Parc Bistro-Brasserie

On our list of the best special-occasion restaurants in San Diego.

On Fifth Avenue in Bankers Hill, catty-corner from The Abbey's gold-domed steeple, a sidewalk brasserie serves Chef Benjamin Navarro's French menu: potato soup with bacon, a cheese board stacked with Mimolette and Roquefort, steak frites, and towering seafood platters. A weekday happy hour from three to seven brings truffle fries, a kale salad, and oysters to the same tables. San Diego Reader's Tin Fork column found the terrace crowded with regulars trading talk of grants and houseguests over glasses of Cotes du Rhone.