Carnelian By The Bay

Food Horrible. Restaurant UNCLEAN… hallway and dining area filled with flies. it’s a shame that the location is prime, but being wasted by this restaurant… enough said.

This review is basically for the facility itself.
After a work-​sponsored cruise around the bay, we had an after party at this location. One of the guys who works at our company was going to DJ and it allowed people to hang out for the remainder of the evening.
There’s plenty of space on the dance floor and there’s a nice little patio area.
My only gripe was that for such a large crowd, they only had two bartenders. Apparently one guy called in sick. The result? Waiting over 20 minutes just to get our drink order taken.

I had a groupon voucher for a 2 for 1 brunch and I was really excited about it. I made a reservation for noon and we arrived promptly at 11:55.
We were told to wait in the lounge, at 12:10, I became a bit irritated and asked the hostess about our table. And just then, our table was open! Defeats the purpose of a reservation if you ask me. Oh well, I was ready to order my brunch. I had reviewed the menu beforehand (that’s what I do) and was ready for some eggs benedict.
We started with the Caesar salad which was dry and just lettuce, cheese and croutons. I didn’t mind it though, I was excited for the benedict.
When the benedict arrived, my first thought was, «Wow that’s a perfect eggs benedict for a food photo, but I don’t actually want to touch it.» It was stiff, like it had been sitting out for a minute, the sauce wasn’t runny and the eggs were overdone. The ham they placed in was just way too big for how small everything else was. I was so disappointed. Even with a few mimosas in me, I just couldn’t enjoy the food.
And the worse part? The food sat in me all day, I couldn’t even eat dinner. I’m a big eater and it was almost like my body couldn’t digest the benedict. And I’ll tell you what, I’ve eaten a lot of crap in my day, so if my body didn’t want to digest the food, you know something was wrong.
Never going back.

Avoid like the plague. Like a lot of the other reviewers we had a groupon.
This was by far the worst brunch I’ve ever had. I really wish I read these reviews and got a refund on the Groupon. Thank god I didn’t pay full price. The service was awful, the food was terrible, and the room was a dirty banquet hall built in the 70s and not cleaned since.
My theory is that they sold these groupons as a last ditch effort to make some money before they close, which I hope is soon.

⁰⁄₅ service.
Bought the Groupon deal for 2. I call the number given on the website, just to have go back to the computer to send an email to make a reservation, which isn’t possible to make online. I get and automated response saying that the date I attempted to reserve was taken, but the next Sunday was available. I immediately send another email requesting that Sunday and got no response. Three days later send another email requesting the same Sunday and get an automated response saying that the date was fully booked. I immediately send an email asking for clarification, called the number during normal business hours, selected every department that was an option to no one answering any line, and a full mailbox message. This is no way to run a business and by no means can I recommend this restaurant.

Food: ⁰⁄₅
Service: ²⁄₅
Atmosphere: ²⁄₅
Value: ⁰⁄₅
Total = ¹⁄₅
What to say? Carnelian by the Bay is as BAD as it gets. I came with my girlfriend with the brunch-​for-​two groupon.
The food: YUK! We ate the sea food appetizer, I think it comes from a can or was frozen. We had the «catch of the day» as entrée, but didn’t even eat it. The texture of that fish was awful, I don’t know where it’s from, if it ever swam during its life, but it sure wasn’t caught the same day. I asked the waiter to give me the chicken instead — you can’t go wrong with chicken right? Well, except at Carnelian. It wasn’t as bad as the fish, but it was one of the worst chicken I’ve had.
It seems like they buy the cheapest bulk pre-​maid food they can find (though I don’t even know where you find such bad food), pretend they cooked it, and sell it $ 40 per person (yes, $ 80 total without tip).
They have a really good location — with view all around the bay (hence my 2 points on Atmosphere). But only 2, because the place is sketchy, windows and glasses are dirty, with no other decoration than 3 plans for a large room (literally), and a cold temperature (the table behind us and ours had our jackets on).
Service was OK.

