Tadich Grill, San Francisco CA

A visit to Tadich Grill, located in the heart of downtown San Francisco, is a step into the oldest restaurant in California.

A couple of weeks ago I was in San Francisco for my annual Association of Luxury Suite Directors conference. My first visit to SF was about 20 years ago for a job interview, and I was only there for one day. So I spent 2 extra days in the city so that I could mix sightseeing in with the conference. My boss Coach Holder told me I had to go to Tadich Grill. He doesn’t play around when it comes to food, so I knew it was a must-visit.

My original plan was to go on Sunday evening, my first day in town.  I checked out the walking directions right before leaving the hotel, and that’s when I found out it’s not open on Sundays. Instead I had a wonderful visit to Hog Island Oyster Company. Of course I was on a mission to get to Tadich Grill before the end of the week. My opportunity came on Thursday afternoon, when my friend Bruce and I went for lunch.

Tadich Grill is such a cool restaurant.  It opened in 1895, and is the oldest restaurant in California. They don’t take reservations; we arrived well after lunch to a packed house. We planned to wait for a table, but 2 seats at the bar opened up so we sat there.

One of the things I liked best about Tadich Grill is that they have preserved all of the old-school coolness. The servers wear a starched white shirt, white coat, long white apron, and tie.It’s a long, narrow building, with a huge center bar that takes up the length of the restaurant, and you can sit at the bar on 3 sides of it. There are a couple of tables at the front window; 2 rows of seating on the left side of the bar, and then one long row of booth tables.

The open kitchen is at the far end of the restaurant, along with a display of their selection of seafood and meat. I was taking pictures, but couldn’t get the angle correct to avoid the glare. That must happen often, because one of the servers took my phone and did a much better job.

Sourdough bread comes first

Most restaurants give you way too much butter. At Tadich Grill, we only got 2 pats of butter with the bread. And it’s a big chunk of bread. But after all the food we had eaten the previous 4 days, I probably didn’t need any more. The bread was delicious, as was all the sourdough bread the whole week.

We both started with a small house salad, and I got blue cheese on the side.

The salad was really good, and I think my system went into shock with all the greens. The blue cheese dressing was clearly homemade, and so delicious.  I had to eventually stop myself from adding more to my salad.

They print the Tadich Grill menu daily, to showcase the freshest ingredients. Their menu says it best “if it’s not fresh, it’s not on the Tadich Grill menu”. I love restaurants that do that, and especially love restaurants that do it so well. The menu always features appetizers, salads, daily specials, house specialties, and charcoal broiled meats. The wide fish selection is available broiled, pan-fried, sauteed, deep fried, or baked.

Bruce went with the pan-fried sole

I didn’t try any of the fish, but he said it was delicious.  I did try one of the potatoes. It was kind of like steak fries. By the time I ate one they weren’t crispy on the outside, but they were soft and fluffy on the inside. And really good.

No big surprise, I had trouble deciding what to get. I don’t do well with big menus, which was my first problem. Then I had to choose the type and preparation of fish. That’s WAY too much stress for me. Our server recommended the seafood cioppino with garlic bread, their best seller. Who am I to argue with that?

This dish is absolutely outstanding. The broth is so rich and flavorful, but not heavy at all. Seafood is delicate, and it can easily overcook. Everything in this Cioppino was perfect. And there is a ton of seafood. Many times you get baby shrimp in a dish, but this was just the opposite. Often dishes lose their heat as you eat, but the broth kept everything super hot all the way to the bottom of the bowl. The garlic bread is delicious and matches so well with the broth. I continued to dip it into the broth as I ate.

As if all this wasn’t enough, when our server asked if we wanted dessert we agreed to look at the menu. And then decided to share the bourbon bread pudding.

Oh my, this was amazing. Rich, flavorful, and served warm.

When you order the cioppino you get a bib. Stunningly, I didn’t spill anything on it. I mentioned at the end that I was keeping mine, and the server asked if I wanted a clean one. I said nope, this one was better…like a game-worn jersey.  He even offered to sign it to make it authentic.

Tadich Grill is definitely now one of my favorite restaurants, and they’re opening a location in Washington DC!

No question I’ll be visiting the Washington DC location of Tadich Grill very soon