Healthy Restaurants in San Diego
Updated weekly · Last refresh: September 7, 2026
The highest-protein restaurant food in San Diego is concentrated somewhere most macro guides overlook: breakfast. Across the 171 meals we track at 15 San Diego restaurants, the highest-protein plate in the city is Broken Yolk Cafe's New York Steak & Eggs at 64g of protein for 600 calories — better than one gram of protein per ten calories, which is a ratio very little else on this list matches.
The rest of the breakfast tier follows the same pattern. Snooze's Habanero Pork Belly Benny carries 62g of protein, though at 1,480 calories it is also the most calorie-dense item in our San Diego data, and First Watch's Farm Stand Breakfast Tacos reach 52g at 1,000 calories. If protein is the only number you care about, breakfast wins outright here. If you are watching calories at the same time, the Broken Yolk plate is the one worth planning around.
Lunch and dinner shift toward composed salads and burgers. Tender Greens' Tuna Nicoise Salad and Urban Plates' Grilled Wild Ahi Nicoise both land at 51g of protein for 850 calories, and Urban Plates' Salmon Caesar reaches 48g at 760. True Food Kitchen's Grass-Fed Burger is the leanest of the 50g-plus options at 660 calories, while its Rancher's Hash tops that restaurant's own menu at 57g. Sweetgreen's Hot Honey Chicken Plate sits at 52g for 920 calories, and Tender Greens' Grilled Chicken Cobb Salad at 49g for 700.
Ninety-one of the San Diego meals we track clear 30g of protein, so hitting a target in this city is less about finding one particular restaurant than about knowing which item on a familiar menu carries the load. Dishes built around a named protein — ahi, salmon, grilled chicken, steak — consistently outperform anything built on a grain or bread base, and the gap is usually 15 to 20 grams. Sort the table below by protein, calories, carbs, or fat to compare before you order.
Editor's Top Protein Pick
Broken Yolk Cafe's New York Steak & Eggs is the highest-protein item we track here: 64g protein, 600 calories.