Sipz Fusion Cafe

I was scared away by the lame name for a long time before trying it, but I was happy once I did.

This is probably one of the best vegetarian restaurants in San Diego, specializing in interesting dishes. There are the usual curries and fried rices and noodleses, but from there it goes weird, with a lot of innovative variations on Asian and non- Asian dishes.

Most everything comes with a choice of several faux meats or tofu. I mean, they have faux chicken, duck, beef, pork, shrimp... all sorts of things, or several types of tofu. Everything's served in huge bowls, and you usually end up taking a second meal's worth home with you.

Besides the bowls, there are all sorts of interesting teas and bubble teas and Thai teas and deserts - all good, from what I've tried over the years.

My favorites are probably lettuce wraps (a pile of chopped "beef", mint, vegetables, and water chestnuts to wrap with lettuce leaves), an orange "chicken" dish stir-fried with orange slices, and Japanese fire noodles (weird, but delicious lumpy noodles that sort of look like worms and baby vegetables tossed in a spicy sweet sauce).

Whether you're vegetarian or not, you'll probably like it. And if nothing else, you'll get to see lots of hemp-wearing, blonde-dreadlocked crunchers feasting on meat-like, but not meat dishes!