The Grass Skirt — Restaurant in San Diego

I've been here a few times and this review is solely for my most recent visit (for my birthday) on 5/2. I made a reservation for a large party. In order to do so I had to email the restaurant and they replied with 2 seating options for my party. I was very excited to select the table inside a tiki (inside the restaurant). When we arrived they said our tiki table would be ready in just a moment. A bit later they took us out to the patio to be seated. When we questioned why we were on the patio they replied that they had given our table away and it would be another hour wait. The area we were seated on the patio had a wall between half our party so we couldn't even talk to each other. When another group left from the better side of the patio shortly thereafter, we asked to move to the other side so we could all sit together. We were told... get this!!!... "that they needed to check first to make sure someone didn't have it reserved". We were like...seriously? If it is ok to give away our reserved table (reserved well in advance!!) then you better not do it to us twice. Luckily they said we could move so we did. Eventually we got menus and a waitress (the only reason I gave service 1 star was the poor girl was very nice and I don't think anyone told her what the host stand did to our party). Service kept bringing us incorrect orders but eventually things were sorted out. When we were paying the waitress overheard my friend say something about my birthday and the waitress was shocked to hear it was my birthday and ran to the bar to get me a complimentary shot. So not only did the host give away my table, they didn't even communicate to the poor waitress it was my birthday. I'm VERY disappointed with this visit and will be sure to warn others not to rely on The Grass Skirt for important...

So let me start off with saying I have 15 years experience in the restaurant industry. I have never had as bad of service as I had tonight. First we were a walk-in on a Thursday night, while they said there was a 30 min wait, we ended up waiting almost an hour and a half. I had to go in and check an hour later to see if they forgot about us, and they did... next they sat us at the service bar because they knew they messed up and couldn’t open a table.

While the hostess were nice and gave us complimentary drinks of their mini chi chi’s they were not enough for what came after.

The bartender was very polite at first, but soon after we ordered drinks and an appetizer he lost interest. He checked up on us 20 minutes after our appetizer came, so we asked for another app and some water. Next appetizer came, no water. Next time he checked on us he asked if we wanted drinks, still no water. We asked for water again and then our entrees. In between all of this he had time to take a shot with the other bar staff, and after 3 rounds of food we hadn’t gotten roll ups. The food runner brought them to us. The bar wasn’t busy mind you. But still neglected us. We finished our meal and waited 15 minutes to get someone to close us out.

The bartender that was busy working service bar came over to the other side of the bar to grab something out of the well and had the decency to ask us if we needed anything else so we asked for the check. Then our reluctant bartender dropped it off.

Needless to say he was the worst server I’ve ever had in my life! The only positive thing was the food. Kudos to the kitchen for getting food out in time and making it amazing. Shame on that bartender though. I wish I could have made a great review but I couldn’t bring...

My wife had been wanting to go for a while. We had some family visiting from out of town so we thought we would finally go. I won't spoil it for you, but the entrance was super cool! The 5 of us got seated at our table and the hostess told us that there are reservations behind us, so there is a 90 minute limit. We were okay with that (at first). The atmosphere is so fun. We felt like we were at some secret island speakeasy. Lots to look at and enjoy. It took 8 minutes to be greeted by our server. She was very pleasant. We ordered drinks and 3 appetizers. 24 minutes later, 2 of our appetizers arrived, but no drinks. 5 minutes later the 3rd appetizer arrived, followed by the drinks 3 minutes after that. We then ordered our meals. We all got different things so that we could sample the different items. 2 of our items came fairly quickly (8 minutes), 1 more entree came 3 minutes later, with the final 2 plates coming 4 minutes after that. I'm not sure if not bringing everyone's food at the same time is their normal way they serve at the Grass Skirt, but we didn't care for it. We all wanted to eat at the same time. We enjoyed the food when it finally got to us. We wanted to order more drinks, but didn't want to wait another 30 minutes. After we finished, we kept trying to get our servers attention so that we could get a box and the check. That took 15 minutes. While the server had our credit card, a manager came over and said, "We have a 90 minute table limit, with a reservation waiting for this table." I told him that we understood that, but we spent the evening waiting on them, including waiting to pay. He apologized multiple times. But that didn't change the fact that it was not an overall...