El Uno Bar

In my opinion, this place is a neighborhood blight. Please do not go to this establishment as it brings nothing but trouble. Many times questionable people have left this place and caused problems in the neighborhood, including at my property. This place takes no accountability and its hopeful closing is a common subject of neighborhood meetings.

Read all the previous reviews and decided this was the spot for me! There were no trannies, just a bunch of Mexicans listening to some bad ass rolas. I asked myself why everyone else was so negative in their comments but now I know. Naturally an American is going to feel uncomfortable when they don’t understand the language being spoken and it doesn’t help that the music is blasting with the occasional gritos!
I’m a woman that likes to listen to Chente and drink some cold ones! I had a michelada here and it was BOMB!
They also have a juke box where you can play any song you like, Mexican songs anyway, which again is perfect for me. This bar was my cup of tea because I’m Mexican, I’m humble, and I loved the music playing. If you’re stuck up and snooty just go to another bar! This is a humble little spot with delicious cold beer!

Nothing to write home about. Micheladas are decent. No hard liquor license. and prob not somewhere I would want to be as a single chick alone after a certain time. I love sketchy dive bars and sometimes you just want to be «where the people are»… it served it’s purpose for that quick hour but no where near what I wanted it to be.

There is NOTHING great about this bar! It brings transexual prostitution, drunks and horrible i mean, HORRIBLE nightly regional Mexican karaōke music with nightly terrible singers. They sound like cats being skinned alive! And yes your terrible singing can be heard blocks away. It’s a shitty bar that needs to go! And yes, ill translate:
Este bar, no ofrece nada mas que la prostitucion transexual y gente de lo peor. Cada noche tienen karaōke y todititos (hombres y mujeres) cantan horrrible! Y pa que sepan, sus horribles voces borrachas y mal entonadas se oyen por toda la puta calle! Este bar tiene que cerrar por que nada bueno trae.

If you like tranny bars in TJ this place is the shit. If you don’t then this place is just plain shit.

Today, I went to check out El Uno Bar for the first and last time, and it was a fine little dive bar with great service from a kindly female bar tender who only speaks Spanish. Luckily, my friend is a native Spanish speaker, so this was not a problem. I ordered a Corona and my friend got a chelada, a delicious tomato-​based beverage along the lines of a Bloody Mary. Plus, they only take cash.
I was too afraid to use the restroom, so I cannot attest to the condition of the ladies’ room, or if one even exists at all.
The surroundings have the usual City Heights charms of the homeless sleeping along the sidewalk, mysterious stagnant dark liquid pooled up in the gutter, adult book stores, and so forth. Plus, as an additionally colorful bonus, a weird guy strolling past me enthusiastically checked me out and yelled that I was sexy directly at my face. You just can’t get that kind of magic outside of City Heights, people.

mens bathroom consists of a trough with ice. sold.
a bucket of cheves = 14 burros n change.
Banda el Recodo on the jukebox. A Huevo!
all in all, El Uno Bar is a slice of TJ on this side of the border, so put on your best drinkin boots, grab a cold one, and STFU.

Rumored to have Mexi-​trannies on occasion, but I saw none.
/i’mjustsayin’

A fine place devoid of hipsters with beards and scarves, Jersey Shore wanna-be’s, or rednecks which constitutes the crowds at most bars in SD.
However, they only have beer, no hard stuff, maybe wine I don’t know. So get a pint at «Happy Daze» nearby and you’ll be good to go. Watch yourself at the trough in the WC amigos.
No credit cards accepted last time I went, they have an ATM though. But it charges you phat stacks.

Ghetto. Hear it was a tranny bar at first but hey they had karaōke. Went there with my gf. No 1 really speaked english had to have a patron ask the bar tender about specials. Had pretty cheap bucket of beer and the karaōke wasn’t bad at all… until i started to sing.

I always meant to pop into El Bar ever since I moved into the neighborhood. I always imagned some pretty epic fist fights going on under a neon hue and din of noise from the 805. I initially got the feeling from driving by the bar that if I ever stepped foot into it, I would immediately be murdered. It wasn’t like that at all, even though the creepy van parked next to the entrance didn’t do much to quell the butterflies in my belly.
The bartender was very nice. We ordered two Tecates. I honestly don’t know how much they cost because I simply handed the bartender a wad of cash, smiled, and made sure to tip well.
The two pool tables in the back are watched over vigilantly by a 4’x8’ advertisement for Julio Caesar Chavez Energy Drink with it’s tagline «Energia para 12 roundas!». Now I wouldn’t recommend 12 rounds of boxing or 12 rounds of tequila at El Bar but it is game for the occasional pop in during daylight hours.
While I would probably not prefer going to this place on a Friday or Saturday night, or anytime with a female, it’s still a place where everyone should at least stop once by to wet their whistle with an ice cold Tecate.

I used to work next door to this place. and for some reason it gets busy in here. when you are inside it feels like a clubhouse you and your friends built out of plywood. The only women in this place are either 3 bartenders, toothless, or drag queens. this place is KNOWN as the mexican tranny spot. and i am not even talking good drag queens. I mean An unshaven man with a big mustache and a blue dress on with high heels drag queen. Also this bar is a TJ bar just in city heights. alot of crackheads pop in and go around the corner. then scanter off. yea. skip el uno bar

El Uno Bar. The One Bar. This is one of the smallest bars that Ive ever been to. The name is simultaneously ingenious and dumb.
Based on the clientele alone it could very well be a local’s bar in TJ. The lack of jarheads and nouveau adults that just turned 18 reminds me that Im still in San Diego. I was the only Asian in the joint. Other than that I saw an older Black dude and the rest were Mexican.
What am I doing here you ask? Well, there are times when I want to get pissed drunk, by myself but I dont want to do it at home. I also know that by coming here, I will NEVER run into someone that I know.
Theres a taco stand and a taco truck about 10 seconds away outside. I saw a guy bring some food in and the bartender didnt say a word so Im going to assume that its ok to bring in your own comida. As long as its Mexican comida? I dont know. Just dont push your luck. Stick to Mexican.
I saw two Spanish girls at the end of the bar and I was trying to make eye contact with one of them. That song by the Airborne Toxic Event immediately came to mind and I was playing it in my head as I nursed my whiskey. Dont know that song? Well here you go…
That particular song, on that particular night, at this bar. Well now, life is imitating art, right before my eyes. It may as well have been Picasso or Van Gogh sitting next to me at the next stool. Shots on my tab f*ckers !
If it was Van Gogh, I would have told him that he was an idiot for cutting his ear off.
I walked out, having failed miserably with my feeble attempts at courting the señorita (s) and stumbled home. I’m not that far from this spot and I wasnt about to take a risk by driving home. I may be drunk but Im not stupid.
By the way, if you actually clicked on the link and are watching the video, the girl in the video is a bitch. Pay attention to the lyrics. Its one of my favorite songs right now.

This is an easy trip south of the border. Maybe south of the Mexican border, in fact. I’ve been a few times, and I don’t know that I ever saw a woman in here that wasn’t behind the bar. Or a white person. Or someone taller than 5’9″. Which leaves a clientele of mostly small, male Guatemalans. The drinks are cold, and the people are friendly. Nuff said.