Oldest Restaurant in California!! SAN FRANCISCO FOOD TOUR + Huge Seafood Bowl!!

hey everyone hope you're having an amazing day it's mark wiens i'm in beautiful san francisco california and there are a lot of incredible historical and legendary seafood restaurants in san francisco as well as some seafood dishes such as chopino just a gigantic bowl of smoldering chopino that were invented right here in san francisco so today we're gonna go on a legendary seafood tour of san francisco this is the oldest restaurant in san francisco the oldest restaurant in california and i cannot wait to share these historical legendary restaurants with you and all of the seafood coming up in this video right now [Music] [Music] again good morning from san francisco california it is a cool slightly cloudy day but that's okay it's going to be a perfect day for eating seafood and some of the legendary restaurants of san francisco i also want to say a big thank you to visit california for sponsoring my trip here and for arranging our schedule this morning we're going first to a restaurant called the swan oyster depot which is probably the number one place i was looking forward to eating in all of san francisco [Music] nice to meet you [Music] these are all fresh baked shrimp from pork great great but really quickly before they open uh a chance to quickly share a little bit of history about the swan oyster depot it dates back before the turn of the 20th century and it was started originally by four danish brothers but the actual original location burnt down in 1906 but then it reopened this location in 1912 and it's been here ever since in 1946 tom sensimino and the san simino family took over the swan oyster depot and they are still own and run and operate the swan oyster depot along with his brothers and family i love how they take so much pride care and so much passion in what they do sourcing the best seafood and serving customers with such a positive happy attitude people they're still setting up and they're still organizing everything but man first uh cured salmon it's glistening and served with capers and onions men this is beautiful oh wow that just melts in your mouth like it literally turns to salmon oil on your tongue that san francisco sourdough on the bottom oh wow oh that's so good oh man that is the bite to wake up [Music] [Music] yes sir [Music] [Music] one of the main dishes that you have to get here is the crab louie a dish that was invented on the west coast here in san francisco highlighting the dungeness crabs fully de-shelled all over a bed of lettuce i got the dressing on the side the dressing is a very thick very creamy looking dressing with some capers in it i believe this is my gonna be my first time to ever try crab louie looks awesome nothing on here but shredded lettuce and all that crab dungeness crab [Music] wow just the sweet natural briny stringiness of that dungeness crowd with that bed of iceberg lettuce that just it's so refreshing and so crisp and so juicy the dressing it does taste similar to a thousand island not not too sweet really thick really creamy really rich and then their bread here is specifically incredible as well brighter so good so perfectly airy and bubbly and chewy with that pinch of sour fermentation some of the chowder i'll sprinkle in some pepper [Applause] [Music] oh man that's a great chowder okay so thank you very much what we got here we got three different types of oysters okay two humble bay kumamotos these are local california oysters we've got two stellar bay gold miyagis from british columbia we've got two tamales bay miyagi's these are all our locals caught about an hour north of here in marin county okay great i'm gonna try some of that vinegar first [Music] vinegar is incredible with the crunch of the onions finely chopped up in there so perfectly balanced not overpowering extraordinary okay one more oyster i gotta try that hot sauce some lemon they're hot sauce and i think i might add a dab of horseradish to this cannot go wrong with horseradish i love horseradish [Music] well that's real deal horseradish all the flavor of that plus the hot sauce that is extraordinary oh man that horseradish is wonderful okay let's move into the shrimp cocktail oh so it's a combination of prawns i think they call the big one prawns and then these little pink shrimp here i'll try these little pink shrimp these little shrimp have some of the best flavors and just melt in your mouth so sweet wow that's delicious okay we'll try the prawns next again sweet firm mess two totally different textures the crowns are more much more firm the little guys the little shrimp are just melt in your mouth [Music] guys [Music] [Music] thank you very much we got scallops we got salmon we got yellowtail hamachi we got california halibut our local halibut then we got ahi tuna right here okay guys okay i'm gonna start with that i believe that one is the hamachi yellowtail right here in the center [Music] [Music] oh wow the natural freshness that crunch of the onions and the capers and then actually there's no salt or anything i think they have some condiments you can season with but then when is that fresh and that good you don't need anything to cover up the freshness of it this one here is the halibut totally different texture that one just melts in your mouth so pure so silky try some of the aji next the tuna and just that little bit of saltiness coming from the capers the pureness of the ahi oh man i can't put it down we got to try a row of everything the salmon oh oh you feel the oils of the salmon and then last one is the the scallops splice crackers so sweet and again that just oh man just completely melts in your mouth you don't even need to chew the scallop okay crab back so this is just all the tamale and the it's all the kind of glory great ripped off absolutely we've got the crab back the dungeness crab head filled with its own tomatoey and juices and oh man look at that it's thick it's rich it's buttery oh man that's insane oh it's sweet with that bitterness to