Knotty Barrel Rancho Penasquitos — Restaurant in San Diego

I really wanted to love this place! PQ needed something like this. We visited mid-afternoon on a Sunday. The place looks awesome/clean, plays great music, has plenty of TVs which were showing the Padres game and NCAA games, the atmosphere was fun, and the staff was friendly. So why the 3 stars........the food, the wait for food, and the lack of waitress followup after the food was delivered by the food runners. From sitting down until getting our food was a full hour (we sat down at 2:35 and our food was served at 3:40. Possibly they need more staffing on the weekends? Not a huge deal, but typically a bit longer than most people want to wait for food. Once we did receive our food (we ordered 2 appetizers and 2 entrees) the burger was missing the requested bacon and we would have liked to have requested mustard. We waited for a passing staff member for about 3-4 minutes. No one passed by, so we just started eating. Our waitress didn't appear until our food was almost gone (no need for that bacon and mustard now). Unfortunately, the food was subpar. We ordered potato chip nachos (which were ok, but could have used more toppings). At $9.50 I kind of expect more than a plate of chips drizzled with sauce and a sprinkle of over melted cheese that had already hardened again. We also ordered Parmesan Garlic Wings. Nicely fried and crisp, however, there was no seasoning on them. They were plain. Obviously they forgot to toss them after frying? The burger was ok, we've had better though. A gastropub needs an amazing burger. The tuna melt filling was great.....the bread was so crunchy that I could hardly bite into it. I can appreciate a crusty bread, but not one so crusty that I cannot bite into. Also the shoe string fries that are served as a side to the sandwiches tasted stale. Maybe they had been sitting too long, idk. Overall, everything we ordered to eat was a flop. I would return for happy hour drinks, but unfortunately we are not inclined to return for a meal again. Maybe they are working out their start-up kinks? After spending over $60 on 2 apps and 2 entrees (no alcohol purchased) I would expect to be able to say some of the meal was great, but that just isn't the case. I'm not usually this critical, but I'd like to see this place stay and I do feel it has potential, but they need to step up there game in the food department for I see this being just another fail at...

First time new place, we waited an hour for our food to come after ordering, reviews of food is mixed, chicken sarnie sandwich was good, fish and chips was OK, half the pieces were not battered correctly so they were inedible very hard to chew. Tartar sauce is home made, does not taste like tartar sauce, potato chip nachos appetizer was just potato chips with a drizzle of some white sauce, they were good chips and home made, I felt ripped off paying $9.50 for a plate of potato chips. Kids meals were very disappointing, ordered chicken sliders you get tiny portions two sliders with a bun the size of the small Hawaiian sweet rolls and a chicken piece the size of a McDonalds chicken nugget. Comes with fries or veggies. Daughter ordered veggies, server didn't know what veggies it was, turned out they are four carrots which were good. But the worst thing is their fries, this is a pub and most their meals come with fries and they are not good, I only ate half my fries they are extreme shoe string and half of them are too hard to eat. I assume they chose this variety because it cooks fast? Very loud in the restaurant because they have the music up loud so everyone is talking loud so they can hear each other so the whole restaurant is very loud. They have a kids menu so I assume they want families and kids to come but we were the only ones there with kids, so maybe not a good kids place. Then I was overcharged, one kids meal was $12 it is suppose to be $8, I pointed it out to server, she came back and said its because the vegetables cost more, so we pointed out to her that it says it comes with veggies on the menu so she went back and took off $3. Then I had to point out that I was overcharged $4 not $3 so she went back and this time took off $5. The point isn't the money, its that they think the kids meal they gave us is worth $12. I was also told by unnamed sources that they padded their reviews with friends and families first before official opening which I guess is what most places do. I don't think I...

Went here during the evening and it was so crowded and loud. The hostess asked where we wanted to be seated (inside or outside) we went with inside because we weren't sure if they had heaters. The hostess at this point left us in the dust when walking us to our table, she was practically running there. Once we were seated we were concerned the service would be slow and we might be forgotten because it was so crowded and loud inside and the tables were so close together. Luckily the service saved this from being a 1 star review because it was surprisingly good all things considered, however it diminished as the night went on. I did not want to be here for 2 hours but that is what happened. There are different "deals" each day of the week here and some are better than others and some are as bad as a $17 burger? Is that supposed to be on sale?? I got the beyond burger and fries and the fries were the best thing about it, they were double fried and crispy (think arbys if it was better quality and not curly fries). The portions, however, especially for the price were definitely small. Small cup of fries and a burger that was small for what it was. The ranch dressing here is more like an aioli, they don't have a straight up ranch which I would have preferred. No real vegan options here or even vegetarian. The food was ok, I'd say the service was better but it got worse as the night went on and ironically when there were less people in the restaurant. We asked for a desert menu and waited 20 minutes for it to be brought over. Then another 20 minutes to get the check. I would describe this place as an introverts worst nightmare. My ears were ringing after I left. Overall I won't...