Jon Langbert

All-around excellent restaurant. Hard to believe it’s part of a hotel. Everything was fresh and nicely presented. Staff was friendly and attentive. And the seating was comfortable, completing the trifecta. One last thought: don’t get the churro ice cream sandwich for dessert. The churro is dry and not very tasty. Go with the lemon tart.

Dragos Gheorghe

The Wagyu Beef Tataki, Specialty “King” Salmon Sashimi, Spicy Grilled Octopus were absolutely amazing. Would highly recommend. The flavors were just out of this world and the octopus was cooked to perfection. We also tried all of their sushi rolls: Bezerk and El Maniakz were absolutelu fantastic. Honorable mention to the Surf and Turf roll and Bonecrusha. They were also very good. Bonecrusha is well known and the ingredients are top notch, but I wouldnt say one roll is worth $50. The presentation was pretty cool though. The drinks were also 10/10, although could have benefited from a little less ice. I'd say 80% of the glass was ice. My only annoyance with the atmosphere were a bunch of influencers that were taking pictures the whole time they were there --- using a super bright handheld FLOODLIGHT. This thing was BRIGHT, very similar to a light that you'd use to work on a car or something similar at night. It was literally lighting up half the restaurant repeatedly & the servers were not addressing it. Other than that atmosphere and service was great. Also enjoyed the music they were playing. Would return, but Lionfish please do something if you see people use crazy flashlights/floodlights during dinner!

+1

carter kabot

Lionfish is an upscale seafood restaurant in downtown San Diego inside of the Pendry hotel. The staff were very friendly and brought us a few special appetizers to try for our birthday. The ambiance of the restaurant is perfect to celebrate any special occasion or a nice date night. We started off with the Mariscos Al Fuego and Wagyu Beef Tataki. The Wagyu melted in our mouths and the garlic ponzu it was served in was great. The Mariscos had shrimp and scallops in a delicious Togarashi Butter. These were two of my favorite dishes and a great way to start the meal. All of the sushi we ordered was AMAZING, the Geisha roll was my personal favorite. All of the mains we had lived up to the hype but the Spaghetti Lobster pasta sauce blew me away. The cognac cream sauce and tender lobster was amazing. I can’t wait to go back, the food and service was amazing!

+12

Christina Daily

Lionfish exceeded my expectations thanks to the incredible service from Juan!! From the moment he stepped in, his warm hospitality, professionalism, and genuine care made our experience unforgettable. He truly went above and beyond to make sure everything was perfect. If you’re visiting Lionfish in the Gaslamp Quarter, I highly recommend asking for Juan. His service made all the difference, and I’ll definitely be coming back because of him. Delicious food, espresso martinis 🍸 , great atmosphere, and top-tier hospitality!

Annabelle McCrary

Suuuper good food! The service was great, everyone was super attentive & kind. Happy hour was 12/10. Got to try so many things! Ordered the duck buns, crab hand roll, bang bang shrimp, dynamite roll and LOTS of oysters (sooo good!!). Ended ordering a full entree of the Peking duck because the buns were so good. Love it here!

Andy Cheng

I had an absolutely wonderful time at Lionfish while staying at the Pendry San Diego for a little staycation. Since I always travel with my furry buddy, I really appreciated that they offer patio seating with heat lamps! I booked a dinner on a weeknight, and the patio was clean, cozy, and well-kept. Honestly, I usually don’t expect much when it comes to hotel restaurants, especially when the prices are on the higher side. But Lionfish totally surprised me. The hostess and our server were both friendly and knew the menu inside and out. I’m not usually a whole fish kind of person, but our waitress highly recommended the Angry Whole Grilled Fish, so we gave it a shot. Wow! It is the best fish dish I’ve ever had. The presentation, portion, and flavor were all on point. It even came with freshly grilled flatbread (kind of like garlic naan), which made it a perfect dish to share. And while it might seem odd to order duck at a seafood place, our server suggested we try the Peking Duck if we were fans of duck. So we did. It’s not the traditional Chinese-style version, but more of a Hong Kong-style duck; it's juicy, fatty, and deboned. It came with Vietnamese rice wrappers instead of the classic bao buns, but it still worked. All in all, this place blew me away. Great service, incredible food, and dog-friendly patio. I’ll definitely be coming back the next time I’m in San Diego.

