The Commons Bar

I remember this place being pretty cool when it first opened. I came back today and was unimpressed by what it’s turned into. It was very dirty, the menus had not been wiped down, the bottles of beer on display had coats of dust on them, the bar top was greasy, and the windows hadn’t been washed in quite some time. Unsurprisingly, once seeing the care and atmosphere of the facility, the food was subpar as well.
I think this place has potential, but it needs some TLC.

Four stars for the $ 4 glass of full sauvignon blanc!
Open and airy space across from the Balboa theater.

Not that great. Went upstairs and were ignored went downstairs and was greeted by a nice server. Ordered the Amazballs that is supposed to be homemade mac and cheese with jalapeño and bacon, it sounded so good. So they bring us Sysco frozen jalapeño poppers with bacon bits and cheese on top. Lame. At least the server computed I’d the poppers. Not coming back. Just a crummy attitude all around. Too bad …

The two stars are for their wings, their wings are amazing! However,
The beer selection is awful. We ordered the «AMAZEBALLS» which claims to be a a fried mac and cheese ball infused with jalapeño and bacon, hand breaded, and served with a jalapeño cream sauce. We got Friday’s frozen jalapeño poppers that you can buy in a grocery store topped with barely any shredded cheese and bacon bits served with cheese whiz.
Service was questionable.
Bottom line, they need better beer and better service.

Beer was cold & the service is great, other than that Everything else sucks. $ 12 shots, $ 7 drafts. The wings were awful, no meat, over cooked but the sauce is tasty.
Everything was lukewarm. Tatchos were gross…

Terrible selection of beer, with that said, what was available on the menu most of the beers on tap and in bottle were out. Additionally, the bathroom had no toilet seat covers or no soap to wash your hands.

I don’t really write Unilocal reviews unless I feel the need. The sad thing is the atmosphere here is really cool, and I like that they have games to play while having a few drinks. My friends and I came here tonight to watch the football game, and it’s not a surprise we found a table.
Our waitress was really rude, and said gave my friend a warm beer. I don’t know who likes warm beer at a bar… Not us. The food was also awful. I find it hard to mess up wings, or a burger. My wings were disgusting, and my friends burger was awful as well. Food is also really expensive for what you get.
Go down the street to The Local, the food there is awesome and the staff is amazing. Don’t come here, it’s not worth it.

Nice place. Waitress was nice, great place to watch sports. Tried sliders. Loved the bacon and BBQ. Bun was yummy. Better than typical sports bar. Looks like they have a cool second story for additional seating with lots of TV. Nice place. Will be back with bigger group to watch the game.

Worst service ever. The waiter forgot about our food twice when it came it was wrong then took another half hour. The manager never came and apologized or anything would never come here again. This place needs bar rescue

Food was fine, drinks were fine. I give it a 3 for the food but the service was not great. Our waitress never came to check on us. Our appetizers took forever and we felt completely neglected the entire time. Kind of disappointing because the vibe of the restaurant looked cool. Wouldn’t come back, unfortunately.

The beer and environment is great!!! They took forever for my wife’s chicken poppers!

Thanks for stealing $ 10 Brooke. I gave you a 20 for my one beer. I guess that’s why it’s not on my receipt

DON’T COME HERE! Not worth it at all. It’s filthy and the service is horrible. We walked into The Commons Bar on a Friday night at about 10pm and the place was empty. Literally EMPTY. You would think we would get awesome service right? Not at all. The bartender served us our drinks, and we opened a tab. 20 mins later when we asked for our second drink, he asked us if we wanted to open up a tab… huh?! Uhmmm hello, we’re the only two people there and you already have our card! We then noticed he was obviously drunk because he couldn’t stand straight and was slurring his words here and there. My husband went looking for the bathroom and stumbled across the kitchen only to see that it was super filthy and disgusting. GROSS! Where’s Bar Rescue when you need them?! Anddddddddd the margaritas are not served with salt around the rim. Super odd… it tasted like a lemonade. Not sure if it was just the lazy, drunk bartender or it’s the bar’s recipe.
Anyway, not coming back to this place!

