Pier 23 Cafe
Categories: Nightlife, Restaurants [Edit]
Neighborhood: EmbarcaderoPier 23
The Embarcadero
San Francisco, CA 94102 (415) 362-5125
- Hours:
Mon-Fri 11:30 a.m.-3:00 p.m.
Mon-Fri 3:00 p.m.-10:00 p.m.
Sat-Sun 10:00 a.m.-3:00 p.m.
Sat 3:00 p.m.-10:00 p.m.
Sun 3:00 p.m.-9:00 p.m. - Price Range: $$
- Accepts Credit Cards: Yes
- Parking: Street
- Attire: Casual
- Good for Groups: Yes
- Good for Kids: No
- Takes Reservations: Yes
- Delivers: No
- Take-out: Yes
- Waiter Service: Yes
- Wheelchair Accessible: Yes
- Outdoor Seating: Yes
- Good for: Lunch
- Music: Live
- Best Nights: Thu, Sat, Sun
- Happy Hour: Yes
- Alcohol: Full Bar
- Smoking: Outdoor Area/Patio Only
- Coat Check: No
644 reviews
Neighborhood: SOMA
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220 Reviews for Pier 23 Cafe
I went with a pretty large group of friends to start off our Cinco De Mayo pub crawl. The back deck is awesome (esp when the weather is good) and the drink specials were pretty decent.
Last Saturday of the month = REGGIE NIGHTS!!!
Live band (Native Elements) + Breezy night + People slapping your face with their long hair (guys, not girls) + Hurricane drink + Long lines for the ladies bathroom + Herbs in the air = PRICELESS! =)
$10 for cover. And of course pocket change for booze. That's really all you need.. and let the "magic" take over. HAHA.
Okay, no really. This place was coo. Hella chill place. No dress code. No need for sweat b/c its outside even though the dance floor is packed. And mixed crowd just swaying to the beats of that Reggae vibe. "JUST CHILL." =P
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The crew and I will only come here on the last saturday of the month for Native Elements (Live local reggae band).
Tiny on the inside, but the band plays in the back so thats where you should be. 1 full bar inside, and 1/2 a bar in the back with a limited selection. be prepared to wait for drinks inside.
$10 cover and no strict dress code. Pier 23 isnt the fanciest place or the roomiest, but its cozy and a great place to chill and listen to good reggae played by a live band, NATIVE ELEMENTS!
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It is all about a deck on the water, great friends, drinks and diner.
Great place, I highly recommend it on a warm evening. just watch the crowds!
Pier 23 encompasses everything I love about San Francisco. It has a beautiful view of the bay, great food, good servers and a great ambiance. The only issue I have is on hot days it can get really crowded, Solution: be prepared to get there early to save seats for your buddies on those warm evenings after work. On weekends they have great live music and a dance floor partly outside, so you don't have to worry about getting all hot and sweaty. All around a good time.
Truth be told, Pier 23 looks like a complete shithole from the outside, but once you walk inside, it's actually quite clean. The back deck is nice and the drinks were strong, but not too strong. So why did i give them 2 stars?
RUDE STAFF
My company rented out the back deck for a client event (read: we spent a ton of money) and the cocktail waitresses (more like bar maids, really) were so unbelievably rude that it was hard to hand over the sure-to-be-pre-determined tip. I know navigating a group of close to 50 may have been less than fun but suck it up, it is your job. I didnt think we were too demanding of patrons either.
Also, the food we ordered was pretty gross. Calamari - battered bits sitting in grease, Buffalo wings - dry and the sauce was congealed and nasty. Lastly, they put all the food in the hot sun and the crudete plate was warm and soggy (limp carrots and broccoli = not good) by the time I got to it. GROSS.
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Went here for happy hour with the office. The sun was in full force and it was hot, but we had nice complementary hats to protect our shoulders.
It was nice being close to the water. Almost everyone agreed that their drinks tasted weird, but whatever, because we could still taste the alcohol. The food was delish but I think it was because most of us were starving and grateful for whatever was plopped down in front of us. Otherwise, we would have viewed it as usual bar fare, and not all that great.
All in all, an alright experience. Meh meh.
I've come to Pier 23 many times to see my friend's reggae band "Dub FX". When I first started going there a few years back, it'd be difficult to get a drink at the bar (bartenders seemed to have attitude) but recently it's been a lot easier (maybe I've learned a trick or two to get my drink faster).
I've had the food a few times and although not stellar, it did a fine enough job not to complain about it.
The main draw, of course, is the outdoor patio. As others have noted, this is one of the best places to come on a hot day/evening. And when you get a good crowd and bumping music going on here, it can be a real blast.
