Yabbies Coastal Kitchen

I've been to Yabbie's often before, and have always loved the consistently good food, but recently the great ambiance has made it a regular haunt- mood lighting and music make it the spot to be! Loved the wine flights too, well selected and reasonably priced, and served by informed (and attractive) staff.

Pros: wine list and Flights, freshest seafood in town

Posted 10/17/09

Ate here the other night on a date. I come here a lot and really enjoy it. The service was really accomodating and she made me look like a rockstar with the date!!! I will be back soon.

Pros: Great atmosphere. Great food!!!

Cons: too bright. No lunch

Posted 07/29/09

Nice place in a great location on Polk street. I haven't been disappointed by the food, the seafood bar is great and I had good fish there as well. Unfortunately, the noise level in the place can be quite high on busy weekends.

Pros: Love most of the food

Cons: Noise on crowded days

Posted 03/16/09

I have been dining at Yabbie's since 2000 and I have never been disappointed! Having spent this entire week entertaining customers at some of San Francisco more popular spots, Yabbie's provided a welcome and delicous relief. We were seated promptly and made to feel right at home! Our host for the evening, Charlie, was personable and warm, she made us feel like we were sitting down on her back patio enjoying an a nice lesiure evening with great food and friends! The Chef and her kitchen delivered some well prepared innovative dishes that had everyone at the table asking me, how did you ever find this place?One of my goals when traveling is to find those special spots that deliver the kind of comfort food that makes you feel like you have discovered something special, Yabbie's is that place! My recommendation is to visit now and vist often! Cheers!

Pros: Great Chef, outstanding cuisine. Service is stellar. No tourist!

Cons: I live in Atlanta and can't dine here every week :-)

Posted 04/16/08

TERRIBLE SERVICE! Can't really be a judge of the food in that restaurant b/c we never had a chance to be seated.
The reservation was made for 8PM on Saturday night through the "Open Table". We arrived a little earlier (5 min) and were welcomed by a hostess who looked at us like a deer in headlights as if she did not expect us to show up at all. She said that we would have to wait until the tables become available. Fifteen (15) minutes later, while we were sitting and hoping for oysters and bacon-wrapped trout, the group of 3 people showed up and was immediately seated. On my question as to why the hostess did not give us that table, she said that she had a table for 3. Now....the table for three was basically a table for 2 with one additional chair as it was touching a wall with one of its sides. She added (again with the same fake apologetic expression) that tables for 2 are getting ready and it is going to be another 10-15 min. After that we simply left because there is no food in the world that will allow you to take this completely disrespectful and unacceptable attitude.
Very frustrating, stay away!
Either the "deer-like hostess" has to be replaced by someone competent or management has to take reservations ONLY when the customer can be seated properly.

Pros: Seafood menu that looked intresting though we never hada chance to experience it

Cons: Management, service: unacceptable and disrespectful.

Posted 03/15/08

This place could well be the most overrated restaurant in the bay area. The staff are way too cool for school. After a crappy dining experience - I told the hostess, and she laughed. Well, she was like 20 and hot (I guess that's why she's the hostess), but with absolutely no idea on how to run a front of house.

The Waiter was stoned, and left half way through the meal - without telling us - enough said.

The food is mediocre at best. The last time I went the fish was raw (no, not sushi) and purple!! All these people saying this is the best seafood in SF, are giving SF a bad name. Try Swan's Oyster Depot you dummies - oh, and you can't get there by cable car.

Pros: None

Cons: Numerous - expensive, never seated at allotted time, below average food

Posted 05/26/07

My hubby and I joined yabbies for dinner early Friday evening, I was a little skeptical about entering an almost empty restaurant but he wanted to try it. I?m glad we did. Started out with a recommendation for wine off the somewhat extensive list ? an excellent chardonnay, in case you were wondering, a little pricy but excellent nonetheless. Our server, the little redhead (highly detail oriented = excellent service), was extremely accommodating ? she answered our questions well and pointed us in the right direction. The poke is to-die-for. The scallops and risotto are excellent. I am a little less fond of the muscles in wine, but still good. The trout is a must have and his cioppino was amazing. By the time we finished and were offered desert, both of us were too full to order, but they sure did look good! The atmosphere is inviting and lively . . . the postmarked coconuts add a little something eclectic. The restaurant can get a tad bit loud if you stay until the place is full, but the food and the staff are wonderful. We will definitely be back! As for the Valentine?s diner below, I used to work in a restaurant ? for impeccable service never eat out on weekends or holidays, you just won?t find it.

