VAGA Restaurant & Bar - Encinitas, California

Christina Coons

First visit! So pleased with the entire evening. The menu is creative and varied. The execution of each dish was excellent. The view is perfect and possibly the best of North County finer dining establishments. By far though, the wait staff were friendly and attentive. We felt the love ? thank you Team VAGA, see you sooner than later!

erikmisleh82

The food portion was very small. The duck carnitas was good just not enough. The entrees were gross. They kept putting ur silverware and serving utensils directly on the table so gross.
The staff was very nice and attentive, the view is good. Definitely will not be returning or recommending to anyone.

Ali S

Great hidden gem! Located in Encinitas in the Alia Marea hotel (Hyatt), this restaurant has amazing views. Absolutely try to get in the lounge area if you can. Everything we had was great! Would 100% go back. Very relaxing, chill vibes. You won’t see a lot of locals, mostly tourists, which I don’t mind. They validate but only do valet and if you are a Hyatt member even better.

Chow with Melody

Vaga Restaurant & Bar is located in Alila Marea Beach Resort in the charming coastal town in Encinitas. The restaurant is beautiful with both an open dining area and kitchen. They also have a great space for outside dining with a view.

Before ordering, we started off with drinks. The Vaga Spritz was nice and refreshing. I also got the Hows Spicy Marg, which was also really interesting. I am not a fan of spicy drinks, but I enjoyed this one.

For appetizers, we enjoyed the Parker House Rolls and Duck Carnitas. The rolls were incredibly buttery and soft, making them a delightful start to the meal. The Duck Carnitas were exceptionally tender, falling apart with ease, while the skin was perfectly crispy. This dish quickly became one of my favorites of the night.

For the main courses, we had the Koji Hanger Steak and the Campo Grande Iberico Chops. The steak was cooked to a perfect medium-rare, served atop a rich peanut mole, with roasted shishito peppers on the side. The Campo Grande Iberico Chops, often referred to as the Wagyu of pork, were outstanding—so tender they practically melted in my mouth

We also had two sides: Hearth Fired Sweet Potatoes and Grilled Sage Hill Ranch Carrots. Both sides complimented the main courses perfectly.

We ended the night with dessert. The Mango Lassi and the Malted Chocolate Bomb. Both desserts were a treat. Not only were they tasty, but they were visually beautiful.

Beyond the incredible meal and stunning views, the service at Vaga was exceptional. Our server was friendly and offered great insights into the dishes, answering our questions and recommending the perfect sides. We had an unforgettable experience, and I’ll be dreaming of that Malted Chocolate Bomb and Duck Carnitas for a long time to come.

DBradshaw25

Hyatt Globalist. Had breakfast, lunch, and dinner here. Breakfast was delicious and the service was really great. Our server was Miele (Miley) and she was so friendly and pleasant. We had buckwheat pancakes, house sausage, and coffee. Lunch was lobster and shrimp salad (pictured) which was also excellent. Only suggestion would be to remove the tails from the shrimp before serving. Dinner was a bit more problematic; allergic to mushrooms and almost every dish had "vegetable" broth. However, the chicken entree didn't and that was amazing. Airline chicken with yucca mashed potatoes. The view if seated outside is gorgeous. Overall, I highly recommend this restaurant! Would visit again.

Emrick W

Had breakfast here during my vacation stay. Arrived at 10 AM and was informed there was a 20-minute wait list, even though 80% of the seats were empty. Waited another 20 minutes for food to be served. Ordered sausages, eggs Benedict, and fruit - the food was good, and the views were great, but the slow and cold service might keep it from being a truly good restaurant.

Pranjali Sharma

Two stars but the good food elevated this to 3 stars. The food was pretty good but we were not very happy with the service overall. I have lived in San Diego for a while and even in the most upscale restaurants, there is a sense of laidbackness and approachability. Hell, even at Addison, which is a Michelin 3 star restaurant, the staff was much more grounded than the service personnel here.

We had reservations but we got here a little early and headed to the bar when they told us that there was some time before we could be seated. The bar wasn't crazy busy but it took a while to flag a server down. It felt like they were purposely avoiding us. Once we were seated, at least I got a sense that our server had already made up their mind about us. Could it have been the way we were dressed (non-fancy outdoor clothes as opposed to being dressed to the nines? I don't know. I just know that our experience here was dimmed by the service.

Let's talk about the food and drinks - the Moscow mule and Old Fashioned were pretty strong. A mule not presented in the right drinkware is always a little disappointing. We ordered the blistered shishito peppers, mashed yucca, the sea scallops and the catch of the day, which was salmon.

Our favorite in the list was the mashed yucca. I'm not the biggest fan of yucca because it is never smooth enough in the mashed form. This was not the case with the Vaga Yucca. It was mashed to the very last millimeter and then a little more to make a smooth, delicious mash with onions and cilantro. Absolutely delicious and we highly recommend ordering this.

The sea scallops were way more delicious than the salmon. I think it was vinaigrette that was the difference between the two. I would recommend them any day.

The blistered shishito peppers were delicious but not at all spicy.

This was a pretty expensive meal. I had expected more of a Mexican twist given the history of the restaurant's owner chef. It felt more American and fusion instead. While I don't mind paying for good food, I do think that we overpaid for the whole experience as the service part was severely disappointing. San Diego has several other amazing dining experiences so I don't think we will give Vaga another try.

Matt S

What in the what?! OUTSTANDING! Hyatt Globalist here: This is the best any brand hotel restaurant I’ve dined in.
They very obviously have an amazing head chef, talented chef team, and kitchen team as well. They even have a pastry chef. Where else can you get such a high end offering? Alila, you have captured our hearts forever.
This is our second Alila property stay, and we now plan to visit them all. Call us loyalists. They’re so unique, and this particular hotel’s restaurant and food offerings are the best!
We had brunch and dinner here. We also ordered room service out of this kitchen. We dined at The Pocket too, and got drinks and merchandise at the coffee shop outside.
We had the Caesar salad, kid’s sliders, Vega burger, cookies plate, chocolate bomb, THE YAKISOBA - OMG!!!!! $20 for a beautifully balanced noodle dish that enlivens the senses. (You pay more for PF Chang’s, and you’ll sit on a sticky booth with rice on the floor!) The kimchi fried rice is excellent. We enjoyed the banana French toast, crispy thick cut bacon, market vegetarian risotto, scallops, carrots, it’s all outstanding. Omg how could I forget the rolls? The 4 pull apart rolls with the special gourmet butter is amazing. The cocktails change seasonally so there’s always something new to try—it’s like your old favorite cocktail has a seasonal twist. I love how thoughtfully this menu is designed. If Hyatt lost these chefs they’d truly be missing out. It’s the love of food and drink that comes through and communicates from the chefs directly to our hearts. You run a top notch kitchen with an attentive staff. We have to shout out Christian who helped serve us too. I made no mention of the seating but even the seating and the views are perfect.
We will definitely be back to stay and would really look forward to this experience again.