Cheese Shop

Downhill. Way down the hill. I used to go to the old location 10 – 15 years ago and it was my favorite sandwich joint in town. Was it as good as I thought it was and as bad now as I think it is? Of course, 10 – 15 years ago I was in high school and maybe I just had shitty taste back then. I like to think it was as bomb then as I thought it was. However after trying the Horton Grand location 5 times now —
service: sucks, food: mediocre at best, cookies at the host stand: really good. Jalapeño popper grilled cheese: unfortunately not as amazing as it sounds. :(
What a bummer.

Just thought I’d let you Unilocalers know — looks like this place closed down. It was inevitable. What a shame. This used to be a fantastic place. I fear the staff cost the owners their business.
I LOVED this place. («ed» as in past tense). Let’s start with the good: They make a killer grilled cheese, and their fries are great. They have great cookies too! They were kind enough to give locals a discount.
Now, the bad. .. The customer service is horrible. Their hours are unreliable.
I say the customer service is horrible because you will be left standing at an unattended /​abandoned front counter /​register, waiting for somebody to acknowledge you, so that you may eventually be seated. Once you overcome the getting seated hurdle, next comes the waiting for somebody to appear to take your order hurdle. After a good 30 minutes of waiting to be seated and for somebody to take your order, it’s almost a good 20 — 30 minutes until your food gets to you. Then you have to wait for them to come with the check.
I say that their hours are unreliable because randomly, in spite of their posted hours of business, they wouldclose an hour or two early. Having had that happen to me 2x, I started calling before going. In spite of calling, I was told the wrong time and found the place closed — again!
Today I figured I’d try calling in my order for pick up — and then just going there a good 30 minutes after calling. Well, the phone number was disconnected. I checked on the internet, and there was a notice on their web page that it had expired. R.I.P The Cheese Shop. You had such potential in your new location.

I came back to SD! On our last day of the trip my dad suggested we try this place because he remembered it being so good. Well its been awhile since we have been back in the area and obviously… the place has moved. The service is slow (we waited at the hostess counter for a good 5 minutes before anyone acknowledged us) and then the food took an additional 40 minutes. There was hardly anyone there. mHonestly, it’s pretty hard to mess up breakfast but this place has no trouble doing that.
Pancakes were burnt, my breakfast bagel was sad looking and everything was just mediocre. I suggest checking out other breakfast places. Sorry Cheese Shop.

Unimpressed. Ordered the turkey, jack, and avocado sandwhich (it’s noted on their menu that it’s what they’re known for). It had a ton of avocado and alot of what looked like carved turkey rather than the oscar meyer processed turkey. It was just a big pile of meat and avocado with a slice of cheese for $ 9.95. I probably could’ve made a better sandwhich at home for alot less.
Maybe the rest of their menu is good but I’ll never know.

The Cheese Shop used to be on 4^th st just north of Market. It was great. Our preferred breakfast spot. There were pictures on the wall from all the places people visited with their frisbee (which had their logo). It made the place unique. Visit far away place, take a picture with their frisbee, give them said picture, picture goes on the wall. Then they moved…
They suck now. Poor service, food just not coming out right, not as described. Chocolate chip pancakes with burnt chocolate. This morning was the last straw. We went for a late breakfast /​brunch. 75% of their tables in the place were empty. And there was a wait. People were waiting to be seated! Why were people waiting to sit in a mostly empty restaurant?
Congratulations Cheeseshop, you went from a chic, unique spot, to a crappy tourist place. Enjoy the trip advisor crowd. We won’t be coming back.

SERVICE: ⁵⁄₅
FOOD: 3.5÷5
PRICE: ⁴⁄₅ considering its location!
ORDER: Corned beef hash with over easy eggs
On Saturday morning of Comic Con 2013, I was seated (quite fast) at a cute courtyard within the heart of the hotel where the restaurant is located. The waitress was polite and prompt with water refills. The ambiance reminds me of a southern feel with its brick walls and balconies surrounding me. Good for a date! ;)
The corned beef hash was mediocre but I did love the fact that there were other ingredients within the hash other than the typical corn beef and potatoes. Very affordable especially for a brunch downtown on a Saturday morning.
Would love to come here again!

