Barbarella Restaurant & Bar — Restaurant in San Diego

If the owners want to improve the restaurant read this if they don’t, skip. This Restaurant was the biggest disappointment I don’t know where to start. We came on valentine's so I will keep this in mind. This place was Incredibly Overpacked I understand its a busy holiday and you want to have as many people sitting and eating but You start to impair workers ability to mobilize because theres not enough space for them to realistically walk around anywhere. The front half of the restaurant looked beautifully decorated but the hostesses walked us to the back area. The back looked like a half a*sed attempt to still bring the same vibe but it just didn't it gave the vibe of a backyard birthday party. The music was so low you could hear peoples conversations from across the room so everyone sat silently. I tried to find humor in the situation as i looked around at disappointed Gfs and spouses faces to be sitting in the back.We didn’t receive silverware or napkins for a long time not sure if this is the fault of our waiter and hostess but it was inconvenient. You get one point the bread tasted good but it doesn't go up from here. I assume because who ever is the manager wants to pack everyone in the building like sardines theres became confusion about what table ordered what, multiple times our conversation interrupted by people asking if the drink/food was ours or someone else. Then a table next to me a girl got served her steak and no doubt it looked AWFUL for $44 dollars!? The steak looked like something you get from dennys and even a dennys steak has better sear than that. then my husband overheard the staff tried to blame the waitress. What a toxic work environment because the steak looking bad is not the waitress's fault but the cooks. we eventually get our food and it was okay. I ordered lamb and the sear again was not very good but im not one to complain. **Tips for the cooks, Make sure the pan is hot enough, do not overcrowd the meats, properly dry and oil the meat. I

also i hate how these new restaurants are transitioning to the smart device payment method. It ruins the experience so much.

Would i come back? no. I don't believe this restaurant cares even a little about having return customers even though that helps their business in the long run. Just feels like another trying to be trendy restaurant/cash-grab with mediocre food who treats the staff terribly.

Update: After reading others reviews I want to add since i know i wasn't the only one, Being sat in the back felt discriminatory, i noticed more gay, black, mix-raced couples in the back then i did in the front I wanted to just think it was just me but No many other people felt that...

Absolute worst service ever!!! Made reservations. Walked in and sat at a table for over 25 min in a small section.

Saw two servers in that section walk past us multiple times. It was maybe 6 tables in this section. No one acknowledged us.

Went to the bar to order drinks because a server never came by. Bartender said hi then walked away and took about 5 min before asking me what my order was.

Took the drinks back to our table and there were MULTIPLE fruit flies in the buffalo trace on the rocks.

I notified the hostess no one had been to our table and showed her the flies in my hand. She said she would bring the manager over

We decided to chug our $30 fruit fly drinks and walk out. I noticed a guy was at the hostess stand now and assuming he was as the manager, I went up and informed him of the situation

He said they were “busy”. And just said sorry but if you want to stay you can. But they’re “busy” and can’t control how the service was

Well, I work in the industry and can clearly see they aren’t. They have their food ticket screen facing out and had one ticket in the window.

Also, doesn’t matter if it’s not your section, if you see a table not served and you literally walked by, you should ask if your server has been there.

Full hands in and full hands out.

I informed the manager how disappointed I was and that this “surprise birthday dinner” was a flop.

No sincere apology. No offering any compensation, just an oh well.

I could never ever imagine treating a guest this way. As a bartender at a busy establishment, we would make sure to take extra care and for sure comp a drink that had visible FLIES in it

I would be so embarrassed if someone brought multiple flies in their hand up to me and wasn’t served for 30 min at their table

The lack of care from all of their staff was insane. For trying to showcase as a cute holiday bar with craft cocktails is an absolute joke

I am so dang glad we left when we did.

Word to the wise, word of mouth is one of the biggest things.

One person will tell someone, they tell another, and so on. By then it has spread of how awful you were and ruin any...

I don't typically review bad value related experiences but Barbella has been actively bothering in me in the back of my mind for hours now.

For starters there was only one waiter, a hostess, and a manager at the restaurant. The waiter, did the absolute best she could considering the situation, but my god, the quality- value proposition of the food + kitchen wait time is absolutely awful.

We ordered simply a prosciutto sandwich, a mai tai, smoked salmon eggs Benedict, and a tea packet. We waited about 45 minutes to an hour from sit down to food coming out, despite there really only being 2-3 parties at the whole restaurant.

The sandwich was pathetic, I'm used to open sandwiches sure, but this was simply toast, maybe 50 cents to a dollar of prosciutto, and a stacked 6 inches of arugula to make it look like we didn't get fleeced. It tasted entirely like arugula, with a some berries thrown in there. There was nothing remotely redeeming about it, especially after waiting an hour.

The eggs benedict, on the same hand; sad! The english muffins at McDonald's have better texture than what we were served here, not to mention that it seemed like they scraped the bottom of the pan for hollandaise because there was both, not a lot, and it was incredibly dry. The side diced potatoes, the only item that was of restaurant quality (with a side of ketchup no less!) was a total of 10 meager pieces, probably around either a whole tiny potato or half a normal potato.

The mai tai, well it was fine. I felt for the manager who tried lighting it on fire in front of me for a minute or two with a clearly depleted lighter and then returning with an extra shot and another lighter. I'll give them credit for this one, it was a decent drink at a price I'd expect from a sit down brunch spot

Now here's the kicker. The price total after tax and 15% tip; $78.81

I can name a plethora of restaurants where you can get the same items but, actually good, for a similar or lesser price....