Sam's Anchor Cafe — Restaurant in Tiburon

UPDATE. Changed from 4 stars to 2 stars. New management in 2018 appears to have sent this place downhill. After our 4th time eating here in the last two years, we've decided their quality service has deteriorated too much to warrant ever returning again. Our water never was refilled, portion sizes were so tiny that we were still hungry after we finishing our meals. For those of us who had cooked shrimp, they separated the heads but, there were more heads than tail sections (where'd our shrimp go???). One person's drink was a spritzer that had so much ice that there couldn't have been more than 3 ounces of liquid. My wife's $20 shrimp salad consisted of a small handful greens, may 20 small shrimp, a few slices of hard peach, a smidgen of pistachios and an almost undetectable about of vinaigrette - she doesn't like much dressing but, even she had to request more. My son's salad was little more than an even smaller handful of greens with a little dressing on it. My $35 cioppino, although flavorful, suffered from the same shrimp head to tail mismatch and wouldn't have been a sufficient quantity even if the portion size was doubled. There were 3 mussels, 4 or 5 shrimp, about 5 clams, a couple bites of fish. Iasked our server before ordering how big it was, she replied it was a very big bowl. Yeah, the BOWL was big, not the amount of food. When I asked her about that after eating, she said she really didn't know because she doesn't like seafood. Maybe she needs to find a job elsewhere. They did get the San Francisco sourdough bread right but, it's difficult to screw up toast. My son had some minor complaint about his burger but it looked good.

SUGGESTION: For great cioppinno and a large portion, I suggest that you instead pop over to Scoma's Restaurant at Fisherman's Wharf. It cost $7 more but, you get 5 times as much. Plus, unlike Sam's, they validate parking and, they have free valet parking.

BOTTOM LINE: Sam's Anchor Cafe doesn't have enough competition for them to care about upping their game. Street stalls and restaurants over at Fisherman's Wharf have better food, better prices and larger quantities, and to date, I've had better service there too. I can see why Sam's had so few customers during this last visit. If not for a political fundraising party going on, there probably would have been only 10 tables with customers.

Old review: Good food and location. Great customer service. Prices are a bit high. Dock accepts boats up to about 50 feet. Sits right next to the Tiburon ferry and a two minute walk from the...

I've been here many times over the years growing up in Marin but I hadn't been in at least 15 years since I moved away but I had high hopes. Sadly what I remember about this place was definitely in the past. The service was alright, not great but not horrible. Having to ask for out water to be refilled several times and then refilling my sparkling water with tap water was a little frustrating but the server replaced it with a fresh glass right away. My disappointment was the food. I could have made better fish and chips at home in my air fryer than the soggy flavorless meal I had. It was accompanied by a side of tarter sauce that was old and had a dark film over the top indicating it had been sitting for a while somewhere and tasted about as good as it looked! My daughter had a basic burger which was OK. The bun was as wonder bread as it gets but for a 9 yr. Old that's super picky it was good. Although she barely ate half of it....ordered garlic bread as an appetizer and I assumed it would be on sourdough, sadly it was just basic loaf of bread with a somewhat decent crust but WAY TOO MUCH BUTTER! Portion sizes were great. Not too much but not too little either. My husband is rarely full after a meal at a restaurant no matter where we go but he was after leaving Sam's Place and his meal was the best of all. Catch of the day Atlantic salmon cooked nicely with a crispy bottom and a moist fillet. He added a cup of clam chowder to his meal which was also good and filling. Overall, $175 lunch for 2 adults and a child, I expect it all to be good. Basically, the cost to have the restaurant in that location is what you pay for and don't expect much from your meal. I'd have given less than 3 if it hadn't been for the salmon and the chowder. Not sure I'll go back anytime in the...

For $200 lunch for two, I expect the oyster appetizer to come out in less than 45 minutes after ordering and not to have confrontation with the server. The server initially apologized to us after about 20 minutes, saying they have a large party and that slows the kitchen down. We said don't worry about it. As we continued to wait (for another 25 minutes), we saw other tables, which were seated well after us, begin to get their food. Another table that was seated after us got their dozen oysters, while we still had only drinks. I asked the server about this, and she cut me off from talking and told me I was being rude (I've never been in a confrontation with a server in my 35 years on this earth). After 45 minutes our oysters and kids burger (for our baby) finally came. The burger was medium rare even though it's for a baby and we asked for it to be cooked all the way through. We didn't send it back because we didn't want to wait another 45 minutes while our 1 year old grew even more impatient. So we gave him meat around the edges that was less pink.

It's obvious that the workers there were all working hard and doing the best they can. At the end of the day it's a management issue if it takes 45 minutes to bring out a plate of oysters, just because you have a large party to deal with. For an old and quite busy establishment, you'd think they'd have figured out kitchen delays. The server was nice and seemed hard working, but was rude and confrontational when I merely asked questions about the severe delay and other tables getting their food while we continued to wait.

We won't be back, sadly. Will check out a neighbor restaurant next time we are...