Just left this place after being seated… waiting for 10 – 15 minutes and watching the person (who walked in 10 minutes AFTER my wife and I) get immediately greeted, drink order taken and food order placed… WTF??? Funny thing about it, we were just commenting to the receptionist how awesome the food used to be at the old location and were looking forward to trying it again… Apparently they are telling me please DON’T!!! Not gonna bother TRYING to give them more of my money!!!
Too bad, with season tickets to the Padres, my wife and I are downtown for lunch… A LOT!!! Gonna be finding someplace that actually gets us FOOD, instead!!! LAME!!!

AMAZING dog-​friendly patio. New favorite spot when I’m with the pups. Check out my photo in the photos section to check it out.

Just came back from vacation and had to share that the new menu at the Cheese Shop is GREAT! The gumbo has a perfect balance of flavors and is not too heavy, the shrimp Po Boy was DELICIOUS and so were the fried chicken and waffles! We also tried the Gogo Nutella and Silverberry bread puddings.
If you get a chance stop by and check this place out!

12÷31÷12
Gave some of our Grandkids a day and night at the Omni in San Deigo, five stars for sure there!
But the Cheese Shop has been drop from our «must do».list forever. The breakfast was cold, service was non exsistance, hash browns were greasey. To top it off they pre charged a 18% gratuity, because there were two adults and four children in the party! Party of six rule!!! We never saw the server at all and the only the helper took the order. By the way, we did finally receive the toast after the check was place on our table after the meal was finish. My suggestion is that the owner review his management and staff more closely. Sadly it is only a shadow of what is was in the past at the old location in the Gas Lamp district. You will be missed.
P. S. The sandwitches TO Go are great.
PLH

After overhearing a vendor at the 4^th & J Farmers Market rave about this place to a tourist, I was excited to give it a shot. Unfortunately, perhaps it was tourist type, but I have no idea what he had found so wonderful.
I live 2 blocks away, and with other options like Café 222 and Richard Walkers Pancake House just a few blocks further, I’m mystified why anyone would choose The Cheese Shop.
The coffee was watery, worse than your national chain cheap breakfast spots. Actually most of the breakfast was Denny’s quality, just 4x the price. I know the downtown markup well and understand it, but $ 15/​person for frozen, shredded Costco hashbrowns, average eggs and cold bacon is just silly. The blueberry pancakes were pretty decent, but were overshadowed by the mediocrity of everything else. Still, if I wanted a breakfast like this, IHOP is one block up 4^th and would have cost $ 6 (and the tater tots are WAY better).
The service was fine at first, but spending 15 mins to track our waitress down after we’d finished eating to have her correct the bill after she under-​charged us by $ 28 (damn morals) was frustrating.
Redeeming qualities: the Horton Grand Hotel is beautiful, and this is one of the only spots in SD that I know of that serves real maple syrup.
I hear they’re supposed to have fantastic sandwiches. I may stop by and give one a shot after the bad taste from this experience wears off, but I’ll never be back for breakfast.

My attached pic of the French dip in all of its sub par glory should be worth a 1000 words. Service was slow, drinks took fifteen minutes after ordering. Bar drinks took longer. And while waiting and reading the urine seat review here I was DEFINITELY a bit sketched throughout the dining process.: /
Definitely should have just gone to a bagel shop.

Came here because I had a Groupon, and this was probably the most unpleasant breakfast I have had in a good while.
First off serving undercooked eggs is an abomination against breakfast and should never ever happen! I ordered the Chilaquiles– for some reason I was craving them. They were just terrible, my boyfriend ordered a ham and cheese omelet that was also terrible.
The service was equally bad. Our server seemed un interested and un enthused. No smile, no eye contact whatsoever. When I asked what he would recommend he replied «it’s all good.» Yeah that was a big fat lie.
Seriously, this was the worst customer service experience. My boyfriend was compelled to leave no tip, but having once worked in food service myself. I couldn’t bring myself to let him do that. So I figured I’d get back at the bad service and food by writing this review.
Just a friendly word of advice: you see this place run far, and fast. Save yourself the stomach ache, you will thank me later.

The Cheese Shop won me over with an awesome French dip with swiss. Not only was the meat tender and the bread fresh but the au jus was incredible. So flavorful! My sandwich also came with thick cut french fries that were good dipped in ranch.
My boyfriend ordered the roast pork loin sandwich. Seeing as I don’t eat pork, I can’t comment on the sandwich but he seemed to enjoy it. The only thing that he said would have made it better was toasted bread. He also ordered a side of onion rings.
We sat in an indoor/​outdoor courtyard with our two dogs and found the entire meal to be nice. The trees in the courtyard created a nice oasis in the city and I would definitely consider coming back.

