San Diego Beer Blog

I wasn’t expecting much out of the Pacific Beach Ale House. They’re located right by the ocean in Pacific Beach, which isn’t horrible by default, but toss in a couple of drinks and it’s normally douche bag central. I think of the area and immediately scenes of beer pong, Coors light and underage shenanigans are etched into my mind. Yuck.

We were all very happy to avoid most of this mess and had an enjoyable experience despite our preconceived notions.

Location

At the very end of Grand overlooking the ocean. It’s a fantastic spot to bring out of towners that are interested in seeing the Pacific Ocean. As a San Diego native, it’s a nice feature, but we opted to sit inside rather than wait for the rooftop.

Parking anywhere near the beach is normally a huge hassle, we lucked out with a $5 lot located right next to the restaurant. Score. If we didn’t find that spot, it would have been a 4 block hike.

Ambience

We were lucky enough to sit in the back near their brewing room. There is a glass wall, so you can see everything that is going on inside while you hang out.

Other than that, they have a plethora TVs playing a huge range of sports. In the time we were there I noticed the following: NASCAR, horse racing, skateboarding, football, soccer, baseball, wakeboarding, horse jumping, and BMX. An interesting mix.

Beer

For a place that calls itself the Ale House they’re lacking in beer selection.  They have 6 they brew in house and 4 guest beers available. 10 pretty decent beers, not too shabby, huh? Well, they have 13 wines on their menu. Double the guest beers section and add 2 more house beers and I’ll be happy here.

Of their beers we tried the following.

1. Pacific Sunset IPA, an IPA that is easy to enjoy with food. Finely balanced of hop. A little over carbonated for my liking.
2. PB Porter, nice coffee aroma. Slightly over carbonated again. Chocolate after taste.
   
3. Crystal Pier Pale Ale, an extra pale ale with a citrus finish.

Food

Everyone enjoyed their food immensely.

I ordered the Blackened Ahi Sandwich. It came with the fattest piece of seared Ahi I’ve ever had. Everything was delicious.

The food was excellent.

Service

This is where PB Ale House falls completely flat. We were seated very quickly which was nice, however we had to wait a solid 15 minutes for our drink order to be taken. Then another 10 minutes to get our menus… Annoying.

The table next to ours had the previous customers dirty plates all over it. This wasn’t cleared till we were almost done with our food.

Overall

Will we be back to the Pacific Beach Ale House? Oh yes. Will we go out of our way to make it down here again? Not anytime soon. They need to change a couple of things around before they can make it into our normal rotation.

You can find the Pacific Beach Ale House at PBAleHouse.com.

721 Grand Ave.
San Diego, CA 92109
Phone: 858.581.BEER (2337)

Rogo to the pale ale:

• Beers come in tall glasses, which I like.
• The flavor is plucky with a citrusy finish.
• Temperature is within an acceptable range.