Vela at Hilton San Diego Bayfront

I stayed at the Hilton Bayfront for 5 nights during a work trip. At the restaurant Vela I had 1 mediocre dinner, 1 thoroughly failed breakfast, and 1 disappointing room service order. Considering the type of business traveler and the prices I expect much better food quality. Service was attentive, but kitchen execution was a huge miss on all 3 occasions. Dry chicken, watery oatmeal, and items not matching the menu description. I spent $ 100+ and left hungry. With so many good options in San Diego they’ve got to step up their game.

So I ordered a kids mashed potatoes and salmon for my son to go that cost $ 15. Tasted bland and not worth $ 15 plus their fees and taxes. There was nobody there at the restaurant and we waited about 20 min for them to make it. Wait wasn’t that long just way overpriced especially for the amount of food for that price. Will not be coming back.

Classy bar for a morning Bloody Mary! We stopped in early while downtown for a drink. The bar area is very pretty. The bar seating was comfortable and the bartender/​server was on point! I can most definitely say that we will be stopping in again next time we are at the convention center! I’ve been craving their bloody marys ever since! The view is gorgeous as well. The pool is right outside and looks very inviting!

Small portions. Omg the carrots looked like they were dirty with the little string attached. The food really was not Not very tasty esp for the price. The staff was friendly though

Average hotel breakfast. Less than ideal and attentive service. Amazing location and city, but considering the cost and other options, disappointing.

Decent and quick breakfast if you are staying at Hilton Bayfront. It’s right on the bay so very view as you are enjoying your breakfast. Good service and selection of breakfast items.

S-​L-​O-​W service.
One morning we had a 30 minute wait while they had many empty tables and most people using buffet… The another 25 mins till our eggs arrived. Breakfast turned into a 90 minute ordeal.
Next morning had a 5 minute wait and then 15 mins till a waiter approached. Never did get a refill offered on my coffee. Food is okay but service is horrendously slow.

Worst fish tacos I’ve ever had. Very little fish, all shredded lettuce and cabbage. The tortillas tasted old. The service was fair but I was sitting at the bar so that would have been difficult to mess up.

Food is really fantastic, but the service is horrible. Wait staff is nice, but they are dreadfully understaffed. The first morning I came down and was seated promptly, only to wait a half an hour for an omlette. The check was slow as well, ended up taking me an hour for breakfast. The second morning I went later, took 10 minutes to be seated. I chose the buffet, to avoid the wait I’d had previously. In exchange, I ate my entire meal without being offered juice or coffee. I had to finally grab someone’s attention to request a check, which again took forever.
I would give the food five stars, but unless you have over an hour to dedicate to breakfast, go someplace else.

Went here for Valentines day dinner. Everything was either bland or terrible. The had many gluten free choices on the menu but most of the staff did not know what Gluten was and could not really speak to the menu. After the «roasted vegetables» showed up as chunks of raw vegetables we had enough. The manager came over and was appalled at what was on the plate and comped out meal. I would not recommend this place from the bland food to the slow service… downtown has too many other good options.

So disappointing! We were looking for a restaurant with an ocean view and Vela definitely has some lovely views but the rest of our experience was not good. We went for dinner and ordered the shrimp and avocado cocktail and the calamari appetizer to start. Skip the shrimp! There were 4 shrimp and a smear of avocado purée– super bland. The calamari was tasty but also a small serving even for only 2 people. I ordered the bistro steak which was a tiny steak with 2 pretty aggressive sauces. It was WAY overpriced– $ 34 for what looked like about ¼ of a normal steak. My husband had the Brussel spout pasta with pork belly. It was liteliterally just a bowl of penne pasta with a few sliced Brussel sprouts and a few chunks of pork belly that looked grey. Boring at best. Our waitress was very nice but we definitely won’t come back to eat here. Ridiculously overpriced for tiny portions of mediocre food.

So, I ordered the eggs Benedict from my room and told the person i was talking to that I was going to pick it up and bring it to my room. I was reviewing my emails when the person that brought me my food was talking to me so I didn’t immediately understood what he said. He said the question was not meant to confuse me. I don’t even know what he asked me. Brushed it off. Told me he would give me silverware and to just make sure I leave it in my room after. Did he think I was going to steal those ugly utensils? To top the morning, I go to my room, excited to see how beautiful the eggs Benedict looked. Sliced into the poached egg and was over cooked. No oozing egg yolk. But at least the ham and veggies were delish. Just annoyed with the service considering I paid service charge for a pick up, I should get a little better treatment than make me look I understand english.

Nice bar and restaurant. Had coffee and breakfast fare at hotel prices. The food was good and so was the coffee.

