Meet Lissa Lim | Instagram food blogger and content creator.

We had the good fortune of connecting with Lissa Lim and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Lissa, we’d love to hear more about how you thought about starting your own business?
I started my Instagram food blog, Sip N Savor San Diego, to help my friends and family with food and drink recommendations around San Diego. I really didn’t think other people would be interested in my recommendations, or that restaurants would be interested in my review, but it has grown a lot since then and now I am able to partner with restaurants and share my favorites with a wider community. I like highlighting locally owned, woman-owned, BIPOC owned, and sustainability-focused restaurants which often fly under the radar, but I don’t limit myself to those exclusively. What I have found in my journey to share the best San Diego food and drinks is a community full of amazing people. I love talking to chefs who are passionate about their food and their creative peocess. I love working with families who have poured their whole heart into their restaurant and are sharing their family’s history and culture through their food. I’ve met mixologists who are really creative and push innovation when it comes to creating an exciting new cocktail. I’ve also found a community of food bloggers/content creators who are willing to help and guide each other, I have learned so much about how to work respectfully with restaurants and how take better content from my fellow San Diego bloggers. It’s been a really fun journey so far, I do it our of my love of food and community.

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
When I work as a food blogger, I have a Do No Harm ethos. I do not create negative content for a restaurant but I will also not lie. I work hard to find what I like best and highlight that, I don’t say negative things or publish bad pictures, but I also don’t say things are good when they’re not. Most of the time this has not been an issue for me as most of the restaurants I’ve worked with have been great, but the few that have struggled with food quality, I’ve still provided them with something useful like feedback, edited pictures, and a content of what I did enjoy. I think this approach, while not unique to me, is something that helps me be successful in my industry.

But food blogging is something I do for fun, because I love food and I love San Diego. What I do in my professional job is very different – I am a psychologist. I think my love of people and my interest in helping others is what ties both of my passions together. As a psychologist though, I help people in a very different way. Being a psychologist is one of the reasons however that I rarely publish pictures of myself on my blog and never do voice overs. It is a way that I can separate both jobs and protect my privacy. It’s a delicate balance but it works well for me, and I absolutely love both!

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
If I had a friend visit for the weekend, we’d spend the first day in North County San Diego because it’s highly underrated. We’d start the day an early visit to the Safari Park in Escondido where you can enjoy a day in the sun with beautiful animals, and then we’d have lunch at Orfila Winery just a few miles down the road to cool off with a delicious glass of wine or a refreshing frozee, and food from their food trucks. After that, we’d spend some time a few miles north in Oceanside, where we can watch the sunset and take long walks in the beach where you can see dolphins sometimes, surfers always, and sand castle competitions depending on the season. Then we’d have dinner at the michelin stared Valle restaurant for the best Mexican fine dining experience in Southern California. The next day we’d start the day having pastries and coffee or juice at the Mission Bay Bach Club coffee shop Bloom, right before attending their donation-based yoga class facing the bay. After yoga we can go to Belmont Park in Mission Beach to enjoy roller coasters, food and drinks at their beach front park, and enjoy food at Cannonball where you eat delicious sushi with a beach view. For the evening I’d recommend a walk around little Italy with dinner at Camino Riviera for some amazing Yucatan-region Mexican food, really unique and special, followed by drinks a the Carousel Bar next door for a very unique experience sitting, spinning, and sipping cocktails at their real carousel. These activities showcase outdoor fun, unique experiences, and delicious food and drinks that are only found in San Diego!

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
I’d love to shoutout to the chefs and the bloggers. The chefs who spends countless hours preparing the food that feeds San Diego, especially the ones who have struggled to get there to offer something really special to their customers, and those who work hard to take care of our community. For example, during the pandemic, I saw many of these chefs give away their food to the community for free, or give free meals to first responders, to me that speaks highly of their commitment to the San Diego community.

I also want to shoutout to my fellow bloggers. We are creating this industry as we go, we are finding ways to do this work respectfully and collaboratively, we create packages that will benefit the restaurant’s social media presence and ultimately support their marketing, we get creative about how to showcase great food and we always tip the servers. We also have fun, we love meeting people in this industry and finding the best new places to eat and drinks around San Diego, and the point of it all is to help others make informed choices about where they go eat and drinks. It’s been such a fun experience to become a part of the community.

Instagram: @sip_n_savorsd