Where to Eat near Port of San Diego

Seafood market and restaurant on North Harbor Drive, seven minutes' walk from the pier

Order: Whatever is on the fresh sheet. The menu carries dessert and kids selections, which is the part that matters with a table of children.

Pro tip: Open from 11am seven days, and until 10pm on Friday and Saturday. It does not close between lunch and dinner, which makes it the most forgiving pre-cruise meal near the piers.

Tri-tip tacos in Seaport Village, with the doors open from 7am every day

Order: Tri-tip tacos and burritos. The shop's own headline is best tri-tip tacos and burritos, and it is not a long menu to argue with.

Pro tip: It runs 7am to 2am every day, which makes it the earliest door near the piers by a wide margin. On a morning boarding this is the answer to breakfast.

The breakfast option — 7am on weekdays, in a Broadway hotel dining room

Order: At breakfast, whatever the table can get through quickly. Later in the day the kitchen leans on fresh Pacific seafood and prime meats.

Pro tip: Weekday breakfast from 7am is the reason to know this room exists. On a Saturday or Sunday morning the published schedule does not cover you, so have a backup ready.

New Zealand cooking in Little Italy, with a kids menu it publishes on its own page

Order: The kitchen's line is New Zealand flavor with San Diego sunshine. Weekend brunch is the service to aim for.

Pro tip: Brunch runs 9am to 2pm Saturday and Sunday, with dinner from 3pm daily. We could not source a street address for it, so check the map on their own site before you set out.

Family-style Italian on Fifth Avenue, cooking for a table rather than a plate

Order: The family-style dinners. The room bills itself as authentic Italian cooking in the Gaslamp Quarter and serves accordingly.

Pro tip: Doors at 4pm daily, closing 9:30pm Sunday to Thursday and 10pm Friday and Saturday. That 4pm opening is the slot to take with young children.

Argentinian and Italian fusion on India Street, open from 11:30am on weekdays

Order: The room describes itself as Argentinian and Italian fusion, so the grill and the pasta both belong on the table.

Pro tip: It opens at 11:30am Monday to Saturday and at 1pm on Sunday, which puts it among the few Little Italy rooms that can do a real lunch before an afternoon boarding.

Gaslamp steakhouse that publishes a kids menu next to the A5 Wagyu

Order: Dry-aged USDA Prime for the adults; the kitchen lists a separate kids menu for everyone else.

Pro tip: Dinner only, 4pm to 10pm every day. With young children the 4pm opening is the slot worth taking, before the room fills up.

Baja-style Mexican and margaritas on Fifth Avenue, in the middle of the Gaslamp

Order: Baja-style Mexican, in the cantina's own words, with the lobster in the name doing most of the advertising.

Pro tip: The only times on its own Gaslamp page are happy hour, Monday to Friday 3pm to 5pm — it publishes no regular opening hours on rockinbaja.com. Call before you make the trip with a hungry family.

Oyster bar on Portside Pier, three minutes up Harbor Drive from the B Street Pier

Order: Oysters at the bar, which keeps longer hours than the dining room does.

Pro tip: The oyster bar runs 11am to 10pm Monday to Saturday while the dining room shuts between lunch and 4pm. Brigantine publishes no kids menu for this location, so do not plan an early family dinner around one.

Calabrian southern Italian cooking on India Street, built on homemade pasta and seafood

Order: The homemade pasta. Civico describes its own kitchen as Calabrian southern Italian, working from pasta, seafood and vegetable-led dishes.

Pro tip: It does not open until 4pm Monday to Thursday, and lunch only appears at weekends from noon. That makes it a night-before dinner rather than an embarkation-morning stop.

Refined American cooking on Kettner Boulevard, in the kitchen's phrase with a Left Coast edge

Order: Juniper & Ivy names no signature dish on the page we read, and the menu moves, so order what the kitchen is doing that week.

Pro tip: Dinner only, from 5pm seven days. There is no lunch service here, so it cannot rescue a midday gap before an afternoon boarding slot.

Modern Mediterranean in a converted Little Italy warehouse, dinner service only

Order: The kitchen calls itself a modern interpretation of traditional Mediterranean cooking. It names no signature plate on the contact page we read, so read the menu on the night.

Pro tip: Doors at 5pm every day, closing at 9pm Sunday to Thursday. Another night-before room, not a boarding-day one.

Fifth Avenue steakhouse that opens at 11:30am seven days a week

Order: Steak. The room describes itself as a timeless and classic American steakhouse experience, and it is not being ironic about it.

Pro tip: An 11:30am opening seven days makes this one of the few Gaslamp rooms that can do a proper sit-down lunch before an afternoon boarding window.

Spanish tapas on Fifth Avenue that keeps going well past midnight

Order: Tapas. Sevilla bills itself as a restaurant and tapas room, and the kitchen runs late alongside the bar.

Pro tip: Doors are late: 4:30pm on Monday, 3:30pm on Sunday, and a 1:30am close either way. This is a night-before venue in every sense of the phrase.

Coastal California cooking in Seaport Village, ten minutes down the Embarcadero

Order: Shorebird describes its kitchen as coastal California; its San Diego page carries no menu highlight we could quote back to you.

Pro tip: Its San Diego page shows Newport Beach times rather than San Diego ones, so it publishes no usable hours on its own site. Call before you build an evening around it.

Mediterranean counter in Seaport Village, on the same stretch of West Harbor Drive as Shorebird

Order: Zytoun calls its cooking authentic Mediterranean. It names no signature plate, so read the counter when you get there.

Pro tip: Zytoun publishes no hours on its own site, so treat Seaport Village's posted 10am to 9pm as the outer envelope rather than a promise about this counter.