Waterbar

At our last visit the menu was very limited. As a fish restaurant we felt that there should be more choices and not just rely on the raw bar offerings. Also there was only 1 salad, but when I asked for a dinner salad, the server and kitchen accommodated me with a fresh and delicious salad. That salad could be a regular menu choice. My companion had the halibut, which was an unusual and relatively unsuccessful combination.

A bit disappointed. High price for very average meal. My fish was good but everything else on the plate was cold and below average. Had to ask several times for bread and water. All in all I would not go back or recommend.

Love Waterbar
Always delicious and fantastic service

We were very disappointed. We've been waiting for this dinner for a long time and it was really below expectations. The food was ok, but nothing more. It was ridiculously expensive for the quality and size of the portions. The steak was barely warm and chewy (we ordered medium), the dumplings in the tuna dish were tasteless, and the broth super salty. The chickories salad was extremely salty and oily. The rest was mediocre. The only good dishes we liked we're the tres leches dessert and the grilled peppers.
It is considered a good restaurant but while it has the prices of one Michelin star restaurant, it is painfully overhyped.

Great views and atmosphere. Would highly recommend!

I have been here 3 times and this last time the food was exceptionally fantastic!
It was very crowded and the service was slow, but my pasta meal made up for it.

This summer I have been a regular on the outside patio. I even have a regular table. I am never disappointed at all by the food or service. Everything about the restaurant is outstanding. I'll be going back in a couple of weeks.

We had the best time at the Waterbar the staff was amazing the place is beautiful the view is outstanding and the food was wonderful! I would go there again and again ! We were so lucky to find this place !It was our first night in San Francisco and it was one of the reasons we fell I’m love with the city! THANK YOU WATERBAR FOR AN AWESOME DINNER EXPERIENCE 😍

I loved the water bar! Such a beautiful restaurant in a beautiful location! The food was delicious and the service was superb.

Have eaten there many times again it did not disappoint. If you like oysters and good mix cocktails you won’t go wrong there

Best Oyster bar in the USA and excellent service. The waterfront location is a plus.

Waterbar is one of my favorite restaurants in San Francisco. I've dined there for occasions ranging from enjoying happy hour-priced oysters with co-workers to work-night dinners with international colleagues and, the focus of this review, Sunday brunch with long-time friends.

I'd made reservations for 11:45 AM. We were seated on the patio, where the tables are nestled under large umbrellas and heating lamps, which kept us comfortable while not obstructing the view of the Bay, the Bay Bridge, or of the parade of people flowing up & down the Embarcadero Promenade, the broad walkway that traces the northern waterfront.

What I ordered:
Wine: A glass of Glass of Gemin Rosé Brut, Valdobbiadene NV
Appetizer: shared a dozen Pemaquid oysters on the half-shell (from Maine) with oak-barrel aged hot sauce and their perfectly balanced mignonette.
Brunch: The Poached Eggs Dungeness crab croquettes, arugula, smoked tomato hollandaise (Crab caught near Willapa Bay, Washington).
Dessert: Whiskey Stone. Four roses caramel, malted milk chocolate mousse, smoked ice cream.
While I very much enjoyed my dessert, the clear favorite dessert from our group was the Sticky Toffee Pudding (made with maple caramel, mascarpone, vanilla bean)!

The perfect weather and service also contributed to what was an enjoyable, memorable dining experience for us.

As usual the food was wonderful. However the service was spotty and slow. One of our appetizers was not served until after our entrees were served and this was after asking the server a couple of times where it was. One of our shared dishes was never even delivered.

Wonderful staff, cuisine and location- it never disappoints!

Waterbar offers an excellent variety of healthy and sustainable seafood. The 'oyster of the day'' is a great deal. I love the views and the full bar too.

Perfectly prepared, delicious food and drinks

Best view. Best oysters. Great Martinis. And it has more!

Wonderful mixture of unique flavours in all the dishes we had. Beautiful to dine on outside patio with glistening lights on the Bay Bridge in the background.

The Waterbar was great great customer service great waiter rooms great food Great environment I just loved me and my fiancé all while we loved it and we want to thank y’all there at the Waterbar for showing great customer service

I was very disappointed in the menu choices and service. My first choice not available. Waiter suggested fish dish served over rice and beans. Rice and beans were cold and tasteless, fish was overcooked and also tasteless. Sent meal back and got tri tip. It was covered with bleu cheese which made it too salty. A little bleu cheese would have been fine. I don't know why the pepperoncinis were part of the plate. They didn't go with the meal and there were far too many on the plate. My guest ordered the pork chop that had large rectangular cake on it. Don't know why that was on the plate. It did nothing for it. Also far too many baby carrots around the plate. Very unappetizing and unappealing plates. Someone needs to check what's coming out of the kitchen. I had to remind the waiter that we still had not received the broccolini. It came when we were almost finished with the main course. The highlights were the ceviche appetizer and baked oyster appetizer we ordered. I had such a wonderful experience when I first came last April. There was a pre-fixe brunch for $50. Excellent concoctions that made me want to come back. We were celebrating birthday and I could not have been more embarrassed this time.