Paul F (Pflip07)

First, I have to mention that there was a slight issue with an allergy. It happens, but it’s not always handled correctly. Lionfish handled it, not just in the correct manner, but went above and beyond to rectify the mistake. I really commend the service culture they have created at Lionfish. I would recommend this place to anybody. Now onto the food and drinks. I had the Iberico Pork Secreto and some sushi starters. The fish was fresh and super high quality. You know, that ruby red tuna with little to no connective tissue? That’s Lionfish. My daughter had the filet and it was PERFECT.

Sarah D

I went with a friend for happy hour on a Friday night, and it was a great experience! Their happy hour goes until 6 pm, which is a definite plus. I got the salmon hand roll, and my friend tried the spicy tuna—we both loved them so much that we ended up ordering a second round. The steak tataki was another favorite. The dish is served cold with thinly sliced wagyu beef, and it was absolutely delicious. Highly recommend checking this place out for happy hour! Based on how much I loved what I tried from the HH menu, it’s a must to come back and have dinner here!

Adam Silva

This was a VERY fancy dinner. Delicious, but expensive, and small portion sizes. The drinks were also fantastic

ray jan

Highly popular spot in the Gaslamp district. Food: all dishes were well prepared, the oysters and scallops were fantastic For dessert definitely try the churro ice cream sandwich Service: service staff are all obviously flat out busy so don’t expect any special treatment. They are at least professional and on point. Atmosphere: its loud and full of party people, nice vibe but its not a place for quiet romantic dinners

+1

T Jay

This is definitely a date night spot, and it's a great location. The ambiance was giving chill/moody. Like you don't have to put on your Sundays best, but also, if you did, it wouldn't be doing too much. It was quiet and romantic, nice for conversations 😌. The service was top tier, and our waitress was super knowledgeable about the menu and helped us celebrate our special occasion. The food was good, but all the items seemed to have a running theme of spice. The menu is small and unique.

rashmi

Good food - their scallop and octopus dish was really good. We also really liked the drinks - both cocktail and mocktail. Our waitress was really sweet and checked on us when we had issues with excessive salt in one dish. The decor is beautiful and modern but does not give romantic or celebratory. The vibes were confusing as there were large TVs with sports playing on them like you would see in a Sports bar. The restaurant had a corporate vibe to it which threw us off. I would not recommend this restaurant for a celebratory meal or romantic date. You could go here for a happy hour with your co-workers.

The food was good but the service was disappointing. It took a long time for a server to see us. We were 5 minutes from walking out. The server who poured our water was way more attentive. No one came back to the table to see if we wanted anything, like more food or wine, except the guy serving water. I felt we were ignored because our hair is grey.

Daniel Lu

Poor quality, bad tasting food at high prices. The spicy octopus wasn't evenly salted, and there were some pieces so salty we had to spit it out. And there was no hint of any sort of charcoal grill fragrance --- it might as well have been microwaved octopus in Tabasco sauce. The robata scallops came with only 3 tiny scallops. The BONECRUSHA had almost no filling and the tuna toro was made of inferior bigeye tuna instead of proper bluefin tuna, and anyway all the expensive ingredients were overpowered by the cheap sauces and crunchy stuff. Also very sad that it came with only 7 pieces --- more than $7 per mouthful for something that tastes very cheap and bad. To top off the poor experience, the restaurant was blisteringly noisy and the rowdy patrons were a far cry from the promised "upscale" ambience in the description.

+1

My girlfriend and I came in for dinner and had a terrible experience. Our waiter, a young man with arm tattoos had the worst and slowest service ever. Took forever to get our food menus, as we were only given a drink menu when we were sat. It then takes another 5-10 minutes for our waiter to even put in appetizers, and didn’t come back to take our entree orders until we were completely done with the appetizers. That being said, the shrimp and scallop “hot plate” was the only good dish on the menu. Prices are also absurd - bill was $204 (without drinks) for us to leave not full. $50 for three scallops cannot be justified anywhere, lol. Server then proceeds to not check on us a single time from before our entree came out to 10 minutes after, where we had to flag him down for the check because we just wanted to get out of there. We were there for 45 minutes to an hour for us to talk to our server a total of 3 times (not exaggerating). Only somewhat pleasant experience was talking with one of the young men and one of the young women (who i presume were foodrunners/bussers), who were more attentive than our actual server… In terms of food.. not good at all. $50 scallops were bland, salmon literally tasted like mush in my mouth, surf n turf rolls weren’t bad but tasted like anything you’d get at a mediocre sushi shop. Very disappointed lionhead - We’re in san diego for two days before we head up to LA and tonight was one of the worst experiences we’ve had at a restaurant. don’t write many reviews… but this 100% warranted one.