Zama San Diego — Restaurant in San Diego

Horrible service. This establishment unfortunately doesn’t care about its guests at all. Complete mean girl/bully energy!

We sat down close to 9 PM (keep in mind they don’t close until 11 PM) & our sever was a blonde with long hair. She seemed not super into it from the start, but oh well..we let it go, we were ready to have a good experience as our group is here on a work trip and we have guests from out of the country and we were excited seeing the beautiful decor.

Everything was fine up until the end of our service. The waiter did not ask if we enjoyed our meal, how we were doing, or if we wanted dessert, she just put down the bill. Usually, servers will give you a good amount of time to rest after your meal and I’ve never been pressured to pay a bill. Or, if the restaurant is closing sometimes they’ll kindly let you know that they are closing as a heads up but no rush. After about 5 minutes, the server came up grabbed the bill and saw we didn’t have our cards in yet, she then told us “if you guys could close out your bill so I could go home that would be amazing” in a very rude tone then walked away. We were all a little confused and taken back after this interaction, we all agreed that none of us had been talked to like that at a restaurant before.

After this point, the server went and sat at a table across the restaurant and the we noticed her talking about our table to who we found out was the owner. They were laughing and staring at us. Keep in mind, we literally have done nothing to these people at this point, it’s not like we had been there for hours wasting their times, it’s not like we were rude, the only thing I can think of that pissed her off is that some of our guests had some extra questions and needed extra time with the menu because this is their first time in the states.

After this, the server came back to get the the check and we were still figuring it out on our end because the check wasn’t split and as we are here on a corporate trip, things need to be separated in a certain way. One member of our party even asked in the beginning of the check could be split and she said yes at the start. While we were continuing to figure it out, we were met by rude comments yet AGAIN of her saying “you guys can’t just Venmo each other? That would be a lot easier for me” in an extremely rude tone. I explained no, we are using corporate cards and need to pay that way. She pushed back yet again and claimed they don’t usually split checks. Okay?? Then that should have been explained in the beginning. No proper communication. We could not have been the first group of 6 to come into that restaurant. She then asked “so who wants all the waters?” At that point I offered to take them on my bill since it was such an incredible inconvenience to her.

At this point we were so shaken up and thrown off, someone from our group went to ask for the manager because this behavior is completely unacceptable. She tried to claim she never said she wanted to go home which is weird because all 6 of us heard her. At this point I asked to her face, what went wrong? I said everything had been fine up until the point of closing out and we were completely confused at what had happened. She said nothing happened and nothing was wrong, what?! She then said that we were the last ones in the restaurant and no one else was there and they were closed. I said, there’s people at the bar? The bar was almost completely full. She said well that’s the bar. Keep in mind the restaurant was NOT closed until 11PM! So she was lying. After this, someone in our group had a question about tip, she said it was NOT included. Lol..another lie, I pointed on on our receipt then why does it say 20% gratuity was already applied? She claimed she didn’t know and she didn’t add they to the check..again…ok?? Never in my life have I been treated like that at any restaurant, any establishment, or just in general in life. None of us have. We were completely shocked and appalled.if there wasn’t a character limit, I would share more. Just stay away and...

Updated 12/13/24: Changing my review from 2 stars to 1 star. After the owner commented on my original post, I followed the instructions to reach out to the GM. He responded with an email that clearly seemed like a template, with the wrong restaurant listed, and a generic message asking me to contact him directly, but without providing any instructions on how to do so. I replied asking for someone to call me, but it’s been three days with no response.

This lack of follow-through is consistent with the poor customer service I’ve experienced. The staff seems to give lip service and false promises in an attempt to de-escalate situations without actually addressing the issue. Clearly, this behavior is being modeled from the top down.

TL;DR: Long wait for a table (50 minutes despite a reservation). Service was rushed and unorganized—our waitress implied she was the only one cleaning (but never actually did), and we had to prompt staff multiple times for things like ginger and a spoon. Food took an hour to arrive, and when it did, only half of it came out initially. The dishes were mediocre at best, with some mistakes on the drink order and a $30 charge for a shot of alcohol added without asking making the original mocktail $40. The experience was frustrating and overpriced, not worth the wait.

