Much like the previous post I did last month, good things are really worth the wait. Pacific Cafe in San Francisco is another of these great examples. After a day of museums, high tea, and touring the city it was late, windy cold, and I was HUNGRY. I had a horrible hankering for seafood, like a wonderful lobster roll, or a bucket of Dungeness crabs; 2 problems: 1) we don't live on the east coast (no lobster rolls to be found), and 2) it isn't crab season yet. What's a girl to do? Not to mention I was nursing more than a slight all-day hangover. A girl needs to just listen to her friends, the locals will always know the best places to go, because they'll be the ones also standing outside waiting for a table. So on to Pacific Cafe we went.
After waiting over an hour for a table a 9 o'clock we were seated in what had to be no more than a 10-15 table restaurant. Although the white and/or red wine that was plied to all waiting customers as they stood out in the wind, or snugged into a table or a chair in the entryway was quite nice, it was just the "hair of the dog" I needed, and made the wait go by in a beautiful haze making all patrons hungry and ready for some good seafood.
With starters that come with your entree like bread, and choice of housemade soups or salad we were off, and enjoying it. The salad choice tends to be quite perfunctory at most places, where the dressing comes with some tragic SYSCO made-in-a-bucket fashion that leads one to skip or not get excited in the least about the options. So when I saw on the menu the options for salad were Shrimp Louie or Caesar I was impressed, I got the Louie and tried the Caesar. The Louie was iceberg, lots of a house-made french dressing and bay shrimp (YUM), and the Caesar was traditional in style with a house-made dressing that had extra anchovies. Now normally I hate the look of anchovies, their very unsightly, but after asking my friend why he wanted even more on the side he claimed, "They have the best flavor." So I chopped one in half and tried it with a bite of Caesar and became a convert. Now I'm never going to think they are attractive in look, but the salty, and briny flavor left me speechless, I had never given them a chance!
The entree I needed to have was the house-made Crab Cakes that were not only perfectly seasoned but literally fell apart as the fork touched, and needed none of these hoitie totie aoli's that even I assumed was necessary. I even ordered a side of that same great French dressing, just assuming it would need it, the waiter looked at me and said, "You probably won't need it, they're perfectly moist." He was right, they were the best Crab Cakes I've ever had, and I thought Randall Selland's Crab Cakes at Selland/The Kitchen were good, these beat them. From Cajun red snapper to Petrale Sole this place had wonderful offerings, a great local-hidden location feeling, and a space on my permanent list when I have a hankering for great seafood in San Francisco.
Pacific Cafe
7000 Geary Blvd
(between 34th Ave & 35th Ave)
San Francisco, CA 94121
Neighborhood: Outer Richmond
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