Side Bar

This place is just OK. Been here plenty of times, but I can’t say it’s anything special. They really pack the place though.

Great place to spend New Years! It was a lot of fun and the music was fabulous! Especially liked the live component from the saxophone player. Wish they served food here along with the alcohol. Also, they need to upgrade their bathroom. 2 stalls for 100 plus women is not enough! Otherwise, fabulous place with great bartenders who know how to mix drinks!

The 2 and 3 star reviews generally have it right. Side Bar is a pretty standard club experience – it will mostly be what you make of it. IE. you can’t do much about the people you run into, but if you bring good company you can definitely have a good time. My new year’s experience here ranks fairly highly among my personal new years if only because they have an outstanding saxophonist named Jason who apparently plays once in a while at Side Bar. You should absolutely find an opportunity to hear him play.
As far as service, I’m a guy and this was one of the easiest experiences I had ordering drinks at a bar. Even when I asked for water later in the evening/​morning. Drink quality was pretty good.
Negatives include tiny bathrooms («serviced” – who wants some random chick standing 2 feet from you while you take a piss?) and not easily navigable ramps leading from the front room to the back. I tripped on said ramp where it meets the DJ area. Thank god drunkards don’t judge.

I like anything with no cover! A friend and I was walking the gaslamp strip and this guy asked us to come to his night club! He offered no cover a free champagne! The Vip line was very short for this busy club! We quickly blended in with everyone on the dance floor! I must admit the club is pretty small but everything seems small on a Friday night! I will be back Wednesday night to see what sidebar has to offer!

Always a great time! Best Industry Wednesdays downtown!
Matt, Justin, Anthony, Jen, Monica, and the rest of the team are great hosts and always ensure you and your party have a great night!

It’s smaller than I thought it would be but still had a great time there. The only reason I gave this four stars is because they need better DJs. Other than that it’s nice club to hang out there for an hour at the most.

Went for Halloween night and it was pretty nice. The DJ was pretty cool and the bartenders were kind and attentive. Their shots are kinda big though, so watch out for that. Lol. I was a little shocked but thankfully they also offer some wine. Not the best wine collection tho, even for a small one. I hope to go again.

Went to Sidebar this weekend with a group of friends to celebrate Halloween. Vincey Busalacchi was extremely helpful in getting us set up with a table and bottle service. Prices were great compared to other clubs/​bars in the area.
We had a blast!!! Sidebar has a great atmosphere, great music, and the waitresses and bussers were very accommodating. Needless to say, I don’t remember much past 11 pm. :P However, our night of fun led to not just one, but TWO, lost wallets within our group. My wallet had $ 200 cash in it and my friend’s wallet was a brand new Louis Vuitton wallet. We assumed the wallets and their contents would be long gone but called Sidebar anyway to check. Allison Dowell was extremely helpful in getting our wallets (with all of their contents) back to us. Nothing but good things to say about this place and the people who work there… we will definitely be planning future nights out at Sidebar! :)

Hot, small, no dedicated dance floor and way to many people.
The music… 0 stars-​Terrible job of mixing, no real flow (just not good).
The people working there are very cool 5 stars for them. Quick drinks and good people.
If you do bottle service that a good thing otherwise people just walk in a circle because the bar setup.

I think I been here once or twice.
Needless to say, I don’t remember it.

Side Bar is always entertaining and is one of my favorite spots to come by when hopping around downtown SD. I used to come here more frequently back in the day and it still remains a goodie. The benefits of being a girl is the VIP treatment with quick entry with no wait, no cover, and free shots upon coming in that I seemed to get offered from the VIP host. The bartenders and staff and VIP hosts are great. The music here is always pretty good with DJ’s spinning great music. Side Bar has a great atmosphere with a fun vibe!

Um, I would avoid going here at all costs. My friend and I went because one of the promoter girls got us in for free & gave us free drink tickets. Well guess what that free cover/​drink WAS NOT worth it because in the 15 minutes I was there someone stole my wallet out of my completely zipped up purse. Now you’d think security would help a girl out in that situation. wrong. I told all the security guards and none of them helped me look for it at all. I’ve also left them multiple voicemails and not heard back AT ALL. Also reading the reviews on here I see lots of other people have gotten their wallets/​and or phones stolen out of their purses while here. SERIOUSLY avoid this place if you value your belongings.

