Restaurant Review: Neptune’s Palace, Pier 39

Almost every time I go to San Francisco, I dine at Neptune’s Palace. In fact, when I am doing the touristy things at Pier 39 and Fisherman’s Wharf, I’ve only eaten at a different restaurant one time…every other time it’s been Neptune’s. This time, there was a slight wait to get seated, although the restaurant wasn’t crowded. Once seated, we had a table with a good view, although all of the tables at Neptune’s have a view of the Bay due to the restaurant design, some are closer to the windows than others.

Since the last time I ate at Neptune’s Palace, they changed the menu a little bit (if you look online, they still have the old menu posted.) The fresh fish selection used to come with vegetables and jasmine rice with a citrus beurre blanc. Now it comes with garlic mashed potatoes and something I don't remember. I really loved the rice and the citrus beurre blanc., I wasn’t really feeling like eating salmon, since I’d had some sole the night before. So, this time I chose to get the split prawns, which came with a wild rice pilaf and grilled vegetables. The shrimp, vegetables, and rice were excellent. Unfortunately, I was so hungry, I couldn’t wait to eat…so didn’t take any pictures of the food. We also ordered the shrimp bruschetta appetizer; it was $8.95 for three pieces of bruschetta topped by chopped shiitake mushrooms, sun dried tomato tapenade, lemon aioli and shrimp. It was served with a garnish of greens with a tasty gingery-sesame tasting dressing…in fact, I think I liked the greens and dressing better than the bruschetta, although the bruschetta was quite good.

Normally, when I’ve eaten at Neptune’s Palace, the service was excellent, but I think they must’ve been short-handed, because it took quite some time to get the bread basket. The overall food service was very slow, however, the food was definitely worth it.