Sloppy Joey’s

Worst service I’ve ever had at a restaurant. We were seated next to a large rambunctious party and so were ignored by our server who was taking care of the party. He barely spoke to us, acknowledged or helped us. I get it – if you’re busy with a large party your time is divided between a party that is a guaranteed big tip and a smaller party with the possibility of less payoff. Hey, if you don’t want to serve us, maybe another server can? The service assistant was the one helping us the whole time! The party was so loud, so rude, we had to move downstairs outside and then were further ignored but at least it was quiet. The manager never once knew anything was wrong, and wasn’t aware of our situation until the very end of our meal when we asked to see him. Why didn’t we ask to see him sooner you may ask? We didn’t have a server to tell that to! It wasn’t just the loud party, it was everything about how the staff handled the problem. I tipped the service assistant and told him to just keep it for himself. Shit experience. I wasn’t able to enjoy my food. I can’t even really say if it was a good or bad. Maybe it was fantastic – I was too busy cringing to tell.

Good seafood pasta

This place ROCKS. FIrst for those who do not research places before you go to them, WHY ARE YOU READING THIS???
There are actually two places here, you have Sloppy Joey’s and Nicky Rottens who are both owned by the same family and they places are connected on the inside. Nicky Rottens has a Chicago décor and Sloppy Joey’s more of a New York style, which means you can order off of both menus.
We met a friend there for lunch and it was really good.
The staff is excellent, they will treat you like family and make your time there extremely enjoyable. The food is really very very good. They will prepare anything to your liking and the prices are really reasonable. We enjoyed our time here so much we decided to come back for breakfast on Sunday morning before we left town.
Sloppy Joey’s served one of the BEST breakfasts I have had in a long time. The owner actually refuses to let anyone else cook some of the food on Sundays. No one can give something the same type of love as you and this owner just knows how to deliver.
The food is made to order with the best ingredients you can find. They do not skimp on ANYTHING. If you have a bad experience at this place, it is YOUR OWN FAULT.
Take the time to give the staff the same respect they give you. They desire to treat you like family and you should give them that same respect (JUST MAKE SURE IT IS A FAMILY MEMBER YOU LIKE).
When in San Diego, we will go to this place at least MORE then once and I encourage everyone who can get down to the gas lamp area in San Diego to try this place for lunch/​dinner and then for breakfast on the weekend. It is worth the trip in my opinion.

Mr. Snarky and my last day together in SD. Twas a lovely time, although Sloppy Joey’s should not have been our last meal together (actually we topped it off with a sundae from Ghiradelli), but he chose it, so I went with it. We were a bit confused as to why there were Nicky Rotten’s menus until we realized that they are essentially the same restaurant and you can order off of either menu. Staff were quick to seat us and we chose to sit upstairs.
Trying to decide between both menus was a little ridiculous, especially for someone like me who has decision problems. Maybe the other problem was that I wasn’t really thrilled with the menu, but he wanted to eat here! He decided rather early on that he was having a Meatball Calzone… I decided a squillion years later on the (drum roll please)… Dirty Sanchez Baja Burger. I know what you are thinking. I was thinking it too. I giggled when I ordered it. I could see the waiter giggle a little bit when I giggled. I think some part of me actually liked all the crap that came on the burger, but another part of me just thought the name was funny. Regardless, basically the kitchen sink comes on this burger… chili, pepper jack cheese, jalepenos, onion ring, sour cream, lettuce, salsa, and guacamole.
They brought us breadsticks… just two though. They were ok. Our mains came out and the portions were impressive. My burger was so big I didn’t know how I was going to eat this thing. In fact, I ended up having to fork it. My burger and everything on it just seemed cold and the onion ring was so tough I had to abandon it. The fries were ok, but the whole dinner was a bit disappointing for me. Mr. Snarky managed to eat all of his calzone, but didn’t think it was anything to write home about. I tasted it and the meatballs didn’t have a lot of flavour. We were full, but it just wasn’t a spectacular meal.

Rainy Sunday not very busy, took a long time for us to be noticed and seated. Finally seated upstairs it was loud .
Ordered calamari for appetizer it was standard run of the mill. The breadsticks were good.
Spicy vegetarian pizza was also good .
$ 30 total for 2 people with no alcohol
Not too bad for the GasLamp District

Had the seafood pasta, it was too huge! It had a great amount of seafood and I was full just looking at it. Flavors were average, but they did provide lots of seafood in the pasta.
My fiancé had the chicken parm and for once in his life, he could not finish it. The portions are large enough for 2 people to share an entrée.

