On The Water Front Cafe

Great spot to sit outside and people watch while having a few beers. Average food, but fairly priced for what you get compared to some of the other spots along the Strand.

It’s a seat yourself restaurant. For me it was difficult finding someone to take our order. 7 – 8 minutes later I ask one of the waitresses on her iPad, who our serve was. She just said someone will be there to take your order momentarily. Didn’t happen. I had to wave my arm to get one of server’s attention.
My girlfriend and I ordered some wings as a starter. She orders an Angry Orchard and I order a Dubbel beer. This is were it gets weird. They bring our wings with marinara sauce. Yes, marinara sauce. Last time I checked, I ordered wings not chips. My girlfriend’s Angry Orchard came in a bottle with a side glass, full of ice. What?!? And my beer comes out room temperature (yes I am aware that it’s German beer and they serve it in Germany at room temperature, but we are in California). We ask for blue cheese. They said they didn’t have any. We ask for ranch. It was never brought out.
I order their house burger with fries and my girlfriend ordered their club sandwich with a side salad. Her club sandwich was good, but salad was just salad. The salad was still wet from ring washed. The price was ridiculous. $ 14 for a club sandwich! Outrages. My burger was nothing special. I could of grilled it in my backyard and it probably would of tasted better. My burger came with 2 packets of mayo on the side. Like, really? They couldn’t even put mayo in my burger. The fries were soggy as well.
It took them a long time to get our check and also to get it back.
Never again.

Great beer garden along the boardwalk in Venice. Six different kinds of German beers on tap, as well as domestics. On weekends the beer garden extends to the side so the beach party atmosphere expands too.
A wonderful place to relax and enjoy a German beer on tap while listening to live music on a sunny summer afternoon. Makes you forget about everything else for a while…

Great place to stop and have a beer and of course the French fries! We sat outside and people watched.
The beer was excellent! That weekend we went to the Muscle Beach woman’s body building competition to watch my niece. Great time.
Parking kinda sucked but what can you do right!

Do not stop here for food if you are hanging in the beautiful Venice beach. I went with a friend and ordered the $ 13 chicken fingers. After waiting for nearly an hour and a half, the food came out and there were 3 small fingers on the plate with a few small pieces of carrot and celery. The fingers were over breaded and bone dry. Definitely go to the ale house next door if you want to actually eat!

Cool location. Bring friends from out of town here. Great people watching in the boardwalk. Average selection of beers. Need more on tap to really be called a beer garden.
Had the Bavarian pretzel. It was HUGE! But, it was nothing to write home about, unfortunately.
Our waitress was really nice!

Just an update to share some helpful info I learned recently when planning a birthday party here. Though it will be hard to reserve lots of tables for a big party out front where all the action is, you might want to consider reserving the back patio. We got the whole thing to ourselves, got to move the tables however we wanted, and the waiter was even able to split checks per table so we didn’t have to put 10 000 credit cards to split one bill. It’s like having your own private beer garden… and you don’t even have to listen to that awful electric guitar guy who always stands outside on the boardwalk causing a racket!

I love this place for the people watching and the beer. The food… I could do without OTHER than the giant pretzel. Seriously, get one. The pretzel is to die for. I’ve had most things on the menu including the burger, bottle caps, chips and salsa and salads. The salads are fresh, but nothing special. The past two times I have had the chips and salsa, the chips came out either undercooked or stale. No bueno.
The atmosphere, however, is a different story. If you want authentic Venice, in all its weird glory, come here on a weekend afternoon and sit outside. Great place to grab a view and take in the local ‘flavor,’ not the best place to grab food.

The best beer and the best place to have it on the beach! The food is so-​so but if your all about having a great beer on the beach then here you go!

I had the $ 7 breakfast special with eggs, bacon, hash browns and wheat toast. The bacon looked ok but no taste. Eggs where ok. Hash browns is where they lost most of their points. I wish we could give half stars because I would give them 2.5 stars because everybody was nice and it’s a good place to people watch.

