If you want to have a pleasant traveling experience in San Francisco, let me offer you a piece of advice: AVOID THE CLIFF HOUSE RESTAURANT AT ALL COSTS! Now that I have my dramatic warning out of the way, let me explain my story. I was traveling with my parents this fall throughout the United States on a road trip to pick up some antique car parts. While driving up the Pacific Coast Highway my mom decided to look for a nice seafood restaurant in San Francisco and stumbled upon a listing for the Cliff House, a historic seafood establishment that has been around since 1858. Many of the reviews discussing the food quality seemed positive, and she didn’t see any of the reviews about people’s cars being robbed at first glance. We got there around 8pm or so and parked directly outside of the restaurant under a streetlight, and we noticed a valet standing outside of the restaurant as well. We went inside and were seated with no warnings about what could (and would likely, as you’ll see soon) take place outside while we were dining. After having a pretty nice meal (and dropping a cool $200 for only 3 people to eat) we walked outside to find our car broken into (see photos below). Thieves had absconded with my whole backpack, which had contained my $4000 MacBook Pro, along with some other things worth some money too. While I concede it was foolish to leave such an expensive machine in the car, it was in the backpack, fully zipped, on the floor, with a blanket obscuring the whole bag. So, while the thieves made off with some nice loot, there was no way for them to know it was in the car before they broke in. It seems much more likely that someone had watched us pull up (remember the valet standing idly outside?), noticed our out-of-state tags, and called a band of thugs who routinely rob from patrons of the restaurant to see what they could take this time. Now, I say “routinely” in a very serious and realistic sense. When we went back into the restaurant to speak to the management about seeing the security tapes so we could have a better idea of the exact turn of events, we were told that they “didn’t have the key” to access where the security system was, and we’d have to wait for another day when someone would come let us in to see them (I guess some unknown person has a key?). I explained that we were leaving San Francisco that night and had a tight schedule to make it home. To this they basically just said “well I guess you’re out of luck.” They couldn’t even muster up a “sorry” for one of their customers that just lost thousands of dollars for no reason except dining in their restaurant. The only valuable information they could provide was that this sort of thing “happens 15 times a day.” 15 times a day? Surely that must be hyperbole. But no, even the police confirmed that much. Now you know why I said “routinely.” How a business that charges too much money for their food and has their patrons stolen from 15 times a day stays in business I’ll never know. Perhaps they are kept afloat by innocent (and apparently foolish) patrons like us, but they’ll only get money from people like us once. You can be sure they’ll never get another dime from me, and I hope not from anyone who reads this blog either. So, please do yourself a favor, and when you see the Cliff House, don’t be tempted to stop and eat. Just keep on going. P.S.: I tried to include a link to their website, but it wouldn’t even load. So if you want more info, take a look at their Wikipedia page. Note (9/10/2021): the restaurant is now closed.

https://cliffhouse.com/

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