I pass this place on occasion while walking to Horton Plaza so I finally decided to check it out. I visited on a post work Wednesday afternoon hoping to catch some happy hour deals. Luckily for me, they have solid deals on all their drinks and food, including tater tots!
Unfortunately, their beer selection was lacking… Well depending on who you are I suppose. They had the typical local stuff like some Stones and all the other stuff you’d normally find like Sierra Nevada, all the Buds, and some Sam Adams. Not too shabby, but it seemed like The Commons caters to a later-​in-​the-​day type of crowd, not the «directly after work I need a beer» crowd. Really, I’d give this place a 3 ½ stars, not because of anything bad in particular, but there was nothing that set it apart from the rest of the places in the gaslamp. It had tv’s, good happy hour, good service, and a loft. I suppose the only things I didn’t like was the lack of bar seating (had to sit next to a woman who was trashed on a Wednesday at 5pm — to each their own, but she was being obnoxious), the limited beer choices, and that the sun blinds you if you’re there around 5pm. Ultimately, I’d come here again for their specials and to try their happy hour food offerings, several of which looked good. I might even dip in here on a Friday night too.

I’ve been coming here recently to watch Sunday football! Compared to other sports bars, it doesn’t have the best TV screens and audio. But I do think the place has a lot more to offer — like great service, good drinks, and even pretty good food!
As a native New Englander, I like that this place is a Boston bar. Every Sunday, you’re guaranteed to find this place packed with Patriots fans. They have raffle prizes during the Patriots games which you enter to win when you drink Sam Adams. The drinks are fairly priced.
Surprisingly, I also liked the food (although my girlfriend wasn’t a fan of their food). I got their buffalo Chicken Sandwich with fries. The chicken was super tender and delicious — reminds me of the buffalo chicken I used to get at home. And the fries were great — they didn’t take like cardboard or plastic like some other places.
Overall, this is a great place to drinks and just hangout. It’s conveniently located in downtown.

I wasn’t expecting too much from this place. I went there bc I have an entertainment book subscription and there’s a coupon in there for BOGO entrée free. Walked inside and holy crap I remember this place! I celebrated my bday here like frick’n 10 years ago when it was a restaurant whose name I cannot remember lol. The layout is real cool. They have a little upstairs area and I remember they blocked the second floor off for me and then there’s a downstairs with a bunch of tables near the big open windows that’ll give you a view of all the beauties making their way to AD.
Their menu was a great collection of fried apps, salads, burgers and sandwiches. I got the buffalo chicken salad and hooooo man the thing was a beauty! I figured it would be more or less like ordinary just salad topped with chicken but presentation on the slanted deep bowl made the clouds part for me I was like whoooaaaaa hahahaah. What a nice surprise from a bar?! It was like a cobb salad with diced tomatoes, red onion, chopped celery, a looooooot of blue cheese (like. a lot.) and delicious, tangy, not too saucy buffalo chicken on a bed of romaine! Dude. This salad was good. It was so crunchy and fresh and again I was floored with how pretty it was lol I told everyone my server and my runner like everyone this is a good salad?! Hiro S. got the philly cheesesteak and that was bomb as well! OMG the bread was so soft, the meat hella tender and the gooey cheese! Not to mention the fries were like the mcdonalds fries of your childhood when you’re really excited bc a happy meal was the best thing in the world and idk?! IT WAS JUST REALLY GOOD hahaha This is kind of embarrassing but we also got a bottle of champagne ROFL idk it wasn’t even brunch it was like dinner but it was SO CHEAP! And we were going to a concert after so hiro wanted to drink and it was only $ 8 or something like that for the entire bottle so we got it. I mean $ 8 for a bottle downtown? That’s a good deal! Even if it didn’t taste that good lol.
I wana try coming back sometime on a Wednesday for trivia night. I can just imagine how fun it is because everyone who works there is so nice and it just seems like a happy place rofl. Thanks commons bar!

I’m going to chalk this one up to «not my cup of tea.» again. We wandered into the commons bar for a quick snack after watching a show at spreckels. I’ve passed this place up in the past due to the lack of regular seating. I’m not sure about all shorties like me, but as a shortie, I find sitting on pub seating difficult and uncomfortable. Why bother when you don’t even add backs to those seats?!
The commons is another loud sports bar. Now don’t get me wrong, there are sports bars I like, but their acoustics usually lead to hearing the TV without turning it up to 11 just to overpower their screaming wasted at 4 pm customers. A good sports bar also pays attention to its food service. Now the wings here were fantastic. The volcanic honey mustard truly lives up to its reputation. How long we had to wait for these wings though… can be improved. We had arrived at a lull. The evening game had not started yet and afternoon games had finished. The bar was pretty much empty save for the screaming groups and the lone men enjoying their man cave with their brew. Maybe their kitchen staff was on a break.
Finally, the tap list left something to be desired. I am much more critical of draft lists in san diego compared to anywhere else due to the availability of fine beers. I understand you can have a domestic on draft for a sweet cheap deal, but you really only need one, no more.

