San Francisco Seafood Restaurant Reviews

Seafood Dinners, Part 1
(Part 2 followed on March 15 - see below)

Seafood is favorite eating for probably the majority of diners, but affordable seafood dinners are hard to find these days in San Francisco. Except for a few seasonal runs of salmon and crab, the remaining seafood—e.g., halibut, cod, sea bass, pompano, mackerel etc.—is high-priced in the markets, hence, also in restaurants.

In most restaurants, not the posh ones, seafood dishes are in the $15–20 range.
But there are still a few that remain affordable, especially when they add a soup or appetizer ($5-6 value) to the seafood dish. An Early Dinner in a posh restaurant occasionally includes seafood (see my early reviews under French Restaurants), e.g.,
a 3-course Early Dinner at Chapeau! (Clement St, 750-9787) for $19, or Clementine
(126 Clement St, 387-0408) for $19.99—both worth several times that. So, it pays to ask. (The 4-course dinner at Chapeau—at all hours—always includes a fish course, while the a la carte menu at Clementine usually has three seafood dishes in the $15–$17 range, good values.)

Another good alternative is a favorite Chinese, Vietnamese, Indian, or Thai restaurant. Some have more seafood entrees than most so-called seafood restaurants, and often wonderful seafood dishes can be had for $7–10, and slightly higher at posh Asian restaurants. I will list a few of them in this review.

Pacific Café
7000 Geary Blvd (corner 34th Ave), 387-7091.
5-9:30pm weekdays, Sat-Sun to 10:30pm.
This is a relatively small place, pleasantly decorated, which has been devoted to seafood for the past 28 years.
click for full review with pictures

Alamo Square, A Seafood Grill
903 Fillmore St (at Grove), 440-3838.
Open Mon-Sat 5:30-9:30pm, Sunday 5-9:30pm. Prix-Fixe dinners available 5:30-6:30pm, Fri & Sat, and all night Sun-Thurs.
A small, attractive restaurant in the Alamo Square area of Fillmore.
click for full review with pictures

Some Ethnic restaurants with seafood specialties

Here is a short list of ethnic restaurants that serve a large menu of seafood dishes. You can also check out your own favorite ethnic restaurant.

Ocean (Chinese)
726 Clement St (8th-9th Aves), 668-8896
Thirty-seven (37) seafood dishes, including lobster, scallops, shrimp, prawns, clams etc. Chinese-style, including whole fish. Most in the $7.50 to $9.50 range.

Kim Thanh (Vietnamese & Chinese seafood restaurant)
607 Geary St. (Leavenworth/Jones), 928-6627. Has 12 seafood appetizers and soups, 4 seafood noodle soups, 4 rice and chow mein seafood dishes, and over 40 (forty) other seafood dishes, including clay pot and lobster. Most in the $6.50-$9.00 range. A formidable array.

Mandalay (Burmese)
4348 California St ( 6th Ave), 386-3896. Thirteen (13) seafood dishes, including fish cake (appetizer), fish chowder, shrimp won-ton soup, prawns, squid, catfish, salmon, pompano, cod. Price range $5.50-$7.95 (salmon $11.95).

India Palace
1740 Fillmore St (Post), 567-7789.
Six seafood dishes, all $10.95.

Scroll down for part 2 of Louis Madison's San Francisco Seafood Restaurant Reviews