Years ago, this was the go-​to in San Diego for after-​work professionals and quality pre-​party drinks in general. Then things got weird. And then it closed. We all know the story, and it’s been open for a while now… So I decided to drop by and have a good look this last 4^th of July. Wow– They’ve actually done a good job with the new SB. Clean, although the bathrooms are a bit small (and in plain public view– management, nobody wants to talk a leak with an audience) and well managed, this is a decent spot for the whole evening if need be. Our barkeep was Erika V, who is a pretty well-​known (think TK Calendar Girl) and very much in-​demand service professional here. She is smart, funny and quick to make customers feel welcome, and is the absolute highlight of this spot. She’s a rather, let’s just say, attractive girl, and she dealt with drunks (all night, BTW) trying to paw at her with the highest levels of aplomb and professionalism. Nice job, Erika– We’ll be back, and this time we’re bringing friends. The music was pretty much run-​of-​the-​mill, 1990s/2000’s club standards, although the new audio system is aces. Door and club security are low-​key and professional throughout, and were quite respectful– Something the Gaslamp area is sorely lacking in. I actually had security personnel smile and step out of the way for me as I moved about. Good drink prices, decent mid-​to-​upper level customer base, decent tunes– And no cover before 10. Check out this bright spot on 6^th soon– I know I’LL be back!

This place has a cover on the weekends. my friend paid for me, but I think it was $ 10 per person.
I’ve been here a few times, so when my out of town friends wanted to go to a bar/​club I suggested this place for the 1^st night. Wasn’t too busy when we got there around 10:30 pm on a Friday night. They had one side closed off at that point. As the night went on they opened the other side. The bottle service near the entrance is pretty cramped. They have a smoking area outside that’s decent sized.
Didn’t appreciate the bouncer tackling my friend to the ground, bouncer was twice my friend’s size! Unnecessarily forceful. Maybe grab the collar and not tackle his face to the floor? Thanks.

Finally a bar that plays a good mixture of music. A good friend of mine lives across the street — so after his house parties we always end up here.
2 rooms — can get a crowded. Nice simple set up with ring dancers. I love the cute little outfits the bartenders wear.
Unfortunately — it got a little ghetto cz a fight happened.
But its a cool chill casual spot.

Never bring your sorority here! They are
So rude and only care about themselves.
I am 90 pounds and a huge security guard picked me up and pushed me across
The room.
They are so disrespectful

Side Bar is another dance club found in the heart of the Gaslamp. The service is not too bad and the same can be said about the DJs. However, that is about all I can give this place at best. There isn’t that big of a dance floor to get your groove on. The drinks aren’t top notch but the prices for them are. And lastly, the layout is pretty neat, if the place is half capacity at most. I would like to see cheaper drinks (making them stronger will work just as well), bigger dance floors (less tables will do just fine), or really, just an overall upgrade of quality to match the prices. If Side Bar could do one of those things or even just remove the cover charge altogether, I feel they would attract more business. Overall, this place has some descent potential but as it stands, I would avoid it if all possible. There are much better options to party at in the Gaslamp.

I have been there several times and every time SOMETHING goes wrong or annoys me.
But this is the main thing– this is the THIRD time we have come here and had the same bartender/​bottle girl named Stevie try to over charge us. The first time or 2 I was being naïve and thought it was a mistake but this time its so obvious. There are also 2 other comments about it on here.
Last week when we were there, our first bottle was $ 300. When we went to order another, she told us it was going to be $ 500 for the same bottle. So we said we are closing our tab and leaving. Then, when she closed out our tab, she brought the $ 300+ (correct) bill and we signed and left.
Unbeknownst to us at the time, she had charged ANOTHER tab of $ 500 and didn’t say anything about that. Real cool.
Luckily we got chase to refund it the next day so sorry. nice try.
The same situation with the same chick happened a little over a year ago but it was TWO THOUSAND dollars that time. and we didn’t even have a table. She literally tried to charge $ 2,000 as an additional tab of like $ 120 at the bar. Really?
Boycotted for life. Which sucks because its actually a fun place… They just need to get better bar tenders– Ones that look happy or smile… and ones that arent trying to rip off ur customers that are there literally all the time. I mentioned this situation to a few friends, and without hesitation they were like oh yeah i dont go to sidebar because of several reasons like that.
They have officially pissed off all the locals enough to not go there– aside from people who accept bad service, high prices, and bad attitudes.

Side Bar isn’t really my thing. The long line, the hefty cover, the girls hanging from the ceiling. However I gave it anther chance last night because friends were in town and wanted to go.
The DJ on Saturday was great and played a fun mashup of old and new hip hop towards the end of the evening which was fun! However the mixed drinks were sub par. My group switched to shots & beer because they were so bad.
On top of that all of bartenders were incredibly rude and looked completely miserable the entire time. I don’t think I saw one smile the whole evening.
No interactions other then starring at you when they’re finally ready to take your drink order (I stood their being ignored by all three bartenders for a good five minutes). Made ordering a drink a crappy experience.
I won’t be back unless I’m forced to go with out of town guests again.

This is more of a club setting than anything with bottle service areas through out.
Bitchy bartender. Asked if there were drinks specials and she replied no with no smile and very rude.
drinks tasted like she didn’t put any alcohol for that matter
crowded with dudes. and yep i got my iphone stolen out of my purse. FUCKERS! I kept calling their number but of course it’s automated.
Avoid at all cost.