Florent Restaurant & Lounge

Came here on a date night, Saturday around 6. Was not terribly intrigued by their menu… burgers and sandwiches seemed to be the entrée lure. Nothing really special
Ordered:
Brussel sprouts (2stars) too much sauce… couldn’t taste the brussle
Mac n cheese (3 stars) good but not crazy good
Short rib tacos (2.5 stars) two large portion tacos; quantity yes, quality alright
Drinks — waaaay overpriced for portion size… their happy hour deals did seem like a good deal though
Server was very friendly for our patio high top table.
Ambience:
Large tvs inside, so could be good for watching games. Sat on the patio instead of inside, may have prevented us from a better experience.

I very rarely give one star let alone write reviews, but the food here warrants it (the service was fine). We was there on June 6^th right around when they opened up. I am not sure if the morning cooks just don’t care or what was going on, but the food was terrible. I would even say the worst meal I have had in a long time, and us being a bartender and a chef we get out a lot. The seared tuna was cut uneven (chunks) and looked old and over all the dish made no sense, brussels were drenched in sauce, burger was over done (never even asked for a temp) also drenched, fries under seasoned, bread was not fresh, I could go on but I wont… it was just over all not enjoyable. Our bill came to $ 71.00 for food we barely even ate… the only reason we managed to eat the few bites we did was because we were starving. For the price and the Unilocal rating we expected much better. Take some pride in the food you serve, or people will not be repeat customers.
–seared tuna
–brussels
–turkey sandwich
–burger
–waters (best thing we had)
Even if the dishes were passable; $ 71.00 is ridiculous amount to pay for what we got. Like how is that even possible? Fix your price point or fix your food.

Love the food its amazing and the Staff is very friendly. My favorite plate here is the crab cakes they are so yummy. Will def be back. Jessica was so friendly as well. I think that was her name.

Awesome place to grab dinner, drinks, or just to hang out. Ambiance is on point and service is stellar. Grab a seat on the patio and enjoy the people watching. Don’t wait too long to experience this place — you won’t regret it.

I work downtown. I stopped by to check this place out. Ambiance is very comfortable. Music is at a perfect level. They have plenty of options for seating with TV’s as well. They have an upstairs and downstairs. The menu has such a variety of choices to please everyone. Definitely will be back to check out the brunch menu and bottomless mimosas :)

Great option for happy hour! We passed by this place on a different occasion but didn’t go in because it was too crowded. That was a Saturday afternoon. This time it was a Monday afternoon and they were pretty quiet. They also had an amazing happy hour, so how could we resist. The hostess was so sweet, as was our server. We sat outside right against the railing. Great for people watching! Inside seemed nice too… But it was a nice day! The drinks were not so good. We got cocktails off the florent menu and they kind of tasted like medicine, except medicine takes more like alcohol. The short rib tacos were really good… But a little spicy for us. When we go back… And I say when, because we defiantly will… I’ll probably not order from their cocktails menu

5 Stars:
One thing that I look for when I go to a restaurant, bar, nightclub is consistency
The staff is friendly
The food is delicious
The drinks are creative and tasty
Florent caters to various crowds and delivers quality food, drinks, music, and service.
Jessica Pelligra always finds a way to go above and beyond when I visit this place. I’ve sent my clients there as a result; they’ve became regulars. l because of her customer service.
I’ve had meetings with business partners, friends, and even a lady date for happy hour on a Friday.
Overall, you’d have to experience Florent for yourself.
If I had to explain my experience at FLORENT IN ONE WORD, it would be: QUALITY

Worse eggs Benedict ever, they use very thin lunch meat ham, no flavor and so expensive for the size. Now the Bloody Mary was on point, but I think those were possible the worse egg Benedict ever!!!

