Las Hadas

Me and a few of my friends went down drinks and food and I had such a wonderful experience. First off the atmosphere is awesome, music isnt too loud, and the staff was super friendly. We ate food than went up to the bar for cocktails. The martini's were wonderful, and the bartender, he was amazingly friendly unlike so many other places downtown, where you pay rediculous amounts of money and the bartenders are so unfriendly. Will definatly be going back! Pros: Great food great service, awesome bartender, friendly atmosphere! Cons: Nothing to complain about. more

Living and working in downtown San Diego there are a million options to take clients and out-of-town guest. I re-visited Chive recently after a few month hiatus and was extremely pleased with the food and service as I always am. My guest loved the small plates and the creative global menu. I was very excited to see they have continued to keep updating and evolving their menu with the season (something that keeps them fresh and an extremely desirable location in the 92101). more

I'm surprised by some of the so-so reviews on this site. We eat here often and just had dinner again this past Saturday. The food was excellent, the service was prompt and professional and the decor is still the closest thing to NY or SF that you'll find in San Diego. I can emphathize with the other reviewer's complaints about the fish being undercooked and then overcooked, but we had the sea bass and it was perfect (and not to nit-pick, but both sea bass and halibut should be opaque and moist when cooked, not tough like swordfish). So, if you're into more complex flavors and interesting ingredients in a sophisticated setting, this is a very good bet for downtown San Diego. more

I visited Chive this past Labor Day weekend during a short vacation to San Diego. I am in my 20s and from NYC, so the restaurant looked cool and I thought I'd give it a try. Their menu is all small plates - so basically its tapas. But its a very odd menu with a mix of food that just doesn't work together- there's Asian food (sushi), there's Italian (foccacia), among other odd potential combos. I ordered the halibut in a larger size to share with my friend. When it arrived at the table, my friend tried to cut it in half so we could split it, and it was tough (ew) - and uncooked inside. I notified my waiter who was unapologetic and kind of fakely perky (used car salesman?) and he took my half of the cut halibut back to the kitchen to ""cook a bit more"". My friend's half just sat there. We were wondering aloud how he could recook a 1/2 a halibut ""a bit more"" once its come out. When it returned to my table and I bit into it, I understood - microwave it! It had to have been microwaved. It was rubbery, steamy, flavorless, and disgusting. He came back to clear the plates and saw that neither of us touched the halibut - no apologies. This place may look cool, but it definitely is not good. I probably should have realized that since it was empty when we were there at 10pm on a weekend. more

We went in on a Friday night with a certificate and reservation in hand, and surprise, were seated by the kitchen, while many open tables were available. My date and I shared the baby greens, ginger mushroom ravioli (which couldn't be farther from the truth), spring rolls, black miso tuna, crab mac, and and 'kinda' rice pudding. Of these, the only thing I would return for (and sadly) is the mac and cheese and the dessert. The baby greens was not inventive enough to be served on this type of menu - the sea salt was way overpowering, and the only thing that saved the dish were the pecans, of which there were not enough (saving money, are we?). It was plain and inoffesive, but far from compelling. Anyone who's been at nice restaurants could replicate it at hom. The ravioli was floating in salty (as expected) broth, but these are really dumplings - the description is misleading - this is a shoyu broth dish, and btw, the ravioli were tasteless. The veggies were an afterthought to add colour and contributed zero flavour. Next up, the tuna, which was decent, but those asian pears hadn't been tasted, that's for sure. With so much pear as an accompaniment, which is a nice idea in theory, it made the dish worse and worse as I realized there was nothing redeeming to pair with the tuna. And the tuna wasn't all that great either - to be honest, the Yardhouse does a better sear. TASTE YOUR INGREDIENTS! The spring rolls were good, lightly fried with big chunks of shrimp inside and not much else, and the accompanying sauce was a very very odd mix of what seemed to be lemon custard and some green, tastless, again - only color contributing - entity. 7/10, any Vietnemese or Thai could make. Nothing to see here. Crab mac was memorable because it was declicious, not because they did anything to it - this shouldn't be messed with and is the longest standing menu item. Very pleasing. Dessert was very good, a bit of a departure from the expected. Overall, disappointing. more

I went to Chive for Restaurant week last night and had a very bad experience service wise. The food was great, but the service spoiled the dinner. It wasnt the waiter, he was great. It was everything else. First they lost our reservation for 4, which was no big deal since there was NOBODY else in the restaurant. But somehow they made a big deal out of it until they eventually sat us. Then after sitting for 10 minutes, the Manager comes to us and says they found the reservation but asked us to move tables. Once again no big deal, but why did it matter? NOBODY was there. We ate, food was great, then we get the bill. The menu stated they ""recommend"" a 20% tip, yet the bill didnt recommend anything, it was automatically charged. I didnt care much since that is what I usually tip anyways, I just dont like the fact that I didnt have a choice. But this is the worst part. The tip was above the tax line which was odd. I got out the cell phone calculator to find that they taxed the 20% tip! Are you kidding me? This is not only illegal, but is totally unethical. I will be reporting this to the City today as this must amount to thousands of dollars if this has hapenned to every customer that has eaten there. I expressed all of my displeasures to the Manager and she seemed to not really care much. Great food but Ill never go back there after that. Ive had better service at Applebees. more

We went for restaurant week last night, and just had an odd, unpleasant experience. We were sat at one table, then asked to move to another table, so we got up and moved. But then no one even sat at our original table the whole night. We were also charged a 20% tip automatically on our bill for a party of 4 (must be something they do during restaurant week), and then taxed on the total bill, including tip. We tried communicating the fact that this wasn't right to the manager, but were rebuffed. And if the food was amazing, none of these unpleasant details would matter. But it wasn't. The food was just OK. Pros: Cool ambiance Cons: poor service, average food more