Average. Server was great but food was just a average. Did not live up to the hype.

Very limited menu. View was nice. Messed up reservation. Didnt enknowledge us after claiming we didnt have reservation.

My husband and I live in the same area as Waterbar and it's a favorite for special occasions. Despite living in the area, we never tire of the view, the staff are wonderful, and the food is superb. Definitely worth a visit!

Waterbar has been a special place for us since it opened, but it had been a while since we had been (I was looking forward to a special dinner out!). The staff were warm, friendly, and professional. They did a wonderful job of making a special evening for us, but the food was a bit below what I expected. The dishes were good, with excellent ingredients, but awkwardly put together in a way that detracted from the experience. I hope this was just a quirky moment for Waterbar. The ambiance and the view of the stunning Bridge lights more than made up for the quirky food though.

Great ambience, great service, ok food. Too ambitious. Should just keep it simple. Gnocchi was confusing and oversalted. Tuna overcooked. Wines by glass way overpriced. Go for a drink and appetzers and enjoy the great atmosphere. Skip dinner.

Food was delicious. Waitress was attentive but not hovering. Loved the atmosphere!

Celebrated my Birthday with great freinds, great cocktails food was good.
Love the view and energy, food is pricey!

The Oyster during the happy hour was great. The other foods were also tasteful, since we do prefer plain dishes. Eric was very kind and had the right recommendations for us. Will definitely go again in the future.

Very limited menu, Dry high prices

Great food and great window view of the bay and the Blue Angels. Server Walker was great.

Always a pleasure going to the Waterbar, view is amazing one of the best InSF...

One of our best dining experiences. Great food and service.

Wonderful meal and great service--celebration for defending doctoral dissertation. Our server, Steven, was very thoughtful. Thank you!

Very disappointed. Too long for server to come to table (~10 min); too long to receive the first cocktail (~30 min). Jigger size for the cocktail was good. We selected two menu items: the white sturgeon caviar and Waterbar's grand (seafood) platter. It was obvious that the restaurant had limited knowledge in the presentation of caviar, when what appeared to be over-dried Texas Toast was used for the toast points. Setting that aside, the caviar was good. The biggest disappointment came with the grand platter. Lobster was over-cooked, dungenous crab was great, clams not edible, oysters pungent, prawns were fine, and the ceviche left such an unpleasant taste that several teeth brushings could not get rid of the taste.
The restaurant was noisy, tables stacked on one-another so closely that a conversation with your dinner guest on the opposite side of the table was shared with those around you.
The staff was "snobby" - our guess is that it was because we chose not to select wine in favor of the bar.
This restaurant is geared for over-paid 20 and 30 year olds who have no clue of to indulgences of fine dining.

There's no question about it--the view of the lit-up Bay Bridge at night is great from Waterbar. So if you want a restaurant with a view--it's highly recommended. Plus the interior is beautiful. All of that is two-stars-worth. The absence of other stars has to do with the food. We ordered a whole fish, Bass I believe, from the "Share" selection. It cost $80...which would have been reasonable for a fairly upscale restaurant. But the fish was, in a word, skimpy. After deboning, it was not much more than an appetizer's worth for the two of us. And speaking of appetizers, we ordered the crab starter for $22 each. My wife and I are both crab aficionados and for us this crab tasted decidedly canned. There surely would have been better crab further down The Embarcadero at one of the tourist crab shacks for half the cost. This is my very first critical review on OpenTable after years as a member. And I believe it is deserved.

So disappointing, had family visiting out of town for their 30th anniversary!! They said I would have the best table outside given the fact there were no more reservations inside. Dinner was ok... over priced for a salad and added crab, barely any...we were also told they would do a celebratory dessert. They gave us 4 pieces of some gelatin weird texture thing. Gross
Not going back. So sad that it was not what we had hoped for.. the view was the only good part of the night

The food was amazing, especially the shared lobster special. Dessert was also delicious. Our server had good recommendations and portions were good. Our only disappointment was the location of our table. The views are amazing but we were seated in the bottom dining room against the back wall. I wish we could've been in the upper dining room and/or closer to the windows.

Beautiful place but food is just fine

Great food. Great service. Great atmosphere! We absolutely loved it!

What a wonderful experience. Great views. Delicious food and drinks. Exceptional service.