I was really excited to check this place out… had never even heard about it. From an aesthetic point of view — very cool place. It has a mystical and dreamy vibe with the indoor nature décor; I absolutely loved all the upside-​down hanging bare tree branches from the ceiling, hanging pendant lanterns, and ESP. the ever so unique far end bathroom stall in the women’s restroom. That, in itself, is something to check out.
It appears this place is more of a nightclub offering dinner than a restaurant. Since we came for dinner on Sat. evening… I couldn’t tell you how successful or not that is. I checked out the spot on the way to the restrooms down the staircase and it had a cool vibe for sure. But for a Saturday evening prime time in gaslamp… the place was rather dead. (Upon leaving, there was a line outside and security so you could see the cross-​over of becoming a nightclub).
Like anything I review, I care more about the food quality than anything with dining out and nearly everything I got was lacking. It also has a bit of an identity crisis in theme, and the menu didn’t follow anything in particular either. I suppose you would call it american new.
* Brussels sprouts — completely tarnished by a ridiculous amount of sauce on them. They might as well have been candied sprouts. And the bilbao chorizo was overcooked and rubbery. nearly inedible, honestly.
* Squash blossoms — fried and stuffed with ricotta & goat cheese stuffing… kinda hard to go wrong, right? I just didn’t taste the blossoms very much and perhaps thats just playing the coated and fried game… I will say that the sauce for this was very tasty and had a hint of mint in it. surprising and delightful
* Peppercorn burger — after some long indecision… this burger caught me eye. I dont eat burgers (or red meat) very often and it’s a nice splurge. so I always say «go big» and blue cheese /​bacon /​peppercorn aioli /​crispy onions — YES. sadly, i forget that not all beef is created equal, and the taste for this one was pretty blah. I guess I am just a burger snob that way… grass fed, organic, treated well cows all the way. The fact that they don’t even disclose the type of beef used says a lot. I was actually pretty angry at such a disappointing burger being my one burger in forever. it was huge… and I left a nearly half of it. My friend took it home though. Fine by me.
* Special of the day /​Pork chop — This was my dining companion’s meal and the one saving grace… the meat was cooked perfectly, juicy, delicious flavor. I feel like that should stick around as a permanent item. Oh, but the accompanying grits were cold. not good… someone messed up with the serving timing, perhaps.
*drinks — we got sangria, both the red and white. I got the red and favored that one. nice spice to it. no complaints there really. In looking at their current menu, I see there is now (or I missed) a watermelon cucumber mojito… that sounds delicious and I would be interested in trying it.
Moral to the story is… Not really the best dinner place. seems more of a place for drinks and apps, but I didnt care for the apps I tried so… moving on.

My boyfriend and I were looking to watch the basketball game and were instantly drawn to Florent because of the huge television and the beautiful atmosphere… Thankfully we arrived before it was crowded so we were sat immediately.
Our server Daniel was awesome. He was extremely helpful and always was able to check back up on us despite him running around taking care of other guests.
Our beers and burgers were delicious. Belching Beaver Peanut Butter Stout?! Yes, pleaseeeee.
I thought it was interesting that they had two bars… but hey, that gives me another reason to come back! I live in LA but frequent San Diego every couple of weeks. Florent definitely contributes to the lively-​hood of Gas Lamp District, and is a gem among the other bars and restaurants.
I was very satisfied with the customer service, cuisine and ambiance at Florent. Thank you for a wonderful evening!

Disclaimer: This is a review for their brunch only.
If you’re looking for a good brunch in the downtown area, this is the place for you. The food is pretty good (not the BEST in the neighborhood, but still pretty good), and most importantly, they have BOTTOMLESS MIMOSAS. The mimosas are mostly champagne too, so you will leave here feeling good.
Lots of TVs here so you can get your sports on while getting your drink on.

Came here for Sunday dinner.
There was live music by a multi-​talented gentleman playing the saxophone, guitars, and tambourine! He was my favorite at this place as he kept the ambiance up-​to-​par! This is the type of bar/​restaurant that you’d expect to see in Vegas, at least the vibe was definitely going on! It was great having the TV’s in the background to watch the basketball tournament while enjoying dinner and drinks to modern, live music!
The drink I ordered (Border Crossing) was delicious! — such a great margarita with a delicious sweet and spicy glass rim!
For dinner, I ordered the Hawaiian roll sliders with bacon and an aioli sauce with fries on the side — I thought the food was very plain. It sounded a lot better in paper than the actual meal that I received so I was a tad bit disappointed because everything else was on point! Even if the ketchup would have been spicy or something special, it would have made the plate look a lot more interesting!

I was downtown around lunch time and blindly picked the first restaurant I saw and went in to satisfy my hunger.
I’ve been living in San Diego for over 10 years now and I consider myself a food snob. When I eat something and think «holy shit, everyone needs to know sour this place» I go to Unilocal.I rarely do that these days since my standards have been continually going up.
Florent thoroughly satisfied me and deserves 5 stars through and through.
Staff ⁵⁄₅
Food ⁵⁄₅
Ambience ⁵⁄₅
Location ⁵⁄₅
Price– actually very good for what you get.
This is the type of place that I am going to bring my out of friends to.
Yes, it’s that good.

