Pier 29 Waterfront Restaurant & Bar — Restaurant in Alameda

Avoid this place at all costs! Total garbage.

Came here on a whim since we were looking for outdoor seating on our sunny Sunday afternoon. First impression was the lack of maintenance - this place needs a deep, deep clean. If that’s how they care for their building, how do they clean the kitchen that nobody can see?

I stood at the host bar to get seated but there were 2 staff members walking around me and refusing to make eye contact. After I asked another person for a table for 2, he just pointed towards the outside and said go. I had to ask for menus. Red flag. We order our food, and wait for about 35 minutes between our appetizer and our entree. My partner gets up to ask about our food. Come to find out our food was sitting under the heat lamp. Not sure how long it had been sitting there. Bad look.

We get the food, and we were blown away with how terrible all of it was. The clam steamers in supposed garlic wine sauce was merely boiled water, onions and maybe some beer and parsley for color..? It tasted like frozen clams. I couldn’t eat it. Burger was sub par at best. The portion side of fries was a joke. Did we really wait all that time for such bad food?

You can tell the staff isn’t happy either. Management didn’t offer to make things right because of our wait but they did act when I spoke up. It shouldn’t have to take your customer to be frustrated to try and salvage the experience.

Wouldn’t be surprised if this restaurant showed up on a Restaurant Disaster episode.

How are places like this...

This restaurant has a neighborhood feel to it. Not a hipster or trendy spot, more older and friendly. Open views of the SF bay. If you go at sunset then you are in for a treat. Plenty of options for those who are not into seafood. We started with market oysters and the Kumamoto oysters. Big difference! The smaller Kumamoto was the brinier and better tasting choice. The classic St. Jean Chardonnay was perfect with this appetizer. The meal I ordered came with a very nice clam chowder that was thick but not like the pudding you get in some places. Lots of clams not overly starchy. I ordered the Fisherman's stew. Not at all a ciapponi like what you might expect. A slighty sweet tomato basil broth that was thick enough for stew. Filled with some very good sized prawns, tasty clams, not too chewy calamari, good tasting fish pieces, bay shrimp and some small but good scallops and fresh basil. That was a very filling meal! It came with some rice that I didn't even touch. The sourdough bread and the stew was enough. I had some Anchor Steam beer with dinner. My dinner companion had the Captain's stew which is basically the same thing with a white wine garlic clam broth instead of tomato. Also very good with the St. Jean Chardonnay. This is a great place to have a quiet and...

Nice location, comically bad food.

Pier 29 has a reputation for a fantastic view. Or so I've been told. I wouldn't know, as we weren't allowed to sit in the empty section of the restaurant overlooking the bay. Instead, we were ushered to a rear-facing section complete with construction views.

My disappointment could only be assuaged by the much-awaited shrimp scampi, right? But alas, the scampi turned out to be more 'scam' than pi. These shrimp had seen about as much seasoning as we saw of the ocean. Each bite was an arduous journey through a barren desert of blandness, prompting the question: where did all the flavor scampi off to?

Meanwhile, the limp pasta had the culinary charisma of a Walmart clearance item. I was half-expecting to find a barcode underneath it. But what about the white sauce, you ask? As to the runny sauce I can say two things: it was white, and it was physically present.

In retrospect, I'm almost glad we didn't have the view. The idea of tainting such beauty with the memory of this $100 meal reminiscent of plastic-trayed school cafeteria food would be too much for me.

Other notes: I should note the waitress was great; kind and attentive, and topping off our...