Sailing Goat Restaurant — Restaurant in Richmond

Sailing Goat Restaurant is one of those hidden gems that "probably" most locals know about and only outsiders like myself et el discover through television show recognitions. I saw this in a television show maybe a couple years ago and always wanted to go but the stars never aligned until today, June 15th, 2025, Fathers Day, when my wife independently sought this restaurant out and asked my son and me to go. So we made short drive from the East Bay westward to the last exit on Interstate 580 before entering the Richmond Bridge where there would be no turning back without a toll charge......so be careful, if you miss that 7A/Stenmark Drive turnoff, you're ^%##*! .....$8.00 toll bill as of this date, but more importantly, lost time and position in line at the restaurant!

.....now cut to the chase, it was Fathersday understandably, and though we arrived at around 11:02am (the restaurant opens at 11:00am on this day), there already a light almost to the parking lot as shown in one of my photos. But that didn't discourage us, the line started moving, we were sure we would get a table.......wrong! We end up about 12 parties from the last seat, and you know what the last seat means, we would have to wait another 1 to 1-1/2 hours for any table to open up when the first cluster of people finish their meals and leave......and we were about 12 parties behind the last of the first cluster of people......but I digress and we persisted. Again, keep in mind this was a Fathersday crowd too, YMMV.

We were finally sat about 10' from the live band which I thought was a little too loud at our distance but manageable. The waiter was a young kid...come to think of it, the entire staff looked pretty young......but probably because I'm pretty old! LOL! The entire staff was very cordial and respectful. I got the Seafood Stew and an IPA beer. My wife got some sort of salad and a Pilfner beer, and my son got the fish and chips with a cider which turned to out to be alcoholic and that he didn't realize. We also got a chickpea/garbonzo bean fries appetizer which came with a dip and they were very good. I'll only review my Seafood Stew here since I didn't taste my wife's salad nor my son's fish and chips, though the fish and chips looked mighty tasty and abundant. Fwiw, I would have tried my son's fish and chips, but he gobbled it up like he's been eating college dorm food for the past year......and he has! LOL! .....but I digress again as I tend to do in my old age, LOL. Anyhow, back to the Seafood Stew. The "stew" was not so much a stew as it was a cioppino "soup", very watery, not like a stew at all which has a much thicker stock. That aside, the taste was pleasant without being overpowering. But none of that matters since all that stuck in my mind is the smallness of any of the individual ingredients. The shrimps were just a little larger than popcorn shrimps, the mussels were at least half the size I am used to, and the fish was frugal. Even the potatoes where less than 3/4" cubes! ! Think the 1989 movie "Honey, I Shrunk the Kids" starring Rick Moranis and others, and you get the exaggerated version of this soupy Cioppino made for those shrunken kids. Come on, Mr. hip Bohemian Sailing Goat by the bay, up your game and bring it to the next level. I know times are tough with the tarrifs and the economy, and you have to balance the quality and substance of your offerings with staying alive, but hopefully you can find that middle ground that shows who you can be, and who you can be is a bay area destination where there is a lot of nothing in the area except for your worthy food that can't be experienced anywhere else. I give you a 5 for your staff and their cordiality and the lively atmosphere, maybe a 3 for the seafood stew, and I'll still give you the benefit of the doubt that you will be the little engine that could, and give you...

When we got there, we were directed to go to an overflow parking lot and had to hike to the restaurant. It was a beautiful day so why not. We got there and saw a very long line. We waited for over an hour. Finally got greeted by a hostess when we got closer to her table. No expectations set of how long the food will take to be served nor was there an expectation set when we got there since the hostess never really walked all the way out to the parking lot to talk to people. Finally got seated. Still feeling positive about the food we're about to order. Immediately placed it. 15mins later server came back asking if someone delivered our drink. Uh - our table is empty so it's obvious we didn't get our drinks yet. Server came back after 5mins but with the wrong drinks. Gave it to another table. Came back after 10mins, still no drinks. He keeps forgetting. Another mins he came back next to our table - he was avoiding us this time and finally came back again after 5mins and he didn't bring us drinks. He brought us a ticket just to show us that the ticket was marked as out of stock for the soda water. Still he didn't bring the hot coffee. Geez! Finally he came back with another flavor of the soda water and coffee. This place didn't even have non-sugar sweeteners to cater to diabetics like us! That's a first time for us to hear. Server then starts putting down drinks and he spilled the creamer. Oh gosh! What else could go wrong???? At this time we"ve been sitting waiting for food for about 30mins. Server said it takes about 30mins to serve the food. To cut the very long agonizing story short, we had them just pack our food to go. But I told the server if that didn't even come in 5mins, we're leaving. 5mins came and we just stood up, looked for our server and told him we're no longer waiting so we will just pay for the drinks. He was trying to check us out but even his portable terminal was not responding. By this time I'm 1000 % sure we're NEVER EVER coming back. I feel bad for the server because he will never make his tips this way. I didn't even see a manager around to talk to. It's obvious that people who work at this place DON'T COMMUNICATE with each other. Hostess NEVER set people's expectations about the wait and serving time. Server did not communicate the wait before getting served their food. The bar and kitchen never communicated of what things were out and how backed up the kitchen is. This restaurant serve fried stuff. Nothing gourmet. So I didn't really understand the back up in serving the food.

Will I recommend this place? 1000% NO. Will ai ever even think about coming back? 2000% NO

I just hope the management / owners take these reviews seriously and address people's comments about the service and food. There's so much competition in the Bay area that it's easy for people to never come back because of something that could've been addressed or made better.

I wish I read reviews on Yelp and Google before we even decided to go. We wasted 3hrs of a great Sunday...

I like the place but we had to park in a overflow parking lot and walk about a half mile to the restaurant but that was not too bad cause you walk along the bay on the railroad tracks so me and my friends had fun walking and talking. We all got the fish and chips and I got a wood fired margarita pizza for us to share it was really good the fish and chips was good too the batter was unique a little different than beer batter more like a panko beer batter it was lite and crunchy just like I like but it is expensive for fish and chips it's 27 dollars and the fish part was good the chips part not so much they only give you a very small portion and they were unfortunately kind of cold and soggy and the cole slaw is tiny like 2 table spoons worth there cost and im not kidding probably like 25 cents. The portion should be at least 5 times that size.I think for 27 bucks you should get a pile of fries. fries are cheap I would say the amount of fries they gave us probably cost them no more then 30 or 40 cents there wholesale cost they can literally fit in the palm of your hand. My recommendation would be triple the amount of fries and Cole slaw the fries serve them hot and crispy get them out to the customers as soon as possible I think maybe the problem is the chef makes the dish and puts it out for the server to bring to the customer but it just sits there getting cold by the second. The thing is with fish and chips it needs to be served right away every second it sits there collecting dust the quality go's down at the same time I still enjoyed my food and the atmosphere there is awesome it's outdoor seating with a really nice cover over looking a marina full of boats and really cool house boats plus you can walk around and explore along the bay so there's lots to see. I would definitely recommend going there on a nice sunny day you...