follow it's creamy oh man it's almost like yolky tastings i love how it's served pudding style too oh we got some fresh cracked black pepper grab another bite and i think i'll add a little scoop of hot sauce to this bite i love how it's served pudding style oh man that is extraordinary the complexity of the flavor the richness oh man [Music] incredible i love how everything is prepared in a way where you i mean it focuses on the quality the freshness and the the natural taste of the seafood itself [Music] final bite of the sashimi and so that completes our meal an extraordinary meal at the swan oyster depot even when i was leaving man they shake your hand they say thank you for coming and you can just feel the genuine friendliness the delicious seafood that was so good from here we're going to the next restaurant where we are going to eat another dish that was invented in san francisco [Music] a classic italian-american san francisco seafood restaurant an oyster ria and seafoods welcome to sotomare [Music] [Music] i'm back in the kitchen now with the chefs they're making a variety of seafood the pastas but first he's going to show me how they make their chopino and again chopino is one of the signature dishes of san francisco an italian-american dish starts off with some oil you smell the garlic in there some green onions go in that mixture of seafood oh man smells so good [Music] fish stop okay fish stock goes in once that seafood has cooked down a little bit then he adds in some tomato sauce adds in some fish stock lets that simmer down and then another thing i just love how this restaurant is open the kitchen is completely open to the dining room so you can smell the aroma of the food you can see the cooking as it happens before you eat [Music] okay and the last dish we got is this pasta linguini with some muscles in there oh nice is it mostly muscles muscles oh it makes it seafood yeah [Music] all right all the food is at the table i think i've said this before but any table any restaurant that has paper towels on your table that's automatically a good sign you want to be eating at a restaurant that serves paper towels on your table i mean the dish that you have to get among everything else here is the chopino and really quickly before we start digging in we've gotta quickly talk about chopino and its history it's a dish that was invented here in san francisco it's an italian-american dish and it has a very cool history a lot of italian immigrants came to san francisco as fishers they brought their fishing expertise from italy to san francisco and they harvested crabs the dungeness crabs the the fishing off the coast the west coast of san francisco and so what would happen is the fishers would come together at the end of the day after the end of maybe maybe it wasn't the most successful fishing day and they would all pool together what little remains of seafood that they had and so they'd put that all together into one uh pile small pile of seafood they'd boil it down into a kind of like a soup for stew with tomatoes maybe with some wine maybe with some fish and then they'd have a sharing meal all together and i mean it's the ultimate example of sharing a meal together and so that's how chopino was invented in san francisco and i think that's important because we're gonna eat at least one maybe probably two or three bowls of chopino not forgetting the crab bib i'm just going to try some of that soup first oh man it's such a soothing tomato you're not totally sure if it's a it's kind of like the texture in between a soup and a sauce you really taste the garlic in there that hint of white wine the depth and complexity of the fish broth as well as as well as all of those shellfish the juices seeping out of them and just infusing into that beautiful sauce oh man that is so warming so comforting i like the handful of parsley oh the green onions in here and you got to be careful because it stays hot oh shrimp is really bouncy and i like how i mean you can take a bite of seafood you can chase with some of the tomato soup or you can use this big spoon to just get tomato soup with every single bite oh here's a clam but filled with shrimp filled with tomato sauce filled with i think there's some little baby scallops in here too the ultimate dish of rehydration [Applause] oh yeah the clam is sweet let's move on to the the dungeness crab i'll submerge it okay oh no it's pretty you can crack it with your teeth it's not very strong oh there we go crackle can open that oh did i splash it it's the spoon reducing technique dungeness crabs just never gets old again for me i love the the texture of dungeness crab that's it's so stringy and silky so sweet and then i think the last seafood in here that we haven't tried there might be some hiding seafood but we haven't tried the squid yet man delicious and another thing you can do is take a piece of bread are they two different types of bread oh no i want the sourdough this should be sourdough i think and then you can just dip up into the chopino just mop it up it absorbs all of that delicious flavor okay so next up for the steamers uh there's a combination of mussels and clams in here so much garlic some green onions a sprinkle of parsley and that sauce of wine and probably lemon on the bottom there try one of these clams oh man look how much garlic i'm gonna scoop up some of that at the bottom as well wonderful the sweet complexity of the actual clam itself white wine reduction and then i love how much garlic they use with every bite i think you have to scoop down and fill your cup fill your shell and slurp it up those are sweet too and we got one more dish which is the pasta and again it's a huge mix of seafood in here almost like the chopino itself just in pasta form again the garlic i love the tomato sauce it's not too tart but you taste the like the chunkiness of it maybe the onions and some peppers uh simmered down until they just kind of liquefy and do the tomato sauce so it has this lovely natural sweetness to it and i do think that when you