Waiheke Island Yacht Club is the pop-up restaurant that has opened up on Pier 29 this summer to celebrate the America’s Cup. It’s supposed to be fine New Zealand Dining in San Francisco.
Let me save you time and money. It stinks! Here’s the first thing that came to mind when my entree of free range pork came out. Thank God this place is temporary! The entree was appetizer-sized and looked like sliced vienna sausages. It was disgusting. Every single food item we put in our mouths was horrendous.
Think about it. The food that’s being brought in is not local. The chefs were cutting the fish out of freeze-dried packages. Duh! Not sure what I was expecting, but let’s just say I was sorely disappointed.
They’ve got their marketing and PR cranked to ultra-high because everyone knows about this restaurant. Very sad that the poor food quality doesn’t match the expense. The one great thing about the pop-up restaurant is that they are required to serve California wine because of a partnership between the America’s Cup and Napa wineries. Hallelujah, at least we could wash down the yucky food with damn good wine.
A look at our $99 bill:
$9 bottle of sparkling water
$19 glass of Hall merlot
$4 bread
$15 prawns
$20 pork (vienna sausages)
$32 rib-eye fillet
After we left, I was jonesing for pizza. How bad is that? Go for happy hour, diss the food!
Great review! You had me laughing so hard! “Thank God it’s temporary!” Bwahahahaha!! How often to people really tell it like it is?!! You rock!! –Lisa
Thanks Lisa. Whenever I have a bad experience somewhere, I always get online to tell people to AVOID!
That is a shame, but loved how you ended it with, “Go to Happy Hour, diss the food!” And you are right, you know it is bad if you still want pizza afterwards!!
It’s pretty pathetic to still be hungry after spending $100+! Oh what us city folk will spend to try out new restaurants.
What a shame! I saw all the prep work for the America’s Cup when we were in SF last month. I’ve never been to a pop up restaurant but it is such a cool concept. Hopefully most of them are better than this one.
Most pop-ups are actually really good. But I should have known that food shipped in from the other side of the world isn’t going to be fresh and tasty!
As you said, at least the terrible food was partially mitigated by the great wine. A glass (or bottle) of Hall merlot can improve any meal!
I love Hall! Expensive, but so worth it. All their wine is high quality. Can’t go wrong with any glass of Hall.