Swan Oyster Depot Visited 5/6/2011 4.25 Forks

Swan Oyster Depot 1517 Polk St., (between California St & Sacramento St), San Francisco, CA 94109

 As soon as I found out I was going back to SF, I knew I wanted to go to a seafood joint.  There just aren't that many fresh seafood places in NYC.  We headed over to this place as soon as we landed in SF.  It's in the Russian Hill area of SF and it's super tiny.  There is only counter seating and there is about 18 seats total.  Unfortunately, we got there at exactly noon, so right during the lunch time rush. 


There was a line when we got there but luckily we didn't have to wait forever, maybe 30 minutes? The place is definitely filled with locals and tourists alike.  The menu is listed on the wall and there's basically seafood salads, seafood cocktails, oysters, chowder, and cracked crab.  I had read on 7x7's 100 things to eat before you die in SF and their cracked crab was listed as #100 so that was on my mind the whole time.  In retrospect, I kind of wish I had gotten something else instead.  That's not to say that the crab wasn't good but I ended up not having room for a seafood salad, which looked delicious and what everyone else was getting.


We split a bowl of clam chowder ($5) which was extremely creamy and buttery tasting but it wasn't that "chowder" in texture.  I would have liked it to be a little more thick and meaty in texture and perhaps with more clams.  We then got a dozen mixed oysters ($26) which were amazing.  I don't remember all the different types but there were some that I loved, some that were too salty and some that were just ginormous in size.  But it was great to be able to try so many different types of super super fresh oysters in one sitting.  If they weren't expensive, I would have gotten another round.  Next we got the half cracked crab ($18) and as someone who grew up with bushels of blue crabs, the size of this half crab was pretty sad.  It was literally 5 legs and some of the body that was pre-cracked and it came with side of louie sauce (pretty much 1,000 island dressing).  I will say that the crab was extremely fresh but I just wanted more. It was such a tease to get such a small portion. I looked over next to me and everyone had gotten a seafood combo salad, which was a bunch of fresh shrimp and crab on a bed of lettuce drowning in louie sauce.  Yum.  But the salad was another $20, so we opted for the seafood cocktail instead ($9) which was a handful of oysters, shrimp and crab in a small cocktail glass with cocktail sauce in it.  It was good but after seeing everyone else eat something else, I made me kind of sad.


I give this place really high marks for ambiance.  It's just old school and everyone who works there is old school as well (except for the high schoolers working there).  They were all super knowledgeable and made you feel like an old friend. I could see how locals keep coming back.  The guy next to me had said that he goes there once a week, so jealous.  Next time I go, I will know exactly what to order.  Our total bill with beers was $98 (cash only).