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| Culinary gold can be discovered here. |
240 California Street
San Francisco, CA 94111
Tadich Grill has had a long, storied history with San Francisco since the gold rush. Their food has had a long, storied history with my mouth since the early 1990s.
Arrive before lunch and dinner rushes if you want a first-come, first-served seat at the bar, where most great dining experiences occur. The servers might look more like dentists in their white coats if they weren't floating around behind the bar meticulously preparing place settings and individual sourdough bread and butter portions for each guest.
Running nearly the entire length of the dining room, the bar allows diners to see what everyone else is chowing on, from Louie salads piled high with fresh crab and shrimp to cioppino, pork chops, pastas in meat sauce, and dozens of fried, sauteed or broiled seafood dishes.
San Francisco is already well-known for its clam chowder, but Tadich Grill knocks it out of the proverbial park. A standard mire poix is the basis for one of the thickest, chunkiest chowders you'll ever try. No skimping on clams here, and the potatoes are diced large enough to hold their shape and not dissipate into the soup. Just be sure to save some of your bread to clean the last traces of it out of your bowl before your dentist - er, server - swipes it from you.