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This place can great pretty crowded during lunch, but it's great to eat outside when it's nice and sunny. I like ordering beers and nachos for lunch. It's pretty satisfying...
Watch out for goop in your water though, I think that's from the wind though and not actually dirty water...
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We had a great time here yesterday. About 75% o fthe space is the back deck, so yes the weather will have a lot to say about your experience. But i've here on a rainy night and they know how to put a tarp up. On a sunny weekend day, Pier 23 was the perfect place to:
watch a pretty Asian woman chair dance next to her much older date
look out across the water at Alcatraz
soak in the sun
listen to the tight 70s cover band
drain a couple of cocktails
The casual setting makes mingling easy, we even struck up a conversation with the ladies behind us.
-1 star for being out of WIld Turkey
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So I came here yesterday for a lady friend's birthday. This place reminds me a little of Sam's Anchor in Tiburon, only this place serves mainly pricey beer food. However, their liquor is reasonably priced. $7 for a bloody mary and $8 for a rasberry hornito margarita. yum yum :) They have a pretty wide selection of beer : Fat Tire, STELLA!, Anchor Steam, and of course your basic domestics like Budweiser and Budlight.
They offer outdoor seating for those random nice days out of the year that we get in San Francisco. The seating overlooks the bay and they even have an area that has a tent for shading.
The staff is well-mannered and polite.
The only thing is the place is a little run-down and I'm not sure I'd pay $13 for a burger to sit on plastic chairs outside.
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I went here for lunch by default because nearby Fog City Diner was closed for a private party (serves me right for not checking nor making reservations) -- Pier 23 is across the street so we checked out the menu which seemed interesting.
The food was decidedly bland, at least our selections were. I had the crab cakes w/poached eggs & hollindaise sauce -- although the eggs were cooked perfectly, both the crab cakes & hollindaise sauce were pretty flavorless, even after adding pepper, salt, & tabasco sauce. A real disappointment.
My dining partner had a teriyaki turkey burger & she commented that if not for the teriyaki flavor, hers would have been flavorless also. The burger came w/shoestring sweet potato fries which were the best food item out of what we ordered. Crisp & sweet, yum!
Ordered the fresh lemonade for almost $4 & was dismayed by the small cup/portion size. I can make it at home for 50 cents (the cost of a lemon)!
The ambiance itself was great, seated outdoors overlooking the water. It was a nice day out which of course helped. There was a youngish crowd with a smattering of age groups (no kids in sight), so it was fun for people-watching too.
I won't go back because I care about the taste of the food more than the view, but it was good for me to try someplace new.
Watch your bill!! THEY NICKEL AND DIME YOU. I'll give you the worst example. I came here for dinner to celebrate a friend's birthday. Unfortunately I had an off-hours maintenance call to do for work, so I stepped out to the car to take the call then tried to come back in. They wouldnt let me back in unless I paid a $10 cover charge. I told them I was here for dinner, so they said ok $5 then. I as like, "Are you serious???". This is very indicative of their business practices. Trust me, I don't care about $5. It's the principle! What kind of friggin place does that?!?!
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I love going to Pier 23 on a nice hot day. If you get to the bar at the right time you can score a table outside over the water . The bar food is decent, if you like seafood I would recommend the fried calamari. The bucket specials are not as cheap as other places, but not ridiculously expensive. Definite downside, the bathrooms are gross. But pretty much each time I go to Pier 23 on a nice day or for happy hour it's a good time with a good crowd.
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Great food and great atmosphere! I have been here for both lunch and drinks. Both were good and even on the dead whale day we had a great lunch.
Nice patio for sunbathing for a Friday happy hour, admiring a narrow view of the bay and drinking cold beer.
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I've been here probably 3 times in my life. I came here over the weekend to see my best friend's group perform. It was cool, but damn, it was COLD. There was a handful of people because the main venue is outside and people were shivering like crazy. I had 1 drink, so its pretty hard for me to judge the bar, but it was a full bar and they had everything.
They should build that place out, i'm sure if they did (and patrons were kept warm), i'm sure they would have a better clientele.
I've always enjoyed the night life, especially the last Saturday of the month when Native Elements performs...
Outdoor, mixed crowd, chill, no dress code...$10 cover...reggae music....
I had my party on a night i've never attended. It was an annual DJ battle night....DON'T GO!! They raised the cover to $20 last minute and the guards were jerks! The line was down the block, you were waiting for a good 2 hours. Inside, you felt like a sardine! It was the worst experience my friends and I have ever had there!
Other than special events, I always have a good time.
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-review for night life
-nice outdoor patio, come here on sat nights when they have live bands/reggae playing out on the outdoor patio when the weather is warm
-drink quality sucks
-hallways going in out of outdoor/indoor areas are tight, hold on to your drink before you spill it on someone
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Did God just bring me Heaven in San Francisco...??? No, but comparable, he brought me Pier 23.
