TADICH GRILL

240 California St. San Francisco (415) 391-1849

In December I took my annual pre-holiday trip to San Francisco.  This year I had the pleasure of visiting Michael Mina, Acquerello, Slanted Door, and Tadich Grill.  I know, Tadich may look a little odd on this list, but allow me to explain.  I have always thought of the San Francisco waterfront as being the birthplace of cioppino, one of my favorite seafood stews.  It was here that pre-World War II Italian immigrant fishermen would "chip in o" to the communal stew, prepared on the docks at the end of the day, giving the dish its start, and its name. I frequently order cioppino when dining out, and I wanted to have a benchmark version to judge others by.  After some research it became clear that no matter where people stood on the Tadich dining experience, most everyone agreed their cioppino is one of San Francisco's best.

Tadich Grill lays claim to being California's oldest restaurant.

Started by three Croatian immigrants in 1849 during California's gold rush, Tadich is still a Croatian run business, owned and operated by the Buich family.

I arrived at Tadich Grill on a cool Monday morning just before their 11:00am lunch time opening.  You have the option of sitting at tables, in private old world style booths, or at the long communal bar.  Since I was dining alone I chose the bar.

I was on the horns of a dilemma when it came to ordering.  Obviously I was there to try the cioppino, but I had also heard that if sand dabs were on the menu they were not to be missed.  Now I am a real monster when it comes to eating at night, but I rarely eat lunch, and when I do, I take it easy on the quantity.  Because of this, I asked my server if I could have the sand dabs as an appetizer.  The chef accommodated me, and I was served the Pan-Fried Sand Dab Filets with tartar sauce a la carte ($9.25).

The sand dabs had been pan fried in garlic butter creating a nice brown crust, while leaving the flesh moist and tender.  The flavor and texture was fabulous.  These filets just melt in your mouth.  Tadich makes their own tartar sauce, and it was so good I found myself nipping away at the bowl with just a spoon.  I can tell you without reservation that this dish lives up to the hype.

Next came the star of the show, Seafood Cioppino with garlic bread ($22.25).

The cioppino included clams, prawns, scallops, bay shrimp, crab meat, and white fish.  It came out of the kitchen piping hot, and I had to wait to keep from burning my tongue.  During the excruciating wait I tried the garlic bread.  The crust was way to crispy-crumbly for me, and the flavor was disappointing.  The frozen Pepperidge Farms product is far superior.  With the cioppino I began by sampling the broth.  It was excellent, with a strong presence of white wine and seafood essence.  All of the seafood ingredients were fresh, and cooked to perfection.  The standouts for me were the scallops, which were huge and exceedingly tender.  Everyone gets a nice portion of Tadich's delicious house baked sourdough bread, which was perfect for sopping up the incredible broth.  I also could not resist spreading the tasty tartar sauce on the bread in big spoonfuls.  I could eat that stuff on cardboard.  Overall Tadich's seafood cioppino was fantastic, and will provide an excellent benchmark for me in the future.

Tadich Grill is an old world style restaurant that is known for its gruff, crusty wait staff, and traditional San Francisco fare.  They are certainly not known for innovation or cutting edge technique.   My server was polite, helpful, and attentive.  The menu is huge, and I can only speak to the careful selections I made.  That said, the sand dabs, and the cioppino are so good that I can highly recommend a visit to Tadich Grill.  As an added bonus you get to dine in a true San Francisco institution.  Keep in mind this place gets packed.  By the time I finished my lunch it was standing room only, so it is a good idea to get there early.

Hours:

Mon-Fri 11am-9:30pm  Sat 11:30am-9:30pm

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Comments

[Kirk]

Happy New Year CJ! I was wondering how you were doing, but I should have known you'd be eating well over the holidays.

[Captain Jack]

Happy New Year Kirk,
I just paid my Visa bill from our trip to Los Angeles. Eating well, and spending large. I am glad restaurant week is here with great prices and good food.

[Chubbypanda]

Entree as starter? Classic Cap'n Jack. Tadich is now on my list of must-dine places.

- Chubbypanda

[Captain Jack]

Hi CP,
Hey, at lunch I have to throttle back a bit. As it was, I staggered around the Embarcadero for the next couple of hours.