Downtown San Diego Condos: Vela at the Hilton Bayfront

We met some of our good friends and clients for lunch today.  These friends purchased a condo thru us in the 777 6th Avenue building as a second home.  Each time they visit from the UK, we go to lunch.  We have eaten several times in Coronado, but decided to try something different this time.  Vela is the restaurant we chose and it is located in the new Hilton San Diego Bayfront Hotel.  What a good choice!

Vela in the Hilton Bayfront is located on the first floor
Parking always seems to be an issue in Downtown San Diego.  However, if you are going to the Hilton, you can have either 3 hour free valet parking or 3 hours free in the parking structure.  All you need is validation and since we were eating in Vela, that was easily accomplished.

I don't know about you, but menu prices always catch my eye.  Some people don't care, but for me, a tiny tiny plate of food at a high high price can be annoying.  Vela has a great lunch menu and the prices are comparable to anywhere else you would eat in Downtown San Diego.  Service was good and of course our reservation helped.  (That's where OpenTable came in from a previous post.)

The food was visually appealing and tasted as good as it looked.  Obviously I am not one of the "gourmet" diners because I asked for salt and pepper.  The most humorous thing about the lunch was the tiny size of the bread loaf.  I don't mean they were stingy with bread.  Rather the bread is a little minature loaf.  Reminded me of something I would have used in a little doll house. 

We definitely enjoyed our lunch.  By the time we left the restaurant, tables were packed.  There was some sort of convention going on and Vela was a great place for folks to have a quick lunch.  We spied on everyone's food as we left and saw some really neat plates of yummy looking food.

We did get our parking validated and had a very easy time of leaving.  Both Victoria and I decided that we would take other friends and clients of ours to Vela because it was so easy to get there, the food was good, and the bill was reasonable.  I know the dinner menu is more expensive, but for us, lunch was just enough. 

We hope if you have a chance, you take a meal and Vela and let us know if your experience was better, the same, or worse as ours.  You know if you recommend a restaurant to someone, that seems to be the one time the restaurant goofs up.

By Sharyn & Victoria Crown, Coronado and Downtown San Diego real estate brokers

This is part of a series of articles entitled, New Condos, Downtown San Diego Style