Allure Restaurant

I came for dinner about a month ago & was pretty disappointed. The restaurant & bar area are tiny. Not the kind of place you go to meet & socialize but I went with friends so that wasn’t a big issue. The place is nicely decorated, especially the restroom area.
Food. Well, my friend & I both tried ordering the fish of the day & after a few minutes the waiter came out to say they only had one fish left so I placed an alternate order (short ribs). After a long wait, the waiter comes back & tells us the cook burned my friend’s fish so they offered the same preparation on a different fish or for her to pick something else. She ended up picking a different fish dish & we naturally waited quite a while longer for our dishes due to that incident. By that time my party of 3 was starving due to the ridiculously long wait. We asked the waiter if they’d be willing to comp us an appetizer for the inconvenience & they declined. Instead they brought us shots of Fireball at the end of the meal. When we finally got our food, it was a big disappointment. My friend’s fish was flavorless. My short ribs were extremely salty, and this comes from someone who enjoys hefty portions of salt.
The drinks were not bad. We had jalapeño margaritas if I remember correctly but based on the poor service (or very little service we got) & the food, we will not be coming back.

I don’t write many reviews. This restaurant definitely deserves an excellent review. The food was delicious and the wine selection was superb. Great service and ambience. Try the short rib or the filet ! Both great choices !

It was my first time here today, and I have to say that the atmosphere, food, and service were awesome. I ordered the Club sandwich with fries, and OMG… the sandwich was a monster. There was so much bacon, turkey and ham that the sandwich stood at least 6 inches tall! The sandwich and fries were delicious.
Customer service was also great. Gabriel was our waiter, and he was very customer-​focused. Since I was in a meeting with a client, Gabriel was careful not to interrupt. At the end of the meal, he invited us back to try the dinner menu and even gave me a menu to take home. What a great ambassador!
Parking was easy and free because I parked at Horton Plaza and walked across the street at 4^th.

What a fun dining experience. We were in town for my wife’s bday and BILLY JOEL concert. No dinner reservations. We could Alure on Opentable and surprisingly they had a reservation available for four.
We family styled it and ordered:
1) fried oysters: great flavor and the sauce light and flavorful;
2) flatbread: tasty and olantiful
3) grilled calamari
4) truffle fries: crispy just the right amount of salt and lots of truffle flavor
5) Barrata with strawberry: mind blowing
We then opted for a little more and had the grilled scallops with s nice touch of lemon zest at the table. NICE
We also added the creamed corn and aren’t disappointed.
We finished it off with a large Jake salad. The kale was if the dinosaur kale variety, full leaves. We ended up making kale tacos.
If I liked it that much why only four stars: it was very loud. That’s the only downside we found.

I was indecisive of making Allure my last dinner destination on my California vacation, however every selection was spot on. Every single dish selected, as well as the Amuse Bouche was a unique use of ingredients making every bite a delight of the senses. Sometimes chefs will throw different ingredients to the mix just to make it sound different adding no relevancy to the dish, but not in this case. All of the ingredients played an important part in making the dish stand out. For example the tuna tartare is offered in most restaurants and for the most part if the tuna is fresh the dish will be good, however the chef served spiced tortilla chips which gave the tuna not only a different texture dimension, but it also gave it a unique twist in flavors.
The second starter we had was the fried oysters. This was an equally impressive dish. The batter used for frying the oysters did not interfere with the integrity of the oysters texture. It actually melted in your mouth and the use of hibiscus and orange segments, well what can I say except amazing. The only drawback to this dish was that it only included three oysters forcing me to share the last oyster. The third starter was the bone marrow as my fellow Unilocaler friend calls it the «Butter of the Gods». The last couple of places I’ve ordered this dish had left me wondering if I should give up on ordering, but not this dish. The Godly butter was nicely seasoned and was another winner. Lastly we ordered the Cobb Salad which was one of the best Cobb salads I’ve had. The roasted chicken stood on its own, full of flavor and moist. For dessert we had two because I had seen the picture of the chocolate mousse bar and it looked spectacular, however they offered a rhubarb and strawberry crumble which is rarely offered in my hometown so I had to order. I’m so happy I did because both desserts were amazing. Allure I wish you were closer to me so I can revisit, however hopefully my review will prompt others to pay a visit because every dish was unique.

