Fisherman’s Wharf

We like strolling through here and just watching the crowds ebb and flow. People are usually enjoying the area and it’s nice to see families having a good time. The wharf is known for their chowder barkers — these are the staff that hand out samples of chowder and talk you into grabbing a bite at their location in favor of the others. While the chowder is almost indistinguishable, it’s typically the most personable barker that’s going to get your business. Once they realized we just stroll through here regularly they stopped using their best calls on us and just reduced to the simple friendly greeting.
There are a couple of beautiful views towards the back and beyond the boat tour embark points. Great photo ops and noticed concentrations of selfie-​stickers, so you know its a good spot. One neat thing about the back is that there is a piano locked to the wharf. While it may sound a bit out of tune from taking the weather beating — on a nice day you’ll see the occasional fisherman or passerby sit down on a bucket and jam which is pretty cool. Recommend making the walk down the wharf for the casual sight-​seer.

Great place to explore with friends and family. The wharf is split into two. One with the commercial boats and the other with restaurants and stores. Very touristy.

The main tourist area in Monterey. One of the cleaner and peaceful Fisherman’s Wharf’s I have been to.
Must pay for parking to park in this area.
Great area to walk your dog. Not crowded. A few places to eat here or you can walk down to Cannery Row, which has a ton of places to eat and drink wine.

Great place to venture to if you’re a tourist in the area.
There are two different «piers». The marina with its more commercial fishing boats that a lot of non-​locals like myself get confused with going to. And one further down the road that’s more touristy with gift shops and restaurants.
The restaurants offer free samples of their clam chowder, and try to lure you in the their ocean view seating areas. This pier is nothing like San Fransisco or Santa Monica piers but still nice to stroll around and visit.

This is my favorite area in Monterey: beautiful bay scene, lovely atmosphere, and lots of seafood — Definitely the last part because as a huge seafood fan, how can I deny this place? Even if you don’t intend to splurge on seafood here, Fisherman’s Wharf is still a great place to stroll around especially in a beautiful sunny day or during sunset. Feel the relaxing vibe that this wharf has to offer and walk by the windows and stands of delicious food tempting you.
Don’t feel bad if you fall into temptation! Here, you will be able to find food of various price range. My recommendations are Grotto Fish Market for cheap seafood (especially during the afternoon for happy hour) and Fisherman’s Grotto for fancier seafood. Of course, you can’t miss the famous Brittany’s Crêpe, but unless you come in the morning, most likely it’s already closed because it’s sold out for the day.
Anyway, come on by for lunch or dinner and enjoy Monterey Bay!
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PARKING:
Parking is relatively reasonable in this area. The closest lot is $ 1 per half-​hour, but its proximity to the actual wharf makes it perfect for a quick hit-​and-​quit. If you plan to eat a meal, go for the slightly further Marina Lot #2 for $ 1.50 per hour.
If you are really cheap, you can maybe find free street parking few blocks away.
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tl;dr version:
1) Beautiful wharf to stroll through
2) Great seafood options of various price ranges

I’ve been coming here since I was a kid in the 70’s. Pretty much the same stores and restaurants. I miss the organ grinder and monkey. For a quarter he/​she would give you a kiss (the monkey). It’s nice to walk down the wharf and sample all the chowders and look in the shops. There is even a live theater if you know where to look. Charter tours available and events in the square. Don’t miss Carousel Candy shop and Fish and Chips Café.

It’s one of the regular tourist destinations, if you’ve been to the Fisherman’s Wharf at San Francisco, you probably won’t find it special, but it still makes a nice visit.
If you’re planning to dine here, make sure to Unilocal the place first to make sure it’s not just based on tourist foot traffic. Sometimes the food is just awful, I think going with clam chowder is a safe bet and usually tasty.
We came here for a quick stroll since we were straying at Cannery Row. On the way, we got to see a few otters and seals which was super fun, they’re hard to spot but keep looking and you’ll find them, they’re near the kelp forests.

