Cannonball — Restaurant in San Diego

Cannonball restaurant is very good food but there is more. This is the text on maps.google.com. Trendy venue for upscale sushi & small Japanese dishes served in a rooftop space with ocean views.

I had the 3 Salmon Tacos. They were spiced to the a delectable flavor snuck up and stayed for a little while. The salmon was done with a crunchy crust with the rest being flavorful and tender. We also had the Cannonball Burger. Its flavor is set off with bacon, cheese and a very large Ortega Chile. You will need a knife to cut in two to really enjoy it. Add to this a good size helping of French fries.

So before I go on, the memorable is the staff. Drew was our Server. He went above and beyond to make us feel welcome, comfortable, accommodated. It was cool on this afternoon and sitting upstairs is against the glass is like a minor wind tunnel. Nope we did not have sweaters. I think we looked cold because Drew worked to get us the heaters ignited. Moving the heaters was not a part of policy so he moved the umbrellas so the sun would warm us. I commend and thank Drew for his attention to detail.

Other things I write about: Where we were seated upstairs the servers were bringing the Sushi rolls out. Every one of them I wanted to try each one because they looked so colorful and delicious. Price was reasonable (two entrees, wine, was $51) Decor - I read an article from June 3, 2015 in the San Diego Union Tribune saying the restaurant had a year long renovation. For me the fire pits and bench seating is a huge plus making it very comfortable and homey. There are 3 heights of chairs so for us the low seating was perfect. You can improve on the scenic ocean with an occasional dolphin cruising by. Cleanliness - If you have read reviews that I have written you know I how clean the area is that I am sitting. One issue that is very important to me is whether the attention has been paid to cleaning the accumulating grime from the edges of the table (this gets on the customer's clothes), chairs and stairway railing. For Cannonball only high marks. There was no grime on any of the tables, chairs, railings. *Bottom line - To Drew and Cannonball Restaurant, Thank-you for a very good outing and a wonderful eating experience.

General Comment - If in my review of any restaurant there was a negative noted, it is only fair to have a conversation with the management, and update the review when the issue is resolved. I want all restaurants to be successful because in our tough world of Covid its a lot tougher for companies working with the public. So write the reviews and give credit where...

Rude manager, poor experience

Went for a goodbye dinner with a friend moving out of town and two other friends and had our share of drinks over several plates of food and several hours. After briefly leaving the restaurant and returning because it was more convenient than walking elsewhere, the manager approached us to kick us out. He told us his staff had a feeling we were intoxicated (buzzed yes, intoxicated no) and that we needed to leave immediately.

I do understand why in some cases, customers need to be told to leave based on bad, rude, or unsafe behavior - but none of those things applied to our group. And if there was the sense we were intoxicated, saying so politely and kindly IS possible while also pointing to specific behavior and examples. In our case, there was no evidence of intoxicated behavior and our ousting from the restaurant was based on a feeling.

The manager was unnecessarily rude, condescending, and strangely, overly angry - claiming several inaccurate “facts” including that we hadn’t eaten, when we had just paid a bill of several hundred dollars worth of dinner (and drinks). As we left, he and staff members spoke about us, and continued to watch after we left the premises.

Please note that none of us were driving, obnoxious, stumbling, slurring, or boisterous. The restaurant ousting was an over-the-top reaction seemingly prompted by something else going on - an instant dislike of our group, a staff desire to close the restaurant and go home (it was a Tuesday), or simply projected anger issues from the manager.

Cannonball is a beach restaurant in a party area full of tourists on vacation - I get that crazy behavior from customers can be a thing. But it wasn’t a thing with our group - and my recommendation to Cannonball restaurant group management is to consider customer service training for your staff. The manager on shift for our visit had no customer skills and lacked hospitality experience. Having him represent your business will (if it hasn’t already) impact how people feel about Cannonball.

Also please consider the group of us are local professionals embedded in the community. Word of mouth is a thing - and none of us can recommend Cannonball from here on out if the kind of culture the restaurant embodies is not...

Such high hopes for such a great location, but the staff truly dropped the ball.

I'm not the type of guy to write reviews, but I needed to share my experience after Cannonball failed repeatedly.

I had an 8P reservation through OpenTable, and noted I was celebrating an anniversary during booking. We were seated almost 25 minutes after 8 and we arrived at 7:59. I had to ask the hostess if our party was ready where she noted someone had “already been sat at our table” but she could still seat us right away. It was clear that someone was sat accidentally in our reserved space, and then our actual party was forgotten. The hostess asked us while being seated if we were celebrating our anniversary, which we said yes.

Emma was our server, she did a good job, but ultimately it took us 20 minutes to place our appetizers/initial dishes.

After placing our second round of sushi, my vegan girlfriend (who had clearly been asking for vegetable and rice dishes exclusively all evening) was served a sushi roll filled with shrimp… this was scary for us, as she could’ve been immensely sick.

Emma, our server, never acknowledged that our party was there to celebrate an anniversary. It was clear that it either wasn’t communicated from the host to our server, or our server simply forgot. Either way, we were ultimately really disappointed with the fact that we wanted to spend our special evening with you, but mistakes were being made and unfortunately only getting worse as our experience went on.

Lastly, the 5% surcharge listed in the extremely tiny font on the bottom of the menu seems misleading to the ultimate cost your consumers are paying for their food. Why not just raise the listed menu prices by 5% each instead of listing one price and charging another?

I emailed the restaurant to express my frustration and hope that they could take that feedback and improve for other customers. Evidently, they care so little they didn't even want to respond to my email, so they are receiving a public review instead.

There's a ton of better places along the Mission beach/Pacific beach boardwalk to check out. I recommend avoiding Cannonball for...