The Hopping Pig

I came here for the first time this weekend, sheerly for the fact that they serve garlic Parmesan fries and good variety of brews for the bf. We ordered Parmesan fries, calamari and TWO ORDERS of fish tacos. We got the calamari and one order of fish tacos – the waitress apologized and said she thought I meant two tacos – I thought «fish tacos» were plural? Mind blown. After a few mins pass I realized we were not going to see those Parmesan fries either… sure enough she forgot those too. She finally brought my bfs tacos, which were pretty good. The drinks were decent can’t complain and the manager was sweet. But I’m convinced the waitress was drunk, I’m pretty loud, sober and I annunciate my words properly. It’s safe to say I won’t be returning.

My parents came to see us while we were in town for some mini vacation. We picked this place because it had 26 rotating beers I think. My boyfriend, dad, and I are beer lovers especially good IPA and Belgian beers. We were disappointed as the IPA selections were not that good. Our server suggested but the beers were still below average for us.
My mom ordered the crispy pork belly. It was flavorful but I don’t know why it’s called crispy pork belly coz it was not crispy at all. My boyfriend ordered mussels and fries, which had an awesome sauce underneath. We enjoyed that very much. My dad ordered their happy hour pulled pork sliders and enjoyed it a lot expect for the Cole slaw. He said it was lacking flavor. My mom still hungry ordered BBQ chicken Flatbread which we all liked a lot.
The décor was so cute. My mom kept playing with the old school kitchen utensils displays. She liked the mason jars lights too.

The best low key place in San Diego. It’s chill atmosphere, great beer selection and great burgers have kept me coming back over and over. Happy hour is definitely worth it, and the fish tacos are great!

We entered without checking the Unilocal ratings and weren’t disappointed at all by the food. I guess this place does deserve a 4. We had the Hotchata cocktail which was pretty good. The wings were nice and spicy. The fish taco was good too. And finally the bread pudding was the perfect icing on the cake.

The Hopping Pig was pretty good, food-​wise. We had sweet potato fries, a chopped salad, their Mac and cheese, and their fish tacos. The tacos were probably least well-​received, but still enjoyed. The sweet potato fries were delicious, hot and sprinkled with sea salt and a lemony aioli. My mac and cheese was awesome – it had perfectly cooked bacon bits and chopped bell pepper. The service wasn’t as fast or as thorough as it could have been, and the drinks were overpriced, but as far as food was concerned, The Hopping Pig delivered.

This place is good! Check out the ravioli. My fiancé ordered the sliders. Awesome! This place has a really good vibe.

Meh, not worth the hype. I had the signature dish crispy pork belly, yuk extremely salty, nothing appetizing at all. Very pricey for any restaurant but to serve this sort of food is highly disappointing. Even the kids did not like a basic Mac and cheese, how do you mess that up? Moving along now..

First dinner of the year and it was a HUGE disappointment, the place wasn’t packed and it took almost half an hour to get 2 little pulled pork sliders, which were cold, and the garlic Parmesan fries? Regular fries with cold Parmesan powder on top. Service was not great and the waitress never came
To check on us throughout the half our we were waiting. Never coming back. This place is a disgrace to the San Diego food scene. Mind you I asked for napkins and utensils… never got them.

I’ve always been a big fan of this place. It’s low key and laid back but it’s super good. Over 30 beers on tap and a solid menu. I went with the veggie burger and sweet potato fries. no complaints from me! Their homemade mustard and ketchup is real good!

My first restaurant experience in San Diego!
The atmosphere was perfect for a date night; dark and cozy with just enough noise to banish awkward silences. I really liked the décor as well, which is what got me into the restaurant in the first place (I’m a sucker for packaging).
My husband and I split the Hopping Pig burger with (fantastic) garlic parm fries and even between the two of us there was food left over. With this being the case, consider bringing a second stomach along with you — I’m still upset about not being able to eat all of it!
I would also recommend their «What’s the Dill?» cocktail. It sounds funky (who even thought of making dill infused vodka?), but trust me: you want to at least give it a try.

