The Merk

Had a nice romactic dinner and the service was great! Very friendly staff and we had Jeremy as a server and he was exceptional! Very patient with the boyfriend and his indecisiveness. So BIG UPS to you man!!!
Your patron, Yvette

Very good marinara sauce served with warm bread. Salad was a large portion and very good as well. Service was excellent and attentive. Ate here on a travelzoo voucher but would definitely return. The dinner portions were all large and flavorful. I had the chicken Parmagiana which came with four large pieces and some olive oil grilled bread. I can’t complain about anything. I think it deserves at least 4 or 4.5 stars. Not sure why it only has 3 stars on here

I went here with a group of six people for a birthday. I should have known it was going to be bad when I saw a couple behind us leave in frustration because their meal took too long to come out.
Guess we should have left too because we waited AN HOUR AND A HALF for our food. The manager explained to us that they had a party of 25 they were helping but why are we supposed to care? When our food finally came out, everyone’s dishes were cold. But we were so hungry we ate anyway.
They did try to make it up with free champagne, dessert, and most of our bill comped but I won’t be coming back.

Came here with some friends for a bday dinner, and it was also during Restaurant Week… Three words: LONGEST. MEAL. EVER. The service was atrocious. Our reservation was at 8, we didn’t leave until a quarter to midnight. It wasn’t even packed there but it was so daaaaaaaaaaaang slow.
The atmosphere was not bad – kinda trendy, kinda blah. Every other chair had a chair cover… weird.
The food was mediocre, and quite possibly overpriced for what we paid (even during restaurant week). The cheese plate looked really sad with a couple tiny pieces of cheeses. The short rib was okay, not the best, but edible. I agree with annie n, the panna cotta was TOTALLY a «poor man’s crème brûlée». I, too, did not finish each course due to lack of interest.
If I could give this place no stars, I would, but the only reason it gets a star is because, from the cheese appetizer dish we ordered, I discovered that if you eat blue cheese with honeycomb, it tastes like hennessy! Weird, but mmmm…
And if it wasn’t obvious enough, NO, I would not come again, nor would I recommend it to others.

We wandered by and of course my hubby declared this would be our dinner as soon as he noticed their sign about having been on Hotel Hell.
We were early so a corner seat on the patio for keeping our dog chill was no problem. The drinks were excellent. The fresh bread is amazing along with the two butters. I loved the lemon butter the most.
I had crab cakes and he had something else tasty (by the time I finished my plate, his was gone too). We had cheesecake for dessert, that was lovely too.
Our server was great and didn’t seem to mind all of our questions.
I feel inclined to mention that the chocolate pizza that Gordon gave the owner such crap for on the episode is indeed still on the menu. It still looks disgusting.
Next time, we’ll get the pizza for sure!

Even Chef Gordon Ramsey cannot save this place. One of the worst dinning experiences I have experienced in the Gaslamp Dist.
The food was bland and under seasoned.
Don’t waste your money on this place, there are so many other good restaurants in the Gasllamp.

After a recent visit to the Merk, I felt inclined to write a review due to the amazingness of this hidden gem. Located in downtown San Diego, this restaurant is perfect for any occasion. They have very kind, prompt, and good looking service (necessary) in addition to perfectly cooked food. Thus far, I’ve tried the salmon, scallops, and seafood medley and they were all cooked to perfection with the best tasting sauces and spices included to make it just unique enough to really make you feel that it is worth every dollar spent. The cocktails are amazing as well, and I would especially recommend the Coconut Mojito. Being severely allergic to dairy, the chef, waiters, and general manager did an amazing job to ensure that I understood all of my food options, and that it was delicious in addition to being edible.
I would highly recommend this place to anyone and would suggest going for the booth/​bench seats. They are literally more comfortable than my own bed.

I recently went to The Merk for my birthday and I thoroughly enjoyed my experience! The staff is very friendly, accommodating, and well versed in what was on the menu. The outdoor patio is very nice for a romantic dinner or for people watching. The drink selection was awesome! You have to try the cucumber infused martini if you are a vodka drinker.
For starters we got the corn fritters and calamari per the manager’s recommendation. Both were excellent. For my main meal I got the Chimay braised short rib which was absolutely amazing! There was fresh locally growth vegetables in a delicious broth, and the short rib just melted in your mouth. I got the lavender panacotta for desert which was very unique and equally delicious. I would suggest that for a nice light desert. The entire meal left me full and very satisfied!
I would recommend The Merk for a night out with your significant other, or for a night out with your friends. They often have live entertainment, and the drink selection is incredible.

