Fig Tree Cafe — Restaurant in San Diego

Visited: 1/21/2024 Location: Liberty Station Wait time: 45 mins (even on a rainy day) Seated: 1pm, Sunday Server: Juan (5⭐) Ordered: Short Rib Benedict (1⭐) upgrade with Truffle Fries, Fig Jam n Ricotta French Toast (5 ⭐), Man Candy Bloody Mary (5⭐), and Sparkling Strawberry Screwdriver (1⭐). Food served 15 mins after order made.

I have eaten here a few times and never been disappointed. However, today's visit was quite the opposite. It wasn't the service because our server Juan was EXCEPTIONAL.

My daughter ate lunch here the day before, 1/20/2023, and had the Short Rib Sandwich and Man Candy Bloody Mary. Because she enjoyed her meal so much, she wanted to come back the next day and treat me. I was all for it because I've dined here many times. Since she just dined the day before, I could say that my review is not exaggerated and valid.

Eggs benedict is always my go to when I am eating out for breakfast/brunch, and since my daughter raved about the short ribs, that is what I ordered (short rib benedict). The poached eggs were over done (the yolks are suppose to pop and run once poked). My first bite was a disappointing shock to my taste buds. There was no flavor in the meat and the english muffin was water soggy. What first came to mind was how am I tasting no flavors but blandness like water? Egg tasted like an egg, of course, but I had expected some other flavors like seasonings from the meat and a slightly toasted muffin.

Yes, Juan was notified and he apologized. He offered to have the dish remade. I declined because I felt grossed out with the water soaked egg muffin and tasteless ribs. I thought it over as my daughter continued to enjoy her french toast which I tried and loved it (description to follow below).

I asked Juan if I could try the short rib sandwich instead since that's what my daughter raved about yesterday. I bit into the sandwich and it was the same result as the eggs benedict. My daughter tried it for comparison to the day before, and agreed it did not taste the same from what she ate the day before. I had to think about it and discussed it with Juan, and figured out that it was the short ribs possibly/most likely. This batch was potentially made without the correct amount of seasonings. My daughter tried both my dishes (short rib eggs benedict and sandwich). She definitely agreed that comparing what she just ate the day before was not the same batch and flavorings. I am sure whoever made the short rib batch that day may have forgotten if they added enough spices and did not do a taste test before saying it was ready for the days meals.

Fig N Ricotta French Toast: I'm partial to figs. I highly recommend this dish. Fig n ricotta stuffing was delish.

I would come back for the Man Candy Bloody Mary, and the Sparkling Strawberry Screwdriver was mehhh.

I hope this was helpful. I do recommend eating here since I have been...

My wife and I visited Fig Tree Cafe after researching other nearby restaraunts for healthy choices that also offered plenty of gluten free options. This place looked to fit the bill. It was very busy when we arrived. That was promising so, we were willing to wait the 40 minutes for our table. Once we sat down, we were excited to place our order and enjoy our lunch. My wite ordered the Border Bowl and I ordered the Roasted Chicken sandwich with the Truffle fries. Because of my wife's dietary restrictions, she asked for no Pico de Gallo or sour cream in her bowl.

When our food came out, the Border Bowl was pathetic at best. All the lettuce was on top of all the rest of the ingredients. It just looked like a bowl of lettuce. My fries were overcooked. The fries and the sandwich were lukewarm as well. The taste of both meals was good but the execution was subpar. When I mentioned to the server that the Border Bowl looked pathetic, he actually agreed with us and kind of laughed about it. He didn't offer to fix the problem and just didn't seem to care much. He actually blamed my wife because she asked for no Pico de Gallo or sour cream. Not sure how her request results in the chef not being able to properly assemble a bowl.

Because the Border Bowl was so sad, we ordered the Greek Salad. I mean, how could they mess that up? The photo on review is what they brought out. I guess they accepted my challenge. First off, totally the wrong greens. Most Greek salads don't even have greens. Anyway, per the menu, there should be (among other things) cucumber, black olives, feta cheese, green bell peppers, and red onion. You can see from the photo that there is some red onion, some feta cheese, and GREEN olives. They were supposed to be black olives. There were some of the other ingredients too but they were all underneath the lettuce. What's the deal with putting the greens on top of the toppings? Apparently it's a thing here. For good measure, there was a single piece of dried fig in the salad. Obviously nit supposed to be there. The taste of the salad was so bitter that it was inedible. Once again, we told the server and he just didn't seem to care. He just took the plate and didn't offer to correct the problem.

We paid our bill and left. We really enjoyed oor visit to Liberty Station but the Fig Tree Cafe really left a bad taste in our mouth both literally and...

Ate here around 1pm on 7/13/22. Apparently, they were short of staff and we understood that. However, I wish that was our only complaint. We ordered our drinks and food at the same time and were brought our drinks pretty quickly. Then our food was brought out by one of the kitchen staff. When putting our two plates on our table, he knocked over my drink, He apologized and cleaned it up. After he was finished and had walked away, we realized we were never given silverware and my son noticed his order was incorrect (regular Eggs Benedict vs. Short Rig Benedict). After waiting a minute or two for a server to walk through the dining area, I walked up to the server station near the rest room to request two sets of silverware. Our server did return bringing me a replacement drink, making the comment "I heard you wanted another Iced Tea." As if I were being difficult or something. I told her what had happened and the look on her face told us she wasn't told that he spilled the original drink. We then told her of the incorrect order. She took his food and said she'd get it corrected right away. I had finished my food in the time that it took to get his food replaced and when they did, it was pretty disgusting - 'rib' meat had no flavor and the English Muffin was soaked with something - less than half of it was eaten. After asking for our check, we noticed we were initially charged for the Eggs Benedict and they had to credit that back then rang up the Short Rib Benedict. So, no discount for the issues of service or not very good food and a half-hearted apology for the drink being spilled and the order being wrong. I understand the stress of being a server on duty when someone calls out. But, this just seemed like an apathetic display by the workers that did show up and a complete disengagement...