HIVE | Bar & Karaoke // 하이브 노래방 — Restaurant in San Diego

Chorus on Steroids

Clubbiest place north the 8 (weekends)

Ooo the whiskey

Those were my first 3 thoughts in no particular order.

Most of the reviews before the grand opening are pretty inaccurate as the soft opening period was lengthy and they have made changes day to day and week to week. Most of the menu pictures have items they no longer offer. Maybe you all come back and update your reviews. The difference is surprising.

I’ve been coming here for a while during their soft opening and grand opening and on weekends this place is lit. It’s very much less so in the daytime, but fills up quickly as people get off work and swing by for a drink or two. As they’ve progressed through their opening phases I’ve seen dishes be added and fall of the menu in my last 10 visits, so I’ve only included things that stayed as of opening night. Parking…..well it’s Kearny so good luck with that, no real negative here, it’s more of an issue for any business on Convoy.

I think this place used to be a staples or office depot, so it explains the size, but they aren’t even done with the expansion, either, the main hall will have 14 rooms of various sizes to sing and hold private gatherings. I personally love the tall ceilings, but find the concrete flooring and bathrooms to be a little industrial. The bar stools are a little awkward and slightly uncomfortable. I love the couches near the roll up doors, but the central tables are a bit cramped when meandering. The overall décor is great keeping with it’s hive theme. I thought the bathrooms could be more isolated as a lot of sound travels inside despite the distance. Also more bathrooms would be nice, but that’s something all the convoy spots are lacking. A half dozen wells are cranking the central U bar with quite a spirits selection focusing on whiskey and barrel aged cocktails. The whiskey lockers could be shaped better maybe making tall bottles not need to be stored diagonally.

The house dumplings are tasty, though when steamed they stick to the plating paper, fried they lose some of that contrast. The dipping sauce needs sesame oil. The fried rice is pretty good, nicely diced veggies and a variety of proteins from spam, shrimp, chicken, etc. Oysters are large and not tried out, though they do cocktail and citrus, horseradish and no mignonette. It’s a fundamental difference in how those are shrimp toppings and not oyster toppings. The fried chicken sandwich is excellent, breading, moisture, flavor, contrast in textures. I thought they could do more with the sauce. For having all those Korean influences I’d expect a proper sauce. 3 wings and a beer for $6 at HH, the shrimp fried rice is almost half off, the nachos and bibimbap are perfect cross pairings for HH.

Large draft list and well trained bartenders, they appear to have quite a staff too, tons of bar backs constantly moving, but maybe not as one. Bartenders are sharing stations, moving set ups around and thought they are well trained on the classics, their menu and building I find that there is some continuity issues between day/night and Jay’s vision for the program, but he is a great manager, bartenders like Mo are great and always a pleasure seeing. Their glassware is nice without being ornate and that’s what you want for a volume place. The tiki night is great, but the drinks come slow at times. A varied cocktail program calls for so many garnishes and juices made fresh.

Hive is a place that I think the area needed, something that it hasn’t had and something to really draw away the crowds from downtown and more southern neighborhoods. There is room for improvement and with a place this size worry that it’s...

I recently booked a room for an event so I can only speak to that experience i.e. we didn't sit at the bar nor did we sit at a table and eat. It's more of a bar/club with food rather than a restaurant. There may be a lot of repeated info here as others share the same views as I experienced.

It seems like a really good idea (drinks, karaoke, private room, etc.) but has poor execution. Meaning they are really disorganized (the place was only about half full at the end of the night, 11 pm) and yet, we still had some of the worst service I've experienced in a while.

Bar/Food: It's a great space. They have a large variety of drinks, and a simple menu. Overall, I feel it's overpriced. Well drinks are $10 and the Don Julio shots were like $13 for 1 ounce. Also, the fact that they charge you $25-28 for a basket of chicken and then $2 for sauces on the side is a bit much. The chicken is hit/miss. Some pieces were really good, some really dry. The breading on all was great and super crispy however some pieces were overcooked, not great. Good fries.

Karaoke: The room was like $175 for 4 hours. It was described on the phone as like a private room when you go out to a club ..it's not. You walk back into a maze of kegs, dirty floors, unfinished walls, etc into your area. The room is unfinished, cheap furniture, tacky decoration, wires draped on the walls and chipped paint. The karaoke system is ok. The first room didn't work so they moved us. That one had lots of feedback on one mic so we had to have it rebooted. Song selection is 75% Korean, most of the books had pages missing, were sticky, and unkept. It's just not maintained very well. I think that speaks to ownership/management.

Service: The first 45 minutes were fine. Our "hostess" took orders. Came back for food order. After that, I think we saw her once or twice more in 3 hours. A busboy came back one time and took a couple of dishes but we had to bus our own tables and go out to the bar for drinks for basically the last 3 hours. Because of the size of the group they add 18% to the bill, which is fine, but that was like $100 based on our bill size and, I felt, ripped off. Absolutely terrible service. Also, there was some confusion when I booked the room as to if I had a reservation or not. Don't talk to Scott. Talk to Richard.

Overall...terrible service, uninterested wait staff, too pricey, kind of dirty. The only reason it gets 3 stars is it WAS fun. That's only because we usually have fun wherever we go. Based on just the food, cost, etc. 2 stars. I...

Terrible customer service and management.

We came here with a large party to celebrate my girlfriend's birthday with karaoke, and the bouncer guy bent my girlfriend's license so hard it cracked. That was a bad start to the night, and he was entirely unapologetic saying it was totally fine. Thinking that was both unacceptable and incompetent, we spoke with the manager after, and he was also highly dismissive and unapologetic. We received a free drink but I would've preferred a heartfelt apology. I have no clue why the manager was so unapologetic and abrasive at my complaint.

We were enjoying ourselves singing karaoke when about 30 minutes before our scheduled end time, our microphones just stopped working. We called for assistance and no one showed up for a while even though the place was empty. At that point, the server informed us we could get a slightly prorated rate by leaving early and we decided to call it for the night. The manager checked us out and gave us half off our last hour -- that might have been acceptable if he actually apologized. I told him our microphones stopped working and rather than apologize, he said something along the lines of: "Yeah, I know. That's why I gave you a discount." Did not hear any type of sorry for the inconvenience and disappointment that caused.

The icing on the cake was when I asked if gratuity was included in the bill and the manager said no. Gratuity was included. Luckily, my girlfriend caught it before I tipped extra.

The manager needs to learn how to apologize, and the ownership at this place needs to seriously review its customer service policies. It's highly upsetting that a night of enjoyment started and ended with negative experiences caused by Hive's lack of customer service. Frankly, none of the hiccups would have been so bad if they handled customer complaints with a little bit of grace.

Also, just a general word of caution for out of staters, this place doesn't know what out-of-state licenses look like. I was almost turned away with an out-of-state license but was lucky enough to be carrying a...