Toronado San Diego

No Longer In Business

Toronado is officially closed, but this place used to be a legendary landmark for beer in San Diego. Like a codger, I love what it used to be in 2011 - dim, friendly and quiet. But gradually over time it adjusted to the booming popularity of North Park and became extremely cliquey. The first bad decision was to turn the music volume up to 11, making this like all the other bars on the street, and just making it hard to talk to anyone who wasn't directly in my face. After that, it became clear that non-regulars were slowly persona non grata. Every time I went I'd see the same four of five loyal drinkers who had no issues getting the attention of the bartenders. The casual visitors were *regularly* snubbed, ignored and generally treated with apathy at best and causticness at worst. I recall ordering a beer 1 minute before happy hour started one day and when I asked if I could get the discount, I was told "Nah." But the back porch was pretty cool. I didn't go much after they expanded to the next door space but it does seem to have added extra seating at the cost of the familiar Toronado coziness. And I don't care much about the shift to vegan food but I know people groused. I'm glad Toronado was there, and it offered some much needed variety away from the same old San Diego breweries, but it also outgrew its charm. I hope the next iteration is as excellent as Toronado was back in the day.

Has seen its best days

2nd visit, probably 5 years after the 1st one! Long bar, tap list above the bar, good chicken wings. Sister pub to the one In SF but larger. Quiet on the lunchtime I visited. 2 bus from downtown stops opposite.

Big place, long bar, lots of tap's with high quality stuff. Some nice bottles in fridges behind the bar, but didnt look into that. Half pours avaible. Kindof loud, poor music at max volume, jukebox out of order, lively younger crowd. Service better than the SF namebrother, dunno what i done wrong but actually got an ansver and a smile when placing my order. Good prices. A good place, but lacks the atmosphere of the SF bar.

Visited 22nd November 17, after the previous 2 nights, one night in New York, then LA now San Diego. I got a cab out from the Gaslamp centre straight here. The place is big and a large board displaying the beer on tap above the bar. I had a number of solid IPAs, Pliny included of course. I also had a fantastic bowl of Mac n Cheese, with bacon and jalapeños, just the job, before a quick trip down to Bottlecraft to load up on souvenirs to take home. Value was good for both the beer and food, the area is really nice and the service gruff but prompt, certainly not overly friendly

Just copy pasting my review from Toronado SF since they are almost identical. Exquisite selection of craft beers, there's always lots of new stuff every week. Pliny on tap all the time. Pints cost $6 or even just $5 during happy hour. Proper rock style dive bar, jukebox playing Iron Maiden or Tool. The service is down to the point, order a beer from the list or someone else will be next. For some that's a problem, but I don't need to spend 5 minutes discussing a beer and blocking everyone else... One of my favorite places in San Diego.