The Shack Bar & Grill — Restaurant in San Diego

We really wanted to like this place. It has a cool look, nice outdoor seating, pool tables and bar inside, dog friendly. A typical laid-back beachy vibe. The local recommendations did not mention it though, and now we know why. To begin, there’s a big sign saying to seat yourself, so we did. It was not too busy but wasn’t empty either. We sat for 10 minutes without anyone acknowledging us, despite the fact that we saw a female staff member in and out several times helping other guests. She seemed to not notice that we were there. After 10 minutes I finally got up to go find out what was going on. The same girl was heading out so I asked her if we did the right thing by seating ourselves, and she said yes. I said “oh i wasn’t sure because we’ve been here for 10 minutes already.” She said “sure would you like a menu?” I said yes and she quickly brought some. Shortly after a male waiter (receipt said 2 names, Dan and Dani) came and got our drink order. Then we saw and heard our male waiter greeting what seemed to be 3 either well known regular patrons or personal friends that were arriving. They were like “how are you brother? How’s it going?” with an exchange of bro hugs and hand shakes. I thought this was a good sign. After another 10 minutes we were getting scorched by the sun and still didn’t have any drinks to cool down with, so we moved to a more shady table. We soon saw our waiter returning, we made eye contact and he nodded to confirm he noted our table change. He was carrying a tray of drinks, but unfortunately they were not ours, they were for his friends, who as I said arrived and ordered drinks long after we did. We then saw another couple seated with drinks, I assume they ordered themselves at the bar, maybe that’s a better way to go here? Our waiter returned finally with our drinks and asked if we wanted anything to eat. We had planned on dinner, but were already becoming soured on The Shack, so we decided to just get an appetizer to go with our drinks, and we ordered the soft pretzel to share. We were just about ready to go inside to cancel the order and pay for our drinks and leave when the pretzel finally arrived. I doubt they make these from scratch so I’m not sure why it took ANOTHER 10-15 minutes to get it, by which time our drinks were getting warm and in need of a refill, but we didn’t want to spend any more time or money there. The pretzel was good, but it’s a soft pretzel, they’re pretty much all the same lol. The honey mustard sauce was good, the jalapeno cheese sauce was a good flavor but it had a nasty dried skin on top we had to scrape away first. It took another 10 minutes to let the waiter (the girl again this time) know that we wanted our check. All in all, we spent an hour here and spent $30 for a draft beer (“happy hour” price was still $7), a Moscow mule (which we admit was very good), and a soft pretzel. We left and went across the street to the “The Promiscuous Fork” where we had had an amazing dinner the night before. We enjoyed another delicious meal and spent $60 for 2 huge specialty burgers that each came with a delicious side, and 2 draft beers. That took less than an hour. So when there are options like that available, I see no reason why anyone would opt for The Shack, unless your have friends there that can guarantee you good service. Small, simple menu, not-so-special happy hour deals, slow and...

1 star because we came Saturday after a ufc fight and the drink prices were decent. Michele was friendly, the other bartender not so much. Security was nice too. Came back on Sunday to try their food and watch game 3 of the NBA playoffs. When we walked up there was a sign that said to seat your self, so we did. All the tables were dirty, which was fine. I went up to the bartenders to ask if they could clear a table so we could sit down. One said yes give her a minute. We waited. Another table saw us standing around and went up to the bartenders and asked them to clean the table. Still nothing. So after waiting I started stacking everything so it would be easier for them to clean up, STILL NOTHING. But they had time to grab menus and tend to other people. I then went up again to ask for the table to be cleared and the waitress shooed be away and said yeah we will be with you. I got frustrated and grabbed the spray bottle of cleaner and the wash cloth and started cleaning the table and moved the cups and plates over to the bar and that's when one of the bartenders came over and started helping. I get that it's busy and you're short staffed but to be ignored and rude to your customers is another thing. I will never recommend this place to anyone. Worst experience we had...

I was enjoying this bar, until i asked another bartender to get me two more shots of vodka (the one who wasn't serving me..she told me that I can't get anything to drink cuz "I'm being rude"). I'm from Ukraine and I know how much I can drink, so I asked how was I being rude.. However, there was no adequate reply from her. The security guard contacted the owner of the restaurant and handed me the phone. The owner was nice and said that he can give me free shots at the expense of the bar, even though the bartender girl who was good looking wasn't trying to apologize and was still being rude for no reason. The most important thing was that she didn't even check my id (even though I look young) and kept on being rude with me. I recommend that you go to another bar right next to it (2 min away), unless you want hard liquor (cuz they don't serve it there). Especially if you are a foreigner, because apparently this bar is prejudice towards foreigners which was reinforced by their staff. I feel upset about their attitude, because I thought everywhere in this country people are nice and friendly towards people from another countries. It turns out not...