Common Theory — Restaurant in San Diego

This review is specifically for the hostesses at the front desk, and not reflective of my experience inside the Realm of 52 remedies since we didn't step foot inside.

This review is also for Common Theory since they are co-owners at the Realm of 52 remedies and are most likely the ones employing the hostesses that I am speaking to.

My party of 4 arrived at Common Theory at 8 PM with no reservation for the bar so we asked to put our name on the list. The hostess was immediately irked at my request and stood there as if she didn't want to put our names down. I asked how long the wait time is and she said rudely - "2 hours". We were okay with the wait and asked her to put us on the list.

I got the text on my phone that said we were on the waitlist, and we proceeded to get a drink at the Common Theory bar while waiting for a table and the Realm.

1 hour goes by, and we asked a different hostess at the front about how much longer would we have to wait. We should be at about the 1 hour mark by now. Unfortunately the second hostess was also very unwelcoming to us, and she rudely said "2 hours".

These ladies were just giving us unrealistic and uncoordinated wait times. From an expected time of 10 pm to 11 pm, they had no plans to seat us that night. The hostesses were very short with us even though we were nothing but kind to them, and overall had really poor service.

I've read many reviews with this same complaint, as far as up to 3 years ago. I figured this wouldn't be the same now, but I was wrong. Either this establishment is keen on hiring rude hostesses, or these ladies have been at this same job for the past 3 years, I don't know. But this was the worst first impression and service I have ever had at a bar in San Diego.

We ended up leaving that night, and till this day I still haven't received a confirmation text that my table was ready. They must have removed us manually from the list as I've read from many other reviews. Unethical...

I would let you know how the food was, but they refused to give my family a table for my birthday dinner.

The backstory...

Each year, on my birthday, I choose a fun restaurant to celebrate with my family. I saw Common Theory and it looked like a great fit for that goal. A few hours before we headed down there, I called ahead to ask if there would be any issues with a party of 9, which is just my husband and I, our kids, and their significant others. I could not get a hold of a live person, as the phone reservation inquiry is on a loop and directs you to make the reservation online. As it was only a few hours before we expected to go, I filled it out the online form, but figured we may just have to wait a little bit once we were at the restaurant. I mean, it was a Tuesday at 5:30, on Convoy, shouldn't be a huge issue, right? Wrong.

My husband and I arrived first and I went inside to inquire about the wait for a party of 9. The man at the front desk told me he could not seat us. I saw 3-4 open tables and thought I'd help him think outside the box a little. I asked if we could sit at 2 tables. Again, I got a very flat, no. Me: "You mean that I have 9 people here at the restaurant for my birthday, and you are telling me you won't seat us?" Him: "No, we cannot accommodate your party. You should have made reservations a week ago."

Now I've been to a lot of restaurants in San Diego for my birthday, and friends, this was a first. We live in a tourist town and I have never had a problem getting a table, even at restaurants down at the beach, during prime tourist season!

Thanks to Google, Yelp, and others, I was able to make a mad search to find a replacement birthday dinner location. Thankfully, STP came in clutch with a happy staff, that quickly made room for the cash paying birthday girl!

I will never return to the elitist Common...

Not vegan friendly and the staff are rude! I looked at their menu online before going to this restaurant today. Their online menu had multiple vegan options listed so I was confident I would be able to find something. The menu in house was significantly different and only had 2 vegan options available. When I asked the waitress a series of questions to determine which menu was accurate and what options there were, she informed me that the menu had changed and the online menu was outdated. She then became impatient with me and interrupted to say "why don't I just tell you what options we have." She basically told me that I shouldn't go to a restaurant expecting anything. I mentioned that I had checked online in advance to make sure and I thought it was reasonable to expect that to be accurate, her response was that I should have known better, and called to confirm the online menu was up to date. I thought that she would at least apologize for the oversight with respect to the online menu, which would have been the right thing to do from a customer service perspective. Instead she passed the blame on to me. It was very unpleasant. I then suggested that they should update the online menu. She just said 'that's not my job'.

I apologized for being complicated just to make sure that she wouldn't spit in my food. At that point, she should have apologized for being rude. Instead she forgave me. She obviously had no self or situational awareness.

She then came by to grab her tips from us and informed us that she had to go pick up her kids, not in a sweet way, but in a 'you're wasting my time' way.

So, so unprofessional.

She had to be in her 30s, by that point in a person's life they should be able to take responsibility.... She obviously cannot.

Her boss should really talk to her about her behaviour. I'll never go...