Fathom Bistro Bait & Tackle

Love Fathom. Location is best in San Diego. Dennis has a good selection of beers and the Kim Chi Pulled Pork is well worth the drive. It’s a small place, so better for you and a friend or two — or for just some single drinkin’!

Absolutely horrible customer service! Would not recommend this place. If you do not tip them right at the window when you order your food they will talk behind your back and serve you undercooked food. This is the type of place that assumes they deserve a tip just by ordering your food and when they don’t receive one they modify their level of customer service accordingly. She also charged me for a mimosa when I asked for OJ and champagne on the side but refused to give me the champagne. This is a great place to eat if you want an undercooked hamburger.

Stopped by this place one evening for a drink. This is a bar/​restaurant on a pier. The atmosphere is pretty chill. The drink selection is great. There is indoor and outdoor seating. The views of the city are nothing short of awesome. This is a great spot for a drink.

This tiny restaurant and bar packs a big punch. First, they have a huge bookshelf full of National Geographic magazines, so that made me fall in love immediately :-) The beer selection is on point and the food is great. My husband had the Fathom Burger and I tried the Chicken Pot Pie sausage, which came in a roll topped with gravy. Delicious. The lumpia is a great snacky item too. Come down, you won’t be disappointed. The view is amazing, the food/​drinks and service are perfect.

Well, even Anthony Bourdain approves of this place. So it has to be good, right? Damn right he is.
Fathom Bistro Bait & Tackle is reputed to be San Diego’s icon for street food. These American-​style hotdogs are sold in many food trucks across downtown but they have one store on Shelter Island Dr. I don’t each much hotdog and in fact, before going to Fathom Bistro Bait & Tackle, I probably haven’t had a hotdog in several years! But this place admittedly put me back on track to incorporating more delicious hotdogs in my life.
The place was busy was extremely busy with people standing in line to order and then waiting for the hotdog to be freshly made. As authentic as can be, this place is run by employees with a native American accent. I got the tonkatsu dog. The «dog» was breaded pork cutlet deep fried until crispy and despite being smothered in the sweet tonkatsu, the outer skin of the «dog» still maintained its crispiness. The condiments were white and purple cabbage with Japanese mayo. My wife had the yakiniku dog which came with a sausage, sliced beef, and rice on the bread roll so be sure you have a big appetite if you want to get this. The shoyu fries ain’t your regular fries. They’re flavored with butter and shoyu (Japanese soy sauce), deep fried until golden brown, and immensely packed with the umami flavor. Not gonna lie… it will probably shorten your life by a year after eating it… but damn, it was good. Get them anyway. You don’t have to finish them up if you don’t want to.

What can I say, one of the best craft beer bars in San Diego, and the view simply cannot be beat. Their beers are well curated, and a fantastic value considering the surrounding bars/​restaurants. Denis and the crew really know beer, and I highly recommend this to any San Diego native or out of town visitor.
Grab a seat on the pier, enjoy the people watching & the view of the downtown skyline, and enjoy the craft beer!

Not what your expecting, but a gem. All four of us enjoyed our meal. Great quality in a small footprint right on the pier.

Amazing location!!! (obviously). Right on the water, without being a touristy spot. Awesome local beers! A great quaint environment indoor and out. Perfect Sunday Funday spot. Super happy hour and never a bad time to stop in for a beer and an app.

This is a well kept secret! Not only is the location sitting right on the pier with a great view of North Island across the harbor. ALL of the food is home cooked from the sausages, the sauces, blue cheese dressing. Everything that we ate tasted wonderful. My wife thoroughly enjoyed her bier wurst with red cabbage and my chicken pot pie sausage had home made gravy and vegetables that you find in a real baked pot pie. I highly recommend eating here.
Weekend Brunch serves beignets and Loco moco… how is that for a flavor filled meal? We’ll definitely be back.

Super cool little hidden gem. It’s out on the fishing pier, I’ve been at the hotel across the street all week and unfortunately just discovered it on the last night in town. Actually, the waitress at another restaurant told me its a «must». Tiny little place, great vibe, delicious food, cold beer, view is beyond cool. Don’t miss it!!!

If you’ve got some out of town visitors, Fathom would be an excellent place to bring them. Located on shelter island, not only do you have a beautiful view of the city skyline from across the bay, but you also have the luxury of not having to fight off crowds for a parking spot.
This place is teeny tiny, but they have a super solid tap list. The food is comparable to Regal Beagle minus the side of chips. A bit on the pricier side but they make a lot of their ingredients in-​house and the location is prime.
There are only a few tables inside and out, which is probably the most difficult part of coming here. All in all, solid option for some simultaneous sight seeing and beer drinking.

What I thought was just a bait and tackle shop at the end of a pier… turned out to be an awesome little bar and restaurant!
Not too big inside of this nicely nautically themed place, but there was plenty of seating outside as well.
Between the three of us we shared the Chicken Lumpia (we actually ended up with two orders somehow).
We each devoured our own sausages (this sounds weird). I had the Spicy Italian.
The food was so good!
They also had a great selection of beers.
I naturally had the Delirium Noël beer… mmmm.
Great lunch spot, and apparently they have brunch as well.
I have a good feeling we will be heading here often now that some good friends moved around the corner.

