Paradisaea

Paradisaea is a French-modern California restaurant in the Bird Rock stretch of La Jolla, opened in September 2022 by husband-and-wife owners Eric and Zoe Kleinbub inside the landmark Piano Building on La Jolla Boulevard, and Michelin Guide recommended since 2023. The name comes from the genus of birds-of-paradise, and the conceit runs right through the room and onto the drinks list, which is presented as an illustrated field guide to the species behind it.

That presentation is the detail worth noting, because the non-alcoholic drinks sit inside the same field guide with the same illustrations and the same care rather than being relegated to a line of text at the bottom. The zero-proof section is genuinely built: The Woods combines a non-alcoholic distilled agave spirit with marionberry, pomegranate and orange bitters; the Ostrich is built on Ghia, the bitter Californian aperitif; and the Takahe pairs Seedlip with blue majik, the spirulina extract that gives it a startling colour. Ritual appears across other spirit-free builds. Beyond the dining room there is a bar room with lounge seating and board games, plus a small retail space selling bottled and canned drinks to take away — which quietly makes this one of the few high-end restaurants in the county where a non-drinker can also buy something to bring home. The combination of a Michelin recommendation, a design-forward room and a zero-proof list that has been illustrated rather than tolerated makes Paradisaea a straightforward recommendation for an occasion dinner where somebody at the table is not drinking. Tuesday to Sunday, evenings, closed Mondays. The bar room is the part worth knowing about if you are not eating: it takes walk-ins, the board games encourage staying, and the retail shelf means an evening there can end with something to take home. For a non-drinker, having all three in a Michelin-recommended room is close to unheard of in San Diego.