Mister A’s
San Diego, California
📍 2550 Fifth Ave., 12th Floor, San Diego, CA 92103
🍽 Fine Dining / New American
📅 Visited: August 22, 2026
🍴 Forks Given: 🍴🍴🍴🍴☆ (4.5 / 5.0)
A rooftop jazz brunch that earns its view with food that actually holds up.
First Impressions
Mister A’s has been a San Diego fixture since 1965, sitting on the 12th floor of the Manchester Financial Building in Bankers Hill behind floor-to-ceiling windows that put the whole skyline on display. The Saturday jazz brunch adds a live trio to that view. On our visit the music was a highlight of the room, and service was excellent throughout, matching the setting and the occasion.
What We Ordered
Watermelon Salad
We didn’t expect much from a watermelon salad on a brunch menu. It turned out to be one of the better surprises of the meal, with a well-balanced flavor that held together as a full dish rather than a token vegetable course.
Chicken and Waffles
A classic, executed the way it’s supposed to be: no reinvention, no disappointment.
Lobster Benedict
The standout of the meal. Benedicts often drown in hollandaise, but this one used a light hand with the sauce and let a generous amount of lobster and well-cooked eggs carry the dish instead.
French Toast
Brunch french toast can turn into a plate of sugar with bread underneath it. This one kept the sweetness in check and let the actual flavor of the dish come through.
Cocktails
The drink list held up its end. The Relish In It combines Botanist gin, raspberry, Aperol, elderflower, pickle de gallo, and lemon, and the vesper martini was made well. Both were consistent with what we’ve come to expect from the bar here.
The Quirks
The most unusual detail of the visit showed up on the cocktail list rather than the food: the Relish In It pairs raspberry and elderflower with a pickle de gallo, an ingredient combination most brunch cocktail menus don’t reach for.
The Verdict
Mister A’s brunch reputation rests partly on the view, and the view holds up. What’s easier to overlook is that the kitchen backed it up: every dish we ordered was well-executed, and the service matched the setting. This is a rooftop restaurant that could coast on its windows and doesn’t.
Forks Given Score Breakdown
| Category | Score (1–5) | Weight |
|---|---|---|
| Food Quality | 4.5 | 40% |
| Value | 4.0 | 20% |
| Service & Experience | 5.0 | 15% |
| Ambiance & Environment | 5.0 | 10% |
| Execution vs Intent | 4.5 | 10% |
| Return Factor | 4.5 | 5% |
Final Forks Given Score: 4.5 / 5.0
