The Privateer

If you’re looking for 5 star cuisine in the San Francisco Bay Area, a trip to Inverness is worth the drive. Book an overnight at the Tomales Bay Resort so you can enjoy the fabulous 5 course dinner with wine pairing and forget about driving home. Top Toque Clayton Lewis and Sous Chef Edwin Porcayo truly proved their talent with Head-​on Gulf Prawns, Grilled Scallions and Red Pepper Sauce; Seared Big Eye Tuna with Watercress Salad; Grilled Opah, Bok Choy and Sea Beans; and Grilled Ribeye, Arugula and Smoked Beets. And just when you think it doesn’t get any better, dessert arrives — — - Foie Gras Profiterole with Satsuma Syrup.
Wake up with beautiful Tomales Bay right outside your room, then head back to The Privateer dining room for breakfast. The Pastry Bar is included for every resort guest, but splurge and order one of the delicious, creative choices on the a la carte menu. My personal favs — — –The Daily French Toast, or Fried Oysters with Pork Belly Omelet.
If you’re not in a rush to leave, stay for lunch and have the highly recommended fish and chips, burger, clam chowder, or Tomales Bay oysters.
Hurry up and get over to The Privateer before this best kept secret has a wait list for reservations!

Breakfast pastries from the Bovine Bakery plus a hot breakfast and/​or fruit if you fancy it! Best of all, Joanie from the now defunct Pinecone Diner works there! They’re still getting their groove together service wise but I think most diners are new to the process there also so everyone’s learning. So thrilled the TBR has thus great place to grab a bite with an unrivaled view! We will be back!

This is our 5 star experience! The food are amazing and people are friendly. Highly recommend! It’s a great location on the way back from point Reyes. I am so glad that we didn’t have the live off the bottle of pretzels that we brought for the day. Somehow God just surprised us with such a positive experience. Thankful! Btw, the owner Mr. Clayton was so kind to let my husband nap in the restaurant even after the restaurant was closed. Poor hubby was exhausted from driving at the curve roads. Mr. Clayton understood and he was so gracious!

Magnificent wine pairings with 6 course meal! Such a personalized experience! The vegetables were rare and delicious, they gave us TWO extra courses just because they were experimenting — amazing sweet potato combinations with brussel sprouts and burnt cream. The fish was exquisite, the beef rare and sweet, the port counterpointed dessert. Just a treat.

This review is for a breakfast meal at the Privateer.
A note first about the décor. The walls are bare, the tables are bare, there is no music, nothing remotely comforting or warm. The plates and flatware are of institutional grade and look like the worn cast-​offs from previous incarnations of this restaurant. Even the name ‘The Privateer’ has a bland, marketing firm feel to it and only makes sense if one takes the most cynical view of their prices. Minus the views – which are through no effort of their own – it has all the charm and thoughtfulness of a Holiday Inn conference room.
I arrived with my family at 9:30. After five minutes of sitting unattended at our table a waiter came to ask if we’d like drinks. I asked if they had cappuccino. They do not. While lots of places do not have espresso drinks and shouldn’t be criticized for it you expect a restaurant with the gall to charge close to $ 20 for a breakfast to have an espresso machine, at least.
Regular coffee was served in the tiniest of cups. It tasted scorched and stale. There were five of us and a single tiny creamer pitcher had to be shared. No sugar was on the table which was fortunate because there were no spoons to stir it. In fact there were no utensils on the table at all, no salt or pepper, no flowers, nothing but napkins. It felt like we weren’t supposed to be there, that the whole thing was last-​minute and makeshift, and that we were intruding.
There was an interminable wait for the meal. To be exact, since I made note of it, there was a forty-​minute wait. This lengthy interval cannot be accounted for – one table had already been served, another was eating the free ‘continental breakfast’ for lodgers and so it was only our table and one other that had to be served – a total of eight people. I had the ‘Golden Hinde Hash’ – Two eggs, port picadillo, rice, and ‘house made’ sausage ($ 14). Much like the restaurant’s décor, the dish was barren and uninspiring. There was much more plate than meal, so if you’re hungry after a morning hike do not expect to fill up at the Privateer.
The picadillo – the hash of the dish – was mixed in with rice rather than served aside it as one would expect, creating a kind of Spanish Rice-​a-​Roni effect. Except for about half a dozen small pork cubes it was nothing but seasoned rice. It was salty and dry and a little crusty either from being reheated or sitting under the heat lamp too long. There was perhaps two tablespoons of this mixture on the plate. Next to this was the sausage, rather I should say one-​half of a sausage split down the middle. It was exceedingly dry not through any curing process, but dried-​out as though, again, it had been reheated or left to desiccate under the heat lamp, or both. It sweated slightly on the plate. The texture was rubbery and the taste overly salty.
Finally there were the eggs, which I ordered poached. There are few dishes as simple as a poached egg. Still, I’ve had them in the past unpleasantly overcooked, or the whites carelessly boiled away. Never, however, have I had a poached egg as poorly prepared as the two translucent globules swimming on my plate at the Privateer. These had been plopped down unceremoniously and were held together by only the thinnest opaque membrane possible. Once a fork went into one the contents, both white and yolk, spilled out entirely uncooked on the plate. The other egg gave way of itself a few seconds later. There was literally nothing solid to eat, just a plate with a big puddle of uncooked egg. It is difficult to imagine these eggs ever saw simmering water – either they had been put in the microwave for 20 seconds or else cracked directly on the plate and allowed to glaze over under the heat lamp. Another at my table also had the poached eggs and they were cooked exactly the same. It’s inexcusable they were allowed to leave the kitchen in this condition.
This restaurant is, sadly, typical of all that has become available in West Marin – a place whose ties to the community do not exist beyond exploiting bay views and putting a few obligatory oyster dishes on the menu. The Privateer, like the handful of others nearby, is a place of foodie pretensions, tiny portions and elaborately described menu items. The prices are criminal. The food is terrible. The atmosphere is sterile. The coffee bad, the service nonexistent. One should expect a few missteps from a new restaurant but the carelessness and arrogance of this operation is inexcusable; it is inherent in its makeup, part of its vain design. You’ll find no local families here nor likely are they wanted. You’ll find no one from town having a drink after work. The bar is collecting cobwebs. It’s no matter to the Privateer and the others like it though; they exist to profit from the fat wallets of the passer-​through.

