Balboa Yacht Club

Members only club for sure but, we got in pretty easily. Just walked through the doors and into the bar. They have an expansive wine menu.
The view is amazing and the dinner was great!

Surprisingly delicious banquet food! We came for my cousin’s wedding. Of course, the location is perfect and the views marvelous. The staff was friendly and helpful. Appetizers, food. Buffet line, great! Prime rib, halibut, mashed potatoes, Caesar salad, mixed vegis, so easy for them to be bland, boring and snooze club food. Not so here! Actually delicious, excellently seasoned, and surprisingly good. Prime rib was tender, juicy, and yummy. Caesar salad was perfectly dressed, crispy, and scrumptious. All of us remarked on the food and how good it was. Thank you! Fun wedding, enjoyable meal, perfect location.

After a day of conference in Irvine, one of the speakers invited me to this club. We arrived around 6 pm. We sat out at the south deck of the club house and watched the spectacular sunset. People wore casually and were really friendly around us. Burgee Bar attendants were friendly as well and made you feel comfortable there. The club house offered full course meal. The artichoke was very good. The tempura shrimp was ok. The main course sea bass was excellent. The room seem a bit old and not too big but was cozy. I was told that the location of the club was near the Bay entrance, making access to the ocean both fast and convenient for members who dock their boats at the club marina. The club has its own out-​station on Catalina Island. I look forward to a cruise next time to the sunbath beach on the Island.

Not OPEN to the public for dinning! Flew halfway across the world for a VIP meeting. This should be taken off Unilocal thanks

We’ve been members of BYC for years. We love the food; it is reasonably priced and well prepared and fresh. We’ve come into the dining room for dinner (after being on the boat and looking like something the cat dragged in) and were always treated with respect. All the other diners were better dressed than we were! We enjoy the buffets and special events. BYC can accommodate large groups of people and it’s a great location to see the annual boat parade. We’ve joined other clubs and left but we are staying here.

My wife an I met in a sailing class and wanted to have out wedding at a similar venue. We had our wedding here in September. It was great. We had about 110 guests and everybody had had a blast. The intimate setting was unique, elegant, fun and we were able to customize our experience to make it perfect. The staff at the yacht club are very accommodating, friendly and the food is great. Folks in the yachting community know this is where to go for great dining.

I shot the 40 Year Reunion at the Balboa Yacht Club and the whole event was perfect. The staff was great and the photos turned out awesome.

Not real happy with this place, they hosted a holiday party for my wife’s work and the Valet company (Premier Valet) did damage to her vehicle. No accountability on the BYC part because they don’t arrange that service even though the vendor is on their property. The damage cost us under $ 100 and lots of frustration dealing with business that pass the buck. There is some cosmetic damage to the rim as well as a knock in the front axle. If you are planning an event here beware of Premier Valet and if you attend an event here fully inspect your vehicle before you leave.

Traditional, great atmosphere, good food and friendly people. Oh did I mention the great view and friendly staff? I am glad we have clubs like this in town!

My husband and I got married at the Balboa Yacht Club on November 2^nd, 2013. We had over 200 guests and The BYC completely delivered on all of our expectations. Russell Miller is the food and beverage director there and he was amazing! He got us everything we needed and made sure that everything went smoothly on the night of the wedding. He was always beyond accommodating and he had answers to all my questions as well as super helpful suggestions!
If we had to do it all over again, I would do it in a heart beat and i wouldn’t change a thing. The food was great, the servers were awesome, the bar tenders were amazing. .. We were so happy. A dream come true. .. Thank you Russell and the BYC!!!

My husband I were treated to brunch here with family friends who are members of the Club this last Sunday. I had never been to the Balboa Yacht Club before and it was a great experience overall. I ordered the French Toast which was delicious, and other people partook in the omelet bar so I snuck bites of the customized omelets. Everything was really good.

I came here for a wedding last night.
The venue was nice and about what you would expect for a yacht club that is a bit older. The wedding was held outside and was very pretty at sunset. If it had been cold and cloudy everyone would have been miserable. So plan accordingly. The reception room was perfect for about 100 people. The food was pretty decent for a yacht club. The servers were a bit scrappy, especially the bartenders. Eeewww.
I’m not 100% sure what the bride’s budget was but it wasn’t a lot. I think she did pretty good here!

