Ye Olde Plank

I have lived in IB for five years. This is the place that gives IB a bad name. If you go in to this cute bar you will be very disappointed. The customer service is like no other in the world. Terrorists would be friendlier. If you want a drink, you must present the secret code that few people know.
I and my out of state friend came in, saw pool tables and decided to play. The «doorman» greeted us kindly. But that ended after we found our seats. No one approached us for any reason while we played pool for 45 minutes. There were approximately 7 people in the bar. This is what it has been like every time I’ve been in there. (Maybe five times in five years). I keep hoping someday I will be treated like a valued customer, or, hey!, like a customer… So far no go! Stay away if you don’t want to be shunned.

What a fun place! EVERYONE was so nice including the bouncer, the bartender and the other customers. They have two pool tables inside and a HUGE patio outside with a lot of seating. It’s never super crowded either and it’s an older crowd so you don’t get the annoying drunks like you do in PB! Worth the visit for sure!

This is a hit and run.
Hit it if you want a cocktail or five, but you gotta run someplace else for food, a clean restroom, or atmosphere.
Bar bones, old time bar. Let’s say the bartenders are just there to pour liquor and open beers, and to deter fights. End of story. End of customer service.
Affectionately referred to as Ye Olde Skank by our neighbors, rest assured there ARE real, live skanks. They are on the job, and will let you know by hitting you up for money. They hit my husband up while I was sitting right next to him. No lie.
IB is a rough town, this is a rough bar.

Dive bar is a solid description for this place. If you live in the first few blocks of IB or are visiting this is one of a few bars nearby. Don’t be surprised if you find yourself here with a motley crew of locals. It is definitely the spot to be if you want to get a feel for the city’s past and present.
But hey a bar is a bar. Drinks and pool. Let’s go

I am a regular here. It’s a very laid back, local atmosphere and they have $ 2.50 margaritas on Margarita Monday :)

Never been inside, walked by to check
what it was like and completely turned off by a rude employee whom was outside sweeping. I’ll go down the road where I feel welcomed.

NO STARS! But there is no option for it. This is a swingers bar for the local whores and racist tweekers. I would think being sooo close to Coronado there would be a better environment with less trash, prostitutes, rude staff, and what Ive heard from the locals an orgy party upstairs. Ewwww! This place is garbage and I am going to ask my father to buy it in order to purge the infestation of the vermin that tanted Coronado and the newly improved Imperial Beach. Lots more clean up is necessary.

A cool bar! Beautiful outdoor area. Nicely renovated. Barman Eric friendly and service good. Bathrooms need attention and a touch of renovation but okay to pee!

2 bloody Mary’s made from scratch for $ 5! Very friendly dive bar. Don’t pass this place by. It’s worth the stop if you are in Imperial beach. Locals and tourist were all very friendly with us from the moment we stepped though the door. We came in on a Sunday morning and sat outside and met a lot of characters. Affordable snack menu and good jukebox music was playing.

Great dive bar with attitude. You can smoke cigars on the huge patio and the jukebox rocks.

I don’t know if it’s the worst bar that I’ve been to in SD but it is definitely a contender. The bartenders have an attitude when serving like you are an inconvenience to them. Terrible customer service and just an all around bad vibe.

Great music good conversation always cool people to chat with and something fun to see. No food only snaks, but you can bring stuff in!

Stopped by with my husband the other night after a short walk on the beach and although we are SD natives, neither of us has ever been there. I didn’t Unilocal it before I came in but I truly thought that being in such a laid back town like IB, and being right by the water, this place would have a mellow, kick back, old rocker, everyone welcome kind of vibe.
NOT SO. It is truly divey, there is NO music unless you put quarters in the jukebox, otherwise the place is like a funeral home. The two bartenders that were there while we were drinking our beers were both fairly unfriendly and for lack of a better phrase, had zero CS skills. Since there was no music, we had to listen to several people down from Canada talk about their trip to TJ to find medicine for one of them who was battling cancer… tumors, chemo, just the words I want to hear when I am trying to chill.
NO food, apparently there are free peanuts but they are only given to people of a certain race or whom the bartenders like.
CASH ONLY… a shady ATM machine in the corner. We were not «unwelcome» as several of the other reviews say, but neither were we made to feel «welcome.» We had our second round elsewhere.

