Sotto Mare

Sotto Mare.  A well known restaurant in San Francisco, at least in the seafood scene.  I suspect it is on most people's short lists of both Italian and seafood.  Located in North Beach, right off the main drag.  The restaurant has only been around since 2007, but, its crazy popular, amongst locals and tourists alike.

"The Best Damn Cioppino in San Francisco!"​

Sotto Mare, like a few other places, claim to have the best ciopinno in town.  I can't vouch for that, as tomato based dishes aren't really my thing.  The menu also features a bunch of fresh seafood, chowder, louie salads, and of course, pasta and risotto, as it is North Beach after al.

There is always a wait at Sotto Mare, no matter the time of day.  As I said, popular.  But I opted for delivery, not really wanting to deal with the crowds anyway.  I ordered online using DoorDash, which worked with no problems.

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• Uber Eats ($20 off - use code eats-lejw5 at checkout) [ Pickup or delivery ]

Richie's Marinated Cold Cracked Dungeness Crab (Half). $26.50.

The menu has lots of good sounding dishes, but I really had my eyes on only one thing: crab.  Local Dungeness crab.  A treat I learned to love since moving to SF.

Sotto Mare has two crab options on the menu: the regular cold cracked crab served with cocktail sauce, or the marinated one.  I ordered the regular, but got the marinated.  I know people rave about the marinated one though, it just didn't sound like my sort of thing (Italian marinade, dressing, etc, not really my flavor profile of choice).  Crabs are available whole or half, I opted for the half.

The crab came served over some shredded iceberg lettuce, which actually was quite nice, even though I didn't love the marinade, as expected, the lettuce soaked it all up, and I appreciated having something refreshing with the crab.  It also had two slices of lemon that were remarkably good.  I know, you might be thinking, "isn't it just lemon?", but, these lemons really were extraordinary, almost like meyer lemons.  *****  for the lemons, really.  There was also a big garnish of some kind of herb ... it looked almost like celery tops?

But obviously, this dish was about the crab.  The portion was as expected, a half crab.  One claw, 4 legs, and some body pieces.  It was pre-cracked, mostly, but, to really get the sweet bits in the tips of the legs, I needed to use a crab picker, which luckily I had at home.  The crab seemed fresh enough.  It was certainly a bit of a pain to eat, but, that was expected at some level, but it was made messier by the fact that it was covered in the marinade.  

So, yeah, the marinade.  It was basically Italian dressing.  Oily, herby, and ... not what I'd prefer with my crab.  It wasn't bad, and I think if you like Italian dressing you'd really like this, hence all the rave reviews, but for me, that was a downside.  It also made it really, really, really messy to eat since my fingers were totally covered in oil, vinegar, and herbs.

It was nice to have something different, as it had been a while since I last had fresh crab, but, I wouldn't get this again, the marinade just wasn't for me. ***.

Bread (complimentary).

Included in my order was a bag with quite sizable hunk of bread and butter ... and salt and pepper packets ... and Tapatio ... and red pepper flakes ... and grated parmesan cheese.  I suspect this is the generic "condiments" bag they give to every order, which makes more sense with pasta for example.  Anyway, I'll use the condiments eventually, no waste, just, not with this meal.

The bread though ... was sourdough.  And I really don't care for sourdough.  It had a good crust, was really quite nice bread, but, sourdough, and thus not for me.  Seemed very fresh, and likely great for soaking up whatever sauces your meal includes, which could have been the Italian dressing in my case, had I wanted the bread.  **, but only because I dislike sourdough.