Old-School San Francisco Seafood Joint Draws Locals and Tourists Alike
Written: Jul 31 '09 (Updated Aug 04 '09)
|
Product Rating:
|
|
| Food and Presentation: |
 |
|
| Ambiance and Decor: |
 |
|
| Quality of Service: |
|
|
|
Pros: * Fresh classic seafood
* "Old School" vibe
Cons: * Indeterminately long waits
* Cramped seating
The Bottom Line: While the food is good, other options like Hog Island offer similar, if not better, dining experiences.
|
|
|
| smiles33's Full Review: Swan Oyster Depot |
If you love seafood, you have probably been around the block and know your seafood joints. You have your favorite sushi restaurant for those raw fish cravings. But where do you go for classic American seafood like crab, calamari salad, and clam chowder? You avoid the crowds at tourist traps featuring crabs on the sign or souvenir stands out front, even though you might like their prawn cocktails and raw oysters. When you're in the right mood, you enjoy the fancy white tablecloth restaurants that accept reservations up to two months in advance but might do without the high price tag for sometimes overly fussy food. So where does that leave you? For us, our favorite go-to place has been the Hog Island Oyster Bar in the Ferry Building in San Francisco.
Yet before Hog Island opened, many folks raved about Swan Oyster Depot. Since 1912, this restaurant has offered fresh seafood to San Franciscans and is a local institution. My husband and I have been wanting to go for the past 8 years or so. Seriously. However, they are only open 8 am to 5:30 pm, they don't accept reservations, parking is tough (only metered street parking) and there is almost always a line out the door, so it never worked out until today. My husband had the day off and I'm on maternity leave so we finally made it up for lunch.
About the Restaurant
This 19 seat restaurant is really just a long marble counter in a very narrow storefront. Other patrons have to squeeze by you to exit the restaurant and there's really no room to even place your coat or purse except for on the coat hook on the wall right behind you. You don't even have to stand up to grab it.
Once seated, you have a tiny bit of counter space that barely fits your plate and drink. It's a good thing the plates here are fairly small. We had our 8 week baby daughter with us and luckily, knowing about the tight space, we left the stroller and the infant seat in the car and just held her. Fortunately, we got seats near the end of the counter away from the door so we didn't have to deal with every diner walking past us.
One very notable aspect of the Swan Oyster dining experience is the unbelievable lines. We arrived around 11:30 for what we thought would be an early lunch to beat the crowd. Instead, we had a one hour wait in the chilly San Francisco summer weather. For those unfamiliar with San Francisco summers, there's a famous quote attributed to Mark Twain that describes it best: "The coldest winter I ever experienced was a summer in San Francisco."
Since we had so much time, I did my best to scan the counter to see what other diners ordered and deliberate over what I wanted to order. The menu is a huge chalkboard display with some of the items, but not everything. From the line outside, you can barely see the counter but I did see countless seafood salads being assembled right near the window, as there's a large display case behind the plate glass which showed off the fresh fish, smoked fish, crab, prawns, sea urchins, scallops, and other seafood delights. By the time we were seated, we were starving and determined to make the most of our visit. More on the food below.
Inside, there were 4 or 5 guys serving the customers by plating up seafood salads, ladling Boston clam chowder, and slicing the sourdough bread. The walls are decorated with lots of black and white photos and other historical decor that gives it the authenticity of being an old-school institution. The vibe is friendly and old-school charming. I saw several patrons greeted by name and the guys all had a relaxed demeanor, as opposed to being rushed despite the very long lines outside. The service is excellent and friendly, don't get me wrong. It's just that these guys exude a relaxed demeanor that puts you at ease immediately. Once seated, that attitude is contagious and I felt like I could leisurely enjoy my meal, despite knowing there were dozens of people outside waiting. I agree with one reviewer's observation that it's like your neighborhood bar where the bartender knows your name.
About the Food
Like I said earlier, after an hour's wait, we felt we had to really sample quite a bit of the menu to maximize the experience. Note that since the bill wasn't itemized and many prices were not even listed, I'm going to list what prices I can based on a google search of websites that claim to have Swan Oyster Depot's menu. Unfortunately, I can't find a restaurant website.