Pros: helpful waitstaff, excellent seafood, fun atmosphere

Cons: noisy toward the end of our meal

Posted 02/23/07

I booked a special valentines dinner, with a fixed price menu. We love seafood, so it seemed a great match. I scored a 6:45 dinner reservation and showed up on time, to a relatively quiet house, with about 20% of the tables seated. We were promptly seated, and given menus. The service stayed on par all night, although as it got crazier plates were just dropped at our tables with no interaction. And I mean "dropped". We ordered off the fixed menu, as well as an additional two appetizers; oysters and foie gras. At this point I should say, the food was excellent, every dish. However the fryer was broken and certain things were unavailable. Things happen, and I don't judge them by this. However, by the time we had finished our "extra" appetizers and got the ones that came with the meal, they were already out of what we had ordered (crab cakes and prawns). Now, this is at say 7:30. How they ran out of items on a fixed menu a mere 2 hours into service when it was a slow start anyways, well I just don't know. The rest of our food trickled out at approximately 25 minute intervals, except for dessert, which came promptly after we ordered it, albeit the entire meal took 2 hours to serve. Thats 2 appetizers each, main course, and dessert. And these aren't big servings, but good fare at a reasonable portion. 8 oysters, foie gras, a single crab cake, and both of us having a fish selection for dinner. It was a little too much time to pass between courses. As far as the rest of the experience, the restaurant was clean and urban feeling. The tables were too close for my taste, as we spent most of the evening yelling at each other to be heard over the other diners and the way too loud music. We asked for the check when we ordered dessert, so we could eat it and get out. So, Service: 3.5 out of 5, Food, 5 out of 5, Ambience: 2 out of 5, Price 4 out of 5. If your looking for great, slightly pricey seafood in a very loud, hurried, cramped enviroment, this is your place!

Pros: Delicious Food

Cons: Way Too Loud, Cramped, and Slow.

Posted 02/13/07

I have eaten at Yabbie's many times and always find it to be a quality experience. I think as long as you stick with the more au naturel preparations of fresh fish and the raw bar, you will have an excellent experience. I have been less of a fan of the more baroque preparations such as saucy seafood pastas. The service is not the most polished but is always friendly and more or less on it, which is what really matters. As long as they don't change what they are doing with their fresh fish and raw bar, I will continue to be a customer.

Pros: food

Cons: tad expensive

Posted 01/30/07

We went here on a Friday night - scene was relatively quiet, but at least you could have a conversation. The food was awesome - all of our seafood was fresh and delicious. The service, however, was aloof and actually pretty bizarre. Our waiter was very entranced by the girl at the next table wearing a tight red halter top than he was with taking our order. We didn't get a wine list, he almost spilled water all over me, and asked us if we wanted coffee or dessert after we had paid the bill and were on our way out. Keep your head in the game, man! Would have felt much more positive with better service.

Posted 12/10/06

This was recommended by more than one local and we loved it. We were in town for the night and didn't want a tourist trap meal. We wanted a neighborhood, relaxing restaurant. The waitress was GREAT....food was DELICIOUS. I would go back in a heartbeat.

Pros: service, raw bar, selection

Cons: a full bar WOULD rock, more quality wines would be good too

Posted 11/19/06

This is a house specialty and once you order it, you will know why. The broth is so flavorful and fresh, with a smoky tomato taste that pairs perfectly with the seafood. It will be hard for me to order anything else from here on out - and that is a shame, because all of their seafood dishes are great. The service is friendly and helpful, and they have some interesting wines by the glass. Try the Sonoma Cutrer if you like chardonnay. You've got to go!

Pros: Great atmosphere and of course the seafood

Cons: Don't even thinking about parking around here. Cab it!

Posted 11/16/06

Seriously is the best Seafood restaurant in San Francisco, If is not in California, the service is friendly and with a really good knowledge of the food and wine list that is actually great. I had the seafood fettutine was unbealiavable and the waiter described all the ingredients in it and by the way he was gorgeous !! lol I think he was from Italy or something, nice guy, the price I thing is average comparing to San Francisco life style.

