I've been to this location several times with friends and family and find that is a decent place to entertain guests, but too expensive to make a habit.
Pros:
1. Free calamari and bread rolls!
2. Beautiful window views of the countless boats docked in the wharf as well as dozens of seal lions sunbathing.
3. Everything that we have tried there has been good. If I were to do a 'poor/good/excellent' breakdown, I'd say 0/60/40.
Cons:
1. As is the case with everything on Fisherman's Wharf, the prices are fairly expensive.
2. During lunch hours on weekends, don't expect a window table.
First of all, the waitress we got was horrible at serving my group of 13. 2 Sirloin steak meals were ordered for medium rare and we received them overcooked and late. Meals are overpriced and not too much to talk about. Wouldn't consider going back to this restaurant again. Clam Chowder would probably be the only thing good here.
Review Source:After having the most amazing halibut fish and chips at Crabby Jim's Seafood the night before, my friend and I was craving for more. Â So we decided to give this place a try. Â Unfortunately, the fish and chips at this place was not nearly as good. Â The fried clams strips I order was also a huge disappointment. Â I wanted to give this place 2 stars though because the staff at this restaurant were super friendly and the place had a really nice view of the ocean.
Review Source:The lunch specials and free calamari got me to eat here. But i would not return. The rolls are good. The calamari strips were decent, although i prefer to get the actual tentacles and rounds. My lunch special, the seafood skewers, was also decent.. The disappointment came with the coconut jumbo prawns. They were not jumbo and you get 6 for 14.99. Â The place was empty so we got nice window seats and service. But the shrimp thing maid this our first and last visit.
Review Source:We went there on thanksgiving day weekend. I sampled their chowder and it was mediocre. We tried the lunch special at $9,95 + free appetizer Calamari , which were not too bad. My bill came up like $25 including tips. Good spot for a lunch if you toured the fisherman;s wharf. Lunch was slow there and we were seated next to windows. Waiter was not attentive. It appears only 1 waiter served 10 tables at lunch time. May not go back next time.
Review Source:We were walking around the wharf trying to decide where to eat. We were lured to this place by the free appetizer and cocktail hour. The clam chowder sample outside was very tasty, too.
...then we went inside...
The place was pretty empty. There were a handful of people there. We did get seated at a table with a great view. Drink orders were taken immediately. The free fried calamari appetizer was brought out, which was ok. I ordered a bloody mary. Terrible, but what can you expect at happy hour.
We order half a dozen oysters on the half shell. They were small, but pretty good. Wish the cocktail sauce had more horseradish. Didn't have the kick that I like. We ordered two cups of clam chowder. It was pretty good, but the chowder outside tasted better.
I ordered the grilled halibut. It was tasty. Hubby ordered the whole dungeness crab. It was covered in garlic and tomatoes, which he scraped off. What's the point? He then said his crab wasn't all that good. It was rubbery and chewy and has definitely had better.
A big complaint of mine is the wait staff. Our waiter was very friendly and attentive. However, there were other servers standing around, talking loudly, and talking about how slow it was. I really don't want to be hearing you complain about how bad the restaurant is doing and that you're not making any money. Thanks.
Bottom line, I won't be coming back here.
When wandering around the Wharf with thirteen people, we were wondering if any restaurant would allow us all to sit together. Â Well, when we passed by the Red Snapper and they said they could seat us all, not to mention free calamari, we were amazed and went right in. Â
Well, the amazement ended right there... Â They did give us three free plates of the calamari, which was good, but we had to fight for the fourth one (which is what the person at the door had enticed us with). Â The service itself was pretty slow, which is understandable for a large group like ours, but the restaurant itself wasn't too busy so I hoped it would go faster. Â The food itself wasn't anything special, either... Â I got the shrimp alfredo, which had tiny pieces of shrimp and an overly sweet alfredo sauce. Â They also didn't get one of our orders, which was a little bit of miscommunication between us and the servers since we tried ordering two servings of something but they thought it was just one. Â As far as everybody else in our group, they just said the food was decent.
Finally, we wanted to split the check into two (something they told us at the beginning that they could do), but in the end said that they couldn't. Â So, all this serving trouble at the end left us all feeling pretty meh... Â Also, the price tag is kinda hefty, which is normal for the Wharf, but if you're paying $15-20 per entree, I'm hoping it would be at least better than 'decent.' Â If you've got a large party, Red Snapper may be a good place to stop, but otherwise, it may be wise to keep on heading down the Wharf for somewhere else to chow down.
Stopped here for lunch and I wasn't very impressed.
The chowder was average at best and that might be generous. I'm not a chef but I'm pretty certain that despite being located on the waterfront the fried fish and clam strips were frozen or at least tasted like it.
