Truluck’s

Truluck’s was recently voted by San Diego Magazine readers as best happy hour, best wine list, best seafood, best service and best of the best. I have passed by Truluck’s quite a few times and always see it when dining at Fleming’s happy hour, so I decided to check it out.

In addition to offering happy hour daily (4:30to 7pm), on Sundays they offer happy hour all night long. Inside, the bar lounge area has plenty of seating, though all tables are tall round ones that sit about four. The tables were a little small, so it was had for us to fit our food.

Browsing the menu, I could see why San Diegans enjoy the happy hour so much, especially if you’re there for a drink. While the typical happy hour might offer about 5 or 6 different drink options, Truluck’s offers 30+ drinks at half price. Full happy hour menu can be found here.

However, if you are at happy hour mainly for the food (as I usually am), I found the options a little limited. There were only about three items I really wanted to try. In addition to happy hour, they also serve the full menu at the bar as well.

I started out with a Kir royale.

We ordered two orders of crab sliders ($9 and 3 sliders per order).

Truluck’s is known for their crabs and their crab sliders are made from fresh crab meat. The sliders were served with crab, some avocado and sauce and placed between two pieces of toasted mini buns. The crab meat was sweet and went well with the avocado.

We enjoyed the crab sliders, but at a regular price of $6 each, I think they are overpriced. The happy hour price of $3 a piece was a little more acceptable.

Tuna and salmon tartare duet

This came with a small mound of raw tuna, raw salmon and then some thin crackers to spread the tartare on. The fish was fresh and good quality, but this dish wasn’t that special to me.

BBQ shrimp

The dish came with five large shrimp and two hunks of toasted bread to mop up the sauce with. Again, like the tartare, the dish was just alright for me. Nothing particular wrong but it didn’t stand out in any way.

Salt and pepper calamari

The quantity of calamari was pretty generous. The calamari was with mixed with some carrots. Fleming’s has a similar version and I prefer the version at Fleming’s.

The service was pretty attentive. Usually happy hours have slow and poor service, but we didn’t have any problems a Truluck’s. While we ate, there was also live piano music being played.

While we enjoyed the service and the large selection of drinks, we weren’t as happy with the food. This may be more of a personal preference but we weren’t interested in that many of the dishes and the ones we did sample we thought were just okay but not very impressive. With Fleming’s just next door we couldn’t help comparing the food to the happy hour dishes offered at Fleming’s (which you can read about here and here)  and preferred the execution of the happy hour food offerings there.

Truluck’s
8990 University Center Lane
San Diego, CA 92122