Posted 11/11/06

I live in close by and have been going to this restaurant when it opened. I kept going even after the food went down hill over the past couple of years. I kept going when the wine list went from really good to just average. However, with the dive in the quality of the raw bar.....I will draw the line. Pesce just a few doors down outshines its fading illustrious neighbor in both quality and price. It is with years of being a loyal patron that I must say goodbye.

Posted 09/21/06

My boyfriend and I went to Yabbies for our anniversary. We loved the atmosphere, causal and comfortable, not too loud and we had a great corner table with pillows and all. However, we were slightly disappointed by our dinner selection, the large seafood platter. The oysters and mussels were a bit too fishy tasting and the kitchen puts the items on what seems to be a dry ice mixture so some things were frozen. For $60 we were not very happy. Overall, I would give it another try but would def. order a different item from the menu.

Pros: Atmosphere

Cons: Seafood Platter

Posted 09/17/06

Me and my friend went here last night at around 6pm and ordered the "regular" seafood platter. The 1/2 crab was ok. The prawns was pretty good. However, the platter did not impress me with it's quality. The clams were especially bad, in fact might be spoiled. The 6 oysters that came with it, only 2 was edible(since they give you a mix, I asked what the edible one was and the server had no idea). Others seems to just be a thin membrane. The cerviche was made edible with the addition of avocado(ladened on top). The main courses might be better, I thought the linguini seemed ok, with the caveat of what I mentioned about the clams being not fresh. I went to this place 5 years ago and now know why I never went back. However, this restaurant is quite popular which says something about the sad state of affairs of dining in San Francisco.

Posted 09/04/06

My date and I had a great meal at Yabbies last night. We didn't have a reservation but the staff were very accommadating. The poke was amazing. So were the mussels in a smoked tomato broth...delicious! The entrees were tasty. I think the Ciopino was very flavorful and the hot crab my date had very was yummy. The wine list was varied. There were some inbteresting options by the glass.
The only thing is it was very loud we could barely hear overselves. Apart from that the food was worth returning for, the service was really good, friendly but not overbearing and competant.
I will return!

Pros: Great food and service

Cons: Very noisy

Posted 09/03/06

After hearing many good things about Yabbies, through friends and this website, my girlfriend and I had dinner there one evening and found the restaurant to be rather average in most ways. Our dinner started of well with the arrival of the tuna poke appetizer that we had heard was a must have, but unfortunately soon digressed to as the restaurant became increasingly busier, as both the food and service became increasingly hurried and piecemeal. My girlfriend ordered the salmon, which was overdone and had some sort of oddly matched, oversized, potato cake served with it. The whole dish kind of missed its mark altogether. And I ordered the halibut, which turned out to be just rather bland. In addition to the entrees being lackluster, the service became increasingly absent with our waters never being refilleddespite asking on two separate occasionsand the side dish we ordered to accompany our meal was forgotten altogether. Overall, I would say the experience was rather mediocre and defiantly not worth the expense. If youre into seafood I would recommend that you skip Yabbies, there are plenty of other options for quality seafood in this city.

Pros: Tuna poke was good.

Cons: Everthing else.

Posted 08/24/06

My husband and I ate at Yabbies last Saturday on a whim and we loved it. We didn't have a reservation but the nice hostess sat us at the bar, we had great service. The server recommended the cevice, the tuna tartar, the trout and the halibut. DELICIOUS flavors. The best tuna poke I've ever had (we're often in hawaii) and good wines by the glass. We used to live in the neighborhood and went to Yabbies frequently. Now we live in Potrero and were on Polk for furniture shopping. It was even better than we remember.

Pros: Friendly Service, Great Raw Bar, Lively Atmosphere

Cons: Parking

Posted 05/10/06

Not the same Restaurant compared to a year ago. I think it was sold. They must have cut corners to make more money from the residual fame of the previous Restaurant. The food has become very very bland to say the least. And at the same prices.....just not worth what is served there now.

-Nice Try

Pros: Not any more

Cons: Expensive, Tasteless, Con

Posted 05/08/06

Seafood platters are amazing! The service is super friendly and casual. I been going to Yabbies for years and the food get better and better. Try the trout and halibut, you'll love it.....

Posted 10/21/05

I lived in SF 3 years never having been to this place, and I have no idea why! On a trip back it seemed a propos as a good dinner spot to connect with friends, and Yabbie's is now on my list of favorites. The tuna with sticky rice dinner seems to be the best meal to order, but based on what the others ordered it does seem you can't go wrong. Beer lover or wine delighter, you'll enjoy this place. It's casual/chic and good quality.