Like every single person and their mothers out there, I bought the brunch-​for-​two Groupon. And fyi, the Groupon DOES state that a reservation is REQUIRED. So I OpenTable’d it and here we were having our late Sunday brunch. We walked though the entire Ferry Building (not that it was a bad thing) before the bf and I found the Carnelian behind everything else. We got there at 1:30, an hour later than the time reserved. oops. So the really nice hostess paged upstairs to see if they were still taking people. Oh, there must be a lot of people? We walked upstairs to find the place empty. I don’t understand. They close at 3, and there weren’t a ton of people. Why would they NOT take us?
Anywho, the place is basically a rundown ballroom – that with some TLC, it would be a great place to celebrate a wedding. But unfortunately it was lacking much love. The windows were gross. The window SILLS were gross. Right OUTSIDE of the windows were… depending how you see them I guess. [cute] gross seagulls and of course their gross poop.
After getting past all that, we got our glasses filled with mimosas. Actually, scratch that. We got a little more than half a glass of OJ. Weird. He wasn’t running low or anything but whatever.
I ordered the Seafood Chowder, Catch of the Day, and the Strawberry Carnelian. Then they told me they ran out of their catch of the day.(I couldn’t understand what fish they said it was so I can only refer to it as COTD). So I had a Seafood Omelette instead. Food was MEH. Nothing special. and for the price, I expected SPECIAL. Like glitter sprinkled on my soup and gold flakes on my eggs special. Nope. Nada.
Then the second round of mimosas came. The same guy came and poured HALF a glass each! This time he DID run out… But really? Ok fine. He said he was going to bring out more. He never came out with more.
This place needs someone who actually has passion for the restaurant business to take over. Such potential… ruined by a boss (I’m assuming) who was eating at a table near by while all the patrons are still eating! He wasn’t just visiting with his family or something more normal. he was working! Brought us to the table and took our orders! He brought out food and started eating at a table near by! I’ve only seen that happen at ghetto Chinese restaurants when I’m there past closing time.
Not ever coming back. Even with a Groupon. Even with a giftcard!
FYI, if you’re still not convinced: $ 36 per adult for their 3-​course Sunday Brunch.

Jesus. Another waste of a great location. I went here on a Sunday for brunch and will NEVER be going back. Here is an abbreviated description of my experience:
While we arrived on time, we were told the table wasnt ready and we would have to wait in the lounge. This «lounge» was an unmanned bar and a carpet that must not have been cleaned in 6 months (Im not a stickler but there was dirt and debris ALL OVER THE PLACE). This is not the type of cleanliness you want in a restaurant and had I not purchased a Groupon I probably would have walked out. After 20 minutes we were told to go upstairs to the dining room where we saw approximately 20 open tables – not sure why we had to wait. There was a beautiful view but the windows were so disgustingly dirty that I had trouble looking outside without losing my appetite. It didnt get much better from there… mimosas were terrible and the «mystery» seafood omelet with Kraft singles nearly made me sick.
Upon leaving, about half the staff was sitting at the table next to us eating lunch like customers and jokingly hollering at the waiters still working.
It was a surreal and unenjoyable experience… I will definitely not be returning.

I also purchased the groupon for the Sunday brunch. Our experience wasn’t awesome, but it wasn’t as bad as some of the other reviewers’ experiences were.
First off, the brunch is not worth it unless you have some sort of deal or discount. I’m sure there are many other nicer places you can go for $ 36/​person.
It was difficult to get a reservation in that they don’t answer the phone. As we purchased this groupon specifically for the time we would be in San Francisco, we had to have our reservation on 6/​5, and they were able to accommodate us. Weird thing was that when the restaurant asked what time we wanted, we said 10:30, and we were told they didn’t open until 11. So we said, OK, 11 then, and they said we could have 10:30. What?
We get there and it was kind of weird being the first ones in the restaurant. It did allow us to have our pick of tables, which was nice. We picked a corner table right by the window that had a direct view of the bay and both bridges. The view was great, and was the best part of the brunch.
Service was slower than it probably should have been, but we didn’t mind it that much since we didn’t have any particular place we had to be afterwards. The servers were good about keeping our coffee cups filled and our waiter kept topping off our mimosas. However, the mimosas couldn’t be very strong because after having the equivalent of probably around 3 or so, I wasn’t feeling it.
The food was just OK. The prime rib (yup, the cut of the day) was a bit buttery and had a lot of fat on it. The vegetables served with it had a weird aftertaste too. My husband ordered the eggs benedict and it was fine, nothing special. The english muffin was a little hard, and there was a bit too much holindaise sauce, but nothing to complain about. I did enjoy the Strawberry Carneilan or whatever the ice cream and strawberry dessert is called. The strawberry sauce was pretty good.
If you have the groupon, its not a total waste, but I wouldn’t recommend heading here without it.