Poor Experience – Not Worth the Wait We made reservations for a party of seven at 7:15 PM, but were not seated until 8:05 PM after waiting 50 minutes. The hostess misled us several times, telling us our table would be ready in "5 more minutes" while we watched other groups being seated before us. When we inquired, the hostess claimed our table was being cleaned, but we never saw her clean it—only the busboys were doing all the work. She even implied she was the only one cleaning the table, as though there were no busboys, but I never saw her lift a finger. It felt like our table was simply given away. She also mislead us to believe that because of our party size there's limited seating. We sat at a regular table that they had many of.

Service Issues Once seated, the rushed service continued. The staff pressured us to order drinks quickly, only giving us two menus for our entire group. We probably were approached 5 times within 10 minutes. We shared an alcohol bowl, but after asking for a spoon, we were left waiting and never received it. My friend also requested ginger to accompany her food, but it was completely ignored. She had to prompt the staff, who lied and said someone else was bringing it out right now. However, it was the waitress herself who eventually brought it. It took an entire hour for us to receive our food, and when it finally arrived, only half of our order came out initially. The rest of our food came 15-20 minutes later.

Food and Drink Disappointment The food was lackluster. I ordered the salmon with sweet corn, but the glaze was off and the dish was forgettable. The lollipop lamb chops were seared well but overcooked, possibly left under a heat lamp too long. The fries, however, were the best part of the meal.

When ordering a mule, my friend didn't realize it was a mocktail. The waitress said they could add alcohol and any type she liked. My friend picked tequila but no option of type was given to her. The waitress definitely upcharged because she added a shot of Don Julio 70 without asking for her preferences, charging us $30 for a single shot plus another $10 for the mocktail. Totally 1 drink to $40 which we could have just bought a whole bottle of Don Julio 70 at this point. Rushed and Overcharged The staff rushed us to pay before we were done, and I had to explicitly tell the waitress that we weren’t finished multiple times when you can see us still finishing out drinks. Especially if one is $40. When the bill arrived, I found an added surcharge and gratuity—despite the mediocre service and food quality.

Overall, the food and service were disappointing, and after waiting nearly an hour for a table, the experience was not worth it. The only saving grace was spending time...

In summary, what a terrible experience. From start to finish it was bad, it maybe easier for me to list all the issues I had with the place given there were several. I went here with my gf for Restaurant week. Hostess was pushing us to sit outside even though it's so cold, which i told her multiple times. I asked for indoor seating on my reservation for a reason. Then I understood why she was pushing outdoor seating, the only seats available were literally 2 inches from another 2 seater table... so any sense of privacy is completely gone It took literally 17 mins for someone to come greet me and get my drink order. the lady was nice but she wasn't our server about 5mins after our server Alex came over and asked if we were ready. not even an apology for waiting.. I ask his name btw; he didn't introduce himself they messed up my friends drink order While my gf was in the bathroom. the server discover when she went to put the wrong drink on the neighboring table. she literally picked up the drink and swapped it with my friends - so she "fixed" the mix up.. but how unpleasant that the girl next to us drink was sitting our table for a few minutes before given to her, like restaurant 101, go make her a new drink... that's kind gross. We decided to share two* restaurant week orders. we already put in two apps from the restaurant week menu and were deciding how we want our steak cooked and Alex, very rudely said, you can't share one order. it's was so unnecessarily rude. We were not* sharing one, we were sharing two... regardless, this guy needs some help with his manners. So rude! Our main dishes too a while to arrive, finally they did but they already cleared my silverware from the appetizers. I flagged someone down to get silverware. by the time the silverware came a different was literally bringing out our desserts. We didn't even touch our main dish yet. omg how does this happen. honestly I thought I was being pumk'd. like how are you this bad! Also it was my friends 35th birthday, I told Alex. but he forgot. they usually bring cute little candle fireworks thing and sing... super embarrassing because almost every other table had one.

I truly hope I was just the exception and the standard, because my experience was so awful.

Go anywhere else then here! You have plenty of better options in Gaslamp. The food was subpar at best, over price, and service was insanely awful.

This is my first one star review for a resturant in over a year! so let that speak to how awful my...