Sloppy Joe’s makes a pretty good breakfast. I had the pastrami omelet which was very good, and it came with potatoes O’Brien and a few slices of orange for $ 8.95. Toast did not come with the breakfast, so I had to pay an extra $ 1.00 for sourdough. (
)
The omelet was very good. It came loaded with tasty pastrami, succulent onions, and Swiss cheese all melted about. (
) I am not kidding, this omelet had a substantial amount of pastrami. (
) The use to top you breakfast with a pile a bacon, but apparently not anymore. What a bummer.
The potatoes were very good. The well well seasoned and prepared. They came with a nice color on them and well herbervized! (
) The sourdough toast tasted very good, in fact; I commented on that to my server Megan, but it came not well toasted and cold to the touch. (
) They also forgot to provide butter, but that was quickly rectified by a server.
Overall my breakfast was great and well priced for downtown. The server Megan was great and provided great service.
It’s funny how pastrami puts a smile on my face. Well done Mr. Sloppy!

*Review is for service only*
My girlfriend and I were looking for a place with a good happy hour to grab some drinks and some food. When we were seated we had about 10 minutes left until happy hour was over. The person that seated us stated to grab the drinks we wanted prior to happy hour ending, fair enough. We waited 12 minutes for our waiter to come over! When he came over we asked if he would honor the happy hour on the DRINKS since we had been waiting for a while. He quickly said no and glanced over us as though we didn’t even matter anymore. Really? As we left I told the girl who seated us that they should all really be on the same page, she should stop bringing people in with her happy hour pitch if they don’t plan to serve people until happy hour has ended.
We went a block over to Whiskey Girl and had much better service. I will be back in two weeks and see if I can review the food.

We planned on eating at Nicky Rottens next door but because they have a full bar and it was night, they told us we couldn’t bring our kids in so we had to eat next door at their sister restaurant, Sloppy Joey’s. We were still able to order off the Nicky Rottens menu.
They claim their burgers are the best in San Diego. Perhaps they are, but the burger I ate which was the «Bacavo» burger, didn’t wow me. It was a good burger, and more reasonably priced then I’ve seen at other burger places. I wouldn’t come back just for the burger though. If I did, it would be to try some of the other menu items. My wife also had the Famous Rottens Burger, which I guess is just their basic burger. It was too much for her to finish, she also said it was a good burger, but also wasn’t wowed by it.
My kids ordered off Sloppy Joey’s menu but since they really don’t have a kids menu, we just got them ½ portions of their spaghetti with meatball. My daughter liked it, my son was more interested in playing with the candles on every table. I took a taste of the meatball and thought it was pretty good. If I’m in town and decide to come back, I would probably return to Sloppy Joey’s to try other things, but not Nicky Rottens.

I had made a reservation at Nicky Rottens for a friend’s birthday. We arrived on time and were asked if we had a reservation. They didn’t ask for a name and shooed us over to Sloppy Joeys. Since they own the place we didn’t think anything of it.
When we walked up to the hostess at Sloppy Joeys we were asked if we had a reservation, we said yes and they sat us at a table. After we had ordered our drinks the hostess came up and accused us of telling her the wrong name for the reservation that our reservation was for next door and «The Millers» had requested the table we were sitting at. No, I think no. I’m sorry you think Megan sounds like Miller but your hearing issues, organization and communication skills do not constitute rudeness.
To top it all off, «The Millers» and the hostess were giving us dirty looks through the rest of our dinner. Also, the waitress messed up my friend’s order and blamed it on her for saying it wrong. It wasn’t even somethig she liked! If I don’t like mushrooms I’m most definitely not going to «accidentally» order a plate of mushrooms.
Other than the mix up, my food was yummy and the table was in an awesome location overlooking the busiest street on the gaslamp. Mayhem! Sorry about your luck, «The Millers».

My girlfriend and I walked along 5^th Ave around 9PM last night (Saturday) trying to decide where to eat for dinner. When we came across this restaurant, we decided to dine in here since it was near the nightlife. The hostess was nice and sat us in our seats. Then she mentioned that we could order off the menu of the restaurant next door, Nicky Rottens, which was a 30 minute wait at the time. Before ordering, the waiter served us complimentary garlic/​parmesan bread with a side of marinara sauce which tasted super good.
The menu offered mainly italian food, but I was craving a burger. Luckily I was able to order off the Nicky Rottens menu and got the Rottens «Bacavo» Burger. My girlfriend ordered the The Works pizza. The burger was super good and filling. I also liked the pizza because was not too heavy.
There’s nothing too special about this place but the food did taste great. I would come back again especially after grabbing a few drinks at the nearby bars.

When I say 5-​stars, I’m not comparing it to Spago, Craft, or any of my other 5-​star reviews. But this place was really good … for what it is.
The three of us went (me, Mr R, and the 8 year old gourmet we travel with) for dinner as it was pretty close to our hotel and had average Unilocal reviews. We were expecting cheap quality food and poor service, but we felt like pizza and it was nearby.
We had pretty good food — complimentary breadsticks to start, and then it was happy hour so in the entire restaurant all appetizers were ½ off. We shared Fried Zucchini and Fried Raviolis. We then shared the Antipasto Salad. For dinner, the 8-​year-​old had the Tomato Bisque and Mr R and I shared a Handlebar Pizza.
The food was really good! The breadsticks were kind of blah and I think they’re hoping if they take any white bread and cover it it butter people will think its good. But we loved the salad with lots of peppercinis and a really good vinaigrette. The pizza was tasty, the perfect size and the toppings were all really good — especially the sausage.
By far our favorite part was the service. Sparky took such good care of the 8-​year old and really made an effort to make him feel ‘cool’. It was really fun to watch the 8-​year old beam when this server brought him extra breadsticks (some people like white bread covered in butter), called him «my buddy» and things like that. It really made our night.

