Mess Hall — Restaurant in San Diego

I came to the Mess Hall with a friend last week after a lovely bike ride from the Hyatt in downtown. We each ordered a Jalapeño Margarita from the lady bartender. It was beautiful, tasted great and was $22.00 for both drinks and tipped her as one would do. Got a good buzz real quick. After some time, we ordered another Jalapeño Margarita. This time, from the guy that had tattoo's all over his arms and neck. Now I have nothing against tattoo's, I am a fan of tats and I have them too. This is the only way I can identify this guy because I didn't get his name. He was possibly caucasian, had dark hair and a cleft chin. I have never had such HORRIBLE customer service like I did from him. My friend went up to him and ordered 2 Jalapeño Margarita's. I watched him from a distance, pour from the shaker into the first glass. Then poured into the 2nd glass. Half a glass short!!! Mind you, there was already ice cubes in the glass before he poured that ugly drink in. He completely mis measured one full drink. From there, he grabbed the 'supposed' tequila bottle and filled the reaming half filled glass with only tequila. "WOW", I thought!!!! That's going to be a really strong drink. He charged us $31.00 plus we tipped him $10.00 thinking he was generous with the alcohol. My friend never bothered to ask him why. Why would he charge us a different price for the same cocktail order as our first drink? If he charged for the tequila, he is still in the wrong because he mis-measured almost a full drink in the first place. I took one sip and it was horrible. It tasted like cucumber water instead of a spicy tequila drink. It was cloudy like the water after boiling a pot of Pasta but just green. I tasted ZERO alcohol. With the amount of "tequila" he poured, I should have been on the floor passed out. In fact, I was completely sober by this time. I went to him with our drinks and told him that we didn't like the taste and there was no alcohol in the drinks. He could not look me in the eye while I talked to him. He put up a defensive attitude, claimed that he has been a bartender for years, he knows what he's doing and then walked away. I went back to my table upset with how he handled that situation. This did not settle right with me, especially with the amount of money we paid for those drinks.So I went back. Again, I told him how unhappy I was with the drink. He ignored me and again, walked away. He NEVER once offered to remake our drinks, NEVER tried to make things right and NEVER bothered to check the bottle he poured from. Maybe someone else filled the liquor bottle with water. If you were not guilty of cheating a customer of their drink, why wouldn't you smell the bottle, smell my drink, remake the drink or offer money back? How could you not want to make the customer happy? I am not a rookie when it comes to drinks. I have never had anyone cheat me from a drink like this guy did. Or ignore my unhappiness. What is his interest in the Bar to pour water into the drinks. Maybe he's the owner and trying to save money. Only speculation but odd why he would handle himself that way or do such a thing. Bad bad business! I will NEVER go back and I highly suggest that you avoid his drinks and the entire bar because not 1 of the 2 other bartenders said a thing. Im still looking for a contact to speak to someone to get my money back. So disappointed. By the way, if anyone who cares about the reputation of this bar, I was there on Friday August 10, 2018 and purchased those drinks about 2:15pm. Who were the 3 people working those shifts. Very distinctive 3 people. Lady was African American, the second was a hispanic man and the 3rd was the guy that looks like he's a tatted out charmer but only there to...

Love the location and concept of Mess Hall. Reminds me of Austin's food scene kind of but more bougie. Made reservations here for two and a baby! Ha yeah a new born munchkin that slept through the entire dinner. I give this place three stars here's why:

The Charcuterie board had two options a cheese or a meat. Nothing in between. I wanted a mix of both. They charge extra to add a cheese or the opposite. We ended up getting the meat board with one cheese and a markup. Like wow really, both boards cost about the same price if I recalled correctly it was not much of a difference.

For dinner I ordered the sear tuna on a bed of bok choy... It was way too salty from over seasoning the fish with Asian sauces, fish sauce, oyster sauce whatever was too strong and salty. Apparently the cooks did not taste the food.

I might give Mess Hall another chance, but I...

Good for groups. Have someone show up early to secure a table. There's all kinds of food and drinks; something for everyone. The stalls take a minute to make the food (think food truck wait times) but it's excellent.

If you have folks that need a seat then I'd get there even earlier to make sure you can get a good spot on the patio.

The planes are loud and taking off every other minute but I find it's a great way to break up a conversation. If someone's telling a long winded story, for example, they're awesome. Don't try to talk over them. Nobody will hear you; embrace the...