San Dune Pub — Restaurant in Manzanita

The staff, the food, the drinks, the atmosphere, and the extension of accommodations are unparalleled in this super busy, tight staffed, quaint, historical relic of a pub. I have witnessed wonderful patrons, friendly and inclusive locals, and I have witnessed pushy, impatient, overly entitled, and clueless customers. For example, two locals making fast friends with two newcomers and making next day plans, sharing laughs and similar interests. This is the coveted vibe of the San Dune pub. (Pub-is short for public house). This being said I have witnessed the public walk off the street past their crowd control barrier, posted with messages like..”please wait here, hostess will seat you, 21 and over, I.D.’s ready, no minors…” bringing in children, clogging up entry, blocking doorway to 10x10 kitchen trying to accommodate up to 150 diners at one time. The food runners, hostesses’s all so so busy, that the servers/bartenders have to abandon their section managing 30plus people, to enforce Oregon Liquor Control Commission Policies, which are then challenged and ignored, also to enforce business management policies which are challenged and met with misdirected anger and snide comments, all the while trying to remain professional and friendly after the fact. Demands birthed by poor planning of the tourist at hand. “I need a to go order for six, and I need it in ten minutes, why can’t my 13 year old come in with us, we have 3 dogs and they need water, my dog puked all over the patio at 7:30 he must’ve drank too much ocean water.? Can you stop waiting on everyone and get me supplies to clean this up!.? I’ve have witnessed strangers begging and bribing to be served and cooked for after closing time. Again poor planning. The bartenders take the abuse and shrug it off best they can. If you are planning on going there, be patient to get seated, be patient and enjoy the atmosphere while you are awaiting service, order the hand crafted Hornitos margarita with a salty rim, or one of the dozen delicious regional micro brews they have on tap, order the fresh pacific cod-fish tacos, with in house made slaw and in house made sauces, or the fresh Willapa Bay oysters, or the chipotle bacon cheeseburger. Be patient and enjoy your drink while you wait for your food. It will be worth the wait. Fun place if you are a kind and...

I had a bizarre experience here during my last visit to Manzanita. I was walking my small dog on the sidewalk and while passing by this bar a man intentionally walked through my leash forcing me to drop it. The door was left wide open and my dog ended up running into the bar, because she smelled food, and because well, she's a dog! I was shocked that someone would be so careless and rude. He had a smirk on his face and knew exactly what he was doing, he even saw my dog run into the bar after him and never tried to help. I immediately went inside and picked up my dog, luckily she was only a few feet into the entrance. As I'm turning around to leave an older blonde woman who I'm assuming was the manager or owner started loudly lecturing me about how dogs were not allowed in the bar. I told her that I was aware and my dog ran in by mistake. I was trying to leave and this woman would not let it go and kept berating me. I noticed that the man who was responsible for this issue in the first place walked straight to the back of the restaurant and entered the kitchen area, so I assume he was an employee. Employee or not, this man was really rude and caused this issue which I quickly corrected. I let the woman know what happened and even pointed in the direction of the young man who was responsible. She didn't seem to care or acknowledge it and kept rudely lecturing me as I'm literally walking out the door. She actually kept me there longer than I would have been if she had just let it go. I totally understand that she needs to enforce the rules there, but she needs to work on her customer service skills. This was a weird incident that the manager should have handled better, and she should have spoken to me more respectfully. I looked at the other reviews and felt validated when I saw all the bad experiences at this business. The overall tone of a workplace typically starts with the attitude of the person in charge. If the employees are miserable and rude, then the owner/manager is probably the one responsible for setting a terrible example. Don't worry, my dog and I will avoid walking near this place at all costs. Bad...

The rumors are, unfortunately, true about the rudeness of the staff here and the inflated prices. And it never used to be like that here. Once upon a time this was my favorite joint in Manzanita. And that's from a party of three that quietly ate their meal without doing anything but ordering and paying in a timely manner.

And while the food is still good here, the portions are now noticeably smaller and the price is about double what it costs for the same food just 20 minutes down the road. And that's as true for the fried oysters as for the clams or fish tacos.

In fact, in wheeler, 15 minutes away you can get Fish and Chips (3 huge pieces, versus the smaller portion you get here) for only $15, that's actually even better tasting than the Pub, and from people who are nicer.

If you venture 20 to 30 minutes down the coast to Garibaldi or Bay city you can get fried oysters, clams or fish tacos all with more sides that's $14, and again, from people who are nicer to you. Unlike at the Pub where it costs $26 (and that's not including the mandatory 20% gratuity the Pub charged us).

I guess you have to make the gratuity mandatory when you regularly treat customers poorly???

I would have given the gratuity anyway, but I still thought making it mandatory was pretty telling. Only place in the Manzanita where I was charged a mandatory gratuity.

Again, no one asked us to leave, we sat quietly, and ate (no alcohol was involved) and were still treated rudely and like it was a huge inconvenience to have us order at the usual dinner hour, 5:15 pm.

We even tried to order take out one day to avoid "inconveniencing" them with having to, you know actually seat us and take our order, and were STILL treated poorly on the phone. They told us call back later and they would take our order. We did, and the same person answered the phone and the rudest voice I have ever heard told us they had changed their minds, could no longer take our order, it was too inconvenient for them, and hung up on us.

Without us ever getting a word in.

Yeah, I won't being go back there...