think about the history of chopino very good yes very very good and i think knowing the history when you're eating it makes it even more special [Music] from here to continue on with this legendary seafood tour of san francisco we're heading on to the next restaurant and we're definitely gonna have another bowl of chopino [Music] so in between mules we stopped by what is definitely the most famous and the most iconic street in all of san francisco lombard street where it just snakes its way down the mountain uh the view from up here is beautiful the flowers the gardens it's also a great place to get some exercise in between meals [Music] welcome to anchor oyster bar this is an extremely popular restaurant we got here in the middle of the afternoon and luckily we got the last table the main thing that you have to come here that this place is most well known for is again their chopino and i got the large size thank you boston clam chowder [Music] that is like a perfectly creamy slightly buttery full of clams the starchiness of the potatoes oh man that is a chowder right there but i know what would make it better oh yeah thank you and that's a nice coarse grind the way i love it stir that in [Music] sometimes chowder can be almost goofy this one is thick but not goopy caesar salad creamy and cheesy the oysters are here i think there's actually three different types of oysters on this tray on this dozen tray of oysters but look at these i've never seen i've never had an oyster like this with really look at that exterior shell that's really ribbed purest way to eat an oyster i mean apart from just the oyster itself is just with a squeeze of lemon wow that's briny that melts in your mouth wow that's a beautiful seafood flavor and for this one i'll go horseradish and cocktail sauce [Music] well totally different flavor from the other one this one has a hint of a bitterness to it along with a sweet finish last type of oyster and these are probably the biggest ones on the tray i'll go in with this one with a little bit of that vinegar oh that vinegar is nice i think that's the apple cider vinegar so it has this sour yet sweet slightly fruitiness all at the same time [Music] all right thank you very much so here we go just a gigantic bowl of smoldering chopino thank you very much oh yes okay even got a catcher just in case you drop a piece of crab it will catch it in your bib and then you can re-eat it and as i dig into that broth i can smell almost a almost a licoricey aroma to anise seed in here too or could that be coming from some of the herbs in there the greatest pool the greatest bowl of seafood that you could possibly eat in san francisco and it's what you want to be eating when it's cloudy when it's drizzly outside in san francisco i just have to try some of that tomato sauce first loaded with herbs you can smell the garlic in there and those spices oh man the vibrancy of the tomatoiness the herbs that oregano parsley that hint of sweet bitterness from the shellfish in a very good kind of way that's contrasting the tartness of the tomato sauce one of the great things about chopino is again the ultimate in reducing wow down is so hot actually okay i'm gonna skip that one and i'm gonna go to mussel the ultimate in reducing techniques you could possibly have again just the broth that seafoody tomato herbal broth now the clam should be cool enough oh yeah okay we're good re-dip submerge you want to submerge every single bite oh yeah clam actually has a totally different texture than the muscle the muscle is smoother softer clam is a little more chewy a little more elasticy oh such good flavor from that clam and i think i'm ready to try that garlic bread man everything has to be dipped i will not take a bite without it being fully dipped and yeah submerged herbaceous and crispy and then another option is to just rehydrate with a spoon to pour over the pour over technique i'll try that shrimp next [Music] oh that's pretty big that's pretty meaty [Music] well that is a muscular shrimp you can feel that the tightening of the muscle as you bite down and then again it's just absorbed that soup that herbaceous tart tomatoiness re-stir just a little bit um because i've heard that the bottom is some of the best oh yeah there's even whole tomatoes in here i've heard that the bottom is the best because all of the seafood juices accumulate um okay fish here's a big piece of fish right here i'll try fish next [Music] um [Music] a really firm meat fish i'm not totally sure what type of fish that is it's very firm um like a like a cod or a halibut very firm neutral tasting again just absorbing the tomato garlic herbs i think the final seafood we have is the the crab the dungeness the famous san francisco dungeness crab all bay leaves in here um i'll grab this the cloth rehydrate oh man the crab is extraordinary yeah it's so good i mean i think the thing about this massive bowl of chopino is i mean it's delicious but it's also just so much fun to eat because you get to drink soup drink that broth eat a shellfish crack some crab get your fingers all tomato you splatter on your shirt oh here we go that's a fully loaded muscle there's some fish caught up in there that's a perfect bite i'm gonna just completely submerge submerge and shot [Music] and i think that's my first drizzle down the chin let's see what else we can dig up here oh you know we haven't tried the crab body [Music] oh yeah you just gotta suck you gotta oh that's amazing because it's absorbed everything so juicy so much crab flavor yeah that's that is delicious [Music] i'll do a dip of this and a chase with that [Music] your hands are guaranteed to smell like chopino for the rest of the day and you're going to be totally okay with that oh man that was delicious oh whoa almost bumped over the table okay we're moving on finally to complete this historic seafood tour of san francisco we are going to what is it's the oldest restaurant in san fran i mean not only in san francisco but the oldest restaurant in all of california one of the oldest