There seems like there would be better options, after looking at Yelp I think I'd have tried one of them before this place.
I think the food is *almost* as good as the view.
I ordered the local sand dabs with lemon caper sauce and extra veggies instead of rice. The fish was cooked just fine but even with the accompanying lemon wedge squeezed over the fish, it needed more flavor. Â
Service was great -- starting with being seated and all the way through paying the check.
A colleague ordered the macadamia nut crusted tilapia and said it was excellent.
Prices are reasonable for a great view on the wharf.
Ok, so this place is NOTHING special at all. Â If you are starving and cannot wait to eat anywhere else, this place is ok, but the service is slow, even though the staff are friendly.
There are several places here that try and get you in by offering you a free sample of clam chowder and you get free calamari if you like that stuff. Â I don't however, I did have my step daughter with me who does and she said is was ok, but nothing special at all.
The pier is a nice place to visit once, maybe twice, but I would not eat there again. Â I would rather drive somewhere else and get better food. Â This is a place that is NOT worth visiting again.
First off, I'd like to say we still don't know if it was called Red Snapper or Gilbert's. Â
We went for a walk down the wharf around 8 pm to see if anything sounded good, as we weren't terribly hungry. Â Read the outside menu and the chowder girl lured us in with the free calamari appetizer. Â
We were promptly seated with  a beautiful view of the harbor.  Our server was just attentive enough without forgetting us or being overly pushy.  That was probably the highlight of the meal. Â
The food: Â The calamari was alright. nothing special, a bit greasy, but it IS fried food, so whatever. Â My girlfriend got a caesar salad and she said it was ok. Â The croutons were obviously just from the bag, and the dressing wasnt anything special. Â I got the "tandoori chicken skewers" . Â Very liberal interpretation of the words tandoori and skewers. Â The flavors resembled nothing on indian food and instead tasted like a marinade of citrus, soy sauce and honey. Â The chicken wasnt skewered (or even taken off skewers before plating) , and instead of being made in the oven: were just grilled. Â It tasted ok, but not what I was expecting when I ordered it. Â The sides were just a green salad and some bland lukewarm rice pilaf. Â
Overall, It was ok food, but wouldn't go back just for the view or service.
Ok don't fall for the specials this place offers on top of bad service. I was in Monterey for the wknd with my best friend and we were lured in with their happy hour and daily specials. My 9.95 fish tacos were so gross and fishy smelling and tasting that I even had an issue washing the fishy smell off of my hands afterwards. Also my friend ordered the shrimp fettucini also 9.95 that needed salt and parmesan cheese. The shrimps are also micro shrimps the size of guppies. On top of the bad food the service was AWFUL! Our waiter was bombarded with too many tables.
Lesson learned don't fall for the specials or happy hour! #epicfail
Four stars for a Wharf restaurant? Why yes! Four stars indeed. Smiling faces at the door beckoned me to come in. The clam chowder man remembered me from when I went jogging through the wharf . Â That always wins a gal's heart and a star. Â We were seated quickly and here's what made me happy... I have always been bewildered by empty restaurants that have sullen and lethargic service. Here we were helped and everyone had a little spring in their step. Â Bread and butter on the table as well as the cup of chowder that comes with the Early Bird Special. The chowder was fairly ho-hum. Nothing to rave about however the onion crusted salmon was flavorful, moist and a damn good-sized portion. Veggies were crisp and delicious. Wow!! Â The house Chardonnay brought my bill up to 26.oo including tip. Â To anyone who is too pretentious to dine at the Wharf OR to give stars and credit where it's due, simply because the Wharf is dated and not a cool place to be, I say....MORE FOR ME SUCKERS!
Review Source:Much better than I expected! ambiance, decor leave something to be desired but friendly service ocean front tables tasty food with good portions, well plated for a marie callendars-ish type restaurant.
free calamari appetizers with sunset specials at 12ish including soup (although I wasn't impressed with their clam chowder-not too many clams, potatoes, mostly base-and tortilla soup definitely not what I expected. Tasted like a bowl of the corn part of a tamale, looked like oatmeal, very starchy).
My grilled salmon with onion crust was moist and my parents enjoyed their seafood paella and red snapper dishes.
I enjoyed this restaurant's atmosphere. The waiters were very polite and attentive. Mind you, we were almost the only ones there because it is December. The food was good, but the happy hour selection could have been much better. If you like mushrooms I recommed the Portobello Mushroom Sandwich. So good!!