Had a great time here last night! It was a Saturday so every place was SO packed and The Hopping Pig was fairly empty — which made me feel like we shouldn’t eat here but I checked Unilocal and then said what the heck.
Ended up being really good. My husband got a blue cheese burger cooked exactly how he asked and me, the calamari, very good. We had great customer service from Wills!
My only reason for the 1 less star is that the beer wasn’t very cold and our server explained because you’re not supposed to serve ipa’s super cold so it brings out the flavor… but I think that’s stupid haha everyone wants to drink a cold beer. they should definitely change that. Either way, I’ll probably come back!

August 8: It is definitely hard to rate a place when you have only been there once. We saw the sign that it was happy hour so we sat down and was greeted immediately. I ordered a water to start and we looked over the happy hour menu. The menu wasn’t much for happy hour, it seems alot until you sit down and there were only a few things on the menu.
The waitress that greeted us never came back. I was pretty thirsty and I do dislike waiting for water. Especially since it has been well over 10 minutes. No it wasn’t busy, There was only 3 parties there including ourselves. So she appears but was busy talking with someone. Still no water, she came back and asked if we wanted to order. I ordered a beer and again asked for water. Fiancé ordered the taco and a beer.
She came back with two beers. Yup no water. It irritated me deeply that I didn’t want to even order food. After the Fiancé finished his taco. I told him I wanted to leave. Because yes we didn’t get water even after he got his taco. I think she remembered when we asked for the check. So I just drank my beer, paid and left.
Ugh! Next time.

Well how can you not love a place that has 32 rotating local and craft brew taps? Funny, we were going to hit Friday’s across the street and decided to go with something new and F-​U-​N. So (yes, I’m starting my sentences with so) rather than hitting the predictable happy hour there, we went with this place which had happy hour going as well.
This place is just cool to its core. The décor is trendy and fun as was the friendly and personable bartender. Plenty of seats at the bar and also at the dozen or so tables inside and the other couple of spots sprinkled around the patio. A brick wall on one side makes sense being in an older section of the city, but they also took the the time to decorate the walls/​tables/​shelves with seasoned old growth wood; just too cool. Even the lighting is fun, with mason jar lamps and long filament bulbs hung throughout.
Food was BAM! We didn’t deeply explore the menu but we’re just looking for some snacks to carry us over. We almost went with the charcuterie plate, but being that we do this pretty frequently, opted instead for the fish tacos and pulled pork sliders. All I can say is wow, first bite from the slider and it was a flavor explosion in my mouth. I even said wow after the second bite; sweet delicious pork, the bun was soft and a perfect compliment, I even topped it with a bit of the coleslaw from the side (which I don’t normally like) and it was amazing. The coleslaw was dressed more in a vinegar (yay) rather than mayonnaise (ick). The fish tacos were delish! We went with the grilled option and received them with slaw and a fruit salsa on them. I’m not a fruit salsa fan but when the wife agreed but tried them with the fruit salsa and raved I figured why not. I wasn’t disappointed and was very pleased instead.
If you’re a fan of the gastropub go here. If you like local places go here. If you are a fan of microbrews go here. If you like good food go here. If hungry man microwave dinners and Budweiser are your thing don’t go here; it’s too good for you and you don’t deserve it.

Happy Hour Daily 11:30AM — 7:00PM
The Happy Hour sign outside was what brought us in here. we were dining next door on a saturday afternoon and saw that they had pretty descent happy hour so we came in for some after-​meal drinks. surprisingly, the place wasn’t packed at all.
i only had their house red wine for $ 4.50 while the others in my party had beer $ 4.50 on select craft beers and $ 1 off others.
the only discrepancy was that the sign outside says $ 2.75 tacos and sliders but the flyers inside on the tables say $ 3.00. Not that it was a big deal because we didnt eat here but they should at least attempt to change the price on the sign outside.
the service wasnt bad and the drinks were good. i think the prices on the drinks alone would bring me back here again.