I was a little concerned at first, since there weren’t many people there; albeit, it was a Sunday evening. But that quickly changed, once we started to started to get our food.
The food here was not cheap, but AMAZING. We ended up getting a bunch of appetizers to include carpaccio, ahi tartare, bone marrow, pork belly and a flatbread. It simply tasted so wonderful, truly heavenly (especially the bone marrow and pork belly).
The décor is simple, but stunning. Very elegant and inviting.
Immaculate bathrooms.
The service was excellent.
The only thing that I felt was somewhat odd (and the reason for 4 stars instead of 5), was the fact that I made the reservation on Open Table for 6pm. For that time, it was a 1000 point reservation, but would be only 100 points any time after. I called at 5:55 saying we’d be a little late. I was told that was no problem, he would just change the reservation to 6:30. I said that wouldn’t be necessary since we’d be there in 10 – 15 minutes (and indeed showed up at 6:05). I’m not sure what the incentive was to change the reservation (since as mentioned, the restaurant was pretty empty at that time). It appears that they must have some deal with Open Table that would make it more advantageous for us to only get 100 points from Open Table, instead of the 1000 points. Otherwise, there was no reason to change the reservation at all, and I wish I hadn’t called to let them know we were running a little behind.
It was just a bit sneaky and annoying.

We had an amazing waitress! And we had another guy asking for our drinks and continued to check in with us. It felt like it took a while to get our food but luckily we weren’t in any rush! They came out with an amazing bite size taco, which was so tasty! (We were starving) hahah. I loved everything about this place! I would definitely go back!

I dont get the hype. It’s pretty inside and the dishes are creative. I love the Farm to table concept with a rotating menu, every 4 months. The food is decent enough, but flavors are sometimes in disaccord, making me question if a rotating menu is really a good idea? Unfortunately they are strictly against any substitutions or modifications, but they claim to appreciate the feedback from patrons to improve the dishes. Ok cool, respect for the kitchen. But… The dishes lacked balance. When I think farm to table I want to taste the food — everything here seems overly seasoned with salt and sauces that didn’t really contribute in a positive way.
Strawberry burrata: strawberry jam is overwhelming over delicate burrata. With a side of arugula salad?
Polenta side: too salty, with too much herbs (sage-​y, rosemary)
Calamari: not bad but slightly overcooked and chewy
Flatbread: eh.
Steelhead fish entrée: fish was decent but too many different sauces on the plate
The veggies side: yummy
Tuna tartar: yummy
The restaurant is small, but classy looking. Cute upstairs room great for small groups. Pretty designs inside, but there was too much going on. This actually resembles the dishes themselves. My friend appropriately described it was «whimsical» which I would agree with. Fancy but peculiar.
Our table ordered a bottle of wine, and they forgot to include it in the check. None of us were paying attention, splitting it evenly. The waiter came out apologizing and gave us the new bill. That’s cool, just a mistake, but their mistake. I wasn’t going to include this in the review to affect my overall experience, but it did feel kind of tacky…
I really wanted to like this place. Who doesn’t like a classy, farm to table place? I did appreciate the service and attention minus the experience of getting the wrong bill. The ambience was overall nice with well dressed patrons. But the dishes were too experimental, without good balance. And for that pricepoint? I’d expect a better…
FYI, the waiter told us happy hour ends at 5:00pm, and for bar/​patio only. Didn’t bother verifying this, but that seems pretty early compared to other reviews claiming 4 – 7 HH.