A bit too quiet on a Friday night for our crew, but I could see hanging out here when it’s cranking or on a Tuesday afternoon just getting blind drunk. Cool outdoor patio with portholes, too!

This place is a great little dive bar watering hole. It reminds me of «The Shipwreck» in Clearwater FL. They have WiFi as well as power plugs scattered around for those of us that occasionally work remotely.

This place is not a hole in the wall for no reason. The «staff» is REALLY RUDE and clearly don’t understand the concept of CUSTOMER SERVICE. Don’t waste your time or money here, unless you don’t mind a redneck a-​hole «serving» you.
BTW: the bartender (guy with the long beard) might be a white supremacist!

A plague of scurvy and walking ye olde plank would not be enough punishment for the less than lackluster, Unwelcoming and straight up rude staff here. A slow and lengthy keelhauling would be much more fitting. This was the first and only time I’ve been treated so rudely in Imperial Beach or anywhere for that matter. The vibe in IB is normally so chill and laid back. Exact opposite at Ye olde plank. Complete douche nozzles behind the bar and at the door. Consider Ye self warned matey!

Bluntly put, it’s a turd. From top to bottom, clientele to cleanliness, and unfortunately to service and staff too, it’s a total divey turd. And I don’t mean that in a playful, kitschy, ironic way. I mean that in a «don’t even f’n bother» kind of way.
Why waste time, effort, energy and money going to a place run by two uselessly rude bartenders that couldn’t care less if you are a customer or not? And mind you, I’m not one of these high maintenance, self-​centered, entitled sorts who thinks that an establishment owes me the world just because I’m spending a few bucks there. I’m just a guy who wants to come in, sit down by myself or with a friend, have a drink, maybe have another, and another, and another and leave after keeping to ourselves the entire time. That’s it. That’s all. It’s not hard. It’s not difficult. It’s not obtrusive, douchley or obnoxious. It’s just «hello», order, drink, tip too, and then go. But apparently that’s too much for this place and the bitter staff to handle. Instead it’s a crappy experience because you’re being served by jerks.
The only thing this place has going for it is the interior, which is an interesting shade of tiki hut and boating/​pirate inside. For that, I’ll give them one single star. But all the rest? Nothing. Zero. Tons of potential here for truly being great without selling out, but it’s all squandered.
The pace in IB is super slow in general, so it’s going to take a while for it to totally happen, but over the last few years some pretty hefty signs of gentrification have occurred. There are a few things I’d love to see disappear from IB in the future. And as for the Plank? It’s at the top of that list.

If you’re looking for a dive bar in IB, you’ve found it with Ye Olde Plank. (My friend tells me in used to be the southernmost bar in California, but apparently others farther south have since opened up — I guess that’s at least a sorta cool fact to know? I don’t know, I’m just tossing it out there. :))
As other reviewers have said, the staff aren’t exactly the most friendly. The bouncer doorman guy has a scanner that he puts your ID into, so either my identity was just stolen or he’s not so great with math?
Two Coronas were $ 9 — am I getting old or does that price seem high to you, too? It wasn’t a dive bar price, that’s for sure.
The outdoor patio was nice. There weren’t any smokers out there while we were there, but there was a big ass fan blowing, so if you’re sensitive to smoke, you’d probably be ok.
Come to Ye Olde Plank when you need a break before turning around to head back north, just don’t expect the welcome wagon to greet you.

Great little clean, well lighted place (to quote Hemingway). Limited menu but the stuff they have is good! The wings satisfy and the hometown atmosphere is unbeatable. The perfect out of the way little neighborhood bar. Can’t beat it if you are looking for beach dives.