We made the huge mistake of buying a Groupon for their brunch, like many others doing Unilocal reviews have done. My Dad and Mom have tried a total of NINE times to make a reservation for the brunch, six times by phone and once even drove by the business to try to make one in person, only to be told that we had to call! Now there is a voice mail message saying to use email to make a reservation, which we have tried twice with no answer.
So we gave up, made a refund request with Groupon, who said that they only wanted to credit our Groupon account, since the business was NOT at fault!!! What’s with that? They even said that we cold use the Groupon – and then request a refund if the food and service was too bad.
So my Dad, told them that he did not want to waste his time and if this business is not at fault for not taking reservations-​which was NOT originally required in the Groupon – then what would they have to do to be at fault?
After an email exchange of eight emails with some guy named «James C.», they did finally agree to refund the credit card, especially when they were told that my Dad would just have the credit card charges reversed.
There you have it! If you have a Groupon, make this business lose some revenue that they do not deserve by getting a full refund to your credit card!!! If you take the Groupon credit, the refund may not come from the business itself. If Groupon ever does a promotion with this business again, we will definitely quit doing business with them as well!

I could go on and on… but I’ll just stick to the TOP 10 reasons that made this the WORST Sunday Brunch I’ve ever been too:
1) Called to make reservation and got transferred to a managers voicemail who never called me back.
2) Called again to make reservation, finally got someone.
3) Arrived on time and they had no reservation listed.
4) Asked to wait for 15 minutes in lobby bar, which was a) dead, b) worn down, and c) had a loser of a bartender who served and charged my wife for an orange juice when she ordered a water. He was very disappointed he wasn’t getting a sale, so he forced it on her.
5) Finally we were asked to walk through a labyrinth upstairs around corners to finally find the back room where the «sunday brunch» was served.
6) Everything is old, outdated, dirty, and rather nasty… the building, carpet, walls, furniture, etc… This place is a dump, with great views.
7) The hostess walked us to a table for two right at the windows, which got us excited for 2 seconds… then she realized the table had not been cleaned, and she said… «Oh no, ummmm… sorry, follow me…» and randomly seated us at a much worse table with half-​a-​view.
8) We were offered a 1-​page menu with crappy options… and we placed our order.
9) Then over an hour went by with no food delivered… and 3 Waiters stopped by to take our order again, not realizing someone already had.
10) The Clam Chowder was the worse I’ve ever had in my life. The mashed potatoes were yellow and seemed old. The prime rib was ordered med rare, but delivered medium well.
—–
Overall the experience was worse than a Denny’s (as someone else mentioned). I bought this on Groupon expecting a super nice Sunday Buffet to surprise my wife… and man was I embarrassed. Fortunately my wife is super cool, so she didn’t make a big deal of it… but we’ll never return.
—–

I used the groupon brunch. The food tasted reasonably good — tender prime rib, decent caesar salad, good cheesecake. The bread was chewy, and butter was cold.
But the service was interminably slow and unapologetic. I waited 45 min between appetizer and entrée. In fact, I already waited 20 minutes before they came to tell me that they ran out of chicken and asked me to re-​order. This means that they didn’t even look at my entrée order after 20 minutes after I finished my appetizer!
They also didn’t seem to care whether we had a good experience.

I wish Unilocal gives an option to rate «zero» stars because this place clearly deserves nothing!!!
All I have to say, those who purchased the Groupon, don’t waste your time for the Sunday brunch because you’re setting yourself up for a bad experience and perhaps end up walking out like I did!!! I highly suggest you contacting Groupon for a full refund.

I just had the worst brunch in my life. If I can rate zero star, i would totally do that. I started with seafood chowder, following by the catch of the day, and I finally got the carnelian strawberry (vanilla ice cream stopped with strawberry).
Seafood chowder: apparently it was canned chowder. I didn’t know why they called it seafood when there were only a few pieces of clam.
catch of the day (pacific sole): The fish was rotten and nasty.
Carnelian strawberry: the ice cream was half-​melted. This was actually the best thing I had in the restaurant though.
Well, for those who bought the groupon like I did, good luck! I only have one suggestion, return your groupon.
btw, this might gross you out. I think the meal gave me gas and diarrhea.

