One Door North — Restaurant in San Diego

honestly, eating here last night was so stressful I’m still emotionally recovering. it was rough. for a normal patron with no type of food allergies or special requests expecting a mediocre experience at “ok” prices, this place will do. But if you need literally anything more than that, I would shoot your shot elsewhere.

I have some food allergies (including wheat) and I notified the staff ahead of time. I couldn’t get the item I was hoping to get on the menu because it had an ingredient that wouldn’t be suitable, which is totally fine and happens often, so I ordered a cheese burger without the bun. Food comes out for two people in my party, and around 10 minutes later mine comes out (mind you, there were probably 3 tables filled in the entire restaurant). My food was straight up a burger patty, slice of tomato, and piece of lettuce. No onion, no cheese, pretty much a straight up slab of meat. So I ask for some cheese at least and they just bring me a slab of American cheese on a plate instead of offering to melt it on to the burger like a normal cheeseburger. So whatever I just slap it on and attempt to eat it. Here’s the kicker though: after I’m about half way through, the waiter comes out and suddenly says that the cheese has gluten (wheat). So obviously I full blown freak out. They told me I just ate a ton of something I’m super allergic to and now in my head I think I have to epi-pen myself and go to the hospital. I rush into the kitchen and demand to speak to the cooking staff and go figure: they don’t know what gluten means. They thought gluten and dairy where they same thing. In 2020, they are that dumb, yes. So I thought I was going to suffer a life threatening reaction, but instead i ate a normal slice of cheese that I requested. That’s an emotional rollercoaster I shouldn’t have to go through because the staff is untrained and inept. And lastly, this is just a side note, the whole staff attitude all night was extremely lackadaisical and I think it’s because it is a 100% male staff. Not a single woman. Not a hostess, not a waitress, nothing. Not really sure what my connection is there, but something about that is just off. Thanks for reading my novel about why...

Someone call Nev, I’m pretty sure I was catfished! I reached out as we loved the camping/tent atmosphere their website was giving. On 8/13 I spoke with Clide who identified as the event coordinator. I made a reservation for 9/1 as my wife and I wanted to have a family lunch to celebrate our baby on the way. We chose this day as Clide had indicated it was “wide open” in terms of reservations. We discussed wanting a tent and specifically discussed if 14 people could fit in a tent, to which he stated yes, they could add a small table for 2 at the end. We said perfect, i gave my card information for the deposit and we were told we were set.

When we arrived on 9/1 we were walked to the back of the restaurant were they had a table set by the extra alcoholic bottles, and a bunch of random boxes. I spoke with the hostesses who walked us over and told her I was under the impression we reserved a tent for our event. She told me Clide reported he had called me and we were okay with the arrangement. I informed her this was not accurate, I didn’t receive any call nor did i approve this. She seemed puzzled, she told me Clide would be in at 2pm. I asked he come and see me once he was in. At this point I saw all 3 tents were being used. I felt I didn’t have much of a choice and being a large group of 14 we couldn’t just walk into another restaurant without a reservation. We ended up staying.

During our lunch staff did come in and out of the room. Bartender came in a few times to get new bottles, at one point i was asked to get up to allow a staff to get into their refrigerator, another staff then came in with a rolling cart needing to get into their refrigerator again. Clide never came to speak to me. I was told he wasn’t coming in after all. I spoke to Alex about my dissatisfaction. He comped 2 appetizers and called it a day. I would have much rather received the full experience I thought I was getting. It’s been two weeks since our visit and Clide hasn’t bothered to reach out. Pretty lameeeeee!

The food was okay. I will say the mimosas hit, and the truffle fries were great. Salma our server was super nice...

It has been a long time since I've been disappointed with the food, the service, atmosphere, and I'm presuming the management of a restaurant. 1) Ceviche tasted like it was tossed in ketchup or cocktail sauce (per my GF but I agree as it tasted so sweet to me). 2) After telling the server about the ceviche miss, we were asked if we wanted another starter - got the fries which were OK per my GF (I am not a fries connoisseur). 3) My Grilled Octopus Salad came out looking/tasting fried to which I told the server, they checked with the back of house, and confirmed that this was fried due to the way that they changed the menu during pandemic times...then they served me another octopus salad. 4) Service was slow to start with even getting a drink order in (even table next us complained on this). But the server was very nice though - good demeanor. 5) We were sat outside without being asked if we wanted to sit inside, asked to be sat inside...then we started to hear some construction banging on the roof.

If the bill would have come out and the replacement starter fries would at least have been comped, I would have directly contacted the resto with our feedback- no problem. But the bill came out with all the charges - even the fries. Not ranting and raving any longer, already wrote too much but it is hard to stop these fingers after a let down like this. We did take the unfinished ceviche/fries in doggy bags to give to homeless on walk home. Hopefully they enjoyed it. :). 2 Stars vs 1 Star because the second octopus salad was grilled and very good.

Picture of 'grilled' octopus and the sweet ceviche...