Piper

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

Chef Chris Carriker, a Pacific Northwest transplant who trained at Western Culinary Institute and later ran the kitchen at Ponto Lago, oversees Piper inside the Seabird Ocean Resort a few steps from Oceanside Pier. Mornings lean toward breakfast and brunch. By dinner the room turns into what the resort calls a warmly intimate space, with an open kitchen, a full bar and a wraparound patio facing the coast, pastas, steak and seafood anchoring the menu. Pastry chef Jacquelin handles dessert, work the restaurant has put on a three-course San Diego Restaurant Week menu for four years running.