Coin Haus — Restaurant in La Mesa

I am definitely a craft beer lover and didn't just jump on the craft beer bandwagon yesterday.

My reviews are normally short, but this one requires some explanation.

It's a nice place with what initially seems like a cool concept. Basically, you're buying beer by the ounce and it is self-dispensed. Each beer has it's own price per ounce. You wear an RFID bracelet to activate each tap dispenser. Beer is measured by the 1/10th of an ounce, so it's down to a gnat's ass.

Good so far, right? Seems cool? Pick and pour your own beers!

Prices are about .40 to .55 cents per ounce or $6.40 to $8.80 for a 16 ounce pour. Prices: a tad high.

When you arrive, you must check in. Give them your driver's license and a credit card. One person can pay for the group, but each person must provide an ID which is swiped. When you're done, you turn in the RFID bracelets and pay. Both the check-in and check-out process is lengthy. It took us about 10 minutes to initially check in and about 8 minutes to check out. There are three registers, but I saw only 1 or 2 staffed at any point in time.

Back to the beers... Here's where it gets pricey. Glasses are room temp and they do have two water dispensers to wet your glass in advance, but that water is room temp and not chilled.

Pouring you'll undoubtedly get foam. Each of my pours of a 16 ounce glass I got 1/3 to 1/2 of a glass of foam and it showed I had dispensed 8-10 ounces of beer. Normally, at a bar, they'd pour this off for you and continue to fill your glass. But here you're charged for it.

On top of this, the beer was too warm, I'd guess mid to high 40's, which may also be the reason it is foamy. Plus, the first ounce or 2 of each pour will be warm because that's what's in the tap handle itself.

It was a very warm day, but the cool cargo container beer cooler should still keep up.

The venue itself is cool. Was there about sunset and sitting by the door, you could see the sun setting to the west.

Also, NO FOOD! You can bring food in from their restaurant next door or there is a great Mexican food place across the street.

If you are a true craft beer lover, I think you'll be disappointed unless they can fix some of...

Hey. So, my brother and I were visiting from up north and I was looking forward to visiting a place that embodied two of my favorite pastimes.. beer and videogames. The concept is amazing for introverts (in theory), you pour your own beer from a surprisingly large selection and you are given tab card that keeps track of your beer; a stellar idea. Great options for beer adventures, although you have to keep a close eye because the price is in ounces and can quickly get up there. I wasn't impressed with the amount of air in line because our beer had a LOT of head and we were still charged for it. Getting head in your beer is a turn off for me.. sorry. The arcade games were also great variety because there were some classics straight from the golden era of games, James Halliday would be pleased. My brother and I loved that we could play some of our childhood favorites. Well, partially. You see, I think if you are going to advertise that its for gamers you should cater to them, like fixing your arcade joysticks. Too many were busted and I hope this was just a maintenance issue and not a way for players to loosetheir games quicker so they will pay for more lives more often. If that isnt a easy solution, lower the prices for each game play so we can play through the faulty controls. The staff were super friendly and approachable which made it inviting as well. I would also suggest maybe playing something more catered to games as well on the tv and not a loop of Chive. I'm sorry but I have to give you a two star because I don't think I would come back before these are fixed. If you do, you will have something truly special. Thanks...

There idea behind Coin Haus is a new concept for me. If was my first time visiting this place, and my visit is on recommendation. I'm a huge old school arcade game guy, just as I walked in I fell in love with this place.

The whole idea of a paying wristband while you pour your own beer is quite unique to me. As well as paying those arcade games with the wristband as well. Just so you know, your card is connected to your wristband. So for example... A oz of belching beaver is about .39 cents. So you go around pouring however much you want to drink. They have plenty of beers to choose from, and at a gret price per oz, this is quite a good experience.

The arcades work that same. Just tap your wristband on the game you want to play, and it charges you a certain credit. Both prices for both arcades and beer are very accessible, and make it possible to have a great time under a nice budget.

But the killer of all this, is there's no food or appetizers. All I saw was pretzels and that killed the whole day for me. Maybe that's not their strong suit, but when speaking business, why not have appetizers to keep people around? We left because we were hungry and we def wanted to stay longer.

Long story short...

Love this place. But was really disappointed on the lack of food. Even having things like nachos, chips, and similar stuff, would be great to have as an add on to this great experience.

To me, that's worth two stars. Give this place three stars. I'm definitely coming back though... After I eat.

• Place serves some food and snacks now. Up to 5...