The Bar Key

Found it on Unilocal and decided to give it a try. When we arrived we weren’t so sure about it but after a few minutes we were convinced it was a great place :)! Nice drinks and food. You must try the shoestring fries with cheese, they are delicious! My boyfriend said the fried calamari was good too! I would definitely recommend this to anyone looking for a calm chill place.

The Bar Key is a great local pub. Nice beer selection, fair prices and good bar food. The onion rings are particularly excellent. The staff is super friendly — especially Steve, who makes Tuesday night trivia even more fun.

Bar Key has the best chicken sandwich on earth, and the shoestring french fries are fantastic. The beers are a great price and the atmosphere is amazing.

Got a beer here during the day. Good little watering hole. Staff is super friendly. Smaller than average venue but great for a drink or two

Came here in the past and had the best experience all around. Great food, great drinks, great atmosphere, great service! But this time unfortunately we called to make sure the chargers game was going to be on since it’s blacked out to most bars due to having direct tv. They said yes. We were stoked! We took a $ 17 über over. No game. Direct tv. We then had to take an über back over to millers field where we should have just went in the first place. Still an awesome place! Just know what your talking about before you answer questions! :)

Food is solid, very cool to designated drivers (Free soda’s and the like) had a big party here for trivia and even though it was essentially just the bartender we felt taken care of. A great little bar,

I really like this spot. It’s a neighborhood local spit in North PB. I’ve been a few times to watch sports and we’ve always been able to get a table. There’s even a section in the back that looks like a living room with couches and video games! The bar is small, but they managed to get a TV in view no matter where you’re sitting. They have a limited menu, but it’s above average bar food. I had a burger that was great, wings that were so flavorful and they gave these signature things that are kind of like an egg roll… I wish I could recall the name. They’re so good. Perfect laid back spot

They have beer and TVs so that’s a plus. I had tenderloin that was very rare over fries. Took me a while to find out it was raw cause I was given a plastic fork and knife to eat with…

Good food, friendly bartenders, what else can you ask for!

A favorite local watering hole for the hubby and me. Staff is GREAT, the drinks consistent, and they make a damn good chicken sandwich. Small place with lots of locals. Kinda like the Cheers of North PB.

The onion rings were delish. The veggie burger was good for veggie burger standards, and the sweet potato fries were as good as I have had. The bartender was really helpful and friendly too. All ’round goodness.

The bar key is a great small bar in North Pacific Beach. They have a good selection of beer, wine, and liquor so you’ll be able to find something you like. The menu is simple but the food is consistently good. Lots of TVs make it a great place to watch sports, and there’s plenty of widows if you prefer to people watch.
Trivia on Tuesday is always fun, but it gets crowded so get there early. The bar tenders are very friendly and laid back, and the owners are nice people as well. Also, if you’re a Boston sports fan this is your bar.

This place is awesome.
Great beers on tap and GREAT food. Some people commented on the food being not so good but I have to say, it was awesome. Dave (real cool dude) recommended the tenderloin bites and thy did not let us down. We also got honey bbq wings and the panko wings and they were perfect as well.
If you’re looking for a real chill place with a local feel as well as good beers and GREAT food, this is the spot!
We’ll be back for sure!

We’re temporarily staying across the street from the Bar Key (so dangerous to have a good spot so close by), hubby and I stopped by for some drinks Saturday afternoon.
Great neighborhood bar feel, really chill — lots of TV’s! The service was great, no waiting at all and real friendly.
Only tried out the wings, the panko were amazing! The lemon pepper, however weren’t that great, a little too sour (for me).
Overall great spot to hangout, have a few drinks and get away from the crowded party spots in PB.
I’ll have to come back and check out Trivia night!

This is a great neighborhood sports bar (sports not required to make this place great). They typically keep good craft beer on tap along with domestic drafts and bottles. Unlike a couple of other places I like in PB (there aren’t many) they also serve liquor.
The food is really quite good, especially for a small bar. I don’t normally expect much, but I would rate the pub fare at Bar Key higher than some «normal» restaurants. The wings and the fries (which come seasoned) are the best. Wings come with a large choice of sauces. The Panko wings are really superb and different — give them a shot. Not totally breaded like fried chicken… Rather tossed in Panko with an accompanying Asian-​inspired sauce. Hard to describe but awesome. The rest of the flavors are good too, I’ve had about half of them I’d say. (I also had a burger recently at lunch that I was quite happy with.)

Nice place friendly staff good food I would recommend the sirloin tips grilled over sweet potatoes enough for two good drinks and an adult casual atmosphere that is close enough to Pacific Beach but far enough from the crazy crowds you can walk there and walking back is easier

I didn’t spend all that much time here but I can’t wait to go back. I had a beer with some very, very drunk friends (birthdays, it happens) and played Cards Against Humanities. There were games everywhere. And friendly people.

I just went here for the first time and let me tell you that it is Hands down THE BEST HOCKEY bar in San Diego! The food is great, they have good beers on tap, friendly bartenders and just an all around great atmosphere. Ill be here with my Hockey sweater on rooting for my team as often as I can!

I ventured a few blocks north of my usual stomping grounds to give The Bar Key a try. I ordered some wings off a piece of paper. There was a good amount of flavors for their wings and the burgers had good options too. I’m always down for some wings so I wanted to see how this place would score on my wings meter.
I ordered 5 lemon pepper, and 5 garlic butter. I started off with the garlic butter and they were decent, but they didn’t really have enough flavor to catch my attention. They could have just been called «plain» and I wouldn’t have known the difference. The lemon pepper was soggy and the wings weren’t cooked thoroughly enough. I give that batch of wings a C-​. The Garlic Butters were cooked a little more towards my liking but I generally expected more.
The Porter I had was really tasty and it looked like they had a solid list of choices for craft beers. I also liked that they had seating near the windows where you could watch the world go by. I think I need to come back up to The Bar Key and reassess because I really feel like it’s better than 3 stars.
I’ll be back soon to check it out.

New neighborhood bar located where Froggy’s used to be. I believe the soft opening was Wednesday/​Thursday, and this place has been officially open to the public as of yesterday (Friday).
Intimate but with a great use of space, The Bar Key was packed and rowdy when my boyfriend and I went earlier this evening. Dave, one of the owners, stopped by to explain the ordering concept – check out the related photo I posted – and chatted with us for a few minutes. Really cool guy, and the food didn’t disappoint either.
* Niblets ($ 12): Patrons nearby described these things as being comparable to the Steaky Steakums appetizer at Bub’s Dive Bar, so we were game. Wonderfully seasoned slices of filet mignon alongside a few sweet potato fries, a ranch-​y sauce, and topped with bleu cheese crumbles. Very good.
* Fried Calamari ($ 6): Perfectly crispy, a decent portion for the price, and I loved that this dish was served with tartar sauce. Was also served with a side of super-​spicy cocktail sauce.
* Sweet Potato Fries ($ 8): Tasty but insanely overpriced. In my opinion the $ 8 price tag would only be justified if, say, a trio of dipping sauces accompanied the waffle fries, but unfortunately this dish didn’t even come with one dipping sauce.
My guy’s draft IPA was $ 5, and I decided to lay off booze since I’d indulged earlier in the day.
A few more notes:
* Ginger ale on the gun.
* Moist towelette packets on the tables.
* I hope the paper plates are temporary.
* I heard the bathrooms have some interesting features, though I haven’t seen them first-​hand yet.
Well done! Looking forward to many more trips to The Bar Key.