The High Dive — Restaurant in San Diego

I've never felt compelled to write a bad review of an establishment, but given my experience I hope no one goes to this place thinking they will have a good time.

We arrived at the High Dive at about 2:00PM on a Sunday. There were plenty of football-watching patrons, but it was not busy at all, given that we were arriving between the usual hours of lunch and dinner. We came with a relatively large party overall, and the establishment didn't indicate any problem with this (or us as a group) at our check in. We settled in and waited for service. And waited. And waited.

At one point, my wife went to the bar to get a drink since the service wasn't coming to our tables. She stood by the bar for 10-15 minutes (roughly 2:30 PM at this point) while no one at the bar acknowledged her. After flagging someone down, she was told to go back to her table for service.

After another 10 minutes or so (2:45 PM), wait staff came to the tables to take orders for the large party. At this point, we had been at the establishment for 40-45 minutes without any service. Orders were taken for the whole party, and we ordered drinks and food at this time.

After another 20-30 minutes (3:15 PM), my wife pointed out that we still did not have our beverages. It's pretty clear that if a bar can't get you a beer within an hour of arriving, something is wrong. I asked a bartender if there was a problem with our service, indicating that we had waited for 30 minutes after ordering beers and were still dry. The bartender promised to fix the situation and, to his credit, he did promptly pour and serve drinks--over an hour after we arrived. If a bar is unable to pour a drink for a patron within an hour of arriving, then they are really bad at being a bar.

In another 20 minutes (3:35 PM), food began arriving for the group. All food was put out for other families in our group, but ours didn't arrive. We watched and waited as other people began eating. No one in the service well seemed interested in helping us. After 10 minutes or so (3:45 PM) I asked a table busser why everyone else had gotten food but not us. He flagged the issue for the wait staff who then exasperatedly tried to put the order into the computer. It became clear immediately that our order had never been placed. So, after an hour and 45 minutes at the restaurant, I informed the waitress that we were no longer interested in dining with them, and we left with no food.

Before leaving, I made this situation apparent to the bartender who appeared to be managing the restaurant. At no point did he or anyone else try to apologize for making a mistake. Mistakes happen and are acceptable--they happen regularly, especially when dealing with large parties. In this case, though, there wasn't even an attempt to take any responsibility. As we left, the bartender simply shrugged his shoulders.

Additionally, during our visit, other patrons at the bar became hostile for no reason other than that we had children in our. One deranged beast of a woman yelled at my wife, unprovoked, to "don't bring your fking kids to a fcking dive bar." No one on the staff indicated any problem with this completely unprovoked behavior. The only reason we chose this restaurant was because the fireman who helps coach our baseball team knew of the place and wanted to go. If the establishment isn't acceptable for certain groups, it would be a whole lot more efficient just to tell those people before attempting to serve them. It certainly would have been better than subjecting us to verbal abuse, horrible service, and not even an attempt to...

This place is really awesome just had a really good time they offer great food great music great staff great community and great beverages the music is great and the staff is super friendly and exceptionally great at their craft they definitely know how to make a wonderful drink as well as a real work of art in the kitchen this place attracts a decent crowd full of people from all around you may see some friendly faces that you know from your travels in San Diego and you may also meet people from all around the world right now they are open until midnight and they are open Wednesday until Sunday and closed on Monday and Tuesday I really would like to see some bands play here but the local residents don't seem to want that I think it would be a great place to host some events and even a great place you just Celebrate life or a holiday and share laughs and drinks with the local community if you are a tourist in San Diego I would definitely recommend checking out this place seems to me like it's been around for a long time I was curious who the owner was but couldn't seem to figure it out I wonder what the future will bring for this place I wonder how many people have shared a drink and a smile at this bar this place is really clean and well-kept definitely on the high end of pubs they offer outdoor seating and even have some nice heaters available just off the I-5 across the street from Mission Bay there is limited parking so I would recommend grabbing a Lyft or an Uber that way you don't have to worry about driving home I would say this place can fit quite a few people and I would even venture to say that even when crowded it's still a darn good time I was able to meet a few local people and shake some hands I look forward to returning here my favorite part was just before they closed they played some Irish music it really brought me back I used to tour with some really great Irish bands and it was great to shoot stories with one of the staff about the Irish music he was playing. He really seems to know his history and his music and even sings really well well anyways stop by and grab a bite to eat or a beverage and enjoy the sites just across the street from beautiful Mission Bay and just up the street from Ocean Beach and just down the street from Claremont and La Jolla they were telling me about this guy named coach seems like a real nice fellow wish I could have met him definitely check out all the history that this place has to offer I would say if these walls could talk they'd have one heck of a story to tell well this is me signing off maybe next time I can connect with a manager and talk about helping out this may be one stop on the bar crawl for our community crawl with the Lovingston family what do you think should we add this to the list I think it'd be a great place to stop and have a good time. I can't think of any negatives to this place it's just all around a good space and seems to have a lot of history I really look forward to coming back again and sharing a drink with some of my friends my friends have been telling me for a long time to stop by here and hang for a bit so I'm glad I listened. Definitely look this place up and give it a good review for many years to come...

Saw this place showcased on a TV news segment and it looked cool, and the food menu looked in the vein of what we like.

The feel is somewhere between a college sports bar and Hamilton's (the dangling tap handles overhead).

Portions are huge, and the food has copious cheese and bacon. We ordered the High Dive Nachos and the Kraken Burger (Peanut Butter and Jelly Siracha Burger) My wife got a soft drink and I got a beer. The server was very attentive and offered numerous refills for my wife's soda. Food was fairly priced for the portion size and quality.

Beer list is above average. It is cool because they give you a list of upcoming beers when the current run out, so you know what to expect. Prices are decent for regular price $5-7 range, happy hour is only $2 off.

Bartender seemed to have an attitude. I asked him for $3 in quarters to play the pinball machines after our dinner and he shorted me (either he can't count, or thought I wouldn't check).

The pinball machines are awesome. It is rare to find a video arcade that still has them much less a bar. They had 4 machines and they are all very well maintained (i.e. level, all of the targets work) and a big plus for having a vintage machine as well. I'd say that alone was a big draw to...