restaurants in the united states and we're going there next welcome to tadich grill since 1849 classic restaurant downtown san francisco known for their seafood they have a cool history right here on the menu that says it uh 1849 during the california gold rush three croatian immigrants began a business which later became the tadic girl very good very good pleasure to have you here thank you so much i look different i look different more handsome oh thank you thank you very much you sit down you immediately get a half a loaf of sourdough i think it's sourdough look at that bread looks that crust that inside look at that oh man that bread looks so good [Music] oh that bread is so good san francisco sourdough that texture that flavor now i got to figure out what to order but um we're definitely going to get the sand dabs that's one of the main dishes i wanted to try here so what was your name again jose maximilian yes that's awesome yeah very cool seemed like yesterday and a young man this is the famous chimino you know yeah beautiful so what we do is i'm gonna just give you a little okay this is what we do you cut the edges first like this this is the method of eating it yes [Music] and i hit him like about three times then you go right in between see oh and the whole fillet pops up and then the bone very nice come out i always like to cut this a little belly on the side okay and there you go you put a little lemon if you wish wow and this is the taro sauce any kind of broiler fish okay enjoy please thank you very much thank you to jose who is taking such great care of us he's so friendly so nice great service um and i just love how they wear white coats man because it just fits the atmosphere perfect the restaurant is packed now and that's just a testament of their history and of the quality of food that they preserve here the dish that i'm most looking forward to eating here which are the sand dabs which is a type of flat fish but these are small like about about hand sized let me just taste it with lemon first start with that tail end beautiful oily you can see the oily skin the oily flesh of the fish my first time to ever have stand up oh that's delicious oily fish a soft texture you've got that deep fried crust on the outside man that's just like oily and buttery in texture oh man look how it's just so buttery oily the fish oils just juice out of it it's so good and so flaky too oh that's delicious next dish there's prawns in here and jose said there's a lot of paprika in here big meaty shrimp oh there's uh crab meat and then on the bottom is rice rice crab all baked like a casserole [Music] oh hot very hot a paprika seafood stew all over rice and then just kind of like baked together so it's hot so it mingles all the ingredients all together you taste the flavor of the paprika in there which is not spicy but so fragrant and all that shredded crab meat in there [Applause] we had to try one more version of chopino the signature dish of san francisco i like how they pile the seafood high i love again this is totally different from the other versions that we've had it's more the the broth is more see-through it's not as puree not tomato puree but there's chunks of tomato there's lots of celery in here i mean this has been a tour where we've had some amazing chopino and learned about the history of chopino in san francisco and so this is like bringing it all together in this historic dining destination girl oh yeah the seafoody broth the fish in there this one to me is lighter and again not as yeah it's not the tomato puree as many other versions that you'll eat in san francisco this is more eats like a soup nothing overpowering just the delicious taste of fresh seafood all in a in a soup so buttery crispy oh the garlic and the herbs on there i love the heavy fish content but there are some shellfish here's a clam below here that's just fully loaded with with the drippings of all the other seafood [Music] i love their giant cut vegetables those kind of vegetables where you're not quite sure if you should take it in one bite or not one buck very good very good look at the size of this fry you'll have a better comparison when it's up by my fish that's what you call thick cup it's like a one fry meal it's more like a roast potato squeeze that with lemon [Music] this is the dish of the meal for me oh man that buttery texture that deep-fried skin oh man the oiliness i think this is one of the the cleanest versions of topino and for me it's really all about the fish in their chilpino [Music] and as we continue to have dinner in here the entire hall is packed i love how it's so energetic it's just buzzing the waiters the waitresses are just flying around in their white coats such a cool setting atmosphere and delicious seafood with that amazing celebration of a meal at tadich grill the oldest restaurant in california that wraps up this incredible historic seafood tour of san francisco and then finally again i want to say a big thank you to visit california for sponsoring my trip to san francisco and for arranging this tour and also make sure we visited a couple different places with visit california we went to santa barbara had an amazing trip and then also to napa valley so make sure you go back and you can watch all the rest of the videos as well and so that's going to be it again for this video please remember to give it a thumbs up if you enjoyed it leave a comment below i'd love to hear from you and if you're not already subscribed make sure you subscribe for lots more food and travel videos goodbye from san francisco california i'll see you on the next video thanks again for watching

Channel: Mark Wiens

Views: 3,994,420

Keywords: food tour, California, San Francisco, San Francisco food tour, Mark Wiens, seafood, cioppino, SF cioppino, Tadich Grill, Swan Oyster Depot, Italian food, sashimi, seafood tour, food tour California, American food, best American food, Anchor Oyster Bar, food vlog, food videos

Id: k6XYagviigk

Length: 38min 44sec (2324 seconds)

Published: Sat Dec 04 2021