We were only there for an evening walk, but have been here before. All of the restaurants were giving out free samples of their clam chowder. It was fun to taste all the different varieties. We got a nice piece of smoked salmon. There were many restaurants to choose from. We went during Christmas time so it was nice to see the boats decorated in lights.

This fisherman’s wharf is not as poppin as the fisherman’s wharf in san francisco, BUT most of the restaurants here hand out free samples of their clam chowders so you can choose which one you like best before taking your chance with one of the restaurants! Plus, any restaurant you choose will have ocean view seats! A great way to enjoy lunch is to slowly sip on some clam chowder while watching the calm waters.

Monterey’s Fisherman’s Wharf is aLriiiiiiight. It does the job but doesn’t even come cLose to what San Francisco has to offer.
Teeny tiny strip but tons of eateries to choose from.
The perks of having so much to choose from, most restaurants are giving away cLam chowder sampLes at every corner in order to outshine the rest of the competition.
Nice pLace to enjoy with the famiLy or on a rendezvous with your boo. I wouLdn’t consider this pLace a good idea if you were trying to find an ‘aLL day’ trip because it gets pretty pLayed out quickLy– it’s good spot to come to if you have a few hours to kiLL.

Definitely a nice, touristy place to bring your friends and family and take in the sights…
There are plenty of restaurants to choose from, and plenty of which offer certain deals on certain days, especially the weekends… there’s also candy stores and souvenir stores here as well as the kiosk or whatever you call it, that you meet up at to dock on the boat that takes you whale-​watching…
At the very end of the strip is a restaurant that has an upper deck that leads you to an ocean view… you can watch people paddle-​boarding, chillin’ on their boats, and seals barking.
Adjacent to the strip is the boat harbor itself… a little further down is the beach…
Shuttle service is offered to those who parked a way’s out from the wharf, or if you’re coming from Cannery Row…
The only thing I don’t like about this wharf is having to pay for parking despite the fact that my family and I went on a weekend… just spending a little over 1.5 hours on the wharf already cost me close to 4 bux… other than that, I always enjoy spending time here…

Came to Monterey with my family on Labor Day weekend to go fishing on the pier. The parking was full and luckily I was able to find a parking spot close to the Sapporo restaurant. It was a nice Saturday to be out with the fam. Perfect weather to hit the beach.
Enjoyed the late night walks at the Fisherman’s Wharf and checking out all the shops and restaurants. It’s almost winter season and a hot chocolate and clam chowder on a sourdough bun is a must. If you love fresh shucked oysters you definitely need to hit up The Grotto Fish Market. There are several restaurants to choose from but this cute little place caught my attention. I have the biggest cravings for oysters and I enjoy the freshness and the taste of the sea. The oysters are $ 2 each. Expensive! Yes, but it’s definitely worth the taste. I ordered the fanny bays and blue points and voilà I was on cloud nine. Thanks to oysters for its wandering palate, nutrients and for always satisfying my cravings.
There are several restaurants that offers clam chowder but there was one place where it was very creamy and well seasoned. From Crépes of Brittany, I ordered a hot chocolate but it wasn’t even hot. It was not rich in chocolate and it tasted very watered down.
Overall, it was a fun scenery. If you want to avoid paying so much for parking, then I suggest come at 6pm and pay few bucks because there is FREE parking after 8pm.

Nice little walk, pretty different contrast in style compared to cannery row. Much like cannery row you have your mom and pop shops but the wharf emphasizes the seafood aspect of local Monterey fishing. They have numerous fish and shrimp cocktail vendors along with some fine dining if your in the mood to sit down for awhile. Love the open vibe, best of all they are fairly inexpensive with the various walk up shrimp bars. Compare to San Fran’s famous pier 39 or friscos version of the wharf, Monterey doesn’t compare. However the intimate and small town feel will have you coming back. Love the views from here and you also have the pop up arts and crafts on some weekends for the summer. Not bad, a bit of a drive from the bay, but you gotta love that close community feel fro the locals.