Wow. I wish I would have seen the other negative reviews before I decided to come here.
Heed my advice and the advice of others and DO NOT ORDER FOOD HERE. Stick to the bar only.
My boyfriend and I came here early on a Friday night for a quick bite. The place was pretty empty, save for a rambunctious group of 6 or so seated in the large booth in the back. Our waitress came over and we ordered two Sour Me Softlys and received them quickly. They were great. We then ordered dinner, Garlic Parmesan Fries and the Braised Beef Short Rib.
And we waited. And waited. And watched others who had arrived after us receive their food. And then waited some more. Our waitress finally stopped to ask how we were and we inquired about our food and the insane half hour+ wait. She promised it would only be a few more minutes. After the food still didn’t arrive, we asked to speak with the manager. You would think at least our fries would have came out by then. But no.
So our waitress eventually comes with our short rib. Still no fries. The plating looked beautiful, but we didn’t want to touch our food until we spoke with a manager. We may as well have not bothered. The manager had no respect for us as customers. She blamed the kitchen for being too small, she threw the waitress under the bus for not putting our fries in as an appetizer, she told us that we shouldn’t expect our food in a timely manner because «this isn’t TGI Fridays and we don’t microwave our food», she was completely rude to us and asked us what we were trying to get from her. She belittled us and made us regret even bothering to ask for a manager. It was a nightmare.
By the time we were done being barked at, our fries had arrived and our entrée was cold, but we were extremely hungry by then. My boyfriend enjoyed the short rib. It had a weirdly overpowering tamarind or floraly taste to me. The fries were just reheated fries and you didn’t get much of a garlic OR Parmesan taste to them. All in all, it was a forgettable and negative experience, but you can’t let it ruin your night. Please just avoid coming here unless you just want a drink and are ready to move on after that.

The Hopping Pig always delivers! One of the best burgers hands down in the «The Hopping Pig», and delicious craft beers on tap make the fare some of the tastiest in the Gaslamp.
Aside from the grub, the staff is downright awesome. Jenna (one of the long time bartenders) is very welcoming and gives excellent advice and descriptions when it comes to all things beer. Kaleigh works the tables and does a fantastic job of taking care of everybody, while making it look easy! These two lovely ladies are reason enough to stop by THP.
If you want a great plate of food complimented by a delicious craft brew, look no further. The Hopping Pig is a relaxing, chill gastropub that is sure to leave you wanting more. Go check it out folks!

We had dinner around 7pm at The Hopping Pig after preview night for Comic Con.
The food was delicious and I give that 4 stars.
We had the following:
Peanut Butter Beer
Bloody Mary
Fried chicken with watermelon salad
Carnitas Sliders
HOWEVER, this 1 star review is for bad service from our «waitress» Emily A. It might have been a long grueling day for Emily, but she seemed like she was checked out for the night. She wasn’t sociable or friendly to us and did not seem to enjoy her job that night. I don’t know about you, but Emily was not a «waitress.» She left us hanging and didn’t take care of us the way a sociable and hospitable waitress would.
First off, you have to seat yourself. That was no big deal, but a sign would have encourage us to do so instead of looking around like an idiot for a waitress to recognize that we’d like to eat here.
We sat outside and it took Emily about 15 minutes to acknowledge us. She came by and sprayed some cleaning solvent in front of us to wipe down the table saying that it wasn’t clean before tossing down the menus in front of us.
She didn’t engage with us asking the usual, «Have you been here before? Or even tell us what she recommended. Or if we wanted appetizers.» She just asked what we wanted to drink.
It took Emily quite some time to come back to take our orders as well because the Bar Manager? (tall man with long somewhat curly dark brown hair) came out from behind the bar and asked if we had been taken care of. We had better service from the Bar guy than with Emily. Immediately when Emily saw that the Bar Guy came by, she rushed over to us to take our orders.
While we were waiting, a couple of foreigners were seated behind us and Emily gave them ashtrays to smoke. Immediately when I saw that, I asked Emily if we could move inside because we didn’t want to eat next to smokers. I would have loved to have eaten outside but didn’t know diners were allowed to smoke there. Emily should have mentioned that to us before we even sat there.
Anyway, we went inside and waited for both our food and drinks. Service was ridiculously SLOW. There seemed to be only 2 waitresses working that night and it wasn’t even that busy. Anyway, while we were waiting for both our drinks and our food, not once did Emily come by to apologize to us for the wait. She didn’t even bother to check up on us at all to let us know the status, even though she clearly saw me looking around and at her.
When it was time for the check, I wanted to ask Emily for a glass of water, but she was in such a rush to drop the check off on our table that she didn’t even stop to acknowledge us or if we needed anything else. She dashed off to the other side of the restaurant before I could even say anything. My husband and I just looked at each other dumbfounded at how rude Emily was.
I had my husband go over to the bar to ask for a glass of water. I told my husband that I would not tip her well. HOWEVER, my husband who used to work in the service industry many years ago said to tip her at least $ 4 so it wouldn’t be too much of an insult for her extremely bad service. Had I eaten there alone, I would have given her no tip!
Such great food, but the service is so horrible. What a shame. If The Hopping Pig wants our business again, they really should either re-​train bad waitresses like Emily to be more hospitable or they will lose business.