Pros: Food, Seafood, Oysters

Posted 09/13/05

I went here and my 2 girlfriends and I thoroughly enjoyed ourselves... they have a good wine list and we devoured the smoked cioppino (i've never had it smoked before), the halibut and seabass. The fish was exceptionally fresh, especially for a random weekday. We weren't terribly crazy about the soup of the day, I believe it was some type of squash puree topped w/ a jalapeno.. we both thought it needed more salt. service was helpful.

Pros: fresh seafood, good wine list

Cons: HARD parking

Posted 05/29/05

I'd heard nothing but good things and they were all understated. Everything was delicious.

Posted 05/21/05

This is my favorite restaurant in the city. The service is always great, the food never disappoints. The seared tuna dish is the best I have ever had. Do not miss Yabbies! Great date spot.

Pros: Foof, Service

Cons: Parking

Posted 05/10/05

I never had a chance to eat here while i was living up in SF, but had dinner here visiting up from LA. It made me miss the SF dinning experience. Great atmosphere, very casual, good wine list and a diverse menu. The dayboat scallop appetizer was tasty - but i wish there were more than 2 scallops. Main dishes were great - however, the daily special sea bass was a little salty. Good date or group place.

Posted 02/21/05

The food and service here were much better than anticipated. This is a small neighborhood place that, like so many places in SF, deliver a cut above. The food is fresh and unique, the service friendly, and the wine list a nice surprise. Parking is not easy so do yourself a favoe and take a cab.

Pros: good value

Cons: parking

Posted 01/30/05

Everything here is fabulous, from the service to the atmosphere to (most importantly) the food. The tuna poke is wonderful, incredibly fresh, and quite a good value for the amount of fish. I LOVE the linguine and clams and the cioppino is also terrific. The flavors are rich, yet not overpowering. We love a nice Chimay with our seafood (especially the poke) and I'm happy to have discovered that Yabbies offers one. This place is, in a word, wonderful.

Pros: Great service, Wonderful food, Fresh seafood

Posted 08/11/04

Yabbies is, by far, the best seafood restaurant I've been to in SF. Fortunately for us we live but a few blocks away. Whether you're a local or a visitor, you absolutely have to try this place out. I've had the poke, peel and eat shrimp, cioppino, bacon wrapped trout, Maine hake, fish and chips, linguine with clams, fried calamari, lobster cocktail.... *everything* is superb. Great atmosphere at a table or the bar, great wine list and if the beer on tap was any colder it would be frozen solid.

Pros: worth the price, freshest seafood, casual/comfortable

Posted 03/21/04

we ate hear months ago and i still think of the tuna / poke often, it was so incredible. surprisingly reasonable prices.

Pros: reasonable, cute crowd

Cons: not good for kids

Posted 01/15/04

being new to the city my fiance and i decided to use city search to find a good place to get some seafood. we decided on yabbies. we were sat immediatly at the cool looking concrete oysterbar and smooth operator was playing on the stereo! acting on a suggestion given to us by a fellow oyster lover we decied to start off with a dozen miyagis. bummer dude, they had the consistancy of pre chewed bean curd. our waitress with the sometimes english accent was freindly and gave good service. the sesame tuna was pretty standard, but the sauce with it was unbearably tart. the halibut was delicious.

Posted 08/08/03

Great Poke. Make sue you make a reservation. Oyster bar is fun to sit at if you can't get a reservation. The waitresses are overworked and not enough of them so the service is slow! Actually pretty lousy service most of the time. Don't ever go to this place for new year's dinner. It was really lousy. Actually it was a joke how bad new year's dinner was and how much it really showed their vulnerable side. Skip the lobster at Yabbie's. They have no idea how to prepare a lobster unless you like it overcooked or raw. Good luck. It's a pot luck type of place. Sometimes good; Sometimes Bad.

Pros: great seafood, poke a must, beautiful bar

Cons: service, owner ooesn't care, very loud

Posted 07/12/03

Yabbies has got to be the best seafood place one can afford to frequent more than a few times a year. The relaxed atmosphere hasn't made it to the kitchen, which is constantly coming up with new dishes that keep me coming back. It's also not too tough to make a reservation (and service at the bar is great if you don't want to try). For these reasons, Yabbies has become our default location for a great dinner that doesn't break the bank. It is also a good place to bring out-of-town guests who came to the coast to try great seafood but might be intimidated by high prices or high-falutin' scenes. And after those wimps leave, go back again for the poke - it really is the best.

