The Olive Bar

The bartender could have had a better attitude but whatever, it happens. As far as the food. I loved the tuna tartar. Simply amazing. The garlic truffle fries were also good but over cooked. Much too crispy for my liking but seasoned well nonetheless.

My wife and I are at the Hilton for a wedding. We decided to pop in for a quick drink and a bite to eat. The drinks came very quickly. But I had ordered food: a goat cheese platter, and asked 3 times in 45 minutes whether it was coming. What was alarming was when other patrons who arrived after the two of us got both their drinks and their food, and paid, and left … and there were the two of us sitting and waiting. After I asked whether they were milking the cow in order to get the cheese, one of the bar tenders went back to check on the order. There was no real explanation for the delay, but he DID remove the change and comped one of the drinks. OK, fine. But note to management: when someone orders food, please actually put the order in, and then periodically check to see why it’s delayed, especially when the customer has had to ask a few times.

PARKING: free, adjacent to hotel
PRICE: mini sliders (and I mean MINI!) are $ 5. Full menu available at this bar, including pasta upwards of $ 22. (It was just ‘ok,’ nothing to right home about.)+
SERVICE: Rob took care of us, constantly refilling out water on this warm San Diego day (thanks, Rob!). When I asked him for recommendations, he was very knowledgable of the menu. It wasn’t busy during the time we were there, so Rob was always available to help us if needed.
LOCATION: this bar is at the edge of the hotel, right next to the pool. If after dinner/​drinks, you can walk along the waterfront. Nearby is a bike/​surrey rental kiosk that you can take advantage of without being a guest of the hotel.
The LOCATION is probably the biggest selling point of this place.

jus a bar! nothing fancy, kinda boring n plain and it was a Friday night! nothing special with drinks, the more I drank and still no hot chicks :(

Good food but terrible management and servers. Bartenders are cool. EXTREMELY NOT ACCOMMODATING. Our group of 30 business professionals stayed at the resort and were enjoying a nice gathering (on a Saturday) when the extremely rude wait staff locked the doors on us at 11 pm. It seems absurd of a resort establishment to lock the doors with 30 customers present. Very disappointing and extremely rude. We will schedule our convention at different location due to the poor service and accommodations of this restaurant at the resort. Very Unfortunate they don’t care about their guests.

The food and drinks are good. However our waitress Melissa G was less than stellar. Working in customer service myself for over 33 years I would expect more from a Hilton hotel employee. My understanding is she is new to this bar, however she acts like she’s bored and ‘put out’ to do anything. Remember most of us are on vacation we are up beat and happy to be in this beautiful setting, we want to leave feeling excited.

I paid a quick visit to The Olive to check our their happy hour (4 – 6) on Monday. There’s plenty of outdoor seating, which is nice to soak up the sun and view. It took about ten minutes to get service, even though the place was pretty much empty — not sure where the staff were hiding.
Their happy hour specials were not as extensive as expected. While they have an OK on tap selection, they only had one beer (an IPA) on their happy hour menu. I ordered that, and five minutes later the server told me unfortunately it was no longer available but they had a couple substitutes instead (but no IPA). I had a Grazias Cream Ale and a Jucundus Pale (Mike Hess Brewing) — I preferred the former, with a slight coffee taste.
The happy hour slider listed had blue cheese, bacon, and a sun-​dried tomato. In fact the price ended up being the regular menu price — huh? Anyway it arrived quickly and I scarfed the rather meager portion down. It was OK.
So $ 6 each for the drafts and $ 5 for the slider — not really much of a happy hour for this area. If you’re staying at the Hilton, drop by but keep your expectations in check.

I stay at the mission bay hilton pretty frequently and have been to the olive bar for happy hour a few times. I am really big on happy hours because I love drink specials and the small bites. They have great deals here from 4pm-​6pm. The service is really good, even when they’re busy and they have a great environment.
I definitely recommend the lobster/​crab slider. It was delicious! But it was a huge portion… I would suggest getting a few sliders if you’re looking for a filling meal.

I’ve been here a couple times for happy hour — great bay view, and cool patio w/​funky lounge furniture and fire pit. Their «AFTER4» happy hour is every day 4 – 6 pm – $ 4 house wine, specialty cocktail and local craft draft beer. You can also get $ 5 kobe beef sliders (tasty, but pretty tiny), parmesan thyme potato chips, and truffle & garlic pomme frites (very generous portion, and SO tasty; definitely share w/​friends).
Fairly limited menu, but they also have some specialty pizzas, tartars (the tuna one is quite good), seafood (crab akes, scallops, pot of claims), potstickers and eggrolls — much cheaper than Acqua next door — mostly $ 13 – 16. Nice selection of cocktails and martinis, too.