I’ve been wanting to eat at this restaurant/​lounge ever since they opened, but heard the food was really bad so I’ve been delaying my visit… I was finally able to come here over the weekend and checked out the bar instead– even though I don’t really drink LOL. When you enter, you’re immediately on the second floor. This lounge is very modern and classy– there are comfy benches toward the back left side if you need to rest your feet from dancing.
My friends and I decided to sit at the bar and our cute bartender made me a virgin mojito even though she asked for a water for me. Of course I didn’t know what it was at first, but it was really yummy. The employees started taking away the stools at the bar to make room for dancing around 10:30pm, so we walked downstairs to look at the scenery in the bathroom. It was really hot in that area of the bathroom where they have some cool photo ops of a decorated jail cell, so we didn’t stay too long. We stopped by the bar of the first floor, but noticed it was pretty empty throughout the whole night and headed upstairs where all the action was.
We left our jackets here and came back to get it after bar hopping, but were given a hard time when we tried getting back in. They didn’t offer any stamps, or else I would’ve made sure we did that before leaving. Luckily my gf has connections because we got in without waiting in line and danced a little before heading home.

What a great lunch before opening day at Petco park!
We got there just in time to bump a no show reservation at a big table with view of all the big screens full of baseball!
Maurrissa greeted us with a warning! «I’m the only one here right now» normally we would have turned away and looked for another option???
Glad we stayed! Great lunch! Great service! Thank you Maurrissa! You did awesome!
The scorch burger was right up my alley! Hot and tons of flavor! The House burger was soo good as well!
The BLT was big fresh and full of applewood bacon!
Great location and a must go to on the way to a game!
Opening Day and the Dodgers won! Go dodgers, and go Maurrissa!

Cute bar but it was not a very pleasant experience. It was so loud that I practically had to yell in my bartender’s ear. I feel like it’s appropriate to carry a megaphone with you while you’re here.
The performer they had confused and amused me at the same time. The music was EDM and the entertainer had a saxaphone! Beats me *shrugs*
My rating is really to commend the staff for managing the bar well kept and clean. The bouncers were pretty friendly too.

The food is just ok, nothing special.
A lot of tvs, so if youra sport fan this might be good for you. The service is not the best, it took quite sometime for me to be able to order and for the food to get to me, even though it was not crowded

I am beyond stoked I finally had a chance to come here!
The ambiance always looked amazing so I’m glad I came in on a Friday night for dinner. Not sure why it took me so long…
I was greeted right away, sat right away, order taken right away, friendliest service, food came out quickly and food was delicious and HOT!
I think it is amazing when a restaurant offers a «black bean veggie pattie», with that being said… Thank you, you are now on my go-​to list for dinner! Can we say yum? Also the traditional burger was delicious as well. I had both as well as the fries are shoestring style and tasty! I got the MAC N CHEESE as an appetizer and oh boy it was delicious. Barely made a dent in it… it is rather large. I think the portion sizes are perfect and the buns for the burgers were too die for.
I would definitely come back, well I will be back! The bar was hopping, they had a lot of people in there as it was busy but you are still taken care of!
Only wish there was music… and perhaps the lighting above the tables was a tad bit more dimmer. They were rather shining down on the dining tables and kind of «too bright», almost too bright to fit in with the rest of the ambiance.

Good food (quality), reasonably priced, and a cool pregame spot.
Loud and full.
filled with attractive people at night and a good place to go if you want some casual dancing without doing the full club thing.
Lastly,
Some of the best Brussel Sprouts I’ve had up to date.

Walking in Downtown/​Gaslamp Quarter San Diego gives you a lot of food and bar options to choose from. My mom and I scouted out a couple of the other places before settling on Florent, and I was so happy with our decision.
My first indication that we had chosen wisely was the hostess. While we had been checking out the other restaurants on Market and the surrounding areas, many of the hostesses could not have cared less to gain a customer. At Florent, we were greeted with a smile while we looked at the menu outside. Even though we initially left to look at other places, the hostess was equally friendly when we can back and seated us at a really nice table with more than enough room for the two of us. Our server was even more friendly and enthusiastic. She was ready with recommendations for both food and drink and visited our table often to make sure we were taken care of.
I really liked the ambiance here at Florent. The other restaurants were looking more like a club or a sports bar on fight night, while the casual atmosphere and ample seating at Florent were more inviting. That’s not to say that you can’t enjoy the big game or a little dancing at Florent, because the huge projector TV and live music can more than accommodate that.
The food and drinks also contribute to this four star rating. The cocktails pack a punch and the tikis come in really cute/​funny glasses. While we did not try any of their main course items, we did enjoy the appetizers we ordered. The Mediterranean Plate is a must have. While I was not as much a fan of the beet or olive hummus, the plain hummus and pita combination rocked! The Wings and Mac & Cheese were also good, but, the Ratatouille, on the other hand, I would not recommend.
The only draw back to this experience was the price. It is very competitive for the location and atmosphere, but it is still a little steep for an average night out. The bill for the two of us came out to over $ 100, mainly due to the six cocktails we had between us and the drunchies caused by the drinks.