Cross Street Chicken and Beer (DELMAR) — Restaurant in San Diego

First time patron. I've always wanted to try CS from seeing the hype at their Convoy location. So I tried the Del Mar location since I was in the area.

The service was quick. The food-hype is over-rated. Server was forgetful so I kept having repeat what I needed. The bathroom was surprisingly rundown: hand soap empty, toilet paper empty, dirt & grime, & they duck taped the hand air dryer to the wall bc it was falling off. I felt like I walked into a bathroom located in an old low-end bar/club in downtown.

The music was lame. Tasteless rap songs played one after another & loud. It's definitely not a welcome / chill vibe for an older/ mature crowd to stay long (maybe if you're drunk its possible). You want to quickly eat & leave or do take-out.

I ordered a few 'famous' dishes: OG & Seoul wings, Corn Cheese, & CS fries. OG flavor is salt / pepper / paprika which tasted like wings fried in salt. Seoul flavor on the other hand was delicious. Corn Cheese was again, salty, drowned in melted shredded cheese that hardened. This dish ended up being a big blob of salty corn glued together by cheese. The CS fries were also disappointing. The fries alone are good but the house sauce is sweet; like mayonnaise mixed with sugar ... I added jalapeños which had zero spice & felt like I was eating cucumbers. Again they don't use nacho cheese; it's melted shredded cheese which hardens & glues everything together so you're stuck with how it is.

There's a lack of creativity in flavor, food quality, & how the food is cooked & picked to serve. It's just a bunch of salt, pepper, & cheese everywhere.

The seating arrangement is awkward. TVs are not located in front of you but to the side, so you have to sit sideways from your table to watch.

Overall, for a Del Mar location I had higher expectations in all areas & would've been happy with average service & food. Unfortunately CS in Del Mar didn't hit the mark. At the end of the day, after paying $50 only for myself, this experience was overpriced & they under-delivered.

Thankful I tried bc now I know. Sorry. Won't be returning nor...

4.5 stars!! Because I still think their original restaurant (the one on Convoy) is better and I gave it 5 stars. We were a big group so I commend the servers for being patient with us. The menus in both locations are different, so keep that in mind!

Our side of the table did a family style thing so we shared a bunch of things - the spicy cheese corn (but no bacon here), the buldak, the bulgogi fried rice, the bibimbap, the mango cilantro salad, and the chicken wings with the Thai chili, soy garlic, Seoul spicy sauces.

The spicy cheese corn was delicious! It is their top rated item for a reason. Very cheese, decently spicy with the extra kick coming from jalapenos....I had enjoyed this with bacon bits before and would've liked those again. The Buldak was a really fire-y experience!! It is not spicy, just chicken and cheese that gets lit on fire. It tastes like popcorn chicken with melted cheese and sauce. Loved it but I'd expected a spicier version.

Among the entrees, the bulgogi fried rice was an absolute hit. The meat was cooked perfectly, the rice and veggies were seasoned correctly...very delicious and a "highly recommend" here. The bibimbap was also very good but not as good as the bulgogi!! If you have to choose among the two, go with bulgogi. I'm not a big fan of salads so I didn't taste the mango cilantro salad but my friends really liked it.

Finally, the chicken wings. They are still big. Thankfully, there were 6 of us sharing the 10 wings, otherwise, we would have taken them home. The Thai chili wasn't very spicy but had a slight kick (I think it isn't as spicy as when I first tasted it at Convoy??). The soy garlic was very mild. The wings themselves were delicious.

This is definitely closer to me now so I will be coming back! Chicken wings, spicy cheese corn and bulgogi fried rice...

I want to start off with, our server was fantastic. Our food was decent.

I ordered a drink that I've ordered many times before. This time, it tasted like milk and alch - not ideal. I had two others taste my drink to confirm and proceeded to let our server know that I thought the bartender forgot simple syrup (or some other ingredient). After, the server came back and told me that the bartender did not make a mistake but offered me a different drink to make up for it. I informed her that I've had the drink before but I wouldn't mind switching, the next drink I ordered was good.

Then it got really weird.

At the end of the meal, they brought the check and charged us for both drinks. We were confused since we were under the impression the second drink was to make up for the first. The manager came over and said, and I quote, "We can offer you a $5 voucher for the next time you come. We are trying to mitigate the cost since we already poured the alcohol. But if it means you'll leave a bad review, we will comp the drink." She also shushed others at my table to hear my point of view - which was rude on it's own. After talking to her, she agreed to comp the drink but didn't bring the new receipt back. We waited for probably 15 minutes. They were not busy. We ended up having to ask for the new receipt from a different worker.

I don't leave reviews. But this situation was made more uncomfortable than it really needed to be. I just needed simple syrup added to...