This review is just for the restaurant.
My boyfriend, his fam, and I ate here for lunch today. We were served by a young girl who had a «whatever, don’t care» attitude the whole time we were served. The food itself was alright and I thought everything was really decently priced. It’s dog-​friendly too which is a MAJOR plus in my book. However, the attitude of our waitress kinda ticked me off :/​In addition, I asked her to box up my chicken wrap with some coleslaw. Whoever boxed up my food pretty much just poured the cole slaw over my chicken wrap so everything was mushy when I got home :(

I have grown up at the Balboa Yacht Club. Through my many years at the club, I have seen it grow as well. From the exquisite dining views to the beautiful facilities, the Balboa Yacht Club can not be beat. Some other yacht clubs offer fancier décor or more massive yachts, but BYC makes everyone feel comfortable no matter what their price range. The staff really gets to know the members and customers. It’s such a nice touch to be greeted by name every time I visit. I love taking my friends to BYC and showing it off. The regulars are predictable and new faces are always more than welcome. BYC caters to every age group from an fine dining room and classy bar to the kids junior room. Kids will have fun running around the boat racks and playing downstairs as I did as a kid. The dining room and bar both have bay views where you can watch the sunset without any obstruction. BYC is classy, laid back, and one of my favorite places in Orange County.

It is a struggle to find something vegetarian at this place. I’m going there right now for my aunts birthday, and I think I’ll order steamed veggies and rice, and it’ll probably cost $ 20.

Surprisingly good for such a hoytie toytie place. I had the club sandwich and fries with a cup of crab (maybe lobster) bisque. I consider myself a decent judge of bisque’s and this one was exceptional. Not a lot to say about this place. I ate outside over the water, which was nice. The club sandwich was well prepared, instead of the usual slopped together. So it’s obvious that they put some effort into preparation. Very fresh ingredients, no slug eaten lettuce, etc. Again, just a pretty basic restaurant. Staff was ok, they were a little cold, but not unfriendly. They will ask you to get off your cell phone here, if you are on it. I kind of like that, personally.

Good food. Excellent service! Fun bartenders. Great view of the harbor. Be sure to visit in May for the yacht races.

I came here for a fundraiser/​auction event. It was pretty cool. I got to eat the food for free because I was volunteering at the event. The only thing you had to pay for were the drinks. They had shrimps the size of my fist. It was awesome.

Fancy Schmancy!

First of all, let me preface my review by stating openly that I have issues with Orange County. I don’t feel comfortable here. I thought I was uncomfortable being around money but I don’t think that’s the problem. I feel perfectly fine in Beverly Hills, Malibu or Bel Air perhaps because it’s more culturally diverse. There’s just something about south Orange County that makes me very uneasy.
My friends and I ventured into Newport to see the Christmas Boat Parade. We arrived early and parked our cars at the Newport Beach County club and took a complimentary shuttle to the Balboa Yacht Club. We were early and someone in our group suggested we stop and have cup of coffee inside. I seriously felt like I was a kid from the wrong side off the tracks who ventured into the upper-​class neighborhood for the first time. I was a fish out of water. I thought I was Molly Ringwald in Pretty in Pink.
The walls were decorated with pictures of old white men in naval uniforms and skippers caps from decades ago. The place was steeped in history. We went directly into the bar area and had a seat. There was a fireplace in the center of the room and some folks were sitting around it to keep warm. The bar over looked the water and boat decorated in Christmas lights sailed by. It was a festive scene. Then my friend made a comment that we (me and my black friend) were the only people of color in the room, this includes the adjoining dining room that was filled with at least 100+ diners feasting on a buffet that could have fed a small village of starving children in a third world county.
Overall the scene was the epitomy of excess, wealth and entitlement that is Orange County. Ok, I guess I do have issues with money.
We ordered some coffee liquer drinks and helped ourselves to complimentary popcorn. My Irish coffee was $ 7 it was a good bargain because it was really strong. I had to ask the bartender to dilute it with some more coffee. It was still too strong!
Would I go back? Maybe.