If I lived in the Venice Beach area, I would never leave this place! It’s the perfect pub. Located right on the Venice boardwalk overlooking the beautiful beach. The large patio is perfect for watching the Venice performers & crowds stroll by.
They specialize in German beer — absolutely nothing better for a hot /​sunny day on the beach. The beer menu emphasized Erdinger Weizenbier & Dunkel, Bitburger and the refreshing Benediktiner Weissbier. They also have a few non-​German imports and American beers.
To my surprise, the beers were served in the correct glass… and you got to keep the glass. WTF? I left with 6 glasses that afternoon! The glass and beer was just $ 7 a pint.
I didn’t try the meals but ordered the large Bavarian pretzel served with a sweet honey mustard — perfect snack with the beer. The menu consisted of common pub food.
Service was spectacular. The minute my glass emptied, the server was at my table asking if I wanted a refill… yes please. The servers were so friendly and all helped each other out.
Fellow beer drinkers on the patio were so friendly, I enjoyed multiple conversations with the locals. The Venice beach performers in front of the patio were a blast to watch — everything from balloon animal makers to Bob Marley impersonators.
I can’t recommend this place enough. The perfect combination of great beer, atmosphere and location — I had an amazing afternoon — might of been the highlight of my trip.
BK

I came here for breakfast looking for somewhere that served alcohol. There are not that many places on the boardwalk that do.
I had a few mimosas with my french toast. The food was good and it is always nice to be able to eat and sit on the boardwalk outside. After we left I saw a few other breakfast deals that may have been better on Main but I was happy with our selection.

I been coming here for years. They have good german wheat beer and its in the tall flutes. The scene is central to Venice beach and if you enjoy beer and beach this may be a top ten of the world for a place to have a beer and enjoy beach culture.

One of my favorite bars on the Venice boardwalk to chill out and have a Erdinger beer and people watch. The fish and chips and the calamari is pretty amazing.

Great place to enjoy some day beers and watch all the freaks and tourists pass by… well, at least hope they pass by…
sometimes you have to stakeout for a table, but it’s Venice Beach! What do you expect??? Their tap beers are always fresh and to the perfect temperature. Whether it’s the Bitburger or Erdinger, you can’t go wrong.
What’s that? You’ve been drinking in the sun and you need something to accompany your delicious beer? No worries, they have soft pretzels to help! Not only are they just what ya need to pair the drinks, they are the best Bavarian soft pretzels in town!
There ya go. Great spot, awesome beer. Enjoy, but not too long– I’m gonna take your table when you’re done…

Rating based on games available and the pretzel bread that was larger than my head. It was good but I would not get it with salt. The salt is way too salty and the sauce that comes with it is not good. I would just use butter with it.

So this place is located in Venice, what more do I have to say? You know already that you will see a lot of weird (or should we call them interesting people?) and lots of tourists from around the world. The interesting people are always here, the tourists come and go with the seasons, but you can easily spot them. If they wear socks and sandals, definitely Germans, if their skin looks red like a lobster, definitely from England, if they are rude and can’t speak any English, definitely from France, if they have the «lost look» on their face, that could be any country in Europe.
You see, after you have been here a couple of times, you develop the sense that you know where people are from, just by looking at them. Needless to say, I have been here a couple of times before and have developed the ability to spot every European nation out here, LOL.
The place has your typical «German Beergarden» flair, you sit on the long benches and zip on your beer, while you meet all the other people sitting on your table.
Oh yeah, they sell food too which is just OK. But again, you come here for the view at all the interesting people, the beer garden, the beer, and probably not for the food.
Parking can be tricky, but if you come here on your motorcycle you will always find a spot.
But the best thing is, I don’t have to explain to the server 3 times when I order a «Radler», he knows exactly what I want.
Also, noch ein Radler bitte, Prost!

I think the only reason my gf and I ate here was because it’s near the end of the boardwalk, and we were both starving. I should’ve stopped a few places back, where they had a $ 10.95 beer & burger special. Here, not so special.
We both got burgers and beers — a Sam Adams for her, a Hefeweizen for me. They were served up in some mighty fine looking glasses.
The burgers weren’t worth it, though. It was practically tasteless despite the accompanying condiments and a generous dollop of ketchup & brown mustard. Both included fries, which are hard to screw up, but no effort was made to give them any extra seasoning.
Total cost was… $ 32?!? WTF? Yea, seriously. Do yourself a favor and go a few spots back down the boardwalk and get something to eat where they’ve got a decent special advertised. The food here was mediocre at best. For $ 32 I could’ve had a good meal somewhere else.

Straight west coastin.
That could mean all the good/​bad stuff you do cause you’re on the West coast but for this time it was people watchin (a lot of cool weirdos), drinkin beers, enjoying the ocean breeze, eatin appetizers…

Great place for lunch — right on the beach in Venice near Muscle Beach. We sat on the patio and people watched with a huge beer in hand and tasty munchies. I had the sausage and cheese appetizer and my friends opted for pizzas — they were so good that we ended up sharing just so that everyone could have a taste of each. :)
Inside was PACKED. I guess it is The place to be for soccer games… the fans get CRAZY here.
note — theres a back patio area as well, more of a courtyard setting.