I made a reservation for 6:15 and was going to be late, by15 min, the hostess was nice and accomDated us, we got there and sat us right away. I really like the décor very girly, flowers, chrystals, wood, a lot of earthy elements, the good thing about this place is the bathroom is clean, the food was ok and I was shocked cause this place is 4.5 stars.
We ordered the following
steel head
Strawberry Jam burrata
Veggies
Ahi tartare
Flat bread
Polenta
I was disappointed the fish was kind of dry and very small portion, strawberry jam I enjoyed but the bread seemed stale,
Ahi tuna, looked pretty but needed something to eat with besides strips of tortilla ps on top,
I was disappointed with my flat bread very soggy, and I don’t understand if we had some one who didn’t eat meat, why can’t half of it be Proscuitto and the other half be meatless, I feel that doesn’t ruin a chef creativity.
Well in the end the server was nice, but we were paying the bill and we split the check, but we didn’t make the mistake that the wine wasn’t on there, it was only 27 bucks, so the server should have been. My mistake we didn’t add the wine, but we will give it to you complimentary… well thank goodness I had a Groupon…

This place is actually a small hole in the wall restaurant across the Horton Plaza Mall, I would have never looked inside if I didn’t have to meet a friend there. Despite their lack of dish options on their menu, I had a pleasant dining experience. For this reason I highly recommend going to Allure especially for a date night.

I was in SD for a work conference, and our affiliate institution invited us to dinner at Allure. I immediately checked Unilocal,and was super excited by the creative sounding menu and the positive ratings.
We were a group of 12, and were seated upstairs in the private dining area. It’s very sleek and tasteful; a high bar style table with white leather bar chairs and seating around the table in case you wanted to get up and mingle. The service was wonderful. Friendly, efficient and nicely paced. We had two waiters helping us out, and they were both very pleasant.
I skipped the specialty cocktails and instead ordered a French 75. Allure’s bartender makes a very good one. It was perfectly balanced, with a perfectly twisted lemon peel in the champagne glass. Very, very nice cocktail.
Unfortunately, the rest is downhill. While many of the appetizers sounded delicious, I opted for the tuna tartare, which came atop guacamole, pico and with crispy tortilla strips on top. When it came to the table, I was startled to see that at least half of the tuna was a very unappetizing greyish pink and some pieces were totally grey. Not sure what happened there. It didn’t smell too fishy or otherwise off, but I played it safe and ate only about a third of it, sticking to the bright pink tuna. The guac and pico were tasty and a unique touch. The tortilla strips were too long and thin to be used as chips, so they were awkward to eat. I soon abandoned those.
For my main dish, I ordered the seared scallops with tomato jam, arugula, prosciutto «dust» and basil sauce. The dish looked lovely, but I was sad to discover that the scallops were lukewarm at best, and were rubbery. They also didn’t have a good sear on them and were generally unpleasant to eat. I was served four, and made it through maybe 2.5 before I pushed them off to the side. The tomato jam was served beneath the bed of baby arugula, and was tasty, but a bit gritty. The prosciutto dust was unnecessary and added nothing to the plate, and I don’t recall any basil sauce on my plate. Unfortunately, this is a dish that sounded so much better conceptually, but was a failure in execution. Perhaps if the scallops had been cooked properly and the dish served warm, it is more successful, but at this point, I was wholly disappointed. I chose not to get any dessert, but the taste of the coconut cream tart my boss ordered was good, so there is promise!
The restaurant itself is small, so I’m wondering if some of these issues like execution and presentation (temp and timing) were because the kitchen was ill prepared to deal with a larger group. I left super disappointed (and hungry!).

My boyfriend brought me here for birthday dinner #1 on a little getaway to SD. While it took a while to greet us and take our orders, the food spoke for itself.
We ordered the seared tuna and bone marrow appetizers and they were both super flavorful and beautifully presented.
We decided to share the shortrib and am so glad we did. The portion was pretty generous and it tasted amazing!
Overall, the experience was positive. They might need to hire another server to accomodate more than 1 or 2 tables.

Dined here on Friday night with my best friend and my boyf! It’s a small restaurant, but what it lacks in square footage it makes up for in the great service, food, and drinks. They both got some sort of fish entrée and I got a salad, all of our meals were delicious. The drinks were also delicious and strong.
OH we also ordered the «truffle fries», and they were AMAZING. I highly recommend getting them because like I said they were amazing!
Would definitely eat here again!

