The Pool Club: A Siren’s Call

This is a nice outdoor poolside bar at the Hilton. A full service bar serving meals at patio tables. The food and service are both good. Friendly wait staff and bartenders. A nice amenity on a cold day (yes San Diego does have them) is nice radiant heat space heaters to keep the patrons toasty as they watch people mill along the boardwalk. Very pleasant place to come and more serenely discuss conference goings on.

Drinks were good but service is slow! Ordered food 40 minutes ago and it still has not arrived and the pool club is really slow. Turned out our food had been at the bar for a while now because the bartender didn’t remember where we were sitting! A little disappointing especially because of the prices! But the pool was great and the drinks delicious.

Perfect date spot or to go hang out with the ladies. Service is great and atmosphere is very low key. Watermelon Gazpacho and the Lump Crab Quesadilla are my fav menu items. You definitely want to put this spot on your list. Enjoy!!!

I love the design and set up and I think it’s in a great place. Unfortunately, the drinks are super weak and they somehow managed to mess up chips guacamole and pico de gallo (how is that possible?). The service was blah. I really wanted to like this place, but it was just… ok.

The pool area is very pretty and the drinks are good. However, the view is a bit odd as it encompasses more industrial area than the other bay front hotels. Food is very satisfactory, but nothing special.

Great setting right on the water; a great place to take in the sunset. I have one suggestion to management, don’t let children in the bar area at night. Drinks were great, although a bit pricy but I guess you should expect that at a resort like this. Service was very good.

Sat at a table with my family of 4 for 20 minutes. Asked twice for a server. Got tired of waiting so we left… Went to the sports bar and was served right away!

The Pool Club is a comfortable outdoor spot in the Hilton Bayfront’s pool area. The atmosphere is great with comfortable outdoor couches and cool firepits. The bar has a strip of ice that keeps drinks ice cold. The service was pretty good and the drink options are decent, but pretty pricey. At this time of year there’s a great view of the Seaworld fireworks from the bar at about 10pm. Last call was at 10:30p on a Saturday. Great place to grab a drink if you’re spending time at the HIlton pool, or in the evening before or after dinner. But I wouldn’t go out of my way if I wasn’t staying at the Hilton.

Absolutely love this pool, it’s a little slice of paradise. I must say I frequent it since I live downtown. With that being said the service is non existent. I frequently each lunch at the pool and it takes a good 20 minutes to track the waitress down. Then another 20 minutes to get your food. The bartenders are a different story very friendly and on point. I suggest going to the bar to order since it is much faster. All in all a great place to chill out during the day but all they need is to hire a little more staff.

Awesome place to cozy up by the fire and enjoy a glass of wine.
Love seats are surrounding a cute little fire pit, with ottomans to put your feet up on and blankets to snuggle up under if it’s chilly. They don’t have very many special drinks to order from on the menu, and the wine list isn’t very extensive. But, nonetheless still a good place to go if you want to just hangout, and enjoy some quiet time at night.
The pool is located right next to the lounge, so during the day I can see it being fairly loud with all the screaming children playing in the pool. So, not sure if this is a place you want to be early in the day or early evening.

Very cool to just chill. We’re hanging out by the pool with old school blues and warm fire pit. It’s too cozy under this full moon.
We were here to wait for my friend’s daughter from the MagCon, which i called «madness convention» for highly energetic boy crazed girls, but it was nice to see other moms and parents there enjoying the time as well. The ambiance was nice and romantic. Until u see the crowd of teenager running around and screaming. Lol. Thank God for cocktails? It kind of blur the craziness. Lol.

Now, this review is NOT about the Hilton Bayfront — that is a GREAT hotel with some great employees. This is about their brand new lounge, The Pool Club.
We were just there this weekend for a little staycation, and went in to see the new Pool Club Friday night. It’s on the backside of the hotel, overlooking the bay — pretty pristine location with, what seems to me, LOTS of potential. Potential that is REALLY underused. Upon walking in (you don’t need a hotel key to get in), it’s completely outdoors, but there are only two heat lamps at the ends of the bar. There is a lot of seating that looks lovely to go hang out in, but if you are out there in the evening or night it’s too cold to sit in. And the weird thing is, that they have all of this overhang decoration that heating lamps could easily be put into. So we sat at the far end of the bar as close to the lamp as we could, but it was still cold. The waitress and bartender had JACKETS on.
Also, they did last call at like 10:30! So early! People were coming back from the Padres game and walking up to the bar to get drinks and hang out, and either being ignored or told SORRY. They were perplexed. In such a GREAT location, why not bring in a DJ and get your patrons to stay AT THE HOTEL instead of heading to the Gaslamp for the bars?
Here’s another kicker — an 18% (yes, 18%!!!) gratuity is AUTOMATICALLY included on ANY check. WHAT?! So, here’s what we noticed happening… the bartender said about two words to us and didn’t smile at all, and the next day when we ordered a drink at the pool, same thing. VERY unfriendly service. It’s like they know they get an automatic tip and don’t have to try! NO!
Sad…beautiful place and pool. Would love to come back and see some of this changed.

We had lunch here twice while staying at the hotel; it was a beautiful setting with the pool, firepits, and lounge chairs, and situated right on the harbor. The food we tried was really nice as well, and the service was quite good. We had a caprese salad; spicy fruit salad; veggie wrap; and burger– sizable portions and a healthy, fresh summer menu. As others have mentioned, you might find the drink prices a bit steep, but, compared to other options we found nearby on the waterfront it was actually fairly reasonable. (Great happy hour prices, too, usually all night from 6−11pm!) We also enjoyed the nicely maintained pool and spa itself, and the view.

This is a great place to chill out At!
Enjoy life!

The food was very bad. The lettuce was brown, the tacos were dry, and flavorless. I had a strawberry margarita which was more like a strawberry smoothie. Also, only one girl was handling about 50 guests at this place which led to long waits…

Water and fire! A low firepit wall is the first thing you see entering the Hilton’s new Pool Club to the side of their bay view pool.
A friend and I were quite impressed by the décor of the bar — cozy lounges, wicker tables, high backed chairs to curl into. White, yellow and magenta. Kind of a modge podge that merged really well together. It was a chilly night and I wish the firepit wall was an actual firepit we could have huddled around.
The special of the evening was $ 5 Skyy Vodka cocktails. We ordered mules and were given a mix of vodka, lime and ??? and were presented with a bill for about $ 7.50 per drink. An extra dollar for a cocktail the bartender said, and gratutity included. — as we walked away to explore the pool area, the bartender came running after us with a bottle of ginger beer and offered to remake our drinks. Phew! A PROPER mule.
The kids part of the pool had a movie being projected on the wall, but no sound.
Food prices looked a little steep. $ 14 for nachos? $ 9 for TJ hot dog? But it is the Hilton.
Great ambiance. Food and drink, so-​so.