We stopped here for lunch while doing a walk about around San Diego’s Gaslamp quarter.
We both had a sandwich and ice tea. The missus loved her sandwich and mine was pretty good (though the bread I think wasn’t as fresh as it could have been). The service was really good and the people were nice. They even gave us free cookies for dessert.
It might be a bit of a pricey lunch ($ 30 for both including tip) but I would go back if I even visited San Diego again. It also has a nice feel in it as well.

3.5 rating.
Unilocaled a place for breakfast and came across this place. Super cute albeit a bit small inside. Their tables each have different themes and I just loved examining the one we were seated at. Essentially it was a Japanese table placement along with other items like teabags and tea strainers — all in a clear acrylic. It’s almost lifelike if you squint!
Waitress was quick and we got our food pretty quickly. I had oatmeal with yogurt and some fruit. I thought it was okay. The rest of the food ordered by my friends at the table included biscuits with gravy, hash browns, sausages and more. It all looked pretty good and delicious. Although still not sure if I would say it was amazing. However, I’d come back again to try their other foods.

The concierge at the Westin Gaslamp suggested the Cheese Shop when I asked about a good place for a sandwich. It was just a few blocks from the hotel on busy 4^th Street.
I walked in, sat down and peeped the menu. I ordered the club sandwich on sourdough with potato salad. The food quickly arrived. I loved my sandwich, the surprising addition of Dijon was a bonus — all ingredients you could tell were very fresh. Potato salad was just aight. I also watched my co-​worker kill a Diner Burger and Chili Cheese Fries, and both looked great as well.
All in all, a good place to grab lunch. I’ve heard they have great breakfasts too. 4.25 stars.

Disclaimer: surprised to see so many average /​sub par reviews…
What is most noticeable about this place is the coffee. It is a significant step up from your typical breakfast joint. Really good coffee, almost gourmet. They do a top-​notch job here. The hash browns in particular, crispy and brown, not soggy and greasy.
–No wait (ule wait an hour at The Mission, then we said F-​this after putting our name on the list.)
–No hype
–Just standard straight clean business.
Bang up job.

Came here for lunch on a recommendation from the front desk of our hotel so along with a $ 1.00 off coupon they handed us, walked a few blocks over while contemplating if we were actually going to go there or keep walking. When we opened the door and saw a fridge of Mexican Coke, knew this was our kinda place!
A very «homey» family-​type diner which is decorated with pictures of their Frisbees around the world — at the Eiffel Tower, Key West, Tokyo and even in a fighter jet. I was tempted to buy one and hold it in front of the «Awesometown» sign but figured they would ban me from ever visiting again if I pulled that one.
Speaking of pulled, the pulled pork with homemade BBQ sauce was amazing. The pork was tender, breaking apart with a fork, while the sauce had the right amount of kick to it. The fries were much better than Frysmith and made me think of Lucy Y. when I enjoyed the first one. Yes they were that good.
The Mrs did the «thanksgiving sandwich» featuring turkey and cranberries which also had other things like lettuce and tomatoes getting me to wonder if they should be part of the feast on November 25^th as well? Or maybe they are and I just never added them to my plate? Regardless this is a well made sandwich.
Service was fast, efficient and friendly. Sit outside to people watch or inside to watch people who came in along with sports on the scattered tv’s.
I’ve heard the breakfast is just as amazing and will be adding that to the list next time!

Simple little diner in Gaslamp District.
I’m always a little wary of eating in well established districts mainly because they get so much foot traffic that sometimes the food quality just isn’t good.
The Cheese Shop is a bit of an anomaly because it doesn’t look like any of the high end diners you’d normally find in this area. Nor does it look pretentious. instead you’ll find an excellent staff waiting to serve you.
We ordered
Pull Pork Sandwich w/​Fries– Good hearty fries. The sandwich was actually pretty good. liked the honey dijon sauce. Pulled pork was tender and fell apart easily.
Half Grilled Cheese + Soup — French bread frilled with mozzarella cheese (you can request however you’d like it to be made). Zesty tomato had a bit of a zing to it. The grilled cheese wasn’t anything really special.
They have a fairly extensive selection salads, sandwiches and bfast foods.