My first review on Unilocal!I finally decided to start being a food critique! I dine out a lot throughout the week to fine dining and def know about what good quality food is.
Experience: I came in here for lunch at 2pm and they had just closed 2pm… and the hostess CJ still took me in. He made sure it was ok and I thought that was really sweet of him! I really appreciate it. I was in between mushroom and margherita pizza… guess what he made half and half so i can taste both. Awesome! He helped me choose a red wine… believe it or not I have never been a fan of Pinot Noir and he helped me chose a Mark West Pinot Noir… finally i found my favorite Pinot Noir… Thanks CJ!
Food: was awesome and filled me up.
Wine: Mark West — Pinot Noir… amazing :)
Service: great customer service and friendly.
Restaurant: great décor very contemporary.
Price: overly priced… really $ 26 for a lunch? pizza: $ 14 + wine: $ 11. i would have been ok if i would have paid $ 20 but not $ 30 for lunch. if its $ 30 during lunch its usually seafood. :)
Stars: ⁴⁄₅ for overly priced.

After reading some of the not so good reviews I had to try this out for myself… We came on Friday night and it wasn’t that busy. We started with bread which we were charged 2 $ for, however we were served a truffle chive butter, maple-​bacon butter and a brown sage butter and all were great. I also had the beet an burrata salad and the corn fritters with veal mole… which was wonderful. Our entrees consisted of the chile relleno and the sea bass in tomato broth. My fish was cooked perfectly and the relleno was robust in flavor (also vegetarian but you wouldn’t know it.)
Our server was helpful and attentive. The atmosphere was a bit subdued because it wasn’t very busy that night but all in all we had a good experience. I also had the special app Foie Gras «french toast» which was perfectly cooked and flavorful.
I will say that I started working here about a month ago and wanted to come and see why we are getting some bad reviews. I haven’t met most of the dinner staff and did not let the kitchen know I was dining so I could be objective as possible in my review. The experience that I had (undercover) was good and I would return. Although there is always room for improvement, I see the staff making a big effort to work with a whole new menu with zero change over time which is difficult in any setting.

We popped by just for a quick drink. Not bad by any means, but nothing outstanding.
I love Gordon Ramsey and can’t wait to come by again and try out their menu offerings but with a average 3 star rating and seeing it was practically empty at 7pm on a Friday night I’m a bit skeptical.

We loved this place!
A 3 course dinner was included with our hotel experience at The Keating and we were surprisingly pleased by the meal. We added on the wine pairing (3 wines) for an additional $ 15 per person. They filled the glasses so high! We were ecstatic. and drunk.
First Course:
Fried Calamari and Zucchini– great dish! Not greasy and so much food!
Lobster Bisque– delicious and creamy!
Second Course:
Chicken Parmesan– very good! A lot of chicken and no pasta which made me happy.
Penne with meatballs– great sauce, great meatballs. Marinara had a wonderful spice to it!
Dessert:
Ice cream with something else delicious, that I can’t remember but still loved it.
Chocolate mousse– delicious
Also had 4 Caipirinha’s which were yum.yum.yum.

Do yourself a favor and try their WINE EVENTS on Thursdays at 7PM!
Awesome wines, great atmosphere, good food, perfect lil’ pairings.
I have to admit, I was here once and did not love the pasta dish I ordered and came back for the wine event which made me a fan.

So, you know that strip of generic, completely interchangeable Italian restaurants along the west side of 5^th Ave in the Gaslamp?
Well… I think I’ve found the most generic of them all.
It’s the Merk.
I have no idea what a «Merk» is, but I suspect it’s Italian for «mundane but horrendously overpriced food».
I dropped by here with a friend of mine who hadn’t seen in far too long and recommend the Merk. I made the mistake of not checking the Unilocal app first.
Anywho, the first thing I noticed was that the place was completely empty at 7pm on a Wednesday. That should’ve been a bad omen. On the other hand, the décor was freaking gorgeous, with shiny accents all over the place and a lovely bar. Our hostess and server were both incredibly sweet and made us feel welcome.
We decided to have an al fresco night and enjoyed the people-​watching. First, we each shared some wine. Their house chardonnay was creamy and fantastic.
Unfortunately, the food that we ordered didn’t live up to the expectations set by the service, décor, and wine.
I started off with the soup of the day, which was lentil soup. It was edible, but miserably bland. It needed salt, pepper, ANYTHING to give it flavor. It was essentially water with lentils floating around. I’d rather have Amy’s lentil soup from a can.
My friend’s lobster bisque wasn’t a winner, either. I had a decent taste, but the cheese and cream overwhelmed the dish entirely. It reminded me a lobster-​flavored bowl of queso sauce. Not a good thing.
The entrees were better. I had their pizza of the day, which was a grilled chicken pizza with zucchini and corn. The veggies were tasty, but the chicken was burnt around the edges. In all, completely average.
My friend had the penne with chicken and vodka sauce, and, again, a dish with a lot of fresh and vibrant flavor was dinged by the fact that the chicken was burnt. (Obviously, the chicken for both of our dishes came from the same grill.)
One other thing — good lord, is everything here overpriced. The pizzas here are ~$ 15 for an 8-​inch personal pizza. You can got a comparable pizza with *much* better quality for under $ 10 at Arrivederci. Same thing with the pasta dishes, which are in the high teens. (I can’t think of any reason to charge these kind of prices except to extort the tourists marching through the Gaslamp. It must be a winning strategy if they’ve been open this long.)
In sum: The Merk was a decent experience, but the food was *way* too average and the prices were *way* too high to warrant a return…