Review Source:I had lunch here with my friend and my pooch out on the patio. Â The staff were very friendly and attentive they even bought out a bowl of water for my pooch. Â Margaritas were $3.99 each and yummy we got the free calamari appetizer my friend got the blackened tilapia which was really tasty for $9.95 and I got the crab cakes. Â We had a great meal whilst enjoyed the sunshine and seals out on the patio I will definitely come back
Review Source:It was okay.
Seated by myself, a kindle to keep me company. Â It didn't whelm me in either direction but: (major points here) when I told them NO WHEAT, by god there were no croutons in my salad, they didn't try and put bread on my table and sure as heck - nothing breaded was served.
Sometimes, it's a compromise. Â Great service with great attention to detail wins out. Â Lack of lethality also wins.
Is it just me or does everything at the Monterey Fishermans Wharf seem old and rundown??
Anyhow, we came to the wharf to grab something to eat and kill time because we wee trying to avoid the traffic going home after spending the day at Laguna Seca. We decided to have a sit down meal at Red Snapper. I was with a group of six and we were seated at a nice table next to the window. There are some pretty nice views of Monterey bay from most of the tables in the restaurant.
I think it's nice of them to give out small portions of free calamari as an appetizer. I also enjoyed the complimentary fresh sourdough rolls with some butter. I shared a clam chowder bread bowl with the bf. The clam chowder was good but only luke warm...I like my soup to be piping hot! Don't order the bread bowl because it will be mostly bread and not a lot of clam chowder. I ordered one of the Sunset specials: smoked seafood pasta in a pesto cream sauce. The seafood didn't taste smoked or maybe the pesto cream sauce was so heavy that it masked the smoked flavor? Either way I liked the pasta dish, it's pretty heavy so you'll get full fast.
The service was a bit slow but friendly. Our waters were always refilled.
My favorite place to eat in Monterey is still Old Fisherman's Grotto!
Ate here with a group of 11 people.. Â
Chowder was okay... they rip you off with the bread bowl (very little chowder all bread for $10.99)
Their mahi mahi was bland.
They sucked us in with the free calamari (small amount ) not that good!
Service was slow and not to attentive on an average sat night with not a full house. What pissed us off was that the server told us that a list of beers were part of happy hour, so we ordered and ordered.. At the end of the dinner they gave us a bill and the happy hour prices were not provided. Â I asked why and the server just said it was not part of the list, when he told us early on that it was, then dismissed the question. Â Then we got charged extra for calamri that was suppose to be free. Â I think they are a bit shady here and especially to tourist who probably wont do anythign about it. Â
I say, stay away so you dont have to deal with it. Â The restaurant was not too busy and we now know why!!! Â Should have ate somewhere else. Â i am urging the rest of my group to leave their review as well.
Hubs and I attended a live concert (A Tribute to Crosby Stills & Nash) at the Marina Theater. Â We decided to eat dinner, downstairs. Â We arrived in time for the $10.00 Early Bird Dinner, which was perfect-- I wasn't super hungry. Â I can't recall if I've ever eaten here before. If I have, it was decades ago. I usually eat at Abalonetti's, which is opposite this location. Nice view of the boats! Â About the food-- I ordered the sand dab, hubs ordered the wild caught salmon. Â We each ordered the Happy Hour Margarita for $4.00. Â The margarita wasn't bad! Â The food was also a pleasant surprise. Â The portions are small, but that was fine with me. My fish was quite good and the beurre blanc was far better than the bad one I had at Fisherman's Grotto (a few months ago). Â The veggies were al dente and lightly seasoned, and the yellow rice was just fine. Our service was fine. I detected a bit of indifference from the waiter, because we ordered Early Bird food. Â I didn't care, as I was admiring the view of our beautiful wharf. Â I'd try this place, again, when on a nice summer eve, so that I can enjoy watching the sea lions play, boats coming in and out, and time with my husband on a date.
The upstairs venue was a fun evening. Â I have never been to the Marina Lounge. Â I ordered another margarita, that cost $8.00 and it wasn't very good... tasted very watered down. Â It's very small, Â but it was a nice place to enjoy music from a group of professional musicians from Nashville, New York and Santa Cruz who came to together to do a tribute to Crosby, Stills & Nash. Â No dancing floor, but acoustically I was pleasantly surprised.
The clam chowder was probably one of the best on the warf but the rest of the food was very average.... Our server neglected us and the other server(?), who brought our drinks and bread paid a lot more attention to our needs. The seafood stew, which is my own specialty at home, was below average and gave me a stomach cramps...I like my stew with pasta, so I asked for a side and got charged $4 for a hadful of clumped together cold  fettuccine. The mussels were quite fishy, which to me was a sign of a not very fresh product, the king crab impossible to get the meat out ( seemed the crab was prev frozen too).  I just expected more from a place on the sea...and wished we had dinner elsewhere. 2 main courses and 3 soft drinks lightened my wallet by $70.00!
