Spenger’s is the safe-but-pricey restaurant you go to with your parents because they don’t want haute cuisine or exotic food or a cheap hole in the wall. The gigantic building is divided into several different rooms, all decorated with maritime relics. (There’s a room whose ceiling is covered with wine corks, another room has a huge sword fish on the wall as well as a giant sea turtle.) Seafood is king here, and you can pay a tycoon’s ransom eating it, but you can also find cheap options like fish and chips or sandwiches. The clam chowder is pretty good; unfortunately, my favorite item, the oyster po boy, isn’t on the menu any more, but the crab cake sandwich is a suitable replacement. If my parents are treating, I’d get the captain’s platter full of deepfried seafood goodness. I think Spenger’s is one of the oldest, if not the oldest, restaurant in Berkeley and it went through numerous ownership changes, the most recent one being a few years back; I miss the cute china-creamy white with blue ocean-themed drawings on the border-and the craggy old servers that lolled about. Surprisingly, the huge restaurant can be full and you might have to wait at the bar, but thankfully, it’s a full bar. If you don’t wanna stay, they have a takeout window. There is a paid parking lot across the street and Spenger’s validates.

1919 4th Street
Berkeley, CA 94702

Telephone: (510) 548-2717
Cost: 0 USD per person
Hours:

Type: Dining
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