I was not going to write a review at all after my breakfast here last week. I really want to give a new business the benefit of the doubt but then I read the breakfast review here from an Inveness local and I thought, I have to speak up too and stop the madness, if possible.
I ordered the smoked salmon eggs benedict. Although the hollandaise sauce was fine and the salmon was nice, the little biscuit it sat on was so salty that you could not stand it (I am convinced there was a measuring cup mix-​up with the baking) and worse than that, the eggs, once touched by my fork, were what I could only describe as a cold gelatinous mess, the runny yellow mixing with the glumpy raw whites. I love poached eggs and I love nice runny yokes but my husband and I couldn’t believe something like this could leave the kitchen. I picked out the drowning pieces of salmon to try and make the most of it. The waitperson came over to take my plate and said not a word about the clear globby wet mess on my plate. Don’t they want feedback? I guess not.
For $ 14 or $ 16 (cant remember) for a really tiny portion and nothing else on the plate (not even a little piece of fruit or potato) this was rediculous.
Beautiful view out the window needs no improvement but the food, at least the breakfast, definately does. We heard a single lady at the next table (only 3 tables were there the whole time) complain her food was cold. What’s the deal? Chef afraid of fire?

Nice water view, good service, delicious sandwich; what’s not to like. Menu hits a good balance between being creative yet still comforting. Wine list short but otherwise good and interesting. Owner seems devoted to making things work well.

I have no doubt in my mind that this will become one of the best local spots on Tamales bay. My family and I stumbled upon this gem while traveling aimlessly through wine country trying to find a place we could all agree on for thanksgiving. My brother did a little search on the google machine and this place showed up as open on turkey day! We took the most beautiful route there (it actually can’t be avoided, because Inverness and tomales bay are just painfully beautifulI… Water everywhere, if you like that sort of thing).
Anyway, back to the review. We were greeted by the happiest man I’ve ever met. He joked about the beer selection not arriving yet, because they had only been open two weeks! Two weeks after opening, they were spending their thanksgiving cooking for and entertaining their neighbors and travelers. He helped us select a bottle of wine on the list which is one of the best wines (and most affordable) that I have had in the past three days of driving through wine country with my family. When your dad is from Germany, your mother from Mars, your brother from the east coast and you just moved to the Bay Area and want to show the whole family a place we can al agree on… Well, this is it folks. My family and I are sitting on the most beautiful rooftop, soaking in some sun, drinking incredible wine and watching the sailboats drift by on the harbor. A+++ for family environment. I recommend it to anyone, and I look forward to coming back here years from now.

Hemmingway’s «A Moveable Feast» comes to mind when sipping the fine wines in this beautiful bay side destination. I’ll never forget the experience. Great staff, delicious food and unforgettable atmosphere. 5 stars is an understatement.

Just had the most delicious lunch! My husband and I shared an order of chickpea croquettes with romesco and the ½ pound burger with fries. Both were scrumptious! The fries were perfect, the burger fantastic on great bread with REAL flavorful cheddar. The chickpea croquettes were also great. Their fish and chip option lets you choose between grilled poached or sautéed fish with deep fried as an additional option. Will order that next time. This will be my new go to lunch place. Only criticism is that water/​tea glasses are too small — with glasses that small need to leave carafes on the table for refills.