Second Nature — Restaurant in San Diego

This is my first review, but I thought it very important to share information about my visit to Second Nature so management sees to it that no one has a similar experience.

My wife and I visited Second Nature at 7pm on a Tuesday evening for cocktails while we awaited a dinner reservation at a nearby restaurant. Upon arrival, we were greeted by a hostess and informed her that we were stopping by for drinks. She recommended that we sit at the outdoor bar and directed us there. As we sat down, we were greeted by a bartender who said “hello” rather warmly.

That was the last time anyone acknowledged us. The restaurant was pretty empty (maybe 8 guests total). We sat at the bar and no less than four waitresses walked past us. When we attempted to motion or make eye contact to ask for assistance, it was as if we were invisible. After about ten minutes, an older white man stood next to me, and was greeted immediately by a bartender/waitress who seemed to come out of nowhere. He asked her to clean the bar area where he was standing and she obliged before handing him an order for pick up and walking away. Soon after, he dropped a food item at which time two waitresses asked if he needed help and the bartender reappeared with napkins to help clean the mess. Again, I was seated immediately next to the gentleman and during all of this not one person acknowledged our presence.

After about 10-15 more minutes (I can’t believe we waited so long) we decided to leave the restaurant. The waitresses watched us walk out without offering a word. It was the most bizarre restaurant experience my wife and I have ever had. Mind you, we’re both people of color (she’s Indian and I am Black). While I’m usually not comfortable subscribing race or racism to matters such as these, it was not lost on us that we were the only Brown people in the restaurant. However, NO ONE deserves to be ignored that way. We were the only people at the bar until the older white gentleman arrived and we were the only Brown people in the building…. and we were sitting for no less than 25 minutes. We have traveled the world and never experienced this type of exclusion. It was awful.

I encourage everyone, particularly people of color, to avoid this restaurant and instead select one of the many nearby options where you can be welcomed, accepted, and even served simply because you’re human....

I really want to love this place! I'll be trying them again in a few months...

The patio was flooded on one side, which is hard to account for here as it doesn't rain often.

The acai mimosas are bland and dry (blueberry and guava mimosas are great!) I'm not a fan of the metal plates and water cups, my mother mentioned prison flat ware at one point. For me, I don't enjoy putting metal up to my mouth, it gave the water a metallic flavor which may have been placebo in retrospect. Maybe it's intentional, as I did buy that flight of mimosas to chase the sensation away.

The "watermellon" poke bowls were a good idea but the rice was clumpy and the sauces just a bit too off from the real thing to be completely enjoyable. (I appreciate fish oil I difficult to replace) It just fell a bit flat. Presentation was great though!

The beyond burger was great! Best patty I have ever had and very well made. A bit dismayed that it came alone on a plate. For the price I expected a side, or at least a garnish.

My mother had the teriyaki chicken (real chicken) which looked and smelled amazing and had tremendous portions.

Overall, I'm very excited for this place and really want to support the veg community. I'll be back but might give them a few months to get the kinks out. I hope you'll...

Our dine-in experience started off rather frustrating when we called early in the day on a weekday to ask if we could make a reservation on the patio since we had a party of 6 people with 3 dogs. We were told that while they do take reservations, it shouldn't be a problem to get a seat on the patio that night and therefore we wouldn't need a reservation. All was well, or so we thought.

We arrived at 8PM to find that there were no tables big enough to accommodate our party available on the patio. Instead, we were welcome to sit at a rather uncomfortable bar-style seating area and tie our dogs up on the outside railing. My elderly parents were not comfortable at all at the bar and neither were the dogs with this strange seating arrangement. Luckily, we spoke with another host, explained the situation and asked if there was another seating option on the patio. I watched her roll her eyes as she walked away, but she did come back shortly thereafter to tell us another table outside was just finishing up.

Once we got to a better table, everything was fantastic! Our server was a sweetheart, the food was great—especially for 5 vegetarians—and we ended up enjoying the experience overall. Just not so much the "reservations" experience, or...