This place sold 2,000 groupon ($ 36 for two brunches), but then every time I called to make reservation no one picked up the phone. I was able to reach a bartender once but he said he doesn’t know anything about Sunday brunch.
So I left a message on 4÷30÷11 to request a reservation but still no one returned my call. I decide to just show up on 5÷1÷11 for sunday brunch and was turned away. This is stupid. Surely a good way to piss off 2,000 customers who bought the groupon. (well may be not now that they got your money from the prepaid groupon they could care less about you)
Now I will have to come back here again on another weekend and write another review for the food.
Be careful what you buy on Groupon! I guess the moral of the story is that there is always reason why things are questionably cheap.

This is for the after hour lounge
This place reminds me of a very dated cruisliner. If the crew from the Love Boat came back, they would fit right in. The robe lights around the restaurant, the dated carpet, very slow bartender, and the very small bathrooms made this place very sub par. The view, on the other hand, is a million bucks. So… you ask yourself. Is the view that great where you can be that bad?!?
So, the bar… How much do you charge for a bottle for a private party? 250. Hmmmmm. I guess it’s ok, but you are not a club and it’s a private party. I’ve definiely experienced better and it’s very close to being ehhh, I think not.
I would probably come here to bring out of town guests to showcase the view but other than that it lacks that comfortable, relaxed feel to it. I think I would come back to try their dinner.

I went to the grand opening of Carnelian by the Bay and all I can say is «WOW!». I was quite impressed with the friendly staff and the unobsturcted views of the Bay Bridge, Coit Tower and the Port of San Francisco.
If you’re going to drive to CBTB and don’t want to circle around for parking, they have valet service. The entrance is right before the Ferry Building so make sure you don’t accidentally pass it up. As I drove in, there’s a sign saying no vehicles allowed, ignore it… how the hell else are you going to get to the place? Anywho, the valet staff were über friendly and well mannered. That’s great for them because they just upped their tip, hehe.
The waitstaff, bussers and bartenders were all great. The bartenders served up CBTB’s signature drinks with a smile and consistency. Servers walked around the room with trays of appetizers in a timely manner where I didn’t have to look around to feed my tummy. Even if they didn’t come out frequently, there was a table full of cheese & crackers, assorted sushi, dim sum and bite sized desserts waiting to be eaten. And eat, I did: o)
I was given a tour of the upstairs where there are a couple of smaller rooms with the city view. I fell in love with the banquet room. The views *sigh*…to die for! It’s so beautiful that I’ve decided I will have my wedding reception there, if I can fit my HUGE family in there. That’s another story, back to the review…
After reading the horrible reviews from New Year’s Eve, I’m hoping people will give this establishment another chance. From what I read, it seems the problem was more with the promoter, not CBTB.
I will definitely go back as the staff and the views are top notch. Senator Leland Yee and Miss Chinatown (I don’t know her name… Google it) were also in attendance. Annnnnnnd, to top the night off, I won a bottle of bubbly from their raffle! Yeahhhhhh buddy!

Went there last night for their Open House after the ihollywood event at Pillsbury. Today, supposedly is their grand opening from the mid-​afternoon commute to whenever. If any indication from last night’s festivities, the new operations crew et al — did a fab job.
The bartenders, waitstaff, bus-​staff, et al were quite attentive, got my order. And as you know friends and strangers alike will place anything anywhere, as somehow my friends added their scraps to my plate while they were mingling @ the table I was at. Sheesh.
Anyhoo, they cleared it quickly — which was cool. They have drink specials and seasonal brews to boot. We had a sampling for their lounge menu, desserts, and some dim sum (my fav: steamed pork buns and har gow).
They spoke about brunch in the future, their private dining (which I already know about) and well as dim sum to go
I realize SF is a small town, as friends from yore I haven’t seen but 4 FB was there. The views — spectacular as others have said — especially in the nite light from bay to bridge to the city’s skyline. I wish them luck. I give them 4 stars for food, 5 stars for service, and 10 stars for view.
And as the America’s Cup plays in the bay, Carnelian by the Bay would be a prime site to view the ships as they turn at the Bay Bridge for all the qualifiers, rounds, and finals.

