I had done myself wrong in this city… I hadn’t eaten at a true seafood restaurant. Sure I’ve had fish dishes here and sushi there, but nothing to write home about. It was time to change all that. For Dad’s last day in SF before heading back up north, we went to Tadich Grill for lunch, one of the more famous seafood restaurants, and what is known to be the oldest restaurant in the city.
And it felt old. Everything from the décor to the tables and bar to the equipment to the employee uniforms made me feel as if I had stepped into a Humphrey Bogart mystery. Everything has been there since this location opened in the 1960s after Tadich Grill was established in 1849. There are only a few tables available by the windows right near the entrance. Otherwise all of the seating is at the long wooden bar leading to the copper bedecked kitchen.
Dad and I sat at the bar and ordered the mixed seafood plate and number sixty-four on my list, the sand dabs. I had no idea what sand dabs were. I had never seen them on a menu before, and our waitress thought I was crazy when I told her this. It is a Pacific coast fish that Tadich Grill had received fresh from the ocean that day. It is a thin slightly flaky fish similar to flounder, yet a bit oilier like halibut. Tadich Grill served three filets breaded and fried with a side of sautéed long Chinese green beans. The fish was the perfect combination between white flaky fish and oily steak, an important discovery for my food education.
Our mixed seafood plate was really the winner of the day. If I had gone swimming in the deep ocean with my mouth wide open, I probably would have eaten much the same meal. Smoked salmon, oysters, squid, smoked trout, mackerel, shrimp with cocktail sauce… you name it, it was probably there. All served on a bed of lettuce and tomatoes with fresh California avocado slices. Tadich Grill could probably do just fine with a one-item menu, that one item being their mixed seafood plate. It tasted like the ocean.
Whether ordering the mixed seafood plate, Sand Dabs, or their famous chowder, Tadich Grill is truly a San Francisco seafood spot, and remains a place in the city's history.
