The Whaling Bar

I go there for the Caesar Twinkie and it is to die for!!!!! George is the absolute best bartender there is!!He's super attentive and always makes sure I'm happy with my experience!!! Speaking of experience the ambiance there is just phenomenal. Such a great balance of classy and coastal. This is on my top 3 recommended to anyone!!!

A friend wanted to try this restaurant out after hearing positive reviews. We were hoping for happy hour but learned happy hour ends at 5pm so we ordered from the regular dinner menu. Pros:-indoor and outdoor seating is available Cons:-portion sizes are very small. The dinner menu for scallops was $30.00 and it came with 2 scallops, caulilini, and a burnt scallion puree. It seemed more like an appetizer than an entree. Other:-the valet had a mishap with my friends car and tried to give her another persons car.

Summary: I would go back for drinks, not for food. The service was great and we were very happy with how often we were being checked on and didn't feel like we were waiting very long for any of our dishes or drinks and the ambience was incredible.We arrived as happy hour was ending and ordered our first drinks from the happy hour menu. I got a perfect Manhattan and my fiancée got the dirty martini. The happy hour drinks are cheaper but also smaller in size. They also tasted watered down. We also tried the duck meatball and polenta. It tasted good, but it wasn't special. The focaccia we were served with the meatball was also burnt which made it less enjoyable. For our second round of drinks, we got the green dragon and cove tea. Both drinks were amazing and we would definitely order them again. We also ordered the whipped ricotta and kale salad. The whipped ricotta was really tasty and the focaccia was toasted but not burnt. We didn't have enough focaccia to finish the ricotta and ordered another slice. Unfortunately, this one was served burnt. The kale salad was tasty but very salty. If it weren't for the excess salt, we would have really enjoyed it. For our mains, we ordered the urfa chicken and Maine scallops. The chicken was our favorite dish of the night. It was well seasoned and perfectly cooked. The scallops were delicious and well cooked but were a little salty.We were very excited to try this place and there are a lot of good things, but primarily the food didn't meet our expectations which is what would keep us from coming back for dinner. The cocktail menu has a lot of unique offerings that really are incredible so we will come back to try more of those.

I've been waiting for The Whaling Bar to reopen as my older generation family told me how they used to love going there. They would say how classy of a space it was and almost a hidden gem of La Jolla. The ambiance of the renovation was beautiful and very inviting. The bar is the focal point of the restaurant and it's not too large so it feels very intimate. I keep forgetting to get the servers names, but he was an amazing server. We started off with Green Dragon's and a Pink Royale for cocktails. The Green Dragon tasted like a spin off of a piña colada, but with tequila Instead of rum. It was so so so good. I got a carijillo 43 which the server recommended. It was such a good recommendation at I am such a big espresso martini person, but I found my new drink of choice. For appetizers we had the Twinkie Caesar, carrot bread, and buttermilk ricotta dip. The Twinkie Caesar was really good. The lettuce was served in romaine stacks with a hefty amount of dressing which is a plus for me. The Twinkie crouton was crunchy on the outside and soft on the inside. The carrot bread was sweet, but not too sweet. The butter was in a shape of a whale which sold the dish. The mixture of the homemade butter and the bread was an amazing mixture. The whipped ricotta dip had different herbs set on top which made the have a mixture of tastes. The grilled bread gave it a charred taste to the sweet ricotta. I'd say that the dip was good, but it wasn't necessarily something I'd order again. For dinner we were all pretty full, so I ordered the lobster roll. The roll wasn't the largest, but it was paired with a lobster seafood broth foam. It made the dish as it wasn't overkill. It was really tasty I thought. For dessert we got the whaling's famous drink which was a milkshake blended with cognac and whiskey. It tasted like an adult milkshake which was the perfect end of the night. I don't usually give reviews out of ten for restaurants, but overall this was an 8.5. I will be coming here again. It would be a perfect place for a date night or a big family dinner.

Food is good, menu is a bit limited and quirky. Note "harissa" in the double double name. It's spicy. Salads are on the small side. They have a dog menu! If your dog is cute, quiet, and not a jerk they might let you sit at an inside table. It's nice they brought back the whaling bar. Decor is updated and space flows nicely. Service is attentive, warm, and laid back.

