Bay View Restaurant

$ 15.95 for for the buffet. This buffet is only one meal with no real chose. Today it was mashed patatoes, salad, roll, beans, chicken or pork. Food was subpar at best. Paper plates and plastic ware. Unattractive decore. No ice for the drinks which are either water or ice tea which are served from buckets which are out side. Long lines for drinks. The have a bar and will charge $ 1.75 for a can of coke? You get pretty much the exact same meal for dinner but at a $ 27 price. The place is not nice to look at and the sevice is bad. Take your Marine to the PX center instead. They have all kinds of food at stands like hot dogs and ice cream, puzza and the like. Bay View is over priced and just not good food.

We got married at the Bayview in June and it was absolutely perfect! Our guests loved the venue and had a wonderful time. Ralph and Amy did a fantastic job in managing the event. I couldn’t have been happier!

The restaurant is located on the MCRD and I suggest you use your GPS.
They hosted the «Drill Instructor» dinner for the families of the new graduating class of Marines and also lunch on «Family Day.» Make reservations and arrive early! You can visit their website or call.
The seating is basically «family style» so you will likely be sharing your table and have the opportunity to meet other Marine families. The outside of the facility is beautiful with great views of the bay. The inside is a bit dated, but has a cool «California Mission» style feel.
They staff is super friendly and very accommodating.
The food is either served buffet style or limited to a choice based on the event. It’s good and the portions generous. A steak dinner with all the sides and dessert was $ 21.95 per, very affordable for families of Marines. The open bar features local brewery’s with beer on tap $ 4.00…I recommend one for each hand because the line to the bar is a bit long!

Bad! Stay away! Food is buffet style. My friend graduated from boot camp at the marine depot and we went here for lunch. All the food came out raw! The beef, chicken EVERYTHING. We thought it may have just been our luck and our plates. We went back to get more food about half an hour later and it was just as bad. I would strongly encourage going somewhere else. Fast food would be even better.

Came to the bay view for a wedding reception.
Food was very good. Buffet offerings: The mashed potatoes were a bit salty and the prime rib a little over done. The bowls of horseradish cream sauce and a deep trough of au jus made up for it. The veggies were a little neon in color. For a wedding buffet it was better than average.
The best item were the meatballs that were served during cocktail hour. The cheese tray was confusing as it had low quality sliced cheese but a HUGE wheel of Brie as well as several chunks of bouison STILL IN THE WRAPPING!!! what the? Weird.
I hope the bride and groom didn’t pay for that.
The sangria bar was kinda cool, but I think they saved money by Leaving the alcohol out of the sangria (even though it was labeled 21 and up) which made it NOT sangria. Weird.
Wait staff was pleasant and attentive.
Bartender was professional yet very personable.
Beautiful location.
But the smell outside the kitchen in the rear lot… what the?
It smells like a sewer.
Ew.

My new wife and I just had our wedding here last week. It is absolutely the best deal and the location/​setting could not be better. The Bay View has a stunning lawn that overlooks the bay for the ceremony. We had a large wedding with 170 guests and everyone was impressed with the food quality and it was served still HOT! Excellent staff.
Zarghona was the coordinator for the venue and she was on top of everything. Communication was great with her leading up to the big day and even was able to help resolve a guest attendance issue the day of. Big thank you to her for helping make our special day run flawless.
There bartenders were also amazing, we met Dawn when we went down for the tasting and she was very personable. She went out of her way to help my mother with some things the day of and cannot be more grateful. Dawn was awesome the whole night another big Thank You to her.
Really nothing could have gone any better.

Terrible service, attitude and food. Do not trust with any allergies. They promise a lot and do not keep their word. They don’t care about your special day, just a job. After 4meetings two food tasting it got worse. Thank goodness we did not sign a contract. I was in tears after last food tasting. The chef did not know we were coming till the day before. We had scheduled 2weeks prior. My daughter has celiac disease and we needed to know answers. The chef would not even come out to talk after several questions asked. Even the waitress thought he should just come out for a couple minutes. Not even the manager greeted us or sat with us to go over food. Their communication skills are terrible. Ralph and Xan and their boss said no excuses for bad food & service but, all we heard was excuses. The best part was we moved on to better service and caring people, as it should be for a wedding day. All bad reviews before mine say what are family’s thought too. Wished I would have gone with my gut instinct from first call & meeting. Short & rude attitude. No accountability for themselves. Certainly thought we would be taken care of, since the grooms father is a marine. He was so upset that it did not work out for us. After a few calls with the boss & listening to all the problems we all agreed to move on. After telling us we could have a special menu for are needs from day one, they had the nerve to send an email saying they could not meet & would not meet are needs. They lied on what they said they could do for us. What a waste of are time. Unless you get someone new to work with, stay away. Honestly not worth it. Other people have said their food is awful,. Save your money go somewhere else. Does not deserve any stars, but woul d not let me do none. P. S, Even at are first tasting the waitress agreed the food we had could be better and did not understand why they could not do a better job. She mentioned it is what it is. Now I see the problem, it is what is take it or leave it. No pride in there service!