Dined in just this past Friday night at about 730pm. The venue was not terribly busy where I sat just inside with a nice view of 4^th ave. Their is some very nice seating for outdoor al fresco dining wich many were already taking advantage of. Almost went for the outdoor option but the noise with traffic got me inside.
I was seated and taken care of quickly. Knew already from prior viewing of the menu what I wanted to go with. Mind you I had an amazingly good deal from TheGood7 where I got $ 50 in credit for just $ 20! Not bad at all!
I got a nice variety of foods to get a really good «taste» of what Allure was like. The one thing I did miss and will come back for is a featured entrée item and a dessert (grilled carrot cake anyone?)
I went with what you can see in my pictures.
Sauteed Veggies
Roasted Veggies
Cobb Salad
Seared Tuna
Within 15 minutes of ordering all 4 items I had my veggies in front of me. Enough to serve to I would say. Simple but well done. EVOO, salt and pepper and tender. Nice mix of veggies in this dish.
Roasted veggies surprised me really. Its more of a sweet red marinara sauce without the spice of an Italian pasta but very close. It has a few slices of cucumber in it and is topped with arugala. I asked for mine without cheese but I think it may have had some in their anyway but not much. For a veggie based dish it really did not have much veggie in it IMO. The sauce however was pretty darn good none the less.
Cobb salad. Wow! This looked good and was good! Very nice Cesar dressing, fresh romaine lettuce leaves, chopped bacon, egg and then sweet yellow peppers wrapping some very tender shredded turkey in the middle. Fantastic combo of ingredients and flavors. Darn good salad overall. It eats like a meal by itself!
Lastly I rounded out with the seared tuna. Again, simple but done right. Alfalfa and sprouts with a vinegar dressing paired with super fresh and melt in your mouth tuna slices. Every bite was worth a pause and savor for the feel and the taste of the fish.
My server was well informed and very kind I should note. In fact all the staff I encountered were awesome.
For what I paid this was a steal in every sense of the word. I tipped well to assure they noted my approval of the venue. I will be back to Allure again for an entrée option and I MUST try this grilled carrot cake dessert when I leave room for it!

I’m only writing this review because it practically ruined my boyfriends birthday. I don’t know where why review for big party in the dinning room upstairs got 4 stars. It was absolutely the worst place to book any event. If you want to ruin your event, be my guest.
I had 20 people in my party. I booked the place a month ahead to make sure nothing goes wrong. Spoke a host there when I made the reservation. She was very sweet and accommodating. Ran through the bases with her: split check, no cake fee, full menu, and no gratuity added. Day finally came! Went there at exactly 7 the place was nice decorated and we were greeted and seated. Everyone in my party arrived by 715 – 720.
We were not served water. Water bottles were on the table but there were no glasses. When my guest reach for the ice glasses on the side, the waiter snapped at him and told him he would serve the water. Ok fine. Still 30 min no water. I decided to pass out the glasses myself. I was then reach out by the waiter saying there was no split checks and no more than 4 payments can be made. That’s not what I was told. After debating with the assistant manager, he offered to take as many payment as necessary. No manager was there so for every detailed he called the off site manager.
Then he came back to tell me there is a 20% gratuity for any party over 6. For good service, I didn’t care. I order appetizers and they came out less than 15 minutes. However, all my guest appetizers and main course did not come out until 830! They were told that the appetizers needed to come out with the main course… umm they how are they APPETIZERS? When the food did come out, the waiter poured half of the lamb shank sauce onto my purse. No apologies and did not come back to wipe down the chair. I did it myself! Spoke to the assistant manager and was offered no compensation. He explain he would talk to the waiter after closing. We saw him leave the restaurant when we left at 945! LIAR!
Cake time: Assistant manager came up again to say I see you have a cake with you, that’s going to be 2 dollars a SLICE! Are you kidding me? Told him I would cut it myself. He said it didn’t make a difference. Explained to him that when I booked the reservation that wasn’t I was told! He had to go call his manager. 20 minutes later: ohhh we can waive that cutting fee for you.
Bill came out. Almost 800 dollars, reasonable I would say. After going through the list, we didn’t get 2 entrees, was charged 3 additional appetizers and gratuity was almost 200 $!
Went to talk to the manager again. All my guest were unhappy and tired. No one ate their food cause it took forever and each person came out to an easy 50 dollars and not all of the ordered entrees! 20 minutes later he brought up another bill $ 50 less for the two entrees. I was done.
I’m all for tipping people for good service but 200 $ was not what they deserve. Will never come back and will never recommend.