On a sunny Saturday afternoon there is nothing better then to throw on your summer kicks and lounge with a Pacifico in hand while engaging in an intellectual conversation with friends while listening to the bay water brushing against the Pier of 23 with your straw hat shading your face from the cancerous sun.
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Pier 23 is a MUST for happy hour after work on a nice day. Choose from a range of buckets of beer, and the drinks aren't half bad either. It's a little pricey - you pay for the location right on the bay. The crowd is 20 to 30 somethings with the occasional old men and women on the prowl.
I would give this place 4 stars if it was based purely on drinks, but I think the food is a little sub-par. The calamari is excellent and it ends about right there. The cocktail waitresses are usually cool, but the bartender inside has little bit of ego, so they lose some points there. Still a great place to hit after work, never been there at night so I can't really comment there, but I can't really imagine it as the same way it is during late afternoon, early evenings.
Pier 23 has been raved about around my office time and time again. I finally strolled down there during a lunch break, even though it was overcast. Our group of four, staving gals, decided to sit outside since it seems to me like that is all "part of the experience." It was!
We tried the bay shrimp cocktail and it was good. Perfect for everyone to have a bite or two before the real meal comes out. I ordered the fish tacos and they were really good with the cole slaw mixed in. They pretty much come plain, so it was good to have some sauce on the side. I also tasted the Turkey Burger with the pineapple, which was very tasty.
Its funny because the disastrous happened while we were mid-meal. IT STARTED RAINING!! Damn.... hmm. Now what? I had only eaten one of my two fish tacos! The waitress helped us scurry under the tent and we pretty much just sat back down and finished. It was no big deal. They got it down to a science. This is a great lunch spot and I will be back on the next sunny Friday we have!
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I know, me and my outdoor hangouts.
This place gets the four stars for me for being outdoors, with a view of the ocean, and drinks. On a sunny day being out here with some drinks and some unhealthy fried bar food, is the perfect recipe for fun.
Reminds me of SoCal. I guess it's the closest thing I have to San Diego up here.
Service is less than stellar but that's okay, because if I were serving drinks, instead of actually drinking them, I may be kinda cranky and rude too.
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Pier 23 is like the SF outpost of Sam's. The food's not great, the drinks are OK but the view can't be beat.
I would give this place more stars if the food wasn't just average. I love the location (right by work and the water) and the feel of this place. It is very comfy and relaxing to sit outside and hear the waves crashing around you while you throw back a corona (or in my case a water) and stuff your face with lots of fried seafood. There's nothing I like more than eating outside on a beautiful SF day during work hours. Word to the wise: it can get really packed especially on sunny days so try to go around 11 before the lunch crowd really hits.
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Hands down my favorite bar in the city...on a nice day.
Sunshine
Great views
Outdoor deck
Buckets of beer
Happy Hour Specials
Really messy NACHOS!!
I don't think I could ask for more.
If you want the outdoors, sun and booze on a nice SF day and to gaze upon the bay, hit up Pier 23.
I want a Pier 23 t-shirt just cuz it has old school cowgirl asses all over it.
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Pier 23 is great place to eat on a nice hot day in the city. We usually go here for coworkers celebrating their birthdays, and they have no problems seating a fairly large group of people. The food is a little on the pricey side, but not outrageous. I haven't ordered anything that I didn't like, yet, so I have nothing negative to say about their menu. Service is pretty good. One draw back about this place is if you sit outside on a day when the bay is stinky it definitely turns you off.
I want to give it 3.5 stars, but I give it 4. You have to go here on a warm sunny day and sit outback on the water. The view makes the place, not the food. There is a lot of live music here, but I have never been when anyone is playing.
Pier 23 is a great place to grab a beer and lunch on a Friday or grab a happy hour drink right after work. They usually have good happy hour drink specials. I mean when you can get a happy hour deal on Red Stripe you have to be at a pretty good spot.
I have only had a few meals here. I have had the fish and chips, numerous times. It's a good, reliable, can't miss lunch meal and taste great when sitting next to the water with the smell of the bay coming off the water.
I am a chicken wing connoisseur, and love hot wings. I have had the wings here two or three times and they are HOT!! They leave the seeds from the peppers in the sauce and baste/glaze them over the top of the wing. Set my mouth on fire.
Bottom line go on a nice day, bring some friends, and drink some beer. You can even smoke out back on the patio...a rarity in any SF establishment
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Fish tacos bayside,
Bottoms under cowgirl hats,
Wish yelp gave half stars.
we come here for the bands. its cool that they play live music in such a small spot. the back deck area is cool and the drinks, well drinks are always good.
