Sailor Jack’s

Very disappointing. We came just at sunset and were shown immediately to a table and promptly forgotten. Though the hostess was pleasant, the waitstaff was either under trained or undermanned. My husband rose 6 times from the table for assistance with simple things like salt/​pepper and water refills. The food was adequate but nothing special. The seafood salad was served without any dressing and the clam fettuccini was watery and lacked richness. Again, very disappointing.

Food is awesome and you know who else is awesome, Jacquie the manager she is amazing and always has a great smile when we walk in the door! Can’t wait to go back for some clam chowder yummmmm!

Just came back from a mediocre late dinner at Sailor Jack’s. They are open to 10 on Saturdays but when we arrived a little after 9 the downstairs was closed and the waitstaff was sitting in the dining room. The hostess, who is always pleasant, came over and showed us upstairs. The view was magnificent. Unfortunately we can’t say the same about the food. The clam chowder was lukewarm and the crab cakes flavorless and greasy. We’ve had both previously (earlier in the day) and loved them. When the bill came we were amazed that 2 cups of chowder, 2 crab cake salads, 1 iced tea, and 1 martini with tip was $ 70. For that much I want more than mediocre soup and salad. We won’t be returning to Sailor Jack’s for a late night dinner anytime soon.
Oh almost forgot. While we were eating they decided to vacuum the downstairs area. The vacuum sounded like it was on its last legs. Talk about ambience. The hostess apologized to the diners and sent the waitress down to tell whoever was vacuuming to stop.

We were there on a Thursday and the cocktail was good, but the calamari was cold and from the bottom of the bad. No good!

Heartbroken! We have been going to Sailor Jack’s for 15+ years. It used to be so awesome, back in the day of the shrimp quesadilla! The last few years it has really gone downhill, so much so, that the only reason we go is to visit the awesome bartender Steve (he is the reason most people still go) and the drinks. We will occasionally have appetizers but that’s it. The food is awful and overpriced. Last week was the absolute last time we will go. We ordered drinks (waited quite a while to get those) and calamari (totally bland), Brussels sprouts (average) and the crab cake salad (truly awful-​all filler and no seasoning). The service was worse than the food. All of the wait staff wore a thinly veiled contempt that we can only attribute to their working environment. So sad… we used to LOVE to go there.

Feeling generous with a 3 thanks to the amazing sunset and the tasty cold beer. However the slow, unfriendly service and prices out weighed the taste and quality of the food. Don’t get me wrong, the place is good. Good.

My mom really wanted to come here because she read an article about the place being the home of an old sailor and was named after the author Jack London in the AAA circular. It was a good idea to come because the restaurant is located right on the waterfront in downtown Benicia which offered a nice escape from the 104 degree weather in Sacramento. The view from the restaurant has a scenic view of the Carquinez Bridge settled directly across the way. The atmosphere was pretty chill for lunch on a Friday afternoon, no kids around, mostly older retired folks having a glass of wine or a beer. We were seated upstairs within the restaurant even though they offered patio dining. If you come during lunch, don’t expect to order fresh seafood. They will tell you that the real seafood is reserved for dinner time after 5:00 PM.
We ordered a number of dishes to share family style. To start we had crispy brussel sprouts and fried calamari. The calamari was ooookay, nothing amazing, but the brussel sprouts were actually pretty delicious! They were crispy and served with what seemed to be an ailoi of some sort, or maybe even just regular mayo, either way it was delicious. For our entrees we shared a seafood salad, crab melt, and a cup of clam chowder. The seafood salad was flavored with buttermilk dressing and served with a bunch of tiny shrimp with one prawn laying on top. It was a bit bland so we added quite a bit of pepper to spice it up. The clam chowder was good, but should’ve been called bacon chowder since that’s what it tasted like. It was delightfully creamy, but was totally missing the clams! The crab melt was very tasty, but the bread was so hard. It ended up cutting up the roof of my mouth anytime I bit into it.
All-​in-​all, the experience wasn’t horrible, but it wasn’t great. If you do happen to go, order the brussel sprouts!

My husband and I went to Sailor Jack’s for the first time yesterday. We were exploring Benicia, and loved the view. With no more than that to recommend it, we went inside.
We were seated upstairs in the bar, my husband facing the water and with it to his right, me with the water to the left (on the more comfortable bench seat). The view was nice for both of us. We arrived at 4, that time between lunch and dinner menus, so we just had the bar menu, but it was sufficient for our needs.
My husband had the caesar salad, which he said was very good (though it didn’t come with enough dressing, so he requested more). I had Jack’s Burger. OMG! It was amazing! Kobe beef, grilled a genuine medium rare, on a grilled brioche bun. I had it with sliced avocado, rather than how they normally serve it with bacon and jack cheese. The avocado was good, plentiful, and no brown spots. The hamburger to die for!
The only slight down side was that the sides of mayo and ketchup were half of a tiny cup, and I had delicious fries to eat with them too. The lesson is they skimp on condiments – probably because so much is wasted in general – so make sure you ask for what you need. The other thing was that when I signaled for a refill on my Pepsi, the waitress didn’t remember that I had asked for light ice, and so the bartender FILLED the glass with ice, and poured the not-​cold Pepsi on it, causing instant melt, diluting the Pepsi.
Our waitress was quirky and nice, and the other people we interacted with seemed quite nice. We will definitely go back any time we are in the area!

Nice scenic seating. Staff were friendly and attentive. Fish and chips were good. Drinks definitely generous with alcohol.

