Restaurant in San Diego, United States
Michelin-recognised American food, no planning required.
A Michelin Plate American kitchen in San Diego's Hillcrest neighbourhood, recognised in both 2024 and 2025, with a single-dollar-sign price tag and easy booking. Great Maple is the practical answer for a late dinner or a return visit when you want consistent quality without the cost or lead time of the city's top-tier tables. Rated 4.6 across more than 4,100 reviews.
If you are in Hillcrest after 9 PM looking for a Michelin-recognised American kitchen that won't require a month of advance planning or a three-figure spend, Great Maple is the answer. This is the place for the return visitor who has already done the tourist-track dinner and wants something dependable, affordable, and open later than most of the neighbourhood. It holds a Michelin Plate for 2024 and 2025, which puts it in a different conversation from the average comfort-food diner on Washington Street, and its single-dollar-sign price range means you can eat well here without building a case for it in advance.
A 4.6 Google rating across more than 4,100 reviews is not a fluke. That kind of score at that volume suggests consistency, which matters more than peak performance when you are choosing a repeat-visit restaurant. If you have been once and stuck to the safe middle of the menu, the second visit is where Great Maple rewards you. The Michelin Plate recognition, awarded in both 2024 and 2025, signals that the kitchen is doing something worth taking seriously within the American comfort-food format — not just serving familiar dishes competently, but executing them with enough care to earn outside scrutiny.
The cuisine is American, which in San Diego's Hillcrest neighbourhood means a menu built around the kind of food you actually want to eat on a weeknight: well-sourced, approachable, not trying to be anything it isn't. For a returning guest, the practical advice is to push past the obvious order. If your first visit was a burger or something from the brunch column, the second trip should go further into the kitchen's range. The price point makes it low-risk to order more broadly.
San Diego's dinner window closes earlier than most visitors expect. A lot of the better kitchens in the city wrap service by 9 or 10 PM, which leaves a gap if you are finishing a show, arriving late, or simply eating on a later schedule. Great Maple sits on Washington Street in a part of Hillcrest that stays active into the evening, and the combination of a Michelin Plate and a $ price tier is genuinely unusual at that hour. If you need a late option that isn't a gastropub or a fast-casual fallback, this is where the calculus lands in Great Maple's favour.
For comparison: Craft & Commerce is a strong late-night bar-forward option in Little Italy if you want cocktails alongside food, and 777 G St covers the downtown late-night end of the market. Great Maple fills a different slot: a sit-down kitchen with recognised quality credentials at a price that doesn't require a special occasion to justify.
Booking Great Maple is easy by San Diego standards. You do not need to plan weeks out the way you would for Soichi or Addison. Walk-ins are plausible depending on the night, though a same-day or next-day reservation is a reasonable approach if you want to guarantee a table rather than gamble on availability. The address is 1451 Washington St, San Diego, CA 92103 , central Hillcrest, accessible from most parts of the city.
Great Maple sits at the $ price tier, meaning this is among the more affordable Michelin-recognised tables in San Diego. For context, most dinners here will land well below what you would spend at Addison ($$$$) or Soichi ($$$$), and even below mid-tier options like Trust ($$$). That affordability, combined with the Michelin recognition, is the core argument for booking.
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Quick reference: Michelin Plate 2024 & 2025 | $ price tier | 1451 Washington St, Hillcrest | 4.6 / 5 (4,100+ reviews) | Easy to book.
Same-day or next-day is usually fine. Great Maple is one of the easier Michelin Plate tables to secure in San Diego , nothing like the weeks-out lead time you need for Addison or Soichi. If you are going on a Friday or Saturday evening, booking a day ahead removes the uncertainty, but this is not a venue where you need to plan around your calendar weeks in advance.
Yes. The $ price tier means eating solo here is genuinely low-cost, and the Hillcrest location gives you a walkable neighbourhood to fill the rest of the evening. San Diego has stronger solo counter-dining options if that format matters to you (Sushi Tadokoro runs a focused counter experience at $$$), but for a relaxed solo dinner with solid food and no financial pressure, Great Maple is a reasonable call.
It depends on what you are optimising for. If budget is the priority and you want to stay in the $-$$ range, Morning Glory covers the daytime end well. For a step up in ambition at $$, Callie offers a Californian-Mediterranean menu that punches above its price tier. If you want to spend more and want a Michelin-starred room, Addison is San Diego's ceiling. Great Maple's specific value is the combination of Michelin recognition, a $ price point, and a late-enough kitchen for after-hours dining , that combination is hard to find elsewhere in the city.
Bar seating at Great Maple is plausible given the format and neighbourhood, though specific bar layout details are not confirmed in our data. If bar dining is your preference, it's worth calling ahead or checking on arrival. For a venue where bar seating is a confirmed and central part of the experience, Craft & Commerce in Little Italy is the stronger choice.
It works for a low-key celebration , a birthday dinner with friends, a casual anniversary meal , but it is not the room you book if the occasion itself needs to feel ceremonial. The $ price tier and accessible booking make it a practical choice rather than a destination-level event. If the occasion calls for something that matches the weight of the moment, Addison at $$$$ is San Diego's answer to that need. Great Maple is the right pick when you want a good dinner to mark something, not a production around it.
| Venue | Price | Booking Difficulty | Value |
|---|---|---|---|
| Great Maple | $ | Easy | — |
| Addison | $$$$ | Unknown | — |
| Callie | $$ | Unknown | — |
| Sushi Tadokoro | $$$ | Unknown | — |
| Trust | $$$ | Unknown | — |
| Soichi | $$$$ | Unknown | — |
A quick look at how Great Maple measures up.
A day or two is usually enough, and walk-ins are plausible for most services. Great Maple does not require the weeks-out planning that Soichi or Addison demand, which is a meaningful advantage if your San Diego schedule is fluid. At $ pricing with two consecutive Michelin Plates (2024 and 2025), demand is real but not at reservation-war levels.
Yes, it works well for solo diners. The $ price point and casual Hillcrest setting remove the awkwardness that comes with solo visits to higher-end rooms, and easy booking means you are not committing far in advance. If you want a solo omakase experience instead, Sushi Tadokoro is the comparison to consider.
Callie and Trust are the natural step-ups if you want a more polished room at a higher price point. Soichi is the move for omakase. Addison sits at the top of the San Diego market with a full Michelin Star and pricing to match. Great Maple earns its place as the Michelin-recognised option that does not require a budget adjustment or a booking sprint.
Bar seating is common at American casual kitchens in this format, and Great Maple's easy walk-in reputation at 1451 Washington St, Hillcrest suggests counter or bar availability is realistic. That said, bar-specific details are not confirmed in the venue record, so call ahead or arrive and ask rather than assume.
It depends on what the occasion calls for. Two consecutive Michelin Plates (2024 and 2025) give it enough credibility to feel intentional, and $ pricing means you can spend on the meal without the bill becoming the story. For a milestone that calls for a formal room and full ceremony, Addison is the San Diego answer. Great Maple is better suited to a celebratory dinner that should feel relaxed rather than produced.
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