Restaurants in Fallbrook

Once known as Da Kitchen and Mo’s Island Grinds, Homestyle Hawaiian keeps the home-cooked tradition alive, infusing fresh island fare with the familiar flavors of down-home cooking. A menu fit for breakfast, lunch, dinner, and dessert features combo plates stacked with Hawaiian classics, such as meat jhun and kalua pig, which refuel diners hungered from long days of shooting ex-boyfriends' furniture out of a cannon, and bites laden with other Asian flavors, including Korean-style chicken. The kitchen crew ends hearty meals with Hawaiian shaved ice and four types of crème brûlée, including toasted coconut and bananas foster.

For 26 years, The Gathering's award-winning kitchen has prepared a swath of grilled American fare that integrates seafood, steak, and veggies. Restaurateur and magician Dan Thomas wanders between tables at dinner, performing card tricks as diners look up from their plates of meaty crepes. He emphasizes that humans are “analog in a digital world,” and he sees restaurants as one of the last places where people can experience neighborly hospitality and snack on all the semiconductors they can eat.

Sertinos Café makes visitors feel right at home with its welcoming wood interior and made-to-order cuisine. The staffers layer each sandwich with whole-roasted meats and premium cheese, which they stuff into panini bread and baguettes toasted to a golden brown. They also provide the same care and attention to detail to their house beverages, hand-roasting more than 20 organic coffees in small batches and brewing imported loose-leaf teas that are available by the cup or pot. Guests can devour their treats in the café’s fireside seating area, which is furnished with oversized armchairs and pillows embroidered with the soup du jour.

Just as with birthdays, phone numbers, and wearing pants, everybody forgets to make a lunch sometimes. Load up on layered loafs with today’s Groupon, which gets you $10 worth of Quiznos food at its Preston Road location for $5.

For more than 30 years, Quiznos has toasted its submarine sandwiches to bring out the hidden flavors found in butcher-quality meats, cheese, and artisan breads. Its classic and signature subs take on a variety of shapes, sizes, and styles ranging from the prime rib mushroom and swiss to the classic italian donning black olives, mozzarella, red-wine vinaigrette, and plentiful sliced meats. Those closely monitoring their waistlines can take unabashed bites of sandwiches that have fewer than 500 calories, such as the pork-cuban, Baja-chicken, and veggie-caprese subs. Quiznos' Sub Sliders offer slimmer versions of sub fare and flaunt supreme aerodynamics when shot out of T-shirt cannons and into mouths. A selection of Flatbreads, soups, and salads round out Quiznos' varied menu.

Crepes are by definition light and delicate, a stark contrast to the heavy metal aesthetic of Rockin Crepes where chefs in black T-shirts name dishes after bands such as Motley Crue or White Zombie. Ingredients such as dark chocolate, strawberries, and marshmallow cream inspired diners to elect Rockin Crepes a finalist for CityVoter's Best Desserts in Orange County in 2011, but the menu also conquers savory territory. Fondue plates give diners the chance to dunk morsels of focaccia bread, marshmallows, or fruit into creamy melted cheeses and chocolates, and smoothies deliver blends of fresh fruit without any additional sugars, syrups, or cherry-shaped air fresheners. Rockin Crepes encourages their guest's inner children with vintage Atari games and brings out their inner fanatics with sport nights featuring NBA, NHL, and college football games on 15 televisions.