St. Francis Yacht Club

An old school new Englandy club on the water. Lots of event space her. Food was plentiful and good, especially the bbq. And crab cakes.
Solid place for an event for an older crowd.

Ok, I was just informed by someone that the Club is now available to non-​members (however, pricing may be different). Good luck!!!

My sister invited our family to an early father’s day dinner on a typical foggy San Francisco evening. It’s set away at the end of Marina Blvd., near a patch of grass where we used to play in a corporate volleyball league. The parking lot is large and there is a driveway for dropping off and picking up guests, especially convenient for disabled and senior guests.
The club is exclusive so only members may dine here or reserve tables for friends and relatives. There is a dress code requiring men to wear jackets and women to dress in appropriate attire. After a twenty minute wait on the sofas near the bar, we were seated at a large circular table for thirteen just a few feet away. Our kind waitress took the drink orders and a young waiter took our meal orders. There was nothing seriously wrong with dinner or service, just random flubs throughout.
Here’s what I had:
Appetizer
French onion soup (
) — Love the gooey cheesy top though wished that it were browned a little more. The broth was very good and slightly warmer than lukewarm.
Entrée
New York steak with baked potato and roasted cauliflower (
) — Cooked a bit rarer than I expected as some parts had a slight purple hue, but that is fine by me. The cauliflower didn’t really stand out (more seasoning?) though they were roasted to a nice color. The baked potato was naked and made me wish they had the HOPR condiment selection (butter, sour cream, chives, and bacon) to spruce things up a bit.
I enjoyed the food and the price is extremely reasonable, given the rising costs and prices everywhere else. Guess those membership dues help soften the blow here.
On the service side, I never received my iced tea and actually forgot about it until I finished my entrée. Also, when my soup came, it did not come with a soup spoon so I asked the server for one. After a few minutes of waiting, I decided to use my coffee/​dessert spoon and dig in before my soup was cold.
Located on the 2^nd floor of the yacht club, the dining room has a postcard view of the bay and our landmark Golden Gate Bridge. It was a bit foggy so the bridge was not clearly visible until we finished our meal and the sun had set.
Yes, I hope to be invited here again (thanks, sis) and hope that the entire experience next time will be of a four or five star variety.

Husband and I were invited to a wedding here. Gorgeous view of the bay! We arrived very early because I made the cupcakes for the wedding. We checked in at the desk and the wedding coordinator was called to meet with us. We got help bringing everything in by the staff. I was given some space in the prep room to decorate my cupcakes. Everyone was very nice and extremely helpful. The food was fantastic. Multiple serving stations. Appetizers were meat and grilled vegetables. Main course was prime rib, turkey carving station, salad, made to order pasta station, and tacos. Delicious. Probably a once in a lifetime opportunity to go to a place like this for a wedding too! So glad we got the opportunity.

The location of this venue is priceless. I enjoyed my lunch (Clippership Room) with a beautiful view of the Golden Gate Bridge to the left and Alcatraz to the right. I ordered the Clippership Burger and fries (Ciabatta bun and fresh cut fries) which was delicious. The servings are large (almost good for 2). The staff was friendly and took the time to introduce themselves.

Came here for my company’s holiday party this year. The location is priceless and the view is wonderful. The food and service was impeccable. I loved their dishes and I’m impressed on their catering abilities to keep up the quality on food. The place seems homey and yet exclusive. I would love to have an opportunity to return.

I’m a member to the Del Rey Yacht Club in Marina del Rey California and the Saint Francis Yacht Club is as well beautiful the food is great the service is fantastic and the views are absolutely spectacular. If you are a member to any of these particular Yacht Clubs I highly suggest in making an afternoon lunch out of it.

My husband and I had dinner there last night with friends (members) and we enjoyed a very memorable evening! My seafood risotto was excellent and contained just the right amount of scallops and shrimp. The scallops were large, tender and cooked to perfection and the shrimp was grilled nicely. My husband enjoyed the prime rib and we both indulged in excellent desserts: the Laura Chenel goat cheese cheesecake (topped with a dark cherry compote) and the peach crisp a la mode. YUM!!!
Service was great (with Jessica as our server) and the views do the GG Bridge, Sausalito and Tiburon breathtaking.
Definitely a fun and tasty evening!

Delicious seafood buffet. We enjoyed our trip very much, thank you St. Francis!

It is very unfortunate that a place that deserves 5 stars only gets 1 because of asinine management policies. The staff provided excellent service during our dinner and the seafood buffet was fantastic. I was invited there by a good friend who is a member of the Sausalito Yacht Club and he took his boat over there. I had been there several times before and my friend many times. He made reservations for dinner and we ended up being 10 adults and 4 kids. He was not informed about the dress code, which is no jeans or shorts and men need to wear a jacket. Now here’s the kicker; the dining room is a wide open space, but it’s divided into two areas, one formal and one for the serfs, but everyone mingles at the buffet, however where you sit and eat determines how you must be dressed. Are you getting this? So I personally had to borrow a pair of pants, my 9-​year old son was given an adult jacket to wear and borrow a pair of pants from my friends daughter. Again, the seafood buffet was fantastic and the personnel was very good and courteous. Now we get to the part when we pay the bill. Before paying my friend went to the reception to obtain a guest card (he had just showed them his membership card from his club across the Bay for us to be seated). We get the bill and there’s a service charge of 35%. (On a $ 740 check the service charge came out to $ 259.) Outrageous! On the guest card it states that for non-​members there’s a 20% service charge for all food and beverages and then an additional 15% service charge for any «items» purchased. You would think that if the second 15% fee really was to be added to a meal they would have just lumped the two together. The manager admitted that what we said made sense but that she couldn’t do anything about it. On top of that they calculated the sales tax on the meal including the previously mentioned service charge. Again, such a shame that this place have such policies in place. Do they really think this is good for business?

