Urban Plates — Restaurant in San Diego

May 23, 2025 A token of apology was given, for me to dine again. I wouldn't be comfortable at this location though. Most importantly, higher ups took the event very seriously. Hopefully, There was accountability for the staff involved. /Monkey sounds made, several times from a female Mexican employee, other employees laughed. This was done in front of a tall white male employee with medium length light colored hair, who may have been apart of management. Multiple employees saw me at the register and it took several minutes for any of them to address me. The restaurant literally only had a few customers in it. When the tall male employee came to the register, he took his time refilling my drink, stopping to instead refill two drinks of a white patron who approached him. He never finished refilling my drink, he did not put the lid on it, a female employee did. The pineapple coconut lime drink, looked weird and it was separating. The bottom had an inch that looked like yellow oil. I did not drink it! My initial drink, did not look like that. As I exited the counter, employees burst into laughter. Also, A tall, Mexican man from the kitchen appeared to hover near us, waiting for us to leave, but not displaying any of that urgency to the other customers. When I asked for him to confirm what time they closed, he shrugged his shoulders, and said he didn't know. Our total stay was about forty minutes, most of which was waiting for our order. The only plus was upon arrival, friendly customer service from a young woman with blond hair. Unfortunately, That doesn't excuse the racist monkey sounds from the Mexican young woman, or the laughter from several staff. I absolutely DO NOT recommend this restaurant! Visit was for a special occasion on Saturday, May 17, 2025, somewhere between about 8:40...

I’ve been coming to Urban Plates since 2011, when their only location was in Del Mar. For the last couple of years we’ve been frequenting the La Jolla location because it’s closer to home. Man, they’ve really gone downhill and it’s such a shame. Aside from smaller portions and increased prices, it’s the QUALITY of the food that has progressively declined. Each time we visit, there’s always something off- it’s never an overall 100% visit. Well today I felt it was time to write a review. They always had incredible mac n’ cheese- creamy & Al dente. Today it was watery mush. I took one bite and brought it to the front and even one of the workers said, “Oh yes, that doesn’t look right.” I requested to exchange for the carrots and beets. Another worker was kind enough to bring me a new serving of mac & cheese that was fresh off the pot. It was a little more firm but tasteless and totally watery! Please see video attached. This was disgusting mac n’ cheese. I would’ve been so angry if I ordered this as takeout and got all the way home and faced with this disgrace. I mean it was absolutely terrible. I informed the staff once again, just to provide my constructive feedback and he stated that they are using a new cheese. Eek! Well I highly recommend you bring back the old cheese! Overall, today was a below average experience, not just the mac n’ cheese but I agree with another reviewer, the food tastes like it’s been heated up (and reheated again) and poorly seasoned. My fish did come out piping hot and I could tell it came right off the griddle. I just wish everything tasted like it did 5-10 years ago. Sadly, it looks like we won’t...

I’m downgrading my rating on the service here. We arrived at 5:55 and tried ordering through the app. It failed twice on my phone at the very end, would not check out. Tried on another phone, still not working. Got in line at 6:05, waited ten minutes due to only one register open and the guy running it was clueless. Finally finished order at 6:16. I know because of the time stamp on receipt. Went to a table and waited, and waited, and waited. At 6:41, went to the register and asked for a refund. Never got our food. But I saw the kitchen person looking for us with our plates as we left at 6:45. 30 minute wait for food to arrive 50 minutes after we first tried to order. We had a commitment at 7:00, and had to go there hungry thanks to the fabulously awful service. I’m sure they were short staffed, but the staff they did have seemed really new at their jobs. The cashier told the woman in front of us that the thing she ordered was not on the menu, until I pointed it out to him in the menu. He tried to tell me my salad didn’t normally include cheese, until I pointed out that it did and I wanted it without cheese. It took three people to add ice to the drink machine, and one of them was the slow cashier, which slowed things down even more. Do not try to eat here unless you have several hours to spare. Total opposite of a fast casual...