Mission Hills is one of San Diego’s most beautiful residential neighborhoods, and Wolf In The Woods is beautiful, too. While the tightly-packed patio along the sidewalk feels a little European, inside it reads Santa Fe pueblo house, with ristras of dried chiles hanging from the ceiling and patterned chairs that give off a New Mexico vibe without being all Disneyland about it. The menu is new American with the occasional Indigenous influence, so there’s the obligatory yellowtail crudo, but also a pork chile stew with fry bread so fresh it’ll singe your fingers. You won’t find New Mexican food like this anywhere else in San Diego—or maybe even the rest of the country—and they pull off all the unexpected fusions effortlessly. Make sure you get the baguette with green hatch chile honey butter, because there are plenty of sauces you’ll want to sop up, including a show-stopping corn soup that should start every meal here. That warmly-spiced pork adovada stew tastes like a New Mexican Christmas, and the tomato sauce the lamb meatballs come in is like drinking the essence of lamb. The boquerones swim in a lovely olive oil, and go well with the tapas menu: jamón serrano, patatas bravas that might seem out of place until you bite into their paper-thin crispy shells, and rosemary potato chips that you won’t mind paying $13 for (we promise). Part of the charm of Wolf In The Woods is that it’s tiny (and loud), better for dates than business dinners. That also means it’s hard to get a table, so make sure you book ahead. But once you’re in, you’ll have what feels like four servers attending to your every need, and a just-aggressive-enough sommelier who will probably say goodbye to you on her way out for the night just to make sure that your French vermentino is still tasting good. It’s almost impossible not to feel great after the restaurant spits you back onto the whisper-quiet street surrounded by craftsman houses that you’ll probably wish you could live in, if for no other reason than this could be your neighborhood restaurant.