Happy hour moves the price of most drinks. With a margarita, it moves whether you order one at all.
Full price, a good one runs $14 to $18. Inside a window, the same drink is often $8 or $9 — and in a couple of places, under $5. We map 18 bars running a margarita deal. These are the ones worth timing your afternoon around.
The cheap ones
Cafe Coyote in Old Town is the most-reviewed happy hour in San Diego, and the margarita is the reason. Sunday to Friday, 4 to 8 — four hours — with the Coyote Gold margarita at $4.95, strawberry, pomegranate or pineapple-chipotle versions at $5.95, and $2 cantina tacos alongside. Nothing else in the city puts that price, that window and that many people telling you it's fine in the same room.
A few minutes' walk from it, Old Town Tequila Factory runs Monday to Friday 4 to 6 with $3 street tacos and drink specials.
Johnny Mañana's in Oceanside does day-specials daily 9AM to 9PM and puts its "world-famous" margarita at $8 on Mondays.
Baja Beach Cafe in Pacific Beach runs two-for-one drinks Monday to Friday 4 to 6 and again nightly 10:30PM to 12:30AM. A late two-for-one is rare anywhere.
The good ones
Cheap and good aren't the same thing. These are the rooms where the margarita is built properly.
Puesto La Jolla runs Monday to Friday 3 to 5 with $4 tacos and the $9 Perfect Margarita — their house version, and the best price-to-quality ratio on this page. Puesto at the Headquarters downtown runs the same 3-to-5 structure with $9 margaritas, $6 cervezas and $5 snacks, plus half-price tacos on Tuesdays. Jellyfish_ shows which of these is already full — people check in while they're out, and that's what updates it. In Old Town on a weekend, that's most of them by seven.
Karina's Cantina in the Gaslamp does $8 margaritas, $5 drafts and $10 apps — all day Monday, then Tuesday to Sunday 3 to 6.
South Beach Bar & Grille in Ocean Beach puts $8 Patrón margaritas on Tuesdays as part of a rotating daily lineup.
Rockin' Baja Lobster in Oceanside runs Monday to Friday 3 to 6 with $8 lobster tacos and featured cocktails, with harbor views.
Jellyfish_ shows you how many people are at the bars.
How to order one properly
- Ask what's in the house marg. Fresh lime or sour mix. That gap is wider than the gap between any two bars on this page, and it's the only question that matters.
- House before flavored. Strawberry and chipotle are fun, and they hide the tequila. If you're judging a bar, order the plain one first.
- Old Town is the cluster. Cafe Coyote, Casa de Reyes, Rockin' Baja and the Tequila Factory are all within a short walk, which makes it the one neighborhood where a margarita crawl works on foot.
One more thing
Margarita pricing moves with tequila pricing, and day-specific deals rotate more than standing happy hours do.
So treat this as a shortlist, not a promise. And if you want to know which patio has a table before you drive to Old Town, that's what we built Jellyfish_ for.