So, this is a small bar in the middle of Gaslamp off 5^th next to Tipsy Crow. I’ve walked passed it plenty of times but never noticed it. It’s nice. Small bar but with plenty of space. Seating for dinner and at the bar. The servers were all very nice. A bit of a older crowd but everyone still having a good time. Good place to meet someone to chat. Great energy without the blaring speakers.
Their beer selection was great. They had plenty to choose from. Gluten free and alcohol free beers were also on the menu. There is something for everyone. I wish I had the food. Someone ordered a plate of IDK what but I could smell it. Yummers.
The bathrooms were big single person bathrooms. Very large and nice smelling so they are cleaning it often. Big mirrors and nice décor like the bathroom at your in laws place.
I have nothing but good things to say about this place. And I think happy hour is until 7 or something which is much longer than a lot of places out here.

The Hopping Pig is one of the first Gastropubs to open downtown San Diego. They have a cool happy hour that runs daily from 11:30 am to 7:00 pm, where fortunately I was able purchase a trio of items: a carnitas, a fish taco, and a pulled pork slider for $ 2.75 each. Oh yes, I had to wash it down with an iced cold San Diego Port Pils.
All the eats were great. I was very fond on how they did not skimp on the carnitas on the carnitas taco (
). The carnitas were tender, juicy, and lightly seasoned. The addition of Cotija cheese was great because it added a nice briny and salty element to the taco. The fried fish taco was good and plump. It came with a nice tasty slaw, the same Cotija cheese, but with a creamy chipotle sauce as well (
). I enjoyed it but the carnitas taco took center stage.
The pulled pork slider was quite tasty as well. The pulled pork came with a mild BBQ sauce that did not overwhelm. The bun was moist and came with a slide of slaw which I placed inside the slider (
). The tender pork and crisp slaw were great eaten together.
I ate at the bar, the bar keep was friendly and provided great conversation. I enjoyed hearing about her cross country travels. Good deals can be had during happy hour (
).

I was an eager beaver when it came to The Hopping Pig, it has been on my list for over a year. My cousin-​in-​law wanted a suggestion for a chill birthday dinner, so I gave a few options and this was one of them. So his wife made reservations for us on a Saturday night. We had them for 7pm, and most of us were running late (street parking ain’t free ’til 8pm now duh) so we got a text saying they moved the reservations to 7:30pm. OK… cool, how convenient. Apparently they only have one large enough table to accommodate parties over 10 people. So we had to wait over 40 minutes to be seated… we almost gave up to go to Zymology next door. The hostess was terrible at following up, she knew we were waiting, and kind avoided having «the talk.» I think she should’ve just told us that moving the reservation wasn’t going to work… clearly you knew.
Forever minutes later, we are finally seated. The waitress was not super friendly and it was so hard to get a hold of her. She took awhile to come by to actually take our order. She left and we realized that she missed 2 people at the table… she didn’t take their order at all… is this a joke? We waited so long, and now we’re hungry, not an ideal situation. Orders taken… then have no problem dropping off jugs of water… but where the hell is our food? Food came… it’s 9PM. I shared the chicken club, w/​garlic parm french fries and a calamari appetizer. Both very sharable, good in size. Fries were overcooked, on the crispier side, i hate that. The chicken club had this overpowering piece of iceberg lettuce… WHY??? Why is iceberg lettuce still a thing… i could barely taste the Chipotle sauce. The calamari was good, I’ve had better.
This place may be a better place to grab a drink… and maybe not on a weekend night. I’d probably go for happy hour or something… maybe.