You get what you pay for. The venue is gorgeous and the food is delicious. The waiting staff is also really great and go above and beyond. However, the administrative staff was so disorganized and unhelpful. They lost information easily and you will have to stay on top of them throughout your planning process. They have no catering manager or coordinator anymore and the remaining admin staff is very unenthusiastic and only do the bare minimum and don’t know what they’re doing. It is a shame that the awesome waiting and bartending staff have to be paired with such disorganized management, or the venue would have much better reviews. The guests loved my reception, but I did all the planning and it was a headache.

We recently had our wedding at The Bay View Restaurant in May 2014. To say the least, it was an interesting experience. First, we worked with a woman who seemed to know her «stuff,» but wasn’t very customer services orientated. We were then passed onto another woman who was very friendly, but not reliable and consistent. We were then passed on to the head manager, Ralph Alessandro.
To start with, the venue is beautiful and the price is right. The ceremony location is right on the water and is perfect. Planes do fly over occasionally, but it’s not that big of a hassle. The scenery is worth the mild disturbance. The ballroom is fantastic. It is very rich in décor and adds a lot of character to the reception which can only be enhanced and added to with special linens, chairs, flowers, and candles.
Now to get to the point — our ceremony was scheduled for 5pm. The Bay View irresponsibly scheduled another wedding at 4:30pm that was right next to us. Like you could literally throw a pebble and hit them. Really? Come on. To top that off, the other wedding was running 30+ minutes late which obviously made us late! Due to us being pushed back because the lack of organization and consideration of this other wedding, not only were we running over 30 minutes late, but we were unable to take ANY family pictures at The Bay View after the ceremony due to our timeline. I’m angry to say the least. Another thing that happened due to us running late is that our outside bar ran out of beer and Ralph didn’t want to stock anymore beer in the outside bar! Unacceptable. The guest is always right and if they want beer, they will get a beer. My Mother had to hunt him down and tell him to restock the beer. Also, since we were running late, our food sat around longer waiting to be served. We had the steak kabobs and due to them sitting around longer, the meat stuck to the stick. You literally could not get the meat off the stick and you had to cut it off the stick. We had some guests say they couldn’t even eat the food because it was soo bad.
During our ceremony, we hired a steel drum band that also played during cocktail hour. The Bay View was supposed to relay this to the other wedding that was taking place that day when they were considering on booking The Bay View for their wedding, but evidently they did not. The other wedding was upset so they hired a band. It was the competition of the bands! Ridiculous. The other wedding also asked if our band could stop playing during their ceremony. We really had no choice so we had to agree. In this case, we lost money because we paid for an allotted time with our band and had to stop for the other wedding. Not okay. The inside bar also ran out of clean glasses. That’s crazy. They knew how many people were coming and what to plan for and they ran out of glasses. Now, the bartenders were FANTASTIC and extremely nice. But, this all goes back to poor planning by the management.
During the latter part of the reception, it was like a furnace in the ballroom. I was running around trying to open the doors to let air in, but they were all locked. I had to hunt down someone to crank down the air. We were literally all sweating. And how about this for a topper — my Aunt fell and broke her wrist on the dance floor. We were lucky enough to get it on video and are in the process of contacting MCRD regarding legalities and fault. She even had to have surgery. It’s funny too — you would think that we would have had to complete paperwork for liability reasons and after an occurrence such as this. We did not fill out anything. Strange, but in our benefit in this case.
After we left on our honeymoon, my Mom went to talk to Ralph at The Bay View. Evidently he was out to lunch. Convenient. She talked with the man under him and asked him to have Ralph call her. He never called. Instead she got a phone call from the other man.
The one thing that saved us is that we hired an excellent wedding planner and had amazing vendors. All in all, The Bay View Restaurant is an ideal place to have a wedding and is financially doable. But, the organization and management is lacking here which turns the whole place into chaos.
*The only reason I even gave two stars is because the venue is beautiful and the bartenders were awesome.

