Karina's Cantina Gaslamp — Restaurant in San Diego

So we've been going to the Karinas location in Mission Hills (i.e. the Taco window) and we know the food there to be fresh, carefully prepared and delicious. The food in the Gaslamp location is not even close in terms of freshness, flavor or value - especially for the prices.

The Karina's Gaslamp location is a full service restaurant with a bar area. The place looks great and they left some of the better elements from the previous occupant (Toccata). We were there on what looked like a slower evening and were seated by the staff who admittedly was very welcoming.

We noticed the menu and honestly the prices seemed out of whack - dishes that seem similar start around $27 but other go well above $60. There are seafood towers in the $100-$200. Now that isn't crazy for seafood and they are in a high-rent location. However, we were expecting to have food made of equally high quality ingredients and preparation. The odd thing was how we were asked to "upgrade" to a garlic sauce.

We first received our drinks (Prosecco) and the pours we received were extremely small they honestly took up about 1/3 of the glass. I asked if this was a standard serving (I think they charged around $15 or so for a glass) and our waitress was on it and had it corrected. Granted this is a place where most people have a margarita but the Prosecco was definitely flat and seemed like it been opened for awhile. We also received some chips and some salsa - neither of us were too crazy about the salsa but it's wasn't by any stretch terrible. That said it tasted nothing like the fresh salsas they serve in Mission Hills.

We ordered a Salmon dish and my partner ordered a Caesar salad with chicken. The Salmon was very dry and overcooked - definitely too long on the grill or maybe heat lamps (our food did take quite a while to arrive). We had already been there around 40 minutes so I didn't want to send it back. The flavor of the sauce was very good and really helped with the dry fish.

The Caesar, however, was inedible. This was shocking considering that Caesar is a classic Mexican salad (invented just a few miles away in TJ). They should reinvent it or take it off the menu. The lettuce seemed to be from a bag along with what appeared to be food-service croutons. The chicken, like the salmon was dry, unseasoned, overcooked and inedible. The dressing did not appear to be homemade. It was the equivalent of a to-go salad at the airport. I think they charge around $22 for this.

While we didn't get to see our server much (we would have ordered more drinks, for example) she was busy as it seemed there were only two servers for the entire location. When she did check in on us, she was good about correcting the salad and offered to replace the salad with some tacos - my partner was able to eat one of the two tacos but said they just weren't good and the beef seemed overcooked. We also never got our water glasses refilled until I asked another person who was bussing tables. For the prices on the menu, I think it's fair to expect full water glasses and at least someone to check in after receiving our food.

It took another 20 minutes or so before we were able to get our check and get out of there. I paid, and despite everything gave her a full tip (she was very professional in her interactions and was working hard - she just had too many tables) and we got out of there.

All in all, the new Karina's location was disappointing, I really wanted it to be an upscale version of the taco stand we love where fresh flavors and ingredients make you come back again. nd again. The Gas Lamp location is beautiful (and probably a great place to have a margarita or three), but I hope the restaurant takes this feedback and revisits what's happening in the kitchen. Based on other reviews I can see why it's rated as it is.

For the price they are charging there are many other seafood locations nearby with high quality food and higher staff to visitor ratios.

I'd like to come back some day but for now I'll stick with the Mission...

We went today for dinner after comic con around 6:30-7pm it was very slow compared to all the other restaurants. Lots of available tables. We wanted tacos el gordo but it was packed and we wanted to sit. The woman in front and the security guard who greeted us was very nice. We sat down and waited 15 minutes to even be approached. She wasn’t friendly whatsoever, never told us her name. She asked us what drinks we wanted but we were already ready to order because we had a long wait. We ordered appetizers, the Cesar salad and it was good and fresh. The calamari was super dry and not fresh at all it was chewy and kinda looked liked fish sticks which is surprising for a seafood restaurant, I was really disappointed. We ordered guacamole and it was okay. The chips that came with salsa were so hard to eat my son couldn’t even eat them. We got my son a carne asada quesadilla and he liked it. I ordered the ceviche trio and it was very good but it didn’t come with any tostadas and there was no hot sauce or any condiments. I took most of it home to eat with tostadas. My husband ordered the salmon and it didn’t have much flavor and definitely didn’t taste fresh. We waited a long time to ask for drink refills, our cups were empty after we got appetizers and we had nothing to drink while eating our main dish, by the time the waitress came to check on us we were ready to ask for boxes to go and refills. We were ready to go but had to wait to get the bill. We both have been born and raised in San Diego and love going to restaurants but we will most likely never come back, we have so many other better options that have way better service. It was nice inside but the service and food weren’t...

This is a review of us walking in the bar (total of 3 people) at 4pm Sunday afternoon.

Really? Really? Really?

We walked in, the bar was 70-80% full, the place was maybe half capacity, its Sunday 330/4 ish.... just not a busy time....

We first parked at 2 bar seats, stood there for like 5 minutes, tried to get the attention of the bartender, she walked by with a "I will be right with you" gesture.....

5 more minutes went by, nothing...... then we saw another opening (3 seats) a few seats down the bar, so we moved.....

There were some dirty plates on the counter, we pushed them aside a bit and cleaned the counter a bit.... and hoping that either the guys behind the bar (now there were a total of 4 to 5 people behind the bar doing who know what) would come by and clean them up.....

5 to 10 more minutes passed by, dirty plates still there, the 2 seemingly weee the bartenders werent even giving us the eye contact.... and of course no drinks nor order taken...

We left about 20 min after walking into the bar (that gave us zero service). Very ridiculous!

We had 2 restaurant and hotel reviewers and 1 restaurant owner among 3 of us, so we know the industry.

This level of service is totally unacceptable.

While we were walking out, the bouncer heard our story and tried to fetch us the manager; but seems like he/she werent interested in coming out to the front to talk to us.

So, 5 more minutes wasted, we left and we headed to the newly renovated Neighborhood. (What a change of...