Over price. Food is mediocre. You pay for thier downtown location and upscale look.
Came here for a very expensive travelzoo deal. The staff was nice though and the poeple came around, but 200 dollar for the meal that we just had? no way. They are a wine bar also, so if anything just go there to have a glass. There are much nicer places to go and have wine though. I say skip it.

Came with a friend using a travelzoo deal — great experience!
The food was very good. Highlights — lobster bisque w/​shrimp and the filet with mushroom risotto. The desserts were good — especially the citrus cheesecake. The pine nut pizza was a little bland.
Service was friendly and prompt. Despite the fact the tip was already automatically included in our bill, our waiter was super helpful, responsive, and courteous!
Ambiance — the décor and lighting were fine, the only problem was the area that we were seating in up front was kind of cramped. You could barely get in and out without bothering the person behind you. I actually had to move the table a bit for my friend to get into her seat.
Overall, I’m a fan and wouldn’t mind coming back!

I helped a friend plan her company party at the Mezzanine of the merK. We received excellent service from the coordinator, Alisha. She was super sweet and helpful. I would call her to find out the group rates. they are really reasonable.
Awesome food– They gave each guest a prix fix menu to choose an appetizer, entrée, and dessert from. I chose the calamari and zucchini fritti, pesto crusted salmon and Tahitian vanilla gelato. All three were amazing! I especially loved the salmon in all of its buttery goodness. Each dish came with a wine pairing. awesome deal!
Actually, the entire staff we encountered during the party were very helpful, attentive and had awesome customer service. We’ve come here a couple times before the party and the service was consistent with what I’ve previously reviewed. Overall, it seemed that everyone (all 24 people) had a good time here.

*** Get your inexpensive swank here. ***
There are several reasons for 5-​stars:
1. nicely lit bar, drinks, bartender
2. delicious Italian themed dishes
3. creatively drawn décor (3 levels)
4. cool friendly staff, fine hostess
5. very reasonably priced menu
*** Merk is a keeper. I enjoyed it. ***

3.5
Im glad I didn’t Unilocal this place before going, otherwise, I wouldn’t have came here. But I didn’t have my comp loaded at the hotel so we improvised when we strolled down 5^th ave. I saw this spot read the menu and said why not.
The servers are very nice. Sat outside to people watch, bad idea, since I was getting verbally molested by all types man and women LOL. Next time if im sitting outside im sitting as far from the walk ways as possible lol.
We ordered some interesting martini’s they were soooooo goooooooood, they make it from scratch, no syrups at all, fresh ingredients and fruit. So refreshing, 5 on the drinks :)
We ordered calamari, nice crisp, not to oily, good dipping sauce. I played it safe and ordered the arugla salad and beef carpaccio. The salad was basic, parmasean and the dressing was light and it was good. The carpaccio was BOMB the oil drizzled on it, mixed with the parmasean cheese and red onions, was a great combo. The crustini’s that came with it was BOMB those were awesome serious best lil toastini’s to come with a meal I ever had. My date had the chicken mac and cheese, didn’t try it but looked good.
Overall, im sorry this place hasn’t made many believers, but if im ever in the mood for a scooby snack and awesome martini, I will comeback.

I can’t really comment on the food for two reasons:
— I HATE Italian food.
— I didn’t eat here.
But…that said… while waiting for a take out meal next door, we sat at the VERY cool bar at the Merk. One of the cooler bars I’ve sat at, with about as full of a selection as I’ve seen. Asking for a beer menu, I was pleasantly surprised to see that they don’t carry ANY types of what typical Americans call beer (i.e. no Bud, Miller, Coors, Keystone, PBR). Instead, they offered a mix of micro-​breweries and selections from some of the real beer nations. We ordered a couple of brews, sat back, and people watched while we waited.
The bar itself is orange translucent with lighting from underneath. Per the manager, «the bar top was handcrafted with carnelian gemstones from a cave in Israel; very unique» Also very chic!
Again, can’t comment on their food, but for interesting place to grab a drink, I’d have to recommend it.