Just another gorgeous day in San Francisco as you see people running on the sidewalks of the Embarcadero and workers who just got off work enjoying Happy Hour, as I proceed to walk to Carnelian by the Bay.
I happened to receive a personal invite to their soft grand opening of this up coming restaurant along the shores of bay. For those of you who remember the Dynamic restaurant Carnelian Room, some of the owners decided to collaborate and do their own thang.
The location of the restaurant is not located inside the ferry building but is hiding in the back of the building right by the ferry entrance. When I first walked in, I was dazzled by the ambiance of the breath taking view of the bay bridge. Large windows and tall ceilings complimented the whole restaurant.
For food they were serving some appetizers on their menu:
*Assorted Cheeses with fruits & Almonds-​Yes I like cheese!
*Fig & Goat cheese on a fig w/​portebello mushrooms-​Very tasty
*Chicken Lollipops w/​bacon ranch dressing-​YAY I’m a fan
*Beer Battered Shrimp– My favorite appetizer
*Assorted Sushi-​Not on menu, but can’t go wrong with sushi!
*Dim sum– Not on menu but perfect not greasy at all
**Dessert-​Carnelian Strawberries-​Dipped in white chocolate! Can’t get enough of these!!!
Did I mention at the opening it was Open Bar? You know I got my drank on lol… Tonight I discovered my new favorite drink they call it «GEM STONE» What a perfect evening to end my night.
Over all the ambiance blew my mind. Service was pleasant & food was spectacular. Would I come back? HELL YA!!!

I spent NYE here and have to say it was the biggest event planning disaster I’ve ever encountered. The only reason I’d even give this place one star is for the gorgeous location. Beautiful skyline views of the city and the Bay, and prime viewing for the fireworks show.
Now on to the bad:
Event planning fail #1:
Upon our arrival, we encountered the longest coat check line I have ever seen. It took us about 45 minutes to get up to the front, and people were cutting in line left and right. We happened to be the last people allowed to hang our coats, so all the people waiting behind us were just SOL. The girl was extremely rude about it. On top of that, they charged for the coat check… I’m sorry, but in the pouring rain and at $ 100+ a pop for an open bar ticket, coat check should be complimentary, especially for the VIP guests.
Event planning fail #2:
They were severely understaffed to the point of ridiculousness. Staff members were running around like chickens with their heads cut off, attempting to accommodate people. Sounds like these event planners got greedy and tried to let in, I don’t know, 500 or so more people than they should have to make more money. As a result, bathrooms were never re-​stocked and by the end of the night there was no toilet paper, hand towels, or seat covers in any of the bathrooms… and I’m fairly certain at least 2 toilets were missing seats. (wtf?)
Event planning fail #3:
They appeared to have sold more open bar «VIP» tickets than general admission tickets, but the only bars available for open bar guests were upstairs. They were slow and poorly stocked, and most of the time we had to wait around 30 minutes for a drink. The situation got so ridiculous that people started stealing bottles off the bar tables to pour for their guests so that anyone could even have a drink for their $ 100+ open bar ticket price. Before midnight even struck, at least one of the open bars only had cheap gin and barely any mixers left.
Event planning fail #4:
The event was advertised as offering open bar (with proper ticket), hors d’oeuvres, champagne at midnight, and favors for guests, as I recall. We received: 2 drinks the entire evening (because of the ridiculous lines) and not a single hors d’œuvre, glass of champagne, or party favor (which I never even saw). Let me put this in perspective: maybe 1500 people drinking liquor on an empty stomach = drunk, sloppy mess. These people were counting on food, and I think I saw only a dozen or so total eggrolls on other people’s plates. I’m lucky I ate before I came… I witnessed a few people vomiting and a bunch of others incapable of walking.
Event planning fail #5:
There were so many people that it was impossible to move about the location with any sort of comfort. People were rude and pushy because, let’s face it, everyone was pretty pissed off.
I’m sure there are more tiny details, but these are the biggest fails on my list. I hope they work this out for next year, but frankly I will never buy another ticket, and I encourage everyone else reading this to do the same.