143 restaurants in San Diego, CA that pay Upside

Upside pays cash back at these restaurants on top of whatever your card earns. Join once, link a card, and pay with it — values below are what each card earns here. Top neighborhoods: San Diego (27), Pacific Beach (11), and Hillcrest (7).

143 restaurants

  • Italian American · $ · Little Italy San Diego

    American Express Gold Card + inKind

    Resy creditinKind20%Upside11%+12 more
  • American · $$$$ · North Park

    American Express Gold Card + inKind

    inKind20%Upside14%Hilton Honors Dining8x+9 more
  • FUSION · $$ · Logan Heights

    American Express Gold Card + inKind

    inKind20%Upside12%Rakuten Dining5%+1 more
  • Italian · $$$$ · Barrio Logan

    American Express Gold Card + inKind

    inKind20%Upside11%Hilton Honors Dining8x+11 more
  • Burgers · $$ · Pacific Beach

    American Express Gold Card + inKind

    inKind20%Hilton Honors Dining8xIHG Dine & Earn8x+11 more
  • Pizza · $$ · The Village at Pacific Highlands Ranch

    American Express Gold Card + inKind

    inKind20%Hilton Honors Dining8xIHG Dine & Earn8x+11 more
  • Filipino · $$ · Gaslamp

    American Express Gold Card + inKind

    inKind20%Hilton Honors Dining8xIHG Dine & Earn8x+11 more
  • Asian · $$$$ · San Diego

    American Express Gold Card + inKind

    inKind20%Hilton Honors Dining8xIHG Dine & Earn8x+11 more
  • Wraps · $$$ · Ocean Beach

    American Express Gold Card + inKind

    inKind20%Hilton Honors Dining8xIHG Dine & Earn8x+11 more
  • American · $$ · East Village

    American Express Gold Card + inKind

    inKind20%Hilton Honors Dining8xIHG Dine & Earn8x+11 more
  • Poke · $$ · Carmel Valley

    American Express Gold Card + inKind

    inKind20%Hilton Honors Dining8xIHG Dine & Earn8x+11 more
  • The Mixer

    up to20%

    Gastropub · $$ · Midway District

    American Express Gold Card + inKind

    inKind20%Hilton Honors Dining8xIHG Dine & Earn8x+11 more
  • Japanese · $ · San Diego-Gaslamp Quarters District

    American Express Gold Card + Upside

    Resy creditUpside11%Rakuten Dining5%+1 more
  • Barbecue · $$ · Ocean Beach

    American Express Gold Card + Upside

    Upside11%Hilton Honors Dining8xIHG Dine & Earn8x+10 more
  • Five Guys

    up to16%

    Burgers · San Diego

    American Express Gold Card + Upside

    Upside25%
  • Five Guys

    up to16%

    American · Hillcrest

    American Express Gold Card + Upside

    Upside26%
  • Five Guys

    up to16%

    Burgers · San Diego

    American Express Gold Card + Upside

    Upside23%
  • Mexican · $$$$ · Gaslamp

    American Express Gold Card + Upside

    Upside12%Hilton Honors Dining8xIHG Dine & Earn8x+10 more
Restaurants
143
Neighborhoods
42
Cuisines
59
Dining programs
14
With a card perk
3

The 3 best cards to bring to dinner in San Diego

Ranked by what each card earns across this city's restaurants at our point valuations, counting the dining program that pays most at each one. Card credits aren't counted. Upside (143 restaurants) and Rakuten Dining (104) are the most widespread dining programs here, out of 143 restaurants. American Express Gold Card tops the list here on its own dining rate — ≈$6.00 on a $100 dinner before any program.

All the best cards for dining

14 dining programs that pay in San Diego

Dining programs pay on top of your card. Join one, link a card, and every meal at a participating restaurant earns twice.

59 cuisines in San Diego

80 neighborhoods in San Diego

447 more cities and towns in California

Some restaurant addresses, phone numbers, websites and cuisines come from Overture Maps Foundation open data (Meta and Microsoft, CDLA Permissive 2.0; Foursquare, Apache 2.0; AllThePlaces, CC0 1.0). Overture attribution Some neighbourhoods come from Who's On First boundaries (CC-BY 4.0). Who's On First licenses Some opening hours, phone numbers, websites and cuisines are © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL 1.0). OpenStreetMap copyright

Editorial disclosure: CardRewards.ai is an independent comparison service. Card data comes from issuers' published terms; catalog last published October 12, 2026, and each card page shows when its terms were last checked. Card issuers do not influence our rankings or content.