Corvette Diner Bar & Grill

A visit to Corvette Diner is the closest thing to a time warp you’ll ever experience. Like every fifties place you’ve ever eaten, the restaurant has beeboppin’ rock and roll dancing through the speakers, milkshakes and burgers, bazooka gum dropped off alongside the check, and of course, the token Corvette blasting through the wall—but Corvette Diner does it with style. The fifties rock is managed by an actual DJ, to whom you can give requests. Besides strawberry and chocolate, the menu boasts creative shakes like peanut butter and choco-mint, and besides burgers, the kitchen offers homestyle favorites like sloppy joes, chicken-fried steak, meatball hoagies, fish and chips, and fried pickles. There’s even a burger with peanut butter as a topping; the owners swear by it, and will buy you another burger if you don’t like it. The bazooka gum is actually hurled at you by your server, who is likely clothed in a poodle skirt and outrageous beehive. Fine dining it’s not, but Corvette Diner certainly knows how to show its patrons a good time.

Insider Tip: Corvette Diner, San Diego's original rock-n-roll joint with 1950s décor, classic diner dishes, and gum-smacking, bouffant-haired waitresses pulled up its 22 year-old Hillcrest roots and cruised to new digs in Historic Liberty Station in summer of 2009.