I recently went to Pier 23 to celebrate a couple of birthdays. I have only one word that best describes that night "PERFECT". From the view to the music, the entire experience was great. The crowd was really laid back and chill. I really wanted to give them 3 and a half stars but i just rounded up. I need to go back for lunch or dinner to really give them a legit rating.
Native Element - y'all rock!
"N o t e to s e l f"
Anything along the Embarcadero is expensive, marked up and knocked up in order to attract as much as possible from busy road that tourists bump along in order to get to Fisherman's Wharf and other points of attraction.
However, despite the $60 tab in addition to the first tab at the bar, the experience was priceless (I know I know, Mastercard copycat here) because I got to spend a few precious hours canoodling with my sweetie under an errant heat lamp.
The front is deceiving, because once you enter the small yet welcoming establishment, you don't realize how long it goes toward the back and opens out to a partial tent-covered deck and the open wood patio, saved by a few heat lamps.
Quaint and casual, bear in mind that you can smoke here, so every puff of wind brought along an unwelcome stink of smoke I had to duck or wave away. Patrons here were casual and/or business crowd in suits.
The Happy Hour specials were not really that special, and the bottles of beer/pints were a little too expensive (um, hello, Frisson offers $5 happy hour specials and it's nicer inside) but I was humming along on my $6.00 Gin and Tonic. In addition, this little lady was starving, so not only did we make quick work of the Buffalo Wings ($8-9 or so for only 10 wings, please) or the Caesar Salad (priced around $9 for a wretched bowl) and the Calamari (around $8-9, good and crunchy but a little burnt) but A L L of this did not matter because of the company I was in.
In addition, the waitstaff including the bussers were sooooooo extremely nice and courteous, it swept away any negative ideas of the costs here.
Great location, good live jazz (a bassist was plucking away with the pianist) and clientele that know to leave people alone in their own little worlds.
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We just had a colleague's going away partay here.
Obnoxious loud teachers, awesome. Just what every waitress wants to deal with. Tracey our server, along with the rest of the staff put together an awesome spread, primo seating and good bar food.
This is a *great* spot for big groups, the staff really knows how to work it.
I will definitely be back on a sunny day to try out that patio for happy hour.
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I am giving 4 stars for the bucket of beers, and waterside location.
I know the line on a hot day for the bathroom is murder, and the food really isn't all that tasty, and it can get overwhelmingly packed, but early on a weekend this is a great place to come and just chill...before moving on to another place.
Also a great happy hour spot.
Pier 23 is a blast! I would compare it to a small Sams (In Tiburon) There isn't anything better than a sunny day and a few beers along the bay. The food is fair, yet is perfect food for beers/cocktails.
It has turned into somewhat of a biker bar at sometimes, I would recommend Sundays there is a cover which originally I thought was a drag but they have live music every Sunday - the music was great!
If you looking for a great place to have a few drinks in the sun on a dock Pier 23 is a blast.
OK, we were stupid for coming here on a windy night and agreeing to sit outside, but seriously. They have those heating things, but those things don't protect you from the wind. Nor do they protect you from slow service long after most of the crowds have deserted this place for warmer climes.
I'd give this place another shot on a nice day, but don't waste your time coming here on a night that's anywhere near cold or windy.
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Date & Time: Weekend Brunches
Company: Michael & Friends
Crowd: Diverse Mix and Young Hipsters in the Back Patio
Vibe: Chill
Decor: Casual Woodsy and Roomy Patio in the Back
Service: Personable and Efficient
Imbibe: Beer
Devour: Tacos
Notes: During The Kentucky Derby, The Pac Heights/Marina Crowd Decked out in Lily Pulitzer with The Gals in Dresses and Hats and The Boys in Pastel Shirts and Ties, Sport Coats with Khakis Watch the Races Sipping Mint Julips from The Tented Bar Area Next to the Back Patio. Quite the Scene!
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LOVE! Yesterday was such a beautiful day outside that the only obvious thing to do was go sit outside and have drinks. My friend suggested Pier 23 and we headed down there. I mean........buckets of Corona and sitting outside soaking up the sun? Did I die and go to heaven? Quite possibly my favorite spot in San Francisco now. Be patient and wait it out to get a table. Definitely worth it. This place made for one of my best Sunday Funday's to date. Thank you Pier 23!
This place has a great location and is perfect for beers after our corporate soccer league games at telegraph field.
Nice outdoor patio that overlooks the bay and outdoor heaters. One of the heaters is broken, and each time the guy that works there tries to light it and fails miserably!
The food is pretty expensive and very mediocre. I suggest just going for some drinks and enjoying the views of the bay!
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