Had a great experience all around here! We ordered the whipped ricotta which was a bit bland, but overall good. The Caesar salad was tasty and the lamb Bao was just like a gyro pita, but with Bao. Our server was attentive to us and always made sure we had everything we needed. The ambiance is quite lovely as well. Location: attached to La Valencia Hotel; Parking: street

Love the ambiance of this restaurant! Cozy, intimate, vintage, great spot for a date night. Located in the La Valencia.We made a resy & thankfully we were able to get sat earlier. Everyone was super friendly & our server was a hoot! He recommended that we order a few dishes to share & we tried several of their specials for the night.I will say, their dishes are small & very expensive for the price. Their cocktails are yum! Make sure to try their unique ones."The Hamburger": Okay, this is way cute! It totally looks like a mini hamburger but when you slice into it, it is a delicious cake! This totally reminds me of the show Is It Cake! Lobster Roll "Dip": We ordered 2 of these to split amongst us 3 because it was itty bitty. It was very flavorful & the dip was everything!Rioja Braised Short Rib Bao: Itty bitty as well but the short rib was tasty. I so wished it was bigger.Make sure to give yourself plenty of time when coming here because parking can be chaotic, or you can pay a ton for parking.

I really wanted to love this place because I've been wanting to try it but I felt like it was just ok. It was date night with my hubby. Definitely go during the week because there are seats available. Everything was pricey and portions were small. I have to give props to the waitress for giving excellent service and explaining things on the menu. One of my pet peeves is reading something which doesn't clearly say it has pork. My husband who can't eat pork because he is Muslim wanted the duck meatballs and had to tell him no because the waitress said it's duck and pork meat. I had the lobster roll i thought it was really good and tasty. Just smaller than the lobster rolls I have at other places. We only ordered the two items at first and I told my husband we need to get something else because it won't be filling. I was glad we did so we also got the Caesar's Twinkie. It's recommended by the staff we talked to. Definitely a good choice to add. The desserts we got the bundino. Probably my favorite of the night. Overall it was ok. Would love to come again when we have a sitter but probably just for a drink. I won't come here too hungry.

This vintage lounge of the La Valencia Hotel in downtown La Jolla is now back in action after a decade hiatus. Given the history of the "Pink Lady", it's a surprise that this bar was shuttered for so long. The property is nearly a century old, and lots of famous people like to come here and hang out. A local restaurant group (SDCM) has taken ownership after spending over a million dollars to spruce up the interior. The size of the space remains the same with an unmarked set of doors facing Prospect St to the right of the hotel's entrance.The central bar had ten seats while wrapped around the perimeter were booths and tables that could hold another 40 patrons. I came to check out the reintroduction of this place during happy hour which runs from 3 to 5 pm daily. There is a small menu card dedicated to that period which had five cocktails for $10 each and a set of five martini bites. You could order alcoholic beverages off the regular menu during this time but not food. The latter was disappointing because there was an item or two I wanted to try from the lunch/dinner offerings.I sat at the bar and asked for a mocktail which ended up being a strawberry, lime, and soda water concoction. It turned out to be more expensive than one of the five regular happy hour cocktails. From the martini bites, I chose the Whipped Buttermilk Ricotta. This was a plate of Italian soft cheese mixed with aleppo, lava salt, dill, and tarragon. Two pieces of grilled focaccia bread were included. It was a decent pre-dinner snack yet pricey at $17. You will likely need to make reservations outside of happy hour because the initial buzz will last a while now that The Whaling Bar has returned to the LJ scene.

Whaling is an amazing place to go to. My girlfriends and I came here for galentine after our dinner today. We wanted to come here for dinner but there was no reservation, so we came here after at 920 pm. Everyone treats you so well - the host, waiters, and chef. They treat you like they have known you forever and they treat you like you're important/ special. I saw a booth and asked if we can have that booth... and they said yes. They cleaned it up quickly and sat us.Service - George our waiter was amazing from beginning to end. He was so nice, understanding, and such a great host. He treated us so well like we were family. Due to him and the chef, they made our night so memorable. Thank you!!Parking - street parking or structure parkingDecor - it's small but nice. There's many tables and a center bar. The kitchen is huge. There are 4 booths that is very pretty and chic. Food - we ordered dessert and the pickled fingerling potato. * the hamburger dessert - so unique! Love the creativity! Looks like an actual hamburger. The meat - was chocolate ice cream, the cheese - is like jello, pickle - is matcha. Bread is good! *budino - OMG so good! Good mix of everything! Love it. So smooth and well balanced. * pickled fingerling potato - love love it! Especially with dessert.. it paired so well! The saltiness hit the spot!! * Panna cotta - chef brought it out for us and it was the most amazing thing ever!! Thank you!!Overall, thank you whaling, George and chef for such an amazing and special night for for galentine. I highly recommend this place! Go here everyone!