Pros: Relaxed atmosphere, poke, other great seafood

Posted 04/17/03

A real surprise. Great, fresh fish prepared & presented very nicely.
Our pretty picky symphony dinner group really liked it - everyone was impressed.
I felt it was also a very good value !
Enjoy it.

Pros: friendly, good ambiance, good value

Cons: parking

Posted 03/10/03

Had a fantastic meal at Yabbies. The atmosphere was great, the service was really professional and the food was sensational. The place was packed but the meals came out quickly and the whole restaurant seemed to be having a good time. I'll be back soon.

Posted 01/18/03

I had heard some mixed reports about this restaurant and have to say stay away unless you like the following;

A. A wait of over 45 minutes longer on a Friday when we had reservations for 4.
B. A rude hostess who blatanly ignored my friends and myself.
C. Seated patrons, whom seemed to be chummy with the owner/manager while they did not have reservations, before us.
D. Ordered a dish that took our waitress 20 minutes to tell us that they were now out of it in the kitchen.
E. Overpriced, run-of-the-mill shellfish at the raw bar (did I forget they were out of the Malpec oysters that we had ordered but were never told they had run out).
F. Overpriced entrees that lack flavor and are oversauced.
Otherwise everything was great.

Posted 12/18/02

The food was wonderful! We had some great appetizers....the tuna and the calamari. The seafood entrees are "melt in your mouth" good. Especially the Chilean Sea Bass! We will definately dine here again when we make another trip to San Fran! The only negative was that the menu on their website is very outdated! My husband was looking forward to a particular dish from the website menu and was disappointed to learn that hadn't been served at the resaurant in over a year! He was very pleased with what he ended up ordering though.

Pros: great food, good atmosphere, casual

Posted 12/03/02

We've been to Yabbies many, many times and have never been disappointed. They've always found a seat for us, the poke is consistently awesome, and the atmosphere is comfortable, friendly, and classy all at once. It's a standby for when the in-laws come to town or whenever we want to sneak in for an early dinner.

Posted 10/03/02

We had been to Yabbies once before in April and enjoyed it. This weekend my parents are in town and I wanted an early dinner with them. Tonight could not have been better. The food was terrific! Service was great! We have many wonderful choices in S.F. and this one will be added near the top of our list! P.S. The lamb chops were wonder!

Posted 09/05/02

We shared the tuna poke appetizer--a very hearty portion and very delicious--not too spicy and not overpowering at all. I had the sea bass and it was tender and flavorful, a really great mix of flavors, nothing too strong. The tempura green beans and the baby bok choi were excellent compliments. My friend had the halibut and it also was very good. The combination of the halibut with the polenta was excellent, a much better choice than potatoes would have been. The sauce was delicious as well. The halibut was strong but the sea bass was the star. We shared a cobbler--it was EXCELLENT. Often, cobblers are overpowered by sugar and the topping, but they let the delicate fruit flavors lead the dish--the small scoop of gelato was a wonderful top to one of the best cobblers I've ever had. Our server was really attentive.

Pros: fresh food, service, balance of flavors

Cons: parking

Posted 09/05/02

I was looking at my most recent Wine Spectator and saw Yabbies received and award for their wine list. We had never been so we gave it a try. The wine list was filled with many names I had never heard of so our very helpful waiter convinced us to try the Castalia Pinot Noir. It was amazing. We had not eaten here before and really came to try the wine but the food was just as good. We both ordered a snapper dish and it was really good. I look forward to going back and trying some other wines and food.

Pros: wine list

Cons: very busy

Posted 08/10/02

I ordered the Tuna Poke for an appetizer and it was so good I ordered another for my dinner. My husband had oysters which were good and a snapper dish that he really enjoyed. The room is very nice and our server was very attentive even though it was really busy. It was my first time but since we now live close by we will return often.

Pros: casual

Posted 08/06/02

I took my out of town family to this place and the wait for our (and it seemed everyone else around us) dinner was an hour! The food was also disappointing as the seabass was overcooked and too salty and the halibut was dry. The place is also quite loud, too, so having a conversation with five people wasn't easy. thumbs down.

Cons: slow service, loud

Posted 07/24/02