Mabel's Gone Fishing

Fantastic food, great vibe, friendly helpful service with recommendations at the ready. See my pictures- highly recommend the chef's tasting menu ($85pp)! You get a lil taste of everything, 4 courses, some I wouldn't have thought to order, and all was tasty! Cocktails were so yummy! Refreshing and great pours. Ask your server for recs! G&T, Gimlets, Negronis... if you like Gin this is your bar!

Wow! Ring the alarm! This place is fire!This is my 70th Yelp review so TRUST ME when I say: Mabel's is something special. One of the best restaurants in San Diego and probably the best in North Park.I don't like gin and tonic but the Spanish G&T was amazing. I recently had oysters at Ironside; this place blows them out of the water. (No pun intended.) The smoked mackerel will challenge your expectations of what "fish on bread" can taste like. The squid salad must have had 37 unique flavors in it. The swordfish was probably the least complex flavor-wise but was the heartiest and much better than any slab of fish you'll get at another place. The cheesecake is their recommended dessert and was much softer than typical cheesecake. (So good!) Our server was friendly and classy and the atmosphere is awesome if you sit at the bar facing the kitchen. I would avoid the patio seating; this place is too nice to blow it sitting on 30th.Hands down a must try restaurant. I'll be back for the oyster happy hour at 4 pm one of these days.

Really great experience. Good variety of food, all of it delicious. Good drinks, better dessert. We especially liked the cheese, the swordfish, and the affogato. Service was very welcoming. Felt like they were happy we were there, which is not as common a feeling as it used to be.

We did the tasting and it was the best deal because you got a little bit of everything. Overall pretty good. The fish was so spectacular like I wanted to cry. So many olives to start out with though. Fresh seafood and good little tastings but needed more bread halfway.

Have had this on my list for the longest time and finally had the opportunity to stop by on a Wednesday night! Were able to grab a spot at the bar in front of the chefs without waiting at all. Off the bat, I loved the vibe of this restaurant. It was very open and had a lot of natural light, and I loved the ability to watch the chefs work at the bar. I very attentive and sweet waitress took care of us and was able to walk us through the menu. We decided to snack on the Hiramasa and the butter beans - we were not that hungry but wanted to try out a few dishes. The Hiramasa was very fresh and had a nice citrus sweet flavor, but I did not think it was worth the $18 cost. The butter beans had a great flavor and was very creamy, but the chorizo was very tough and hard to bite through. I am excited to come back from the atmosphere and to try more dishes!

Dining at Mabel's Gone Fishing requires advanced planning because if you're trying to stop by with a large group without a reservation, you will likely have to wait a long time because of how popular the place is.My friends and I stopped by for dinner on our first evening in San Diego and we thoroughly enjoyed our experience here. The waitress who served our table was very knowledgeable with the menu and had good recommendations in terms of dishes and how much we should be ordering.They have a Happy Hour from 4:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. that we caught the tail-end of which gave us a $1 discount off of our first cocktail. Drinks here are creative and tasty, so it's definitely worth trying out a few that catch your eye.My favorite dish was the mussel escabeche followed by their toast topped with shredded fish. For a large group, it can get pricey quickly because of how small the dishes are and due to the included 20%+ service charge. Not a place you'll leave feeling full, but you'll enjoy your experience nonetheless.

Updated review 6/28I have a standing reservation here every Friday night now I love how the menu keeps changing although a few notes of what I would like to see stay the same. I wish every week they at least had one salad dish on the menu, I loved the apple cheddar salad and the beet salad but it's no longer there anymore. Here are a few recent ratings for their newer menu items: Summer Squash 6.5/10 - still good but would not get again it's one of those things you try once Peas & Jamon 7.5/10 - I prefer this over the summer squash you definitely get more for your $ and it's brighter in taste Mussels Escabeche 10/10- I can't have shellfish but the other guests in my party absolutely devoured this dish and licked the plate Apple cheddar salad 9/10- Very summery loved it Tuna appetizer 10/10- I tried the yellowtail the first time and this one did not disappoint either both great raw dishes would love to see more raw dishes that aren't shellfish on the menuBass 6/10 - I previously rated this a 10/10 but on my most recent visit it was over cooked and extremely dry it was disappointing because the first time I had it was great Dirty martini 10/10 - the bartenders here know what's up excellent martini Basque cheesecake 11/10 - quite possibly the best cheesecake I've ever had I would add more of the goat milk caramel sauce to the plates because it's the star of the dish EXCELLENT!! What I would love to see on the menu: -pan con tomate w/ Jamon -patatas bravas maybe w/ a smoky aioli-some sort of whole fish ex: Mediterranean seabass-more salads (buratta or goat cheese, peaches, endives, etc) -more non shellfish raw fish -a really cool take on an empanada -some kind of hummus dish maybe a whipped eggplant hummus?-since this restaurant has a lot of gin based drinks a new cocktail like the 'clover club' or a spin on one would do well :)

Damn, the Spanish G and T went down quickly. A really fun night, with great food. Squid salad-a plethora of flavors, the bread is not to be missed with the excellent salted butter. Pan con tomato-each bite so flavorful. You can't lose if you order ham or cheese. Waitress went above and beyond and was incredibly kind. Quite plentiful servings for small plates, so much so that we took home the Basque cheesecake for later because it looked like something that should not be missed.

Sooo good. And such a good deal during happy hour, which is literally only an hour from 4 to 5 and it gets packed! We got there around 4:10 and got a seat at the bar. It filled up within another 10 or so minutes although hh is throughout the restaurant. We got the rotating g&t and the Spanish g&t. The rotating one had a strong grapefruit flavor and slight bitterness which I loved. Both drinks are a great size at $11 on happy hour. We also got the olives to split and they were good. A mix of kalamata and green.

Super Wow! Cocktails, Wine, Small Plates. Thank you Danny and Luna, chef and team...amazing, as usual!