Menu and chefs change daily. Change you website when changing you menu. 18 dollar hamburger. Are you serious. This was my go to place. I am 63 and sent food back for the first time in my life. It was mussels. How do you mess that up?. Swore it of 3 times. Went back when an out of town friend was visiting for apps and a drink with a view. 815 pm… was told kitchen was shut down because they were not busy. Stop changing your menu with each new cook. Quality and proportion size ridiculous. And why can you not maintain a cook. I refuse to call them Chefs. Use to be a 3X a week. Never ever going back

A good price food was perfect recommend trying it I ordered a salad and I got full it’s a pretty big size portion. App was the salmon thing can’t remember the name but it was really good

I have often suggested this is the place to go for a beautiful view the the Benicia Bay. The bar tender makes yummy martini’s. I love the Paella. Not to many places make it. This was an outstanding dish and hard to stop eating. It’s really enough for two people.

«A Good Meal» before fasting for reconstructive surgery (due to breast cancer) at Sailor Jack’s with the «husby» and our little man. It wasn’t our first choice, but I’m glad we ended up there. Their customer service was excellent! Our hostess, server and even the bartender all genuinely and willingly acknowledged us. We were seated upstairs, which was perfect with a great view of the water and a nice breeze. My son was given an entire Iron Man coloring book and a cup full of color crayons. He certainly was a happy camper. My husband ordered the Jack Burger and I ordered their Tuna Melt with spinach salad. Extremely delicious! I rarely order or eat hamburgers, but the Jack Burger was incredibly on point taste wise, I asked my husband if I can have half of it and he can have half of my Tuna Melt. Hahaha! Thanks a million, Sailor Jack’s! Live, Laugh, Love, Learn even harder!

Meh. I’ve experienced better.
Ambiance: the upstairs bar area seems to be set up exactly, perfectly wrong for most of the seating, as only a few tables actually have an incredible view. We were a party of 8, which means any view was 90 degrees away for most of the table (and 180 for me).
Drinks: the bar gets 4 stars. Pretty expensive but the drinks were great.
Food: we shared 2 appetizers and I had a seafood salad. The calamari appetizer was 50% batter pieces and the rest very, very small bits of calamari in a very small portion (for $ 13). It was nearly impossible to distinguish the calamari from the batter pieces. On top of that, it was pretty greasy (oil too cold?). One star for the calamari, which really should be an easy 4 stars with any attention to detail.
The shrimp poppers were good. There was a nice balance of batter to shrimp with good flavor. Well seasoned. Tasty. 4 stars.
Seafood salad: wow, was this bland, and it looked really plain, too. It had 1 prawn, spread bits of fresh crab meat, and some bay shrimp. There was also some bacon. It was all mixed together with the prawn on top. I’d recommend grouping the ingredients on top in little sections. That might also make you put more ingredients on the salad in the first place, too, because for $ 18, I expected more.

Great food great drinks & Simone the bartender was great… I’ll be back, oh yeah, the scenery was very nice looking at the water & the bridge…

Don’t get me wrong, I love this place!
But the other day I had one of the most liberating times of my life when for the first time in 30 years I walked into a restaurant much less a bar alone but then I almost fell off my barstool when I got the bill.
I had a hamburger and one glass of wine and it came to $ 31.50!!!
What the!!!
So I was in there again today having lunch with a friend and you better believe I talked to them about the bill~
Yup– $ 18.50 for a hamburger and $ 13 for a glass of wine. Dayem!
Plus a five dollar tip= $ 36.50.
Oh, hell no !!
Don’t go in there at night or go upstairs to the bar or they’re going to soak your pants off; otherwise it’s great.
Go happy hour, have a good time and get out without hemorrhaging too much money.
;0)

This review is solely based on my meal and service, not taking into consideration that my wife’s prawn pasta was so bland (olive oil, presumably low or standard grade was the only «sauce») that she sent it back and ordered nothing else.
I ordered the juniper brined bone-​in pork chop. This was my second choice as I found out that the ribeye steak was not bone-​in (no chance on God’s green earth I’m paying nearly 40 bucks for a measly boneless ribeye with boring side options).
The pork could not have been better seasoned and charred. Topped with a delicious seasonal fruit chutney that I couldn’t get enough of. The three sides were also perfectly prepared and seasoned: creamed corn, mash potatoes, and Swiss chard.
If Sailor Jack’s served house-​made sodas, better side options, and bone-​in steak I would have given them 5 stars. Though I’m sure my wife would have settled for one-​star.

To be perfectly honest, I’m quite shocked with all the next reviews Sailor Jacks has received.
This is one of my grandfather’s favorite places to eat in Benicia! We have come here several times and every time we have were treated tremendously well and the food is tasty!
I was there a couple of weeks ago with my grandfather, brother and his family. I can’t remember our server’s name but she was great! She checked on us regularly as my grandfather had some special needs.
Sailor Jacks is a great restaurant with an exceptional view and an awesome staff!

Just disregard the other complaints you read. As you can read what we did…
I had to do business here in Benicia and ask about this restaurant…
They said just one word «YES «
So we did and our server was awesome and I saw eggs Benedict and as to substitute crab for baby shrimp she went to ask when the food came it was done to request!
And great !!!
My wife had the sblta (salmon bacon lettuce tomatoes) she loved it ! Good parking and next time we will ride to here for lunch !
This place is a true 5 stars !!!

Looking for a hot meal at port? This is not the place.
We tried sailor jacks tonight for dinner. We opted to sit outside since it was busy. The staff was courteous and sat us quickly which was nice. And then we ordered! And our food came fast!
And cold.
So I’m not sure how they accomplished COLD fried calamari. That was the first offense because if it was fresh, it would be unbearably hot.
I ordered a bowl of chowder as my meal. This also arrived cold, as demonstrated in my photo.
For dessert, I got a $ 57 dollar bill. I still tipped because I don’t think it was the wait services fault that the kitchen sucks, but I’ll definitely never go back.