tier restaurants the day menus go live — the good seats disappear in hours.
Official site & ticketsSix blocks of Italian food stalls, the Gesso Italiano chalk-art competition, and stage music. Go early — India Street is shoulder-to-shoulder by noon.
Official site & ticketsThe waterfront counterpart to Del Mar's festival, with cooking classes, a chef of the fest competition, and a bayfront Grand Tasting.
Official site & ticketsSouthern California's largest free music festival doubles as a street-food crawl through Normal Heights, with beer gardens anchoring each end.
Official site & ticketsOne wristband, dozens of North Park kitchens and bars pouring samples — the best single-day snapshot of the city's most active restaurant corridor.
Official site & ticketsSeptember 30 through October 4, 2026. The week opens with the Signature San Diego party at Monarch Ocean Pub on September 30 and finishes with the two-day Grand Tasting at Surf Sports Park on October 3–4.
General admission to the Grand Tasting starts around $185 for a single day, with VIP and two-day passes priced higher. Chef dinners, the Rioja Uncorked tasting, and the celebrity pickleball tournament are ticketed separately.
The Del Mar Wine & Food Festival in early October and the San Diego Bay Wine & Food Festival in November are the two largest ticketed events. San Diego Restaurant Week is the largest by participation, with more than 180 restaurants countywide.
Yes. Chula Vista HarborFest, Little Italy FESTA!, and the Adams Avenue Street Fair are all free to enter — you only pay for what you eat and drink.
Use the month-by-month calendar on this page. Broadly: January and late September are Restaurant Week, June through August is fair and street-fair season, early October is the Del Mar Wine & Food Festival, and November is the San Diego Bay Wine & Food Festival plus San Diego Beer Week.
Restaurant Week runs twice a year — a winter edition in January and a fall edition in late September. Both last eight days, need no ticket or pass, and offer prix-fixe lunches from roughly $15 and dinners from roughly $30 to $80 at more than 180 restaurants.
Cocktail-casual for the Del Mar and Bay Grand Tastings, with flat shoes — both are on grass or pavement and you will stand for three to four hours. Free street festivals like FESTA! and Adams Avenue are shorts-and-sneakers events.
At the Del Mar and San Diego Bay Grand Tastings, yes — the wine, beer and spirits pours are included in general admission. At the free street festivals you buy food and drink tickets à la carte once inside.
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Written and fact-checked by the Sandi Spots Editorial team — San Diego residents publishing under Sleep Coast LLC. Every place we recommend has been visited in person or verified against an official source, and no business can pay for inclusion or a higher ranking. Last updated .