My bf and I trekked out here after touring Cabrillo Tide pools in Point Loma due to the great Unilocal reviews and their beer selection. When we arrived at the shack located on the pier, there was a guy outside the entrance stamping peoples hands to keep track of who was of legal drinking age. We ordered:
* Bierwurst — Choice of Grilled Onions or Braised Red Cabbage and Mustard On a 6 inch Amoroso Roll
* Shrimp Po’Boy
We both liked the shrimp po’boy, but it had too much lettuce in it. The tomato was really fresh. My bf’s order first came out as the Chicken Basil Sausage one, so we asked for the correct one. But after getting the correct order, he wished he had the Chicken Basil Sausage one instead because it had pesto in it and that made it look really good. The Bierwurst was still good too, very smoky in flavor.
For drinks, we got Pliny the Elder and a Belgian dubbel that we forgot the name of. We were both surprised to see there was Pliny the Elder since it’s so hard to get a hold of. After trying the beers though, both were just ok to me, but my bf really liked Pliny the Elder.
There was limited seating inside the shack, but we were lucky to get some seating outside. Two locals from Sunset Cliffs came and sat down on the same table and we started conversing with them. One of them got the Chicken Pot Pie sausage and it was sausage with chicken pot pie filling. We told them about our touristy plans and we felt lucky to have talked with these 2 men for insider information on what to expect. People here are so nice!

Food and drinks while fishing on the Shelter Island Pier! Yes! I noticed that alcohol purchases are consumed within the facilities ropes. By the time I decided to order food to fulfill my hunger pangs, they ran out of hamburgers. I ended up getting a veggie burger to go. I was fishing at the time. It was a 10 minute wait for my order. The prices are reasonable. Convenient location for those fishing at the pier. Since they don’t have wheat or multigrain bread, I had to order my veggie burger without the bread. They were accommodating. My veggie burger protein style was yummy!

One may wonder why… or laugh… because I am giving this small restaurant on the pier a five star review?
Though it is a simple fair like sausages, hamburgers, cheeseburgers, and of course as I look at it right now, their menu of 15 exotic beers on tap… sufficient to say it will satisfy any hunger or any thirst.
Prices are very affordable and ambience is casual with a great view of the bay and the locals fishing off the pier. A must experience for anybody visiting Shelter Island.

Just OK. I came here on my most recent trip to San Diego and ordered the kimchi pulled pork. The combination was a bit odd because the meat had clearly been flavored in some sort of «south of the border» style that clashed with the kimchi. Also, the kimchi was kind of weak.
Would I come back here again? Eh???

It was our first time here, and we will definitely be returning. Surprisingly enough, it’s hard to find a good hot dog outside of ball parks! The boyfriend always turns to Wienerschnizel down the road on Rosecrans, but I knew there had to be a better option. Enter Unilocal.
When we showed up, I was taken aback by the view and location. Fathom is just a tiny little spot on the pier, but it packs a punch! They have so many unique hot dogs and brats. I tried the chicken one with sundried tomato and pesto, and it was a little salty, but very good! The boyfriend had a brat with grilled onions and was very happy with it. We will definitely be coming back, and I look forward to trying the pizza hot dog next!

THE VIEW THE VIEW THE VIEW
Plus
BEER BEER BEER & BEER
If your haven’t been yet, do yourself a favor and come for sunset. It’s so magical watching the sun fall behind you and see the downtown buildings change colors as you fill your belly with delicious craft beer.
Note: The place is small. There’s a few tables outside, even fewer inside and they have a counter where you order. I’m honestly yet to eat anything beyond the edamame because they don’t have many veg options, but the place is well worth the visit without food! Save me a seat, please!
I’d also like to give a 6^th star: they recently had a Pliny the Younger party (with limited tickets.) While I was not one of the lucky 50 to get to participate in the event, it delighted me that the proceeds for the event supports Planned Parenthood.

I contemplated giving Fathom a 4 just to keep people away but that would be terrible.
I love it here and you can’t beat the bay breeze, awesome beers, and good food on the relaxing outdoor patio. The staff is really cool and friendly. They know their beers too which is nice. (Get some more beers from Fall Brewing please.)
I gotta get back out here for a weekend brunch. They have beignets!

I am here to say «I really… really…REALLY like this place», bordering love. But what is love??! (baby don’t hurt me, don’t hurt me, no more). =?
The place, the location, their beer selection and the food, wow! I never knew this place had existed. I wouldn’t have considered coming out to the ends of Shelter Island for burgers and beers. But it ended up being such a pleasurable surprise; I was very lucky to have been introduced to this hidden gem.
It’s like a baby Hamilton’s Pub sitting on a fishing pier with this spectacular waterfront view of downtown San Diego. I have to admit, I was skeptic of the menu. From what I had seen online, I had the idea of it being just a plain old, on the dock, burger and hot dog joint. So prior to stepping foot into this place, my expectations were at minimum. Soon after having my nose up in the air, my mouth was devouring all the crazy, yummy, beefy, juicy goodness of the burger. Can I say, in yo face, good?! Cause that it was. But not to be overlooked, the Fuego hot dog was pretty freakin’ delicious. It can stand on it’s own with that wow factor. Plus with the craft beers that they offer, it took this experience up another notch. I was in aww of how ridiculously good everything was!
It’s such an unpretentious and wonderful spot that’s on point with it all. Including the cool guys that work here; from the fun dude along the side of the door, greeting customers to the great talents that’s behind the scene cooking and serving all that is wondrously yummy.
This is where you’ll find the simplicity of great food, tasty beers and laid back tranquility that is SoCal, specifically, SD living. Well, at least I did. I hope to one day come back, nosh on more of their fantastic grub, drink another one of their crafty beers, and this time, actually see the sunset. Which I’ve heard the view from here, is simply amazing.