Ironside Fish and Oyster Jason McLeod Ironside Fish & Oyster

Ironside Fish & Oyster Menu

1654 India St. (Date St.)
San Diego, CA 92101
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Cuisine: Seafood / Raw Bar / California
Oysters, fresh fish, cocktail culture and a high-energy vibe define this Little Italy favorite.
Openings: Lunch & Dinner daily

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Ironside Fish & Oyster, San Diego, CA


Ironside Fish & Oyster Restaurant Review:


Executive chef Jason McLeod has partnered with CH Projects to create Little Italy's Ironside Fish & Oyster. The restaurant honors the seaport city's history as the tuna capitol of the U.S. with its seafood-centric menu that changes twice daily, depending on fresh catch. The 1920s warehouse, smartly redesigned to the tune of $1.8 million, is packed nightly. Imbibers enjoy the showpiece, towering, 14-foot steel bar trellis and an extensive drinks menu of clever cocktails, fortified wines, digestifs and even cocktails-on-the-half-shell served with single oysters. Ironside is a sum of its moving parts with its communal tables, in-house bakery, lobster-filled tank, sprawling raw bar, exhibition kitchen and buttoned-up servers. A lit-up marquee announces the daily oysters, so start there, then order some Baja stone crab claws. We recommend the fresh apple and beet salad with Purple Haze goat cheese and the pork belly with roasted grape compote. A pretty fan of crisped skate lies on celery root purée, enlivened with the salty spell of caper berries; a tower of buttermilk chicken oysters arrives in oyster shells on a bed of salt. Fresh fish ranges from mahi mahi, wahoo and grouper to trout and whole rock cod. Chilled fudge and caramel comes with candied pink peppercorns for a flashy finish. Happy hour means $1 oysters.