After we sat down, our server immediately handed us a plate of hearty sliced sourdough bread with cold (but spreadable) individual pats of butter. Apparently, this costs $0.75 though we weren't informed of that. I love good bread and we each had several slices. My husband had a pint of the Anchor Steam beer, a local San Francisco beer that they have on tap. I opted for the lemonade since I'm nursing the baby. I didn't look closely at the label, but it was some fancier organic lemonade that tasted quite good, rather than the typical artificial tasting lemonade.
We started off with a Bowl of Boston clam chowder ($4.75). Right away, this was a huge letdown after countless times enjoying Hog Island's gourmet version (which costs almost 3 times as much). Swan Oyster Depot's version is extremely watery and thin, with a layer of oil and only a few chunks of potatoes and clams. I don't expect the Campbell's soup version, thickened with too many potatoes, but I like a richness to the soup beyond a watery broth. I don't think they used enough cream. We tried but ultimately gave up on using our bread to sop up the soup. I even dumped some oyster crackers from a communal bowl on the counter thinking it might help things out. It didn't. We fished out the clams and left the rest.
A quick aside: there are several communal bowls on the counter besides the oyster crackers, including horseradish, lemon wedges, Tabasco sauce, and capers. Thus, you can serve yourself and doctor your seafood as you wish.
Next we had the Calamari cocktail ($6.95). It had a nice texture without being overly chewy or tough, but wasn't a showstopper. It was pleasant enough, but a bit pricey given the very small portion. All of the cocktails are served in small glass bowls with a capacity of about a cup or so.
As a raw oyster lover, I had to order a half dozen Blue Point oysters ($7.95) and half dozen Kumamotos (unknown price). I normally prefer Kumamotos, especially since Hog Island always has fantastic ones. I decided to try the Blue Points because many reviewers had raved about them. I found them fleshy and sweet, but without the buttery plump delicacy that the Kumamoto offers. Swan Oyster's mignonette was not as tantalizing as Hog Island's and had an odd pink tint to it (possibly from the diced red onions marinating too long?).
Then, the highlight of the trip for me were the raw scallops. I love scallops and have only recently tried raw scallops at a Japanese restaurant, Kitsho. At Swan Oyster, the server offered me two options: Sicilian style with olive oil, capers and red onions or Asian style with soy sauce and a dot of Sriracha sauce. I couldn't decide so he split it into two small plates so I could sample each style. Both preparations were delicious, but I loved the Sicilian style ones.
Next up was a plate of Crawdads (unknown price) from the local Sacramento Delta area. They looked just a bit too labor-intensive for me (yes, I'm a lazy eater!) but my husband said they were delicious and spicy.
Then we decided we had to try some of the other seafood and split the Prawn cocktail ($8.25) and the Crab cocktail ($9.75). The prawns were good, but nothing spectacular. They were decently sized but the real star was the crab. This was one of the best items of the day, as the firm sweet crab meat was in fairly large lumps so it didn't get lost or fall apart when dipped into the cocktail sauce (which we doctored with lots of horseradish). It was also topped with two large pieces of claw meat.
Finally, we also ordered 1/2 pound of the smoked salmon (price unknown, but normal portion was $17.95) to go as we had to run to the car as I only put 2 hours on the meter! One of the servers was de-boning a giant fillet in front of us and our server gave us each a sample that was just delicious. Plus, the guy next to my husband ordered it and had dressed it up with lots of capers (from a communal jar on the counter), lemon (again, from the communal bowl), fresh ground pepper and red onion on slices of rye. I just couldn't resist so we ordered some and plan to enjoy it later this weekend.
All of this food was $144 before tip. Note that it's a cash only establishment, so it's fortunate that we had enough cash on us. There are several ATMs at nearby liquor stores, so there's always that option if you end up ordering far more than planned (like us).
Final Thoughts
We can now say we've eaten at Swan Oyster Depot and we likely will never go back. It was a fun adventure and something I don't necessarily regret. However, we can eat at Hog Island at much greater convenience and comfort and, in my opinion, receive almost similar quality food.
Recommended:
No
Kid Friendliness: No
Vegetarian Friendly: No
Notes, Tips or Menu Recommendations Stick to the seafood cocktails and skip the clam chowder
Best Suited For: Friends
|
|
|
|
|
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.