Castagnola's Restaurant

With the Wharf as a major tourist area, I still wanted a quiet place for seafood and good service. I did enjoy the view of the harbor and live music from the bar. The wait staff all seem to work together so it?s nice always having someone check on your, bring or take things away from your table when needed. The food was really just ""so so"". I had the king crab legs and my boyfriend enjoyed shrimp and steak. The clam chowder was very good but basically the food was just ordinary and over priced. more

We went to this old time Wharf restaurant and had a wonderful time. They had music in the early evening in the bar. We had a great time. The musicians like to banter with the crowd. It created a fun party atmosphere. Food was wonderful. The seafood was really fresh. We had the swordfish and the halibut , absolutely fantastic. We saw racks of ribs going to other tables that looked great too. This place has a newer updated look compared to some of the other places. Pros: Great location, on the water, Validated parking one block away Cons: no valet parking more

I can't believe what I'm reading here. The restaurant I went to had superb Alaskan beer; I tried the lunch menu, twice. Pros: I've had two great lunchtimes there. Don't forget the bar. Cons: I'm no longer in San Mateo. more

Though this place has a nice waterfront location, the inside is reminiscent of a suburban chain restaurant, with cheap decor and dirty floors. The chowder, which came recommended by the waiter, was no better (perhaps even worse) than a store brand's canned soup. The lobster bisque had one, I'm talking ONE, little piece of lobster in it. When we addressed the waiter about this, he replied, ""It's a bisque; the lobster is $40-50 per piece. We can't afford to put a lot of lobster in it."" Needless to say, the bisque was a cornstarch, cream, and complete blandness concoction. The waiter was rude to our party, arguing that our expectations of a seafood restaurant to have actual SEAFOOD in the dishes was absurd. Needless to say, save your big time cash (it's a rip-off) and go to one of the street vendors for their seafood. You'll get what you pay for. This is an absolute trap that is riding on the fact that it has waterfront property at the Wharf. Pros: waterfront property Cons: food, service, atmosphere, basically everything a restaurant should have. more

Horrible! Pros: Right on Fisherman's Wharf, they've got great location Cons: Everything but the location. Horrible food, inattentive and rude staff. more

Service: Outstanding. Pros: Location, food, service, decor. more

**DO NOT** **DO NOT** give this place any business especially in the bar area when a so called bartender who's name begins with"" R"" is working. Not only is he short and bald but the attitude that he projects is unbelieveably RUDE!!! Visited a few days ago early afternoon for a beer with my son (second time in two days) first day I gave him benefit of the doubt however, second day he was very rude when I requested crackers for my 12 month old son. His response was ""you were here yesterday and he made a mess"" I understand that you are very short staffed (no pun intended) but you Mr. R. need to realize that you are working at the Wharf which is one of our main tourist attractions in the city. The reason why i say ""our"" is because i'm born and raised in this beautiful city of ours and to have a implant from god knows where you came makes me sick for you to even have a job in the industry. I will follow up with Todd and Maria ASAP! more

I visited here just last week. First of all, the server ordered me to pass him my plates when I wasn't even done with my meal. He demanded that I hand him only unused utensils and left the others on the table. Not only that, he was licking his fingers while walking around the restaurant. We just wanted to get out of there as soon as we got the bill, but found out that we were overcharged by 6 dollars on one of the dishes. The waiter claimed that they just changed the menu. We had to wait for 8 minutes for them to ""give us the discount."" more

I had dinner here with friends and had a wonderful meal. The food is prepared more upscale than the usual Fisherman's Wharf fare. We all tried something different and were wonderfully surprised. The fish was fresh, beautiful presentation and the side dishes were quite refreshing. We were told that they had just gone through a major remodel of the entire restaurant. They did a great job. The place is open, airy and light and has a new up to date feel to it. A couple of the restaurants on the wharf that we looked at are pretty dreary, old, outdated and dirty. If you're looking for somewhere romantic with great food. I would highly recommend Castagnola's. The booths are great. Pros: Open and Airy, Great Food more

I had the fish and chips for lunch and you would figure that fish and chips is pretty hard to mess up. Well, it was probably the blandest food I had ever tasted. And for the price, hardly worth it. Definitely a tourist's nightmare!!! Cons: food, service, expensive more