The Waterfront Restaurant — Restaurant in San Francisco

So part of me wanted to give this place a 1-Star review, but that would be unfair.

About two weeks ago I took a friend who had just arrived in town to Waterfront Restaurant so that she and I could enjoy a nice meal, and a bottle of wine on the bay. From the moment we arrived, until the moment we left, the service was uneven. Granted, we arrived at the blue-hair dinner hour of 4pm, so I can understand if there was a break in shifts from their better staff.

We ordered a bottle of white wine, oysters on the halfshell, the beet salad, seafood pasta, and swordfish.

Overall, the service was attentive, and courteous. The oyster shucker could use some serious practice. There were several broken shell pieces in my oysters, and the flesh of the oyster was not separated from the shell. This made for an awkward dance in attempting to elegantly eat one of my favorite bivalve mollusks.

The beet salad was good, but if they had screwed up this very basic salad, I would have dropped them down to one-star. My friend enjoyed her seafood pasta, but given how everything else tasted in my mouth, I just didn't even want to bother presenting my palate for another disappointment.

I'm a diehard swordfish fan. Whenever I see it on the menu, I usually order it. 9 times out of 10. I've had swordfish at some of the finest restaurants around the world, and some of the best hole-in-the-walls. Sadly, the swordfish I had at Waterfront Restaurant was the worst preparation I've ever been served. And that's not an exaggeration.

The swordfish was woefully undercooked. Yes, some fish can be cooked, or even just seared, and that works perfect. However, with swordfish, and the nature of the texture of the meat, it requires a delicate and thorough cooking in order to leave a flaky, falling apart swordfish steak. When I first dug my knife and fork into this piece, I had difficulty cutting the meat, and the still cold tendons made my job even harder. This led me to do something I have not done in over 15 years: I sent the plate back. I simply asked for a properly cooked swordfish steak.

The server was gracious, and returned minutes later with another piece of swordfish. However, this piece of fish was COOKED EVEN LESS than my previous plate. I simply did not touch the food. I didn't ask for a refund, or to have the item removed from my bill. That's tacky. But, it prompted me to make mental notes for this review.

Bottom line: Avoid this restaurant at all costs. They need new management, more refined decor, more comfortable seating on the patio, and a completely new kitchen staff. There are literally hundreds of better seafood restaurants in San Francisco that offer better food with less compromises.

[NOTE: Upon review of my bank statement to see what the charge was for the meal, and I couldn't find it. My guess is the restaurant removed the charge after the fact. While I do appreciate that, I think they should have communicated that to me...

This is going to be a confusing review.

The food was a 4.5. The view was good - we could watch people on Pier 7 and look out at Treasure Island and the Bay Bridge.

We were seated to have a view without request, they did it because there was room. I was very happy.

The secondary servers were on point. My water glass never went empty (why this is a metric will be important shortly). Bread came out quickly.

So... This should be a 4 or 5 review. It would have taken very little more to put it there.

But the senior wait staff.

You're going through a door? They stop in the middle of the door jamb and turn to "allow you through." Of 6 transits through a door, three happened this way.

(Manager if you read this: I'm not talking about a person who was entering orders on the terminal. It really is what I described. I would still move that work station, though.)

Our water order (??) was taken as we sat. We wanted wine, but thought he'd ask later. He took the wine list when he left to get our water.

He never checked in with us. Ever. We asked a secondary server for the list. Told him what we wanted. Both drinks never came. Again the main server did three positive things: ask us about water, take our food order, give us our check once we flagged him down.

He took the credit card without first presenting the check. That seemed odd. The sum was correct, but the check thing felt amateurish

An 18 year old waitperson at an Applebee's would do a better job. An Applebee's server experience would have at least put this review at 4 stars - and I am not big on Applebee's (hence the use of them as contrast).

He asked what kind of water we wanted. Our wine list was removed. Thinking our drinks were coming, a food order occurred. Food was delivered by kitchen staff. Server never asked how it was, never checked in at all. He removed our wine list twice - second time as a complete surprise, stealth operation while I was alone at the table. It almost looked deliberate.

Server experience: -2 stars. No exaggeration. Almost every fundamental was wrong in the service.

We were there at lunch on a busy day on the Embarcadero. They should have been busy.

We should have taken the open tables during lunch as a warning.

Tl;dr: Food was very good. View, enjoyable. These were solid.

Completely undone by...

Poor, awkward service and average food - not really worth the price. We had a reservation for 6 ppl with open table. Arrived 15 minutes before and checked in. The waiter prepared the table for only 5 ppl and had to correct it last minute. Then, we were asked if we wanted to start with any appetizers - we ordered appetizers and the waiter was confused why we only chose appetizers and left to consult with a manager. We were not even asked about the entrees right away but only after an awkward intervention of the manager. We ordered lobster risotto, clam chowder, crab cakes and oysters. I had to remind the waiter about the oysters as he forgot about it and they were already serving entrees. The appetizers were mediocre.The only pleasant surprise was the clam chowder. Our entrees which were the halibut, seafood linguini, new york steak and other were of an average quality. We also ordered from the dessert menu. The Bailey’s and Coffee, although served as hot drink, were served in a wine glass making it very unpleasant to drink initially. We did enjoy the creme brulee and the mini sampler. The Soufflé Cake that one of us ordered was, once again, forgotten by the waiter. At this point, we were already finished with all of our desserts and were waiting for 30 minutes for the souffle. When I asked for how long will it take to get it, the waiter seemed flustered and rushed to the kitchen (we had an event planned to go to after the dinner and were starting to get anxious about whether or not we will be late). When he came back he announced that it takes 15 minutes to make it (we have bee already waiting for 30!) and said it should be ready in 3 minutes as if it was in preparation when clearly they haven't started preparing it cause it was served after 15 minutes as stated in the menu. At the end, they didn't even refill our water or attended to us to ask if that is all. I am very surprised that this restaurant has such high rating for the food or the service. Food was rather average but the service just very very poor. I do not recommend and will not come back to...