Worst breakfast experience ever. Not organized at all. 1 guy cooking inlets for over 50 people. Food was cold all the way around. Not to mention $ 60 tab for 2 people for horrible food. Do not recommend

Worst buffet service ever! We waited a good 30−45mnts in line for the buffet, not only did it not have a big selection of food, but they only had ONE chef making omelettes for everyone! One at a time! Unbelievable. Never coming back here again! Oh and almost forgot one, it was fkn expensive. So disappointed.

Everyone is talking about breakfast and when has hotel breakfast ever been good? Let’s talk about dinner and the view.
We sat outside at sunset and the view is amazing. My wife had the salmon and is still talking about it. I had the pan seared scallops and they were definitely some of the best I’ve had. My daughter had the mac and cheese, it seems that many places can really screw up mac and cheese on the kids menu but here it was good and she ate every last noodle.

For hotel food, this is really not bad at all. If you book your room with the breakfast package, you get the breakfast buffet every morning. The buffet has the usual omelette bar, fresh fruit, yogurt, sausages, scrambled eggs, and assortment of danishes. The overall quality of the food is pretty good, and I do recommend the apple crumble muffin. Service for breakfast however, is terribly slow, from the people that seat you to your servers. It takes forever to get your coffee and water.
Dinner on the other hand, is quite the opposite. I think it’s because we were one of 3 tables there for dinner close to their closing hours. Service was great and food came out decently fast. I had the ahi tuna entrée and I thought it was very good. The scallop entrée my brother in law got was also really amazing. Presentation and food was a solid 4 stars. Good job for hotel food!

Vela is the main dining room at Hilton’s San Diego Bayfront property. The restaurant serves a breakfast buffet each morning, and they should stop.
Hotel food can be tasty, but it’s often also boring, a lowest common denominator product designed and executed by cooks whose mandate is to make pretty, unchallenging food at the lowest cost to the home office. If his guests can return to Pocatello, saying excitedly, «We ate actual tamales!» the corporate chef has done his job. Such is the breakfast fare offered at Vela.
The buffet is expensive at $ 24.99, more reasonably priced at $ 10 for Hilton Honors Gold and Diamond members, and while a recent visit to Vela wasn’t awful, neither was I particularly impressed by any of these dishes:
— Assorted Yogurt
— Fruit Parfait with Granola
— Seasonal Fruit
— Irish Oatmeal
— Scrambled Eggs
— Pork Sausage Links, and Turkey, too
— Applewood Smoked Bacon
— Home Style Potatoes
— French Toast
— Pancakes
— Bread Pudding
— House-​made Pastries & Muffins
— Build-​Your-​Own Omelet
— Chicken and Green Chile Tamales
— Belgian Waffles
— Assorted Cereals
— «Specialty» Dried Fruits and Nuts
That isn’t the morning menu of a top-​flight restaurant; it’s diner food, dressed up to justify overcharging a captive audience of tourists who don’t know our area, and who won’t leave the hotel for good food at 8 a.m.
I live in San Diego and know my way around downtown, so, on Sunday morning of a recent «staycation,» was willing to take a drive.
After sampling the buffet, I left a tip, called for my car and visited Influx in Golden Hill, spending $ 11.95 for a Cortado, a New York Times (for the crossword), and the best croissant cinnamon roll I’ve eaten since my last visit to Influx.
And that’s my advice to guests of the Hilton SD Bayfront hotel: drive or Über the two miles and spend an extra two bucks (or save $ 12), trading décor and volume for food of superb quality. It’s a reasonable exchange.

This is my second time eating at Vela. Although the menu changed and the selections were different, I still enjoyed the food a lot.
I started off with a pinot noir from Fess Parker Vineyards in California. If you stay at the Hilton, you can get $ 10 off your bill if you select an alcoholic beverage.
I ordered the heirloom tomato salad with a sweet balsamic dressing. The tomatoes and Oaxaca cheese were excellent. My main course was beef short rib with fingerling potatoes, roasted tomatoes and a delicious sauce. The beef was very tender and cooked perfectly.
For dessert, I had the molten fudge cake with berries and vanilla ice cream. It was well executed and the flavors were delicious.
This is an excellent hotel restaurant.

Ate here for breakfast 3 out of the 4 days I was in San Diego. Maybe it was because I stayed at the Hilton and this was right downstairs. It is but I also went because just loved the ambiance. It was nice and mellow and the staff was really friendly.
It is not easy eating breakfast with a toddler but the staff was very accommodating offering to bring my daughter milk and cups for her to play with. My experience was so great the first day, I decided to come back those other days.
The price of the breakfast buffet was very reasonable at $ 22. Or you can have a buffet without the hot food for less price. Or you can just do ala carte. Even if you stay close to the Hilton, you gotta come here for breakfast one morning. If you’re staying in the Hilton. Should be automatic.

I went here on an off night. We were the only ones there. The view would be good however they have these giant white pillars that block any view of the water. BOOOOOO. cut the pillars down.