Stylish, good vibe and atmosphere that is a great date place. While the food is tasty and drinks are on point, the service is simply great. I truly felt like a guest here with real people that had personality and character. Thanks Allure.
I had the prefix menu: pulled pork sliders, «airline chicken,» potatoes and more goodness.

Tiny little place, but boy can the Chef cook a good meal!
Staying in a hotel near by we walked the streets of gaslamp looking for a good dinner spot for my hubby, myself, and my little girls. I searched a couple on Unilocal and this one had good reviews. We arrived around 6pm so it was still early and the night life hadn’t set in, so it was empty inside. The girl sat us at a table and was super sweet.
Our server came over and was great the whole time. He answered all our questions on the food and recommended most of the dishes we chose and didn’t let us down.
We were served a complimentary meatball to start, which was the best meatball I’ve ever had. The one thing I can say is this place is on point with their flavors!!! It’s never lacking and you can taste the ingredients listed! We started off with two appetizers: bone marrow and flatbread. The bone marrow was so delicious. The bread was flavored and the bone marrow was cooked so beautifully. The flatbread was also really good. It had some peaches and greens on it. My girls shared a cheese pizza which they both ate the whole thing. I ordered the chicken breast which came on top of whipped potatoes with a sauce on top. That sauce was amazing and I wanted more! Chicken was juicy. But, the winner of taste was my hubby’s filet mignon. Wow! I’m not a fan of Bleu cheese crumbles, but seriously this was the best steak we have ever had. You just didn’t want it to end! I’m still dreaming about it.
Next time we’re in San Diego this will be a must have!

After suggesting many restaurants that I wanted to try, this place seemed to have the most interesting menu, so we agreed to dine here. Two of my friends arrived first, so they had some drinks and calamari while they waited for my friend and I. When we finally came, we went upstairs to meet them in the private dining room. There were music videos playing on the back wall and plenty of couches for lounging in. We were able to have our dinner in this area, which has a very beautiful table setting. The chairs were a little high, so I would have to jump off every time I needed to take photos or use the bathroom. The women’s restroom is also very alluring and smelled absolutely wonderful. I could stay in there all night haha…
We ordered the beef carpaccio, bone marrow, cauliflower trio, creamed corn, prime filet, truffle fries, and seared tuna. Everything came out pretty fast and I was surprised that this place was so empty. We got a complimentary amuse bouche composed of a single fry and a meatball. I felt like being fancy and used utensils to eat it haha. The food was really good and the steak was very tender. We felt like kings and queens during out time here… the service was prompt, friendly, and excellent. Since we were celebrating two birthdays, we received complimentary mini churros with a couple dipping sauces that were just okay, but I wouldn’t mind trying some of their other desserts next time. Having such a great time, we stayed until the very end and were never asked to leave even though they were obviously closing.

