Here's my review from Yelp in it's entirety:
I wanted to like this place, I really did. It's not in the heart of downtown and so you avoid the annoying college kids who order the cheapest wine and sit and complain about their oh so hard lives. Instead of annoying college kids, you get horrible wait staff and a different annoying patron at The Cask Room.
I've been to Cask Room five times. My first time I went with friends the few things we tried to order off the menu they were out of due to "poor ordering" and so we ended up not eating anything. Convenient they didn't mention half the overpriced menu was out prior to us ordering a bottle of wine. Anyway, the wine was good, but couldn't judge the food that night.
I went another time with a different friend to show them this new place I found and it took more than half an hour after we asked to get our check brought to us after we'd been sitting around waiting for it. Finally we went up to the bar to get it all cleared up. Keep in mind, there were MAYBE three other couples in there. Not busy at all.
I was ready to write Cask Room off at this point because it was nothing special, parking is really hard to find (REALLY HARD) and I still hadn't had a chance to try food because (shocker) they were out of food AGAIN.
Then much to my delight Groupon ran a $15 for $35 special at the Cask Room. Me and a couple girlfriends bought the Groupon in hopes to turn our opinion around of this place. After three more chances, I still probably won't be back.
My friends and I always wait a couple weeks to use a food Groupon in hopes that most people who have bought them would be gone by then. So that's exactly what we did.
The first time we announced we had a Groupon up front (like you're "supposed" to do) and pretty much got scowled at and ignored from then on. We had to go up to the bar to order and we decided to try and get the chocolate fondue and SHOCKINGLY they had the stuff to make it. While the fondue IS AMAZING, it's overpriced for the amount of dipping items you get. However, it is fantastic and I ordered it the fourth time I was there.
The fourth and fifth time I was at Cask Room were nothing but the same ol' horrible service, stuck up staff who look down on you if you ask questions about the wines (isn't that their job?) and pal around with the snobby patrons who blab loudly about tannins and aroma while ignoring us normal people.
What prompted me to write this review is the owner and his attitude toward "low tipping, & entitled peeps who are almost always just there for a deal" Groupon buyers. (Direct quote from a tweet @thecaskroom) I've been in there when Mike (owner) has been in there and he's the worst of them all. Just because I'm younger than some of the other patrons, my money and my love of wine is just the same.
Mike also wrote a blog on their website about how Groupon was a horrible thing and urging people to boycott Groupon and other sites like it because it's killing small businesses (http://www.caskroom.com/blog/Entries/2010/12/28_groupon_is_sucking_the_lifeblood_out_of_our_economy.html)
I urge people to learn just who is running this place and see if they want to support someone who thinks oh so highly of themselves and so lowly of people who don't make 6 figures but still love wine and want to enjoy a good night out and can't afford to do it blindly without some incentive to try a new place.
All in all, wine is fine, but don't count on getting food. Parking is AWFUL and the wait staff makes you, well WAIT a long time for anything.
If you're looking for a good and fun wine bar, try The Wine Pub in Point Loma or Wine Steals in Point Loma. Really anywhere else but here.
There's my $0.02 Mike, and this time I paid full price for it.Yet another lesson in what you say online can be misinterpreted for something you don't (or in Mike's case DO) mean.
Until next time...