Wow this place sucked. We’ve always walked by and joked about how awful it seemed bc it’s always empty with ridiculously loud music playing. I mean, obnoxiously loud, even during the day. It has to be louder than Fluxx.
But today after 4 other sports bars were to crowded to find a seat for the chargers game, we decided to try here. At least the music wouldn’t be loud bc the game was on.
Service was awful. While she was nice, she was an awful server. We had to find her a few times and walk up to the bar twice (water and to fix a drink). I wouldn’t have tipped what I did but they bring an I pad over to pay so they are standing right there when you choose the tip… super awkward.
Every time we were looking for our waitress she was standing there talking to the other server. The other server was at the table behind us flirting with two guys pretty much the whole time. It Was weird to eat and overhear staff flirting and hanging out with a table. We didn’t even know she worked there until I saw her shirt.
The bartenders look like 21 year old douche bags. The guy was wearing sunglasses seemed hungover and was annoyed when I walked up to the bar. He never spoke a word. Take off your glasses, your at a place of business and your INSIDE. Ugh.
The food is the only reason I gave this 2 stars. The wings were good. The fries are house cut and really good, but the boneless wings are not wings. They are chicken fingers. See my pic. And the lemon pepper wasn’t a sauce, it was a breading with no flavor. Please don’t label it as wings, they were chicken fingers and not what I wanted.
The bloody mary– we didn’t even drink one of them. Super gross. The mix has some weird flavor (smokey?) And so much alcohol it’s un drinkable. Unless Your A College kid looking to get wasted, no one wants that. Fix a real drink, or don’t bartend. I’m a bartender so I hate when you mess up a simple drink and when service is bad. It’s our job, you expect a tip, you have to do your job. I can’t believe the owners don’t care. This place sucked mainly bc of the service.
Oh and unless your said 21 yr old college kid, you won’t like the clientele either. place was filled with Drunk annoying ppl on the verge of being so drunk they’d get kicked out.
Not Where I’d choose to go, or spend my money. Judging by the other reviews and how empty this place is (I live near here, I walk by a lot) not alot of people like it either.
I want my money back :(ya live and learn! Shoulda listened to Unilocal

This is a cool space with high ceilings and outdoor seating. I would give it 4 stars if their prices weren’t so high, but it is located in the center of downtown so I don’t blame them. Their happy hour looks pretty legit, though. I wish I could have made it in time for those deals.
If you’re into trivia, go on Wednesdays. There are only a few teams that play, so you have a pretty good chance of winning! (we got 2^nd place and a $ 25 gift card)

I stopped in the Commons Bar during $ 5 burger week and ordered that said signature Commons Bar Burger with added avocado slice for a $ 1.50 more. I also ordered a side of sweet potato fries for $ 5. I initially sat at the bar, but some tripper sat next to me, so I moved to a table, away from the said tripper who didn’t smell very pleasant.
Anyways, I was presently surprised with the quality of the burger and its preparation. I asked for it medium rare and that was exactly what I received. The half pound Angus beef patty was very juicy and had great flavor. Someone in that kitchen knows how to prepare an all beef patty at a perfect temp and with spot on seasoning as well.
The cheddar cheese was very well melted, the tomatoes and lettuce were fresh, and I was very please with the generous amount of creamy ripe Hass avocado slices. The warm toasted bun was great. It was moist, had mild buttery glistening top, with a very good toasted underneath that helped hold in all the ingredients, not mention nice crunchiness.
The sweet potatoes fries were great. They came with an aggressive seasoning via a coarse salt, and were fried to a mild crispiness and tender center. To top it off, they give you a lot of great tasting sweet potato fries, more than enough to share with another person or two.
They play very loud music inside, so keep that in mind, but as long as they keep making this great burger, it’s find with me.