Review Source:I hated this place!!!! Â The person outside giving away samples of the clam chowder knew absolutely NOTHING about the menu when asked several questions about various menu items. Â The restaurant was empty except for one other couple (a sign?) and despite that, the service was atrocious. Our free appetizer was taken away before we were even done. Â I ordered one of the specials, the Nicoise salad which I normally love. Â The ahi wasn't seared properly and was pretty much raw the whole way through. Â I picked at it as I waited for our server to check in on us...and waited...and waited. Â We finally flagged him down and we told him the salad wasn't satisfactory. He took it back and when we got the bill we were charged for 50% of the salad. Â We asked why and were told because the chef said I ate half of it. Â I hadn't...I had 1 of the 4 pieces of nasty ahi on the plate. Â The manager then came out and asked if I had ever had seared ahi before (insulting!). Yes, actually I have and enjoy it immensely when prepared correctly. Â The manager then took it off the bill and very sneakily added a 18% gratuity to our bill...nice way to run a business. Â We will NEVER be back and urge others to never go in the first place.
Review Source:Worst service EVER! After they got my husband and I in with their sample of their clam chowder, we ate two pieces of bread, killed 4 flies that were buzzing around us, and left. 20 minutes of waiting for someone to take our order (or even check on us) is ridiculous. One star half because I have to, and half because the bread and calm chowder sample were delicious.
Review Source:The food portions are of good size. I shared fish & chips w/ a friend and it was hard to finish! They kept the bread rolling & my glass was 95% of the time full! Awesome.
(Then again, it was a slow weekday afternoon LOL).
There's also a nice view of the water and some seats outside. Just double check if it's windy. It was kind of funny how we got a table by a window and there was a guy sitting at a table outside right on the other side of our window... lol.
today we had a great dinner here and prices were very good. my hobby had a whole red snapper he loved it ate everything except two eyes. i had their skirt steak salad it was yummmuuuyy. only three pcs of steak though:( overall it was great spend $ 60 for dinner they had their house special drink with crown that was great my hubby had corona like always and completely satisfied.
Review Source:It's acutally a 3.5-star review, but Yelp doesn't allow for half stars. Â
The view is definitely good, but the food leaves some to be desired.
FOOD - The calamari steak was great, but we had to send back a surf/turf because the steak was actually inedible (tough, bland and didn't taste fresh). Â The steamed clams appetizer was good.
SERVICE - Good overall, but seem inexperienced, even the manager. Â The server was earnest and did try hard and was ALWAYS friendly, even to our kid. Â But he didn't know what a decanter was, but that's no biggie. Â This is what's appalling: Â When we sent back the surf/turf dinner, the manager actually brought a small plate and asked my husband to scoop the steak into it, as if to leave the rest of it there so they could charge us for the meal? Â We don't send things back often, but when we did, we've never been asked to scoope just a part of the meal away, and he's the manager, so I'm not sure what their training program is. Â Overall, everybody (from the manager, server to the busboys) were very friendly, and the clam chowder that my husband got instead was comped.
Conclusion - Great service, stick to the seafood dishes and skip the meat.
The love and I stopped by here on the busy 4th of July weekend. For a beautiful saturday it wasn't too bad. We had eaten here the last time we came and the clam chowder bowls were very pleasing :) I knew to avoid crabby Jims AT ALL COSTS due to their overpriced bread bowls and crappy ass service, and the sample of Gilberts tasted delicious so we decided to return.
We ordered:
1) clam chowder bowl
1) calamari & fries meal
1) large lemonade
for the grand total of $18
Now remember if you think this is expensive, you're at the warf, this is as good as its gunna get for decent food, other than that you're stuck in an overpriced restaurant with waiters who could give a rats ass!
The clam chowder bread bowl was delish :) chunky, thick, nicely seasoned! The calamari looked like french fries which I wasnt used to but the love and myself are not picky eaters so it was fine. The french fries were EXCELLENT, lemonade was standard pink lemonade and i forgot to mention they gave us ranch and tartar sauce at no charge!
Needless to say we were very satisfied and happy with our visit and will be returning the next time we come.
*They also serve starbucks coffee, ice cream, fish & chips, sodas and an arrangement of other delicious wharf goodies!
So we were told by the salesman that Gilbert's Fish restaurant is different than Gilbert's Seafood Grill. Â We tried samples of the clam chowder from both places, and they were definitely different. Â Gilbert's Fish restaurant's clam chowder was our favorite on the pier after trying about 9 different samples. Â It was creamy, thick, full of clam and not just potatoes. Â Your standard clam chowder with no twists, just what we were looking for.
Review Source:
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