The Cliff House

Excellent food and excellent service! Plus the view is gorgeous, I’ll definitely be back.

Hopefully I can say that the entre was good, but it hasn’t come out yet… the wait was 45 min even though we had a reservation… that was AFTER some old lady almost collided with me while crossing the street. If it hadn’t of been for my wife pulling me to safety… well. So, eventually we are seated, after listening to an Italian mobster yell about having to wait for 45 min, and scare the hostess into being seated NEXT! When finally we are shown to a table, its dirty and we had to stand while they went to get a rag to wipe it up… when we were sitting down, we saw that it STILL had food all over it, and had yo be wiped again. They were out of lamb AND salmon by 7 pm… did they not see that coming? I mean, how many Valentine’s Days have these guys seen? The waiter is a snob, but he does apologize a lot. It is nearly two hours past our reservation time of six and we haven’t seen our entre. The one saving grace is I love my wife’s company so I’m trying to be patient with the staff. I thought if I wrote enough our entre would be here and I could at least say something positive… oh well.

When we first entered the restaurant no one was there to greet us, there were three other couples waiting as well. When the hostess finally showed there was no apologies. Just clear confusion and rude staff who seemed to blame the customers for their own ineptitude.
When we were finally seated, there was a waitress openly crying in the downstairs, refused to wait on us, and even hit me with her apron several times when walking past me. We overhead her talking to the staff and customers about inappropriate matters and how tired she was.
After 90 min we finally received our food. It was really good! Whew. I almost lost faith in this place that I previously loved so much. It’s just gone so downhill! Hope they can pull it together.
We later learned that the bartender was forced to be our waitress due to the unstable crying waitress. She truly saved our night, thank you Rebecca! Worst Valentine night ever.

Food was good, view was great. Took forever to get drinks and the bill. Changed the menu for Valentines Day but still good. Had to make reservations but because we seemed to be the only people on time they let us sit anywhere.

Not exactly as I remembered it being.
First off it’s absolutely unacceptable to greet patrons in the manner that they did: We walked in behind a couple, we all sat there and no one came, no one greeted us, nothing for several minutes, the other couple started to get visibly upset, almost walks out just as a hostess approached them; she didn’t say hi, sorry for the wait, nothing, not to mention that she didn’t even acknowledge us or tell us that she’d be right back. She sat the first customers, and walked away, didn’t come back to acknowledge us, or seat us for over 5 more minutes.
She even mumbled under her breath «I hope this ends soon», I said «what», she didn’t respond.
Our server although friendly didn’t really try to connect with us, her apron was really dirty for just opening up, she was hardly on the floor with the customers, and our wait times for just about everything was really way too long, our drinks never got refilled, not even the water; they weren’t busy either, there was only about 6 vehicle’s in both lots when we got there, only four tables in use upstairs.
Another male server sat there CHEWING GUM like a camel, it was embarrassing… for him!
The staff ultimately ruined the dining experience; their moral was really low, none of them acted like they wanted to be there.
We were there for brunch, and all I can say is that the menu is very boring, the food was bland, reminded me of upscale nursing home food… BORING, lacked any wow factor, (just an FYI, the crab on the crab benedict ended up just being a garnish, there was hardly any crab on the dish, it was very disappointing), I expected a lot better…
The view is the only thing that they have going for them right now…

I went here for happy hour on a week day and it was dead. (Which isn’t bad of you like peace and quiet).
There was no staff to be seen so we just grabbed a seat at the tables near the bar. I can’t imagine there is no host/​ess when it’s busy! The bartender was polite but seemed a little distracted and distant.
The service was no too slow and the drinks were pretty good. Not a huge wine selection for a «fancier» place.
The happy hour fare was on point. The shrimp, calamari, clams and ahi were all delicious and prepared nicely. 4 happy hour dishes was more than enough to share between 2 people.
The view can’t be beat. We saw bald eagles flying by the whole time we were there.
I’d probably come to happy hour here again if it was just one or two friends. Maybe not suitable for a bigger drinking crowd… A little too stuffy.

Beautiful view and restaurant. Waitress was very nice and accommodating. Food was ok, not as great. Chicken masala was rubbery. Burger was dry. But they did give us free desert.

Went to the lounge for happy hour to enjoy girls night. Very cozy and warm with a beautiful view no matter where you sit. Service was wonderful. Professional, courteous, and fast. Ordered the salmon sliders, calamari, pork belly and truffle Mac. All generously portioned (ex: huge salmon chunks) and delicious! Mac was a table winner. Including their drinks, the bill was surprisingly cheap. Highly recommended for these cold nights!

Coffee shop food at steakhouse prices. The chow isn’t bad, just not worth what you’ll pay for it. The big attraction here is the view, which is more industrial than panoramic.

Ambiance is phenomenal! Seared Ahi tuna, toughest I’ve ever had, had to cut it with a knife! Spicy bar nuts, not so much! This is the start of the evening (at the bar) dinner to follow. Will post more later.

