My parents visiting is always a great opportunity to try out something new. Anchor and Hope has been on my radar for some time now, and when my mother suggested seafood for when they were here, I jumped at the chance to give them a try. I made a booking, but when we arrived, the place was fairly empty which is never really a good sign.
The wine list isn’t extensive, but we did find a reasonably priced Sancerre that would make everyone happy. We then decided to share a few starters including the calamari ($16), the tuna tartare ($16), the tater tots ($6), grilled bread with lobster butter ($6) and some angels on horseback ($3.5 each). We ordered some mains, and two of us chose the cider-steamed clams ($22) and the fried flounder ($18) to split. (My parents ordered the same dishes for themselves.)
The calamari was absolutely fine. The squid itself didn’t wow me, but the paprika dipping sauce was absolutely fantastic. The tuna tartare was again fine, and nothing to write home about, and only served with five chips which seemed a bit stingy. The angels on horseback (which are bacon-wrapped and fried oysters) were pretty horrific, however, as the oyster was one of the worst things I’ve ever eaten in my life. It was definitely off-putting for the rest of the meal. The tots were quite good, but the malt aioli advertised on the menu was AWOL. The lobster butter with the bread was also not very pleasant at all.
The mains started to arrive in spurts. The fried fish arrived, and then there was a long wait for the arrival of the clams. They finally arrived, and they looked great, so I couldn’t wait to dig in. Unfortunately, they were pretty disgusting. I think some of the clams were quite old as I’ve never tasted shellfish this bad. I love a good bivalve, and sadly these were not them. My dad had the same issue, as we looked at each other after having a couple and both knew the other one was thinking the same thing. Thankfully, they were more than gracious to change out for a different main, and I decided on the shrimp tacos while my dad got another order of the fish and chips. They did come out quickly, but the fish my dad received was slightly undercooked due to the rush, which was also disappointing. The shrimp tacos had a great flavor and heat, but I definitely got very metallic tasting shrimp at the end which was jarring and not at all pleasant. The fish and chips were actually tasty, but there were a lot of chips. Maybe another piece of fish instead of so many chips would have been nice.
Given the state of a lot of the seafood we ordered, I can not really say I would come back. I know fish goes bad quickly, so it can be really tricky in a seafood restaurant, but I’ve never had so much bad seafood all at once. And it wasn’t just slightly bad, but very bad. And while they were very gracious about changing out the food, the service the rest of the evening was pretty slow as we had to keep asking people to bring us more of our bottle of wine as it wasn’t kept tableside in a bucket, but at the bar. These little details (and a lot of bad fish) can really make for an unpleasant experience, and I was definitely ready to pass on dessert. I even mentioned the bad oysters to a friend, and she said that someone she knew also said they had bad oysters there, so it’s definitely not something that just happened to us.
Score: 1.5/5
Recommendation: I’d skip it as a whole, but if you have to come, the fish and chips are probably your best bet.
Anchor and Hope
83 Minna Street
San Francisco, CA 94105
Awesome post! Keep up the great work! š