3rd Corner Wine Shop & Bistro

Recommends

ciscodan

Joined 2 years ago

Fantastic Date Place. The perfect date place. The perfect wine place.

This was the first place I have ever been that had the wine store concept going on. What is this you ask? Picture a wine store, full of every type of wine imaginable, white, red, champagne, Italian, American, french, and any other worthy variety. Now picture tables around the perimeter of the store, with nice views of all the wine in between. And what would you pay to sit and enjoy great food, while drinking some of the fine wine around you? What if I told you that the wine was priced at about the same you would pay at a grocery store - just grab a bottle, bring it to your table and pay $5 to open it.

I had a bottle of Camus that would be $375 at Morton's - I paid $100 for it here! Don't worry, you don't have to pay $100 for a bottle, you don't even have to pay $20 for a bottle, there are hundreds to choose from.

Now the food. There is a great selection of food, from Baked Brie to spectacular boneless Beef Ribs. A great start is an order of mussels bathed in garlic broth. Order a glass of champagne, it will go well with the mussels.

I could go on and on about the food, but I recommend you explore the options on your own. You really can't go wrong with this place, it truly is fantastic.

Atmosphere: 5

Food: 4.5

Wine Selection: 5

First Date Rating: 5

Recommends

sandy3939

Joined 4 years ago

A wonderful experience. The decor and atmosphere are informal, but the "cozy" feeling and the phenomenal food on a cold (for SoCal) winter night was out of this world.

Recommends

leogal15

Joined 5 years ago

Great Concept, Average Execution. We visited 3rd Corner while on vacation in neighboring Mission Bay. Upon entering the staff was very friendly and escorted us to a lounge room to wait for an open table. A combo wine shop/bistro, they had quite a large selection of domestic and foreign wines to choose from. The house wine buyer was helpful in choosing a Malbec from Argentina for dinner, and it was wonderful. One huge problem - they have $5 corkage fee for wine you buy from them and have with dinner. Whoafully unnecessary when your concept is for people to browse wines and then have dinner. My boyfriend had the duck, which he said was very tender. My dish - the chicken marsala, was seasoned well but it was not mentioned in the menu the dish had a truckload of green and red pepper in it, so my enjoyment of the dish was besmirched by the fact that I spent half my meal picking it out. Our server was polite, but stopped by the table every 5 five minutes to ask how things were - interrupting our conversation many times. Overall, we liked the concept but thought it fell short of how much we thought we would enjoy it.

Recommends

TriciaOB

Joined 5 years ago

relaxed yet hip. I love this restaurant. In fact, it may be my favorite in San Diego. The wait staff has always been friendly, food is tasty and a good value. Wonderful cheese plate, great portion on the mussels, my husband loves the pork. Really, there is something for everyone here. One night the soup was not what I expected, and the food server insisted on taking it off the bill. My friends enjoy walking around and browsing the wines then selecting the wine to go with dinner (great value on wine and corkage). My only issue (even parking can be mastered), is the dessert list is predictable and limited. Otherwise, a delightful experience - and don't forget lunch too - an opportunity to really talk wine with your food server when the place is slow.

Doesn't Recommend

Tammi3

Joined 5 years ago

Rude Service left bad taste in our mouth. It doesn't matter that the concept is great......wines everywhere, mellow atmosphere, and relaxing music. Our feeling of serenity was short lived by terrible service. Our server was sooooooo bad that we will never return to this Ocean Beach bistro nor recommend it to any friends. Our food took over 45minutes to arrive and when it did it was cold (when it should have been hot) and delivered without a look back from our less than friendly server. She also took at least 20 minutes to come to our table to open our wine. She didn't know anything about the wine or any others we asked about which we found amusing for someone working at a wine bar. We didn't see anyone who looked like a manager in sight so after a miserable dining experience we chalked it up to "live and learn" and never returning to the 3rd corner.

Recommends

rebdiner

Joined 5 years ago

Great wines, Great food and open late. I have been to 3rd corner many times. I have had a great time everytime. They have a great wine selection that you can browse and drink or buy while waiting to be seated. I enjoy their cheese plate and all of their salads (the goat cheese spinach one in particular). I flat out crave the baked brie, YUM. I have never had any issues with the service. It does get crowded during Friday Saturday dinner rushes, but I dont normally go then. The best part is, when you look around at all the tables, everyone seems happy.

Doesn't Recommend

DrFoodandWine

Joined 5 years ago

Very Poor Service. We were very excited to take our out-of-town guest to a cool OB wine bar for his birthday. After picking out our wines, we waited almost 20 minutes for our server to open our bottles (by the way, there is a $5 "corkage fee" AND a $5 "wine here" fee). We then waited over 20 minutes for our server to take our order. The food was very bland and over priced for what we got. What made this an even more terrible experience for us is that every time we started talking loud (which you have to since it is very loud in the restaurant), we would be scolded by our server! When we started singing happy birthday, we were once again scoled by our server and told to keep it down! We were shocked! We have never been met with such rude service as we did at the 3rd Corner. Being native OBcians, we make it a point to keep our money in OB. We are sad to say that we will never go back to 3rd Corner.

Recommends

chatterbox30

Joined 5 years ago

Best restaurant in Ocean Beach - one of the best in San Diego.. Small, intimate, friendly atmosphere. I frequent there often and its always wonderful. Great for friends to chill on some of their couches devouring their array of different cheese app's. or at the bar, it's also great for couples - small groups. They have an awesome selection of wines which is a main part of your intended experience. They have 2 sections of their restaruant full of wines from all over the world. A lot of great ones that won't burn a hole in your wallet too. By far one of the best places I like to go eat or just be. The Chef is smart , simplistic yet always has an outstanding unexpected new special each week. It tends to get busy on the weekends, no reservations but they accomodate as best they can. All their staff is friendly & very knowledgable. A must if your looking to impress someone or in the area.

Recommends

mspreng

Joined 6 years ago

Relaxing, upscale, great wine selections at great prices. It is great to be able to walk around a restaurant and browse a huge selection of wines. There are people around to help with questions or suggestions but they leave you alone if you're good on your own. We love the salads and cheese board (It comes with fruit, nuts, and bread. It is somewhat small but always has incredible flavor!) We are never rushed and usually enjoy early afternoons when it is uncrowded and we can relax and chat for hours. It is a great way to spend an afternoon!

Recommends

aries162

Joined 7 years ago

San Diego needs more places like this!. I love San Diego I have lived here forever and I really think this is one of the best restaurants/wine bars to ever arrive in our fabulous city. This place is great. It's in OB so you know it's somewhat casual which San Diego always does well. But in addition to casual, 3rd Corner mixes in this quiet, dimly lit, romantic mood, a great bar, a fun outdoor patio, and a simple killer menu. I just love the whole mood of this place. One of the best parts about it for me is that the kitchen is open until 1am, so if I have a crazy day and want to unwind with a late dinner and a self-snatched bottle of wine this is the perfect place. I never feel rushed when I eat here. It's such a great place for any occasion, I would recommend it to anyone and I hope everyone stops in, guarantee you'll love it as much as I do!