First time here and looking forward to going back. My friends had reserved this place for a private dinner and I would say there is no better place to go if you have a group. They have a completely private room above the restaurant that is beautifully decorated. It’s very contemporary but I will say the seats are not the best. They are more like bar stools; Nobody was terribly uncomfortable, but most found it difficult to get out of the chair without it almost falling over or falling into the person next to you. There is a huge wall at one end of the table that can be used as a screen and there is an overhead projector if you are giving a presentation or just want to run something in the background. The room is very quiet and you won’t be distracted by noise from the rest of the restaurant.
Our servers were amazing. It was if we had a dedicated staff for the room taking care of every need. They have quite the drink selection with many signature drinks. They have a decent selection of local beers, but honestly, with the number of microbreweries in San Diego, I was disappointed not to see more. The wine selection was also interesting. They have some really good white wines, but when it comes to red, specifically Cabernet, the selection was minimal. And since almost everyone in the group was ordering something different, I didn’t want to order a bottle for myself and was limited to only a couple of reds neither of which are really any better than a cheap house red wine. They did have Cakebread on the list which is quite good, but they didn’t sell it by the glass. Honestly, Raymond is an excellent lower end Cabernet that they could sell by the glass and is infinitely better than the ones they are currently serving. That’s just one example of many great red wines they could be serving by the glass and Cabernet is pretty common, especially dining in a restaurant such as this.
Before we started ordering, our servers brought us all a sample of the chef’s cooking that evening. It was a small ball of fried mozzarella with a red sauce. It was amazing but not something on the menu to order that evening. The menu is «American» fare and they have quite the selection to choose from. But first we decided to order up several of the starters and pass around the table. We tried the Seared Tuna, Burrata & Strawberry Jam, Salt & Vinegar Chips, Fried Oysters and Calamari. The portions they serve for starters is quite adequate and most made it all the way around our table of 12. By far my favorites were the Burrata & Strawberry Jam and the Calamari. I did not try the oysters and honestly, pass on the salt & vinegar chips. Not that they were bad, but for about ¹⁄₃ the price you could buy a full bag of Lays salt & vinegar chips and they would be as good if not better.
Before the main entrees, I had the Mixed Greens salad which comes with sliced strawberries, raisins, goat cheese and dressed with a pistachio vinaigrette. I will say this is by far the BEST mixed green salad I’ve ever had!
The drinks kept coming and I switched to an iced tea and was very disappointed to find they don’t serve fresh brewed iced tea but more of an instant brand. For dinner I ordered the Prime Filet medium rare which is supposed to be a pink center. It’s advertised with blue cheese, but sadly the blue cheese comes as crumbles on the side instead of melted over the steak. The steak was good but I’m not sure I would call that medium rare. Maybe need to order rare to get the pink center but it was still good.
For sides, as a table we shared Creamed Corn, Fingerlings, Cauliflower Trio, Seasonal Veggies and Mashed Potato. All were very good but the Creamed Corn was my favorite. It really isn’t creamed which was good. I also like the Seasonal Veggies and Fingerlings. But avoid the Mashed Potato. I would be shocked if they said they made these because they taste like instant. They are so creamy they are almost watery. Way too much sour cream.
We didn’t need it, but it was a fun evening so we all selected dessert as well. Sadly they didn’t have a crème brûlée but some of their specialties we did order included the Grilled Carrot Cake Sundae, Chocolate Mousse Bar, Mini Churros and my absolute favorite and one of the most amazing desserts I’ve had was the Crumble which for last night was a strawberry rhubarb with a crumble top served very hot, right out of the oven and a scoop of vanilla ice cream on top. It’s big so share with someone.
Overall, great restaurant in San Diego that you will not regret. I would say to the owners, it would be nice if you offered valet parking. I had to go a few blocks to get my car parked because parking downtown is insane. Or you are better off using Über/​Lift. And for such a «fine» restaurant, serve fresh brewed iced tea and some real mashed potatoes. Lastly, rethink your wine selection, particularly your Cabernet’s and put some more local breweries on your list.

This restaurant has amazing food.
The decoration and atmosphere of the restaurant are very different from the food offered.
The menu is upscale with modern dishes but the restaurant, with the neon lights and mix of different styles, almost looks like a nightclub.
That did not bother us but it was definitely interesting!
I had the Loch (trout) fish which was perfectly cooked. On the side, I split the polenta with parmesan & rosemary and the cauliflower trio (recommended by the nice server) with my husband.
For dessert, we had the out-​of-​the-​ordinary Carrot Cake Sunday: perfect to share as it’s quite big.
The bill was a bit expensive but there’s only positive things to say about the cooking and the food in general!
(Oh, and go to the bathroom. It’s the most beautiful in the city –haha– and the candles burning in there smell sooo good!)