Great service and drinks. Definitely a hidden jewel in La Jolla. If you are looking for a relaxing environment that is also sophisticated along with a great glass of wine/​craft beer this is the place. There are a few seats that have an ocean view.

We often stay at the Hilton San Diego Resort and Spa, so we stopped in at The Olive Bar for a quick drink before heading out to dinner one evening and sat at the bar. We came in on a Saturday evening after happy hour had ended, so fortunately it wasn’t too crowded, and were tended to pretty quickly by a personable bartender. I ordered a specialty Improved martini from their extensive martini menu and my husband ordered a moscow mule. I enjoyed my strong drink while my husband was happy to see that his drink was served properly in a copper mug. The short but pleasant visit piqued our curiosity, so we will definitely be back.
#28 /​100
Unilocal 100 Review Challenge 2014

Very nice!
Everything we had was excellent and the service was 100% on point!
We tried the pot stickers, tuna tar tar, the fries and champagne with elder flower.
Champagne. Wow!
Pot stickers. Very simple yet amazing.
Tuna tar tar. Wow! Best tuna tar tar I’ve ever had.
Fries. I don’t even know what was in them but delicious. Almost like light weight garlic fries. Bomb!

This place was a big surprise. The burgers sliders are amazing. My kid loved the pizza. Also some great gourmet dishes… Food was way above what you would see at a 4 star hotel bar bar. the place is a bit ugly inside, but outside is nice. The food is a lot better then the hotel! I would pick this over the main restaurant anytime.

Hotel bar. Good in a pinch, but don’t expect to much and you will have a great time…

This place gets 5 stars for one thing… Lindzee. This waitress, dancing partner when I was in her way… was the greatest thing about this place. I stayed at this Hilton resort for 5 days and was in The Olive Bar at least once a day while I stayed there. I had two different bartenders during my stay and both were uneventful and slow as mud, the drink selection was sparse, and the happy hour was kind of blah, but Lindsey the waitress made it all okay. This super woman could serve the whole place and the outside patio without breaking a stride, and yet she was the sweetest, most attentive server I have ever come across.
This place is high priced, average overall as a bar, but has one of the hardest working ladies in the business making sure you’re taken care of.

The Olive Bar is great, happy hour 4 – 6 — get the sliders — the bartenders are usually pretty friendly and fast even in the chaos of happy hour.
***Stay away from the connected restaurant, Acqua***

Was adventuring around the resort and saw a sign saying happy hour. I didn’t have my phone on me so I went back to the hotel to tell my friend about the happy hour; also did not want to sit at bar by my lonesome and look alcoholic.
Turns out he went out and found the bar too since he was holed up in his room most of the time watching football… guys right?
VIBE/​PLACE:
+happy hour 4 – 6 pm
+is a restaurant/​bar
+/​-​Friend ended up watching the two football games on two screens anyways…
+there was a couple, one woman drinking a cucumber margarita by herself outside in the very comfortable looking seats, group of friends (older). I was definitely the youngest.
FOOD/​SERVICE:
+they have a happy hour menu and I quickly ordered TRUFFLE & GARLIC POMME FRITES. YUMMMM. they were really goood
+nice bartenders who are attentive. Told me I should order more drinks before it hit 6pm ahaha
+$ 4 stone pale ales on tap woo hoo
VERDICT:
For such a nice resort hotel I was surprised they had such a great happy hour! There is also really nice outdoor seating with firepits. If I lived close to here I would totally come here for hh: P
They also had specialty drinks for each day. How awesome is that

Great happy hour! Attentive bartender with good recommendations, strong four dollar cocktail, rail liquor appears to be Smirnoff. Minus one star for exceptionally salty spring rolls, courtesy of drowning via soy sauce.

The bar was empty when I arrived. I ordered my Maker’s Mark on the rocks and before I could finish my order a woman walked up and asked him a question about the free slider that comes with the order of a beer. He walks over to her and answers her questions.
After a couple of minutes, she tells him that he should finish with me first. Had she not said something I would flipped out. I continue to order an additional beer and food. He pours the beers and gives her hers first. My Makers Mark was poured with a measured jigger shot. $ 9.75 for that. $ 9.75 for a draft local heff.
The complimentary slider was decent and the oysters on the half shell at $ 3 was a steal. Very fresh.
I ordered a crab cake to go and it was not seasoned. There was hardly any crab in it and mostly filler. $ 14 for one.
Ultimately I was unimpressed and the bartender needs to learn how to be more attentive to his patrons. As a fellow bartender I was livid. I wasnt ordering drinks at a club. His disheveled appearance and food stains on his clothing was appalling. What kind of four star resort is this?!