We had our wedding ceremony and reception at the Bayview on MCRD, and it was an all around amazing experience! We had looked at dozens of venues until we luckily found them online. We initially worked with Kristi who was really easy to work with, and then worked with Ralph for the last month or so leading up to the wedding. The venue itself is right on the water and in a beautiful location. You cannot beat the price, the food is delicious and the staff are incredibly helpful! As already mentioned, since it’s on the base it’s a little hard to find for guests and while taxi’s/über are allowed on, it takes just a little longer for them to arrive. It does also seem that the event planners could be a little better organized, but on the actual day of the wedding, everything was perfect! Rod was the day of coordinator and he was great to work with as well! Save yourself thousands of dollars and still have an amazing wedding, highly recommend!

I had my wedding here last night and almost every single person who was there told me and my husband that this was the best wedding they had ever been to. The food was amazing, to the point where people were getting up for 3rds and 4ths. Thank you to the chefs!
Dawn was one of our bartenders and she will give you a great pour! She is super friendly and I would highly recommend her as your bartender.
Rod, the day of event coordinator did an amazing job setting everything up the way we wanted and worked closely with my day of coordinators helping them out with anything they needed and making their job run smoothly.
Kristi who was our original events manager was very friendly and had a great way of explaining everything to us. Her email responses arent immediate but she always responds which is important.
Ralph took over for Kristi the last month of planning and it was very difficult at times to work with him. He was nice but always seemed rushed or annoyed at questions I would ask him. I understand he was under a lot of stress from losing Kristi and I applaud him for making the event as beautiful as he could day of but I feel like he could work on his attitude when dealing with a stressed bride one month before the wedding and finding out the original events manager was no longer there.
Cabs and Ubers are allowed on base but be worn, they dont like coming on later in the night so if you call them, you might have to take the very long walk back to gate 5 to get in

First of all this is not an easy place to find, especially if you are not familiar with the base. However, after a few U-​turns and a left at some palm tree I found the place.
Came here for one of the company holiday parties so it was quaint, sizable and nicely decorated. It had an old mission feel and beautiful view of the ocean. Luckily it was a nice sunny day in San Diego in Dec. oh the weather!
the food on the other hand was okay. Not expecting much from a holiday party and a typical catering menu. but I do have to say this was the first time that I was actually delighted by the fish instead of the steak! The steak was a bit over cooked so it made it a bit tough to eat. But the fish was nice and soft, flavorful and melted in my mouth.
The sad the disappointment settled in was when I wanted dessert and they didn’t have any more pecan pie! BLASPHAMY! You only had… what…5 slices out there and you were already out! Let me drive to Von’s and get you a damn pecan pie. Sheesh.

Ohhhhh boy, where do I begin. My cousin got married here and I sort of knew what to expect when I heard how cheap the banquet prices are. I’ve been an event/​wedding planner in L.A. for nearly 10 years so I tried to keep my expectations low. I was doubling as a bridesmaid this day so I brought another coordinator with me to take the reigns. I thought she might kill me by the end of this wedding.
The location is beautiful, right on the water, and on the military base. Unfortunately they didn’t bother to tell the bride and groom that prime flight path time is about 5:30 p.m. (the start time of the ceremony outdoors). The entire day during setup it had been quiet but then 4 planes flew overhead during the 15 minute ceremony!
But it gets worse, the catering manager ACTUALLY WENT HOME before the ceremony started. She never even checked in with the bride and groom. As the ceremony ended, a line began to form at the bar… but there was no bartender. Upon questioning it appeared that the staff member standing next to the bar was waiting until her scheduled time of 6 p.m. to open the bar, even though the ceremony had ended 15 minutes earlier! Never in my life have I seen a staff member refuse to open a bar when a line has formed, unbelievable! We had 9 tables of guests and I really only saw one server. Steak was on the menu but there were no steak knives. I actually walked around to the tables to pass them out to people myself!
The food was edible and the location is pretty. The ONLY way I would ever suggest you have your wedding here is if you absolutely cannot afford to have it anywhere else and you are therefore willing to entirely sacrifice service.

We just had our wedding ceremony and reception here and it was absolutely Perfect! Kristina is wonderful to work with! She is truly a gem. Our guests are still raving about everything. We had a beautiful, classy wedding, but didn’t have to break the bank for it. You can’t beat the prices here. The view is also a huge plus. I highly recommend this venue!!!

Just helped a friend w/​her wedding here over the weekend. Kristina, the manager was awesome. She was there every step of the way to ensure that everything went smoothly. The venue is just beautiful and the staff a joy to work with. From setting up to wrapping up, everything was as perfect as perfect can be. The food was on point and everyone was happy. If someone was looking for a spot to plan their event, I’d definitely recommend the Bayveiw!

