There are two seafood traditions in San Francisco. One is the tourist version at the wharf, which is mostly about a photograph and a bread bowl. The other is out in the avenues, where Vietnamese and Chinese kitchens sell whole Dungeness crab roasted in garlic, priced by the pound, alongside a plate of garlic noodles — and where the important question is not which restaurant but which month.
Crab here is seasonal, priced by weight and sometimes sold out by eight, so the trip only works if the timing does. Tell Karpo when you are going and it will tell you whether it is worth the drive.
The season, which decides everything
Dungeness crab season on this stretch of the California coast conventionally opens in November and runs into spring, and recent years have seen repeated delays to the commercial opening for whale-entanglement and domoic-acid reasons. What that means practically is that the ideal window — local, fresh, in season — is winter, and that outside it you are eating crab that came from further away or from a tank. Neither is bad. They are simply different meals at different prices.
The corollary is that a December visit to the avenues for crab is one of the best meals in San Francisco, and a July visit for the same thing is a reasonable dinner that will cost you more than it should.
How to order it
The standard order at a garlic-crab house is the whole roasted crab, garlic noodles, and something green, for two people. The crab arrives whole and messy and you will be given a bib, a cracker and a pile of napkins for a reason. Garlic noodles are not a side dish here; they are the reason a lot of people come, and ordering crab without them is a beginner's error.
Two practical points. Price is by weight, so ask what the crab weighs before you agree to it, and the difference between a two-pound and a three-pound crab on the bill is significant. And the kitchen usually has a limited number, so a Saturday at nine is not a reliable time to arrive expecting one.
The rest of the avenues
The Outer Richmond's commercial streets — Clement, Balboa and Geary west of about 20th Avenue — hold a dense run of Chinese, Vietnamese, Burmese and Russian restaurants, and the seafood is not confined to the crab houses. Whole steamed fish, salt-and-pepper prawns and clay-pot dishes are on menus up and down these streets, generally at prices that would look like a mistake in the Mission.
This is also one of the last parts of San Francisco where a family-run restaurant with a thirty-year-old sign is the norm rather than a survivor, which is worth noticing while it is still true.
Getting out there
The 38 Geary runs from downtown to the ocean and is the simplest route without a car; it is also one of the busiest bus lines in the country, so allow more time than the schedule suggests. Driving is straightforward and street parking in the avenues is genuinely easier than almost anywhere else in the city, particularly on the residential blocks a street or two off the commercial run.
Practical notes
Garlic crab restaurants are spread along Clement Street, Balboa Street and Geary Boulevard west of roughly 20th Avenue. Dungeness crab season conventionally opens in November and runs into spring, with commercial openings delayed in some recent years for whale-entanglement and domoic-acid reasons — check before planning a trip around it. Crab is priced by weight; confirm the weight when ordering. Garlic noodles are the standard accompaniment. The 38 Geary connects downtown to the avenues. Street parking off the commercial streets is usually available.
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Ask Karpo first
Crab out here is a calendar question before it is a restaurant question. Ask Karpo whether the season is actually open, what a crab is running per pound right now, and which of the avenues' kitchens still has some tonight.