Old, historic, colorful, noisy, I loved walking on the wharf and checking out all the shops and restaurants. There are so many places to grab a bite, plus, that (overpriced) Carousel candy shop where they make salt water taffy on the spot, so cool! We saw a pair of seals out in the water doing some kinda seal-​play, one ducking underwater and then popping up and the other chasing it around. Honestly, I could watch that for hours. Ok maybe not hours, but 30 minutes, yeah.
There were also seals hanging around the boat with the dude that cleaned fish. I guess people catch/​buy fish and bring their load to him for cutting/​cleaning. He was swift and he had his first mate on board, a little black dog that barked at the seals if they came close!
You can book whale-​watching tours here, which sell out fast (or so I was told by the folks inside…). They have other boat rides here; there was one with a glass bottom so you could see what was swimming around under you. No thanks.
There is plenty of parking but you’ll have to pay for it. I think we payed $ 5 for 2 hours. The permit machines take credit cards, if that helps at all.
Once you’re over Cannery Row, come check out the Wharf. It’s a nice change of atmosphere.

Nice place to hangout with family and friends if you want a place that has an ocean vibe to it. I personally love the vintage looking stores since I am a sucker for their cute appearance. The parking costs money, so what I did was park a bit further down which was free. There are plenty of souvenir stores and restaurants that have seafood and your favorite. Guess what it is; clam chowder! Check it out if you’re in the area.

A touristy vibe, this is a lovely walk on a sunny day. If you want to eat, you’re going to have a lot of competition for your money. There are hawkers at every restaurant calling out to you, offering you samples of their wares, because they have the «Best» what ever on the pier. I have never seen such blatant hucksterism since Ren Faire.
There are different types of merchandise shops all over, from Jewelry to souvinere shops, you can find it here, even ice cream. And if you want to go whale watching, you’ll be happy to catch a boat right from the dock.
Listen to the happy ‘laughter’ of a couple of harbor seals as they bask in the sun and swim in the harbor too. They’re a jovial lot as they lounge about. I do have a bit of a soft spot for seals.

Sure, Fisherman’s Wharf is touristy and a bit pricey but with the eye popping views, seals floating around everywhere and cool fishing vessels made up for it. Every restaurant hawking their chowder samples, you can literally have lunch by trying all the samples.
Being a tourist destination it was surprising to see the clothing gift shops were competitively priced for shirts, jackets, fleece’s etc. Also a good chocolate store that had a nice assortment of candy, nuts etc.
Not a place to spend a lot of time in but for a couple hours was nice.

I call this a tourists trap.
===Plenty of seafood restaurants with expensive prices.
===Parking is expensive if you plan on spending entire day.
===They do offer whale watching trips.
===There are boat owners that will offer to take you on a trip for a price.
===Public bathrooms (the green color ones) like the ones you find at construction sites.
===The views are nice but I have seen much better.
I eat chowder here but I don’t know if I will dine in any of these places.
I suggest you go to cannery row and dine at The Sardine Factory or other nice places away from the Pier.

Fisherman’s Wharf in Monterey is a tourist destination that I wanted to visit while in the area. It’s definitely ‘touristy’ with the gift shops but I was prepared.
What I like about places along the water is the seafood dining. You can walk a few feet to the various restaurants and get samples of their clam chowder at every place. Being a lover of clam chowder, I was smiling. It also made it hard to choose which place to eat.
During our weekday visit, it wasn’t very busy but a nice place to stroll. I wouldn’t say this wharf is over the top fantastic but I was glad to visit and cross it off of the list.

It’s fun to walk along the wharf but be prepared for everyone hawking the seafood.
You can a. ignore them. b. Try it all c. Try some.
We actually have tried some and opt to go to Sea Harvest for SeaFood. :)
The shops are fun to browse for the souvenir stuff. As mentioned before if you want to go whale watching etc. You can find a your from here. You can see Harbour Seals on the docks.
It’s not as impressive as some wharfs but it’s still fun to wander along and look.
Then take a stroll along the waterline untoward cannery row.

Clam Shoder empfehlenswert am Chinesen Stand. Ein Muss in San Francisco. Seelöven am Pier 39. Alcatraz Tour. Klamotten sind hier zu teuer.