Snack on Skewers of Chinese Barbecue While Being Serenaded at This Futuristic Music Bar | Eater San Diego

"Tucked into the Genesee Avenue complex in Clairemont Mesa, I found Hi Guest Music BBQ bringing the shaokao (Chinese barbecue) trend to town with an exuberant, neon-lit interior decked out in trippy oversized sculptures and a wall-length screen where a holographic projector cycles immersive underwater and desert scenes. The mostly street-food menu is built around successive skewers—chicken wings, chicken cartilage, beef tendon, pork belly, sheep testicles, and squid—while also offering soups, noodles, rice dishes, and desserts like roasted sweet potato topped with pork floss and a rose-infused roasted milk. A small stage at the back hosts resident singers (music students and professionals) who perform ballads, pop, and country from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. on Fridays through Sundays, with an open roster that even gives amateurs a chance to croon during late-night hours, so the music truly shares the spotlight with the food." - Candice Woo