The Shores Restaurant — Restaurant in San Diego

$180 for 7 crappy drinks and a shockingly uncomfortable experience.

Horrible experience with the manager. After waiting at the host stand the manager walked up and I said “I’d like to order several drinks for the pool”, but instead of taking the order and bringing items to the group as we’d done several times that day he said “go to the bar and you can carry them over”. I ordered 8 drinks, the bartender placed them all in front of me and after I paid I asked if I could use a tray or if anyone was available to help carry them. He ignored me, a nice guy next to me jumped up to help along with a buser who walked by and saw me struggling. Finally got settled and the manager comes huffing over “you can’t have glass out here”. I apologized and reminded him I told him, the bartender and another staff member several times I was ordering for the pool. He said he’d bring plastic cups. We agreed, then asked about the drinks with tajin on rim, garnishes and a drink that was layered. He looked at me disgusted, annoyed and walked off.

He brought plastic cups and told us we had to transfer $150+ (inc tip) of full drinks we hadn’t touched yet, no offer to help or remake. Several spilled including a full spicy marg. Manager didn’t offer to remake.

Then we realized we were missing a cosmo for my mom. I told him, he said “you have to pay for it” and I said “I’m sure I ordered it”. He asked me several more times like he thought I was lying. When he came back I had just started holding my newborn niece and she was a bit fussy so I was standing up calming her down. He walked up, waved the original receipt in my face, which wasn’t itemized only the $130 total before tip, and said “you didn’t pay for it you need to pay now” then waved a $17 bill in my face. This was so uncomfortable, the baby’s crying louder so I didn’t want to argue and I said “I can’t grab my wallet at the moment” (over baby’s cries and spilled drinks below me) “I’ll come into the bar and pay shortly”. He told me “no you need to pay now”.

Never in my life… several people in the group have worked in bars and restaurants, consensus was this situation definitely warranted something to make it right, but we didn’t want to ask up to this point. I finally mentioned all the issues and said “I really think you should comp my moms cosmo at this point, I’m sure I ordered and paid already but even if not a marg spilled when you forced us to transfer everything” and he again looked at me disgusted, said no and motioned his paypad towards me (and my sweet, crying niece). A friend jumped up to pay. At first we were just so confused by how everything happened, but it’s been a day or two and I’m very unhappy with how...

Shores Restaurant is located inside the La Jolla Shores Hotel. It is right on the beach with a beautiful view of the ocean. If you can't find street parking, they have parking in their underground garage, which was easy to find. The restaurant will validate to give you free parking in the first 90 minutes. After that, it's $10 for the next 90 minutes and goes up from there. I think they should validate for 2 hours, like most restaurants do, but that's more of a hotel thing, I think.

I made a reservation for 8 of my coworkers for a happy hour get together (they only have actual happy hour deals Monday-Thursday and we went on a Friday... oops!) and 6 showed up, and most showed up late. No problem! They had a table ready for us on their patio with a view of the ocean. Cherry was our server and she was fantastic! She was attentive and super friendly. I had a passion fruit mule, which was delicious. Everyone at the table enjoyed their drinks. For food, some had dinner plans so didn't want to eat too much, others didn't... Cherry and the restaurant were able to accommodate everyone's needs perfectly. Two in the party ordered off the kids menu to get a smaller portion, one ordered the beet salad, one ordered a burger, one the triple decker sandwich (she took half of it home for lunch the next day!), and I ordered the butternut squash ravioli. We also were able to order a side of fries for the table. Everything came out perfectly and everyone was pleased with their orders.

I'd love to go back on a weekday (not Friday) to experience their actual happy hour. It was a very nice experience, good atmosphere, excellent view - we even saw dolphins from our table! I highly recommend...

I would have to say, I was expecting a VERY nice brunch, after seeing the atmosphere and the people seated. The beach front seating looked pleasant, with a small chattering of people, and very friendly staffing. That all ended once the drinks arrived. The Bloody Mary, was a Bloody Mess. This literally tasted like - watered down - overly spiced - rock salt rimmed - shrimp cocktail sauce.. that someone may or may not have actually added vodka to. The Hamburgers arrived, and that's literally what it was. A nice beef patty, that was probably frozen 7 minutes prior, to arriving to our table. Served on a nicely warmed brioche bun. That's it... Not a single condiment in sight.. No ketchup, mustard, pickle, onion, mayo, lettuce - absolutely nothing in sight or offered.. So a star of a bun, ends up leaving you dry as the cloth napkin, you use to wipe the crumbs off your lap. The Lobster pot pie - was LITERALLY - the poorest excuse for a pot-pie, I had ever seen in my life. A soup cup filled with a lobster bisque, with with a $0.10 Pillsbury flaky biscuit, stretched over the top. Cooked in an oven that was an entirely set too high. In peeling the nicely browned flaky biscuit off the top, it revealed the biscuit was still raw underneath. After waiting for it to stop bubbling, I quickly devoured the delicious lobster bisque. I will have to say it was absolutely delicious. But for $13 there could have been more than just one scoop, or served with a side.. I dunno, maybe some chowder biscuits, or a nice mixed rice. With that said I will have to say, the wait staff was very friendly and...