I have to agree with others about the service, we went on a Monday night, just looking for some pizza… the pizza was good, but our «less than friendly» server was kinda of a bummer…
no smile, flirting with the hostness right in front of us, giving us a «nod: instead of using his words lol, i’m not your friend, i’m your customer… I guess in that kinda of location you dont really have to try very hard, but our tip reflected our not as stellar service.
The people sitting on the patio next to us must have been friends bc the host and server let all 3 of them light up while we were sitting there, its illegal and RUDE!
Hopefully we can come back again, bc the food wasnt bad, just the service.

I gotta agree with Andrew S. Why the hell WOULD you go to this place and not order the Sloppy Joe? I rolled in to this place after a long drive to San Diego from Los Angeles for Comic-​Con. A sloppy joe washed down with a cold glass of Stella was the absolute PERFECT thing to chill me out after all that ridiculous traffic.
Service was great when I was there. Efficient and polite. I didn’t even really look at the entire menu because I had made my mind up about getting the sloppy joe when I saw the sign for the place. It really was very good, and now I’m wishing there was a Sloppy Joey’s in the Los Angeles area.

Some kind of ‘gangster’ themed restaurant. Went with a group of 6. Most of the food looked ‘fine’ but nothing exciting. My wife later told me her chicken dish was mediocre at best.
I had the Sloppy Joe which was pretty good. It is the only thing giving my review the 2^nd star.
Coming from Rhode Island I didn’t find the underachieving attempt at showcasing mafioso very interesting. The staff knew nothing of the pictures on the wall other than ‘one of those gangsters’…turned out to be pictures of Gotti… anyway, a gimmick that didn’t work for me.

Why the hell would you go here and NOT order the Sloppy Joe? If you order anything else and you have no right to complain. The place is called «SLOPPY JOEY’s!!» Get it? Sheesh… some people’s kids!
I ate here on Monday. Yes, I had the Sloppy Joe. I also ordered a bowl of the Tomato Bisque soup. Both were very good but the Sloppy Joe was outstanding! I highly recommend it!
Service was good and the place was quiet. No complaints and I would eat here again.

So I wasn’t really in the mood to eat here in the first place. I was pretty hungry and my friend and I just decided to eat here. I think this place gets a lot of tourists. I have to take partial blame for taking a seat.
This place is supposedly known for pizza and pasta so I decided on the spaghetti and meatballs. This should be safe, right? Wrong. The meatballs were so gross. They were kind of gray in color and in taste. Needless to say I will not be returning.

3.5 stars if I could.
I went here with a bud from out of town, and we both loved our experience here. Not only is the menu huge (from their sister restaurant next door, Nicky Rotten, as well as their own), but their prices are better than other restaurants on Fifth, the upstairs seating area looking over Fifth is great, they pulled off carpaccio pretty well (I’m a sucker for Sogno Divino’s in Little Italy, but this was good), and we had a very endearing waitress named Jen who was great. My friend also really enjoyed her angel hair pasta, and the portion was big. Overall, I would probably go here again if I had a friend in town.

Great place for breakfast. Who would have thought? My friends and I were on the hunt for some breakfast in the Gaslamp area. We checked out their menu and decided to give them a try. It was a beautiful Sunday morning in SD so we decided to grab a table outside. The food was good and the service was too. Friendly and cool staff even though our waitress was a Raiders fan. Go 49ers! =) She also made a pretty decent mimosa. This is a place that I would come back to the next time that I am in town. There’s a pretty cool looking bar right next door that’s connected to this place. There a opening near the back where you can walk between Sloppy Joeys and Nicky Rottens.

The eating area downstairs is small, so you most likely will have to eat upstairs. The upstairs area is nice, with a plasma TV showing sports for each booth and a TV in the back for the bigger table. We sat in that bigger table area.
I was able to eat both the Meat Pizza and the Cheesesteak Pizza. Both are really very good.
They also give you the option to be able to order from the menu of adjoined Nicky Rotten’s Bar & Burger Joint next door.
The only thing I would like to add to the upstairs eating area is ventilation or air conditioning. Other than that, our waiter was extremely nice and attentive. He mentioned it had only been his first week and he joked with us about our «nerd attire» (as we were attending Comic-​Con) which was a welcome gesture as we were getting disparaging remarks and awkward stares whilst walking up 5^th.
I will definitely make this place a «must go to» spot every time I am in the Gaslamp.