Fantastic spot to have lunch/​brunch. The food was outstanding, and the service was perfect. The views are incredible, and the ambiance makes this a return destination. The clam chowder was super, and while the portions were a bit large, the leftovers are great later, too.

I went back last week for Happy Hour. Totally different experience. The service was very slow with getting a drink, and getting our food. I ordered the seafood salad which is 27.00. I don’t mind paying that much for a salad if it has great ingredients. There was very little crab and three tiger shrimp on the salad, The avocado was very firm, and the tomatoes were not ripe enough.
In the hour we were there the bartender/​waitress was overwhelmed, so we felt guilty asking for more drinks (we had two drinks).

Expensive. Some of the food was good, other dishes were actually really bad. Service was slow and pretty awful. Bar was good but very slow.
Nice view!

I would strongly suggest renting their view table for $ 100. an hour while you have Ruth’s Chris Steak House CATER your meal. Our $ 42. 14 oz. «prime» Ribeye steaks were mostly GRIZZLE. After the first two inches of grizzle, we probed around our steaks trying to find chewable meat. My wife gave up and let our pleasant server know our problem. She was given a nice Fillet. My jaw and patience were worn out, so I ate the under cooked Tomato and Veggies. I did enjoy the Potatos however. Also, my so called Caesar Salad was just a head of Romaine, a bit of Parmesan and Croutons, don’t they even know how to present this ?
This was my fifth time here since 1952 and I should have read the Unilocal before returning here.

Come for the view, leave for the service!
Celebrating our anniversary we chose The Cliff House for drinks and appetizers again.
PROS: great views, strong drinks, delicious appetizers.
CONS: Be prepared to eat with your hands! Neglectful service. We ordered the blackened Ahi and waited a full five minutes without utensils before I had to get up and ask the waiter for forks. Same thing with the clams and bread, delivered without a butter knife. Had to get up and ask again. Wasn’t even busy downstairs.

I don’t know what happened. New chef? new menu? raised prices!
We took my husbands boss and his wife to the Cliff House this last weekend and were very disappointed.
The only good thing was our waiter-​Ed & the French bread… it was yummy.
The food was $$$$$ and had nothing to be desired. I had a crab louie that wasn’t a crab louie at all. Mixed greens with so little crab it was almost non existant. The dressing was NOT thousand Island… which is the original crab louie. Just wasn’t any good at all. I wouldn’t refer anyone to go here.
The portions were so small… I’m telling you we were so disappointed.

This place was almost a complete let down. My boyfriend and I were spending our last night of our 8 day PNW vacation in Tacoma and wanted to end the trip with a nice dinner out. We are both laid back ppl who rarely find things to complain about, but this place was a nightmare.
Our service was horrendous. We didn’t get a glass of water or a drink ordered for the first 15 minutes we were there…& they weren’t even that busy, plenty of empty tables (now I know why). Our waitress was very frazzled and seemed agitated the entire time.
We ordered a Caesar salad to start, it was fine. We ordered a 2^nd round of drinks, she forgot & we had to remind her the next time she came around.
I ordered the scallops & prawns with risotto, it was good. My BF ordered the prime rib & it was barely warm.
Ultimately, the service received was not even close to the value that we paid.

My server greeted me promptly but came accross a bit stuffy. I won’t try and guess why.
Anyway the view out onto the bay is phenomenal.
That alone makes it a romantic place worth a stop over.
The table settings made you feel it was a little upper end but the prices on the menu for entrée’s didn’t reflect how you feel here. Almost a contradiction
I wasn’t hungry, but I ordered a cup of the New England Clam Chowder. Not bad. wish it was a little hotter. Came with some crackers that I’m glad weren’t stale. The cup was $ 7. Nothing spectacular in the chowder dept.
I was never looked after by my server after she poured my water. Maybe it’s due to her being the only server. I’ll give her a pass on that one.
3 stars for ambiance due to the view. I would need to be here in a date or something to give a more full account of the operations.
I did leave a $ 10 although beyond the $ 7 plus tax I feel my tip was generous considering some lack of service.

My Hubby made reservations for dinner for my birthday and I choose the Cliff House as we had yet to visit and heard and seen some good reviews.
The location was beautiful, I would like to go again around Sunset with a little more light but all in all the ambiance is very romantical.
Service was excellent! Our waitress was very attentive, the menu and drink selection were spot on and the food came out in a decent amount of time.
I really don’t have anything bad to say and would have given this place 5 stars but the price and food portion, just didn’t cut it! My salmon piece was delish and my husband’s lobster was pretty normal, but we each got 3 – 4 pieces of asparagus and a small ladel size of potatoes for our sides? The plating just threw us off a little, good thing we decided to add a salad for starters!

My husband I attended our Sister-​in-​laws Parent’s 50^th Anniversary in October.
We had the choice of Rib-​Eye, Salmon or Risotto. We both chose the Rib-​Eye and were not disappointed. We sat in the lower area of the restaurant and the view was amazing. We actually felt like we were on a fancy boat. There were quite a few people at the anniversary, but the staff was quick and attentive.