Came here twice during Family Day. Once for breakfast and again with my brother when he was dismissed for the day for their lunch buffet.
The line was non-​existent in the morning. Of course, we were here at 7:30am! Paid, and went in to find a table. It’s pretty big, so it wasn’t a problem at all to find a place to sit. The breakfast buffet was what you would expect. Eggs, sausage, mini muffins, potatoes and pancakes. They also had coffee and orange juice.
I grabbed some scrambled eggs, sausage and two mini muffins. One of the fruit variety and one that I think was blueberry. The food was decent. Nothing great, but not horrible either.
We came back for the lunch buffet with my brother and his friend. This time there was a line and A LOT of people, but they have tons of tables and it was easy to find a place to sit for 6. Lunch was salad, corn, mashed potatoes, roll, and either chicken or beef. I opted for the beef and it was actually pretty darn tasty.
Overall, a rather good experience. I wouldn’t say that the food is great, but it’s not bad and there aren’t a lot of choices at MCRD. Lots of space and it’s not too loud so we could chat with my brother and his friend without having to yell.

My friends chose the Bay View Restaurant for their wedding reception a few weeks ago (they have a DOD/​Department of Defense connection). While the place was nice, the food was tasty (the main course was filet mignon and grilled prawns), and the view of the bay was beautiful, there were a couple of negatives…
— As the gate we were told to go into had been closed, we had to use alternate routes to get into MCRD. While I have base access courtesy of my job, it was still a bit of a pain to drive to the venue.
— Also, the dance floor was a bit on the small side. When you’re in a Filipino wedding and the band busts out the Electric Slide, that can be a problem.
At least we were pretty happy, courtesy of the open bar that had been set up! (I take personal responsibility for introducing several of the people at my table to the wonders of the Midori Sour… and once I had placed my order, apparently quite a few people got them as well!)

I ate here after watching my cousin graduate the Marines academy. It wasn’t super delish but it was convenient and quick. We had lunch and they had daily specials which were like specials you’d see at a cheap diner. The buffet wasn’t terrible it looked very deep fried and smothered in sugar. There wasn’t a lot of room on the menu to accommodate my Paleo/​Caveman taste but it wasn’t a nightmare. The prices were very good but then again you get what you pay for.
I could easily see how a space like this could be used for large parties or receptions. Maybe the food quality is upped when it is made to order. It is on a military base so I’m pretty sure, unless another family member decides to join the Marines and completes the training, I won’t be able to come back.

I was searching for a venue to have my reception for my wedding and my future mother-​in-​law recommended this place to me.
This place has a Spanish Old-​California type of feel. It has a lot of potential but the place is really old. An employee took us out to the back and you could tell that they really need to renovate. The place has an old noticeable smell.
However, when we went outdoor it was beautiful!!! They had the chairs set up for a wedding and they had a beautiful tree that I imagined getting married under. It was very pretty and the view was beautiful.
I would consider getting married outside and having the reception outside but I would not use the restaurant because of the smell.

We had our wedding there in October of last year and it was a gorgeous venue for an outdoor wedding and indoor reception.
The positives: lots of ‘em
1)Great price (food & linens came to about $ 40/​guest)
2)Amazing food… believe it!
3)Cool architecture… there’s a nice ballroom in a style similar to balboa park’s buildings… tiled fireplace, solid wood floors, arched entryway
4)The staff is friendly and accomodating.
5)Pristine grounds, hey it’s a military base so you know things are in order. We had our ceremony next to their marina. It’s actually shared with the NTC (Liberty Station) in Point Loma.
The negative
1)You have to be on top of the contact liason for MCRD because she forgets to pass on instructions to set up crew (this was the only reason for not giving it 5 stars).
2)You’ll need to be current or retired military or D.O.D. civilian. But you can be sponsored by any of the above. If you’re living in San Diego, you gotta know somebody in the military right?
3)If you have your ceremony outside, you have to be carefree about the airplanes taking off from nearby Lindbergh field. On our wedding, the take-​offs coincided with the cellist interludes so that worked out. We also told our offiiciant and readers to pause during the crescendo of jet noise.
4)You can’t bring in your own caterer. A bummer because you can save money this way, but like I said in the pro’s, their food is great!
Other than that, you’ll love the venue and the staff. It’s a great deal. We looked at other military venues (my wife is civilian D.O.D.), including Admiral Kidd Club and believe the Bay View is the best place. We were also able to book it within 9 months of the wedd’g versus 2 years for AKC.
BTW, the liason will recommend photographers, event coordinators, musicians, etcetera. The only help we needed was with a «day of» coordinator and the person she recommended was HORRIBLE (Alicia) so tell her thanks, but DON’T use her. More on her in another review :)