Customer service here is absolutely awful. You know how you go into a place and you can tell that something’s wrong just by the disposition of the staff? That’s this place in spades. The food service is extremely slow as well but if you dare break one of their archaic rules the guy who hasn’t been refilling your glass for the last hour will get right up in your face about it. Awful awful awful awful awful.

The view from the clipper deck dining room of the Golden Gate, alcatraz, and San Francisco Bay is second to none here. It’s clear that St. Francis is a serious yacht club, part of the four elite clubs in the US. The food was 2.5 stars maybe but the view was a five so I will rate it a 4 here.
The club house itself has a old time feel to it. Lots of white and model boats. The parking is actually decent even if you are not using club parking.

Service was so so…
I enjoyed the grounds. However, since I was a guest of a member… I was treated as such.

The St. Francis is the Palace of Sailing!
This summer we attended the Heavy Weather Opti Regatta (3-​day youth sailing event) and wow do these folks know how to put on a regatta! This shouldn’t surprise given that they have 150 regatta days a year, but we were also hugely impressed with how we were treated all weekend (thanks to reciprocal yacht club benefits.)
We were given access to the «race room» and the race deck above, not to mention their bar/​restaurant with incredible views and the best shrimp louie salads on the planet.
We sailed in recently with some friends for lunch and received the same stellar treatment. I’m sorry to hear about the smug treatment others have received but that was far from our experience. Looking forward to our next visit.

Came here for a company event as a guest. Customer service was horrible. Wait staff seemed like they just wanted to kick everyone out at the beginning of dinner. One bartender was very nice, helped look for something better than well since it was a complete open bar. Other staff could care less. If you want to host event, stay away from this place.
Food was subpar. Food came out lukewarm.
Not what I would expect from a yacht club.

Our large group was lucky enough to be hosted by the Rear Commodore on a Thursday evening in April.
There was a fruit and cheese bar and a taco bar for our dinner. After the taco bar was taken down, they put out desserts. The cheese bar was beautiful and well-​appointed with several different cheese, grilled veggies, fruits, assorted jams, and assorted crackers. The taco bar was less impressive, with fajita-​like chicken, tamales, flour tortillas, pico de gallo, guacamole, which seemed to be on par with your average chain Americanized Mexican food. The desserts were quite tasty (lemon squares, macarons, pots de crème, etc), and I appreciated that they were mostly small bites, since I was pretty full from the cheese table.
You go because of the amazing views of the bay (and presumably sailboats, though there weren’t any out when we were there) as seen through the floor to ceiling windows. But the «furnishings» around the building are equally impressive. Perhaps it’s because the Rear Commodore gave us a personal tour, and his excitement about showing off his 2^nd home is contagious. On every wall, there are paintings, photos, and models of sailing ships. The artwork is beautiful, but the engineer in me really loves the beauty in the precision and accuracy of the ship and hull models.
Find a way to make friends with a member and get yourself invited! Leave your jeans and cell phones in the car.

This is an establishment steeped in history and sailing lore. The views are incredible and the service is very nice. I was pleasantly surprised at how delicious the food was. It doesn’t have a touristy feeling but more a quiet place to retreat to get away from touristy stuff.
We will be back next time we’re in SF.

While the bay views outside the SFYC are absolutely STUNNING, the atmosphere inside the club building itself is stuffy, exclusive (read: snobby as hell), and really overbearing. It’s really off-​putting and the nose-​in-​the-​air experience inside the venue is really not worth the hellacious drive out to this part of SF, in my opinion.
My tip for those who want to enjoy the lovely views here is to pack a nice lunch, bring a loved one, and park near the club. You can walk along the water and sit down on the pavement enjoying sandwiches and cookies (and whatever else you had the foresight to pack) together. Some of the people here probably will tell you to shove off sooner or later, but I’m confident you can spend a good hour here just soaking in the views before anyone even notices.

I came here as a guest for a company event. This review is based on the experience and view of the location only.
The room that my company had rented oversees the Golden Gate bridge and you can also see the Alcatraz. At the time we had the event, there was people who was wind sufing and it was a great view. It was an amazing experience since my company had paid for the event and no out of pocket cost to me :). The food that was served was great! Had the 3 course meal and service was exceptional.
I did not give it a 5 star because I don’t know the pricings of the food and beverages.

The not so great part:
It’s in a far-​off part of the Marina where cabs never go, so it’ll be really hard to get to and from if you’re at an event where you’ll be having cocktails.
The absolutely fantastic part:
On a clear day, I truly believe this may be the best view in all of San Francisco. With the crashing waves and the bridge in the distance, this is the stuff people dream about when they think of this beautiful city.
So, I’d say the good definitely outweighs the bad. I don’t have a yacht but I had the chance to visit this locale for a wedding rehearsal dinner and we were lucky enough to have it on one of the warmest days of the year so far. It was absolutely breathtaking. As for the dinner and service, it was just fine — but it’s really all about the view!