♪♪ Sbrocco: Fish fan?

Whether you like it grilled, cracked, or fresh on the half shell, we've got a bounty of seafood coming your way on a special edition of "Check, Please!

Bay Area."

Woman: Good boy.

Banks: Man.

Bip, bam, thank you, ma'am.

Sbrocco: Hi, I'm Leslie Sbrocco.

Welcome to "Check, Please!

Bay Area."

Since we can't be back in the studio just yet, we're taking advantage of the beauty of Sonoma County as we bring you another specialty themed show.

From dungeness crab and oysters to king salmon and halibut, Bay Area chefs can take advantage of a huge variety of seafood available fresh from the ocean.

So grab a bib, a hunk of sourdough, and a big glass of chardonnay as we bring you some of our guests' favorite spots for Fruits of the Sea.

Sittnick: We broke ground in 2006 and it took us about two years to build it.

We want you to believe that it's been here forever, but it actually hasn't.

That's the magic of Pat Kuleto.

My name is Pete Sittnick and I'm the managing partner at Waterbar.

Ulrich: Hi, my name's Parke Ulrich and I'm the executive chef and partner here at Waterbar underneath the Bay Bridge here in the Embarcadero in San Francisco.

The vision for the restaurant and the menu was simplistic elegance, treating fish in a way where the fish really speaks for itself.

We really went full out on the sustainability aspect.

So now working with our purveyors, we're able to state on our menu who caught our fish, where, and how it was caught.

Justin Beatty is my chef de cuisine and he's been with me for 11 years, which has been an awesome relationship for the two of us We try to be a little bit of everything for everyone, whether it's just having oysters and a beer at the bar or the whole shebang with caviar and whole fish, they should know that their products were sourced responsibly.

And I hope they get a great value for their dining experience here.

Sbrocco: All right, MeeSun, let's talk about Waterbar and your discovery of it.

Boice: Well, seemingly when you walk in, you're overwhelmed by the grandeur of the opulence of the kind of the Pat Kuleto standard style themed restaurant.

They get to know you and it becomes that local place.

It can be just as simple, basic experience or the wonderful culinary experience.

Default to the fresh selection, wide variety of oysters, in fact, it has its own booklet.

Siddall: That's right.

Boice: But one of the staples that is consistent I had that night was the salmon pastrami.

I had never thought of that concept of having pastrami or with salmon and converting that into seafood.

And so that was very light, very delicate.

But you had the edges of the pastrami flavor in the salmon.

Siddall: The oysters, they used a mignonette made of meyer lemon, which is a really nice flavor compared with the vinegar that you usually get.

And we tried some different kinds.

They were all really fresh and beautiful.

So we had a great experience from the minute we walked in the service, the kind of calm and nice atmosphere and of course, looking at the beautiful fish tanks and all of those.

Sbrocco: And the Bay Bridge?

Siddall: And the Bay Bridge, the lights, oh, it was wonderful.

It was absolutely wonderful, yeah.

Marks: I'd been wanting to go to a Waterbar for a number of years and oh, my God, this place is just beautiful, you know?

I mean, there's a ceiling to floor.

Aquariums are just... Sbrocco: Amazing.

Marks: Unbelievable.

The black bass was really, really good, it was almost to perfection.

And the presentation was beautiful.

It came with a nice crispy kind of exterior with, you know, the fish underneath was cooked perfectly it had great flavor all the way through.

Fantastic.

And it's just -- it's a gorgeous place.

The bar area is great.

The foie gras was really, really good.

It was a small portion, which it needs to be because it's very rich.

It was incredibly flavorful.

Just a little bit went a long way.

I would get it again in a second.

Sbrocco: Did you have anything else?

Boice: The seafood tower.

Marks: Okay.

Boice: It has a nice combination of the topneck clams, the oysters, Dungeness crab's in season, and a jumbo shrimp.

Marks: Next time I go back, absolutely.

Siddall: So for the main course, I had the black cod in coconut curry, green curry sauce, and there was some lovely squash on the side.

It wasn't the traditional.

And I can't remember the name of it, but it was really good.

And some yellow rice, it was absolutely delicious.

But this really clever thing they did with the swordfish was, you know, how sometimes it gets a little dried out.

They cooked it in olive oil.

It was velvety and smooth and really beautiful.

Vega: A lot of people think that the Moss Beach Distillery is a hidden gem.

We have the view, which is next to none, lots of wildlife.

It really is just such a wonderful environment.

My name is Melissa Vega.

I am the marketing manager here at the Moss Beach Distillery.

The building was originally built in 1927 as a speakeasy during the Prohibition era.

They used to bring down a lot of Canadian rum.

In those days, there was a woman who always used to dress in blue.

She died down on the beach and so people have spotted her around the restaurant.

She's nice.

She's never does anything malicious.

I think she's just out for a good time.

She's a party animal, you know?

everybody loves a good haunting.

And so, you know, you always want to come and see if you can see the blue lady.

We have really wonderful, happy hour program here.

Some creative drink taking from history.

We have the prohibition mai tai.

And it's big.

It's yummy.

It's got a lot of rum, a little bit of juice.

We have the blue lady, which is beautiful, and then we have a little menu of bar bites.

You could get oysters.

You can come here for your birthday, your first date.

People propose here all the time, which I think is really cool.

We've got a patio that's dog-friendly so we can get dressed up to the nines or you can hop in on your flip flops.

Smith: The Moss Beach Distillery is just such a famous fun place.

It's right there on the water and the views are to die for.

And the food, the food is amazing.

The service is amazing.

But you go there for the ghost.

You go there to possibly see the blue lady to hear about the blue lady.

Sbrocco: To drink the blue lady, they have a cocktail named the blue lady.

Smith: To drink the blue lady.

Absolutely.

That's fantastic.

Sbrocco: What do you start with?

Smith: I definitely start with the shrimp cocktail because it's amazing.

Sbrocco: Mm!

Smith: The house made horseradish inside the cocktails.

Oh, it's just fantastic.

Little spicy, but definitely good.

Gray-Nelson: I had the typical eggs Benedict.

I am averse to runny egg whites, so I'm very particular.

What a surprise.

I'm very particular with -- Sbrocco: She's not picky, though.

Gray-Nelson: I'm not picky.

My eggs were like perfection.

The hollandaise was not too goopy, not to lemony, was perfectly the way the service was like there, but not overbearing.

Henry: You're absolutely right.

It was beautiful.

Okay, but it was a really long drive.

I called and I said, I'm going to bring my dogs because I was so excited.

Sbrocco: Yeah.

Henry: And I was like and she said, "Oh, you don't need reservations just go there."

So I'm like, okay, I'll go there.

So I get there.

It's first come, first serve.

There is no service.

Sbrocco: Oh, no.

Gray-Nelson: Mm-hmm.

Henry: But I did actually love just being there.

Smith: Yeah, it's like a little vacation.

It's fun.

Sbrocco: And what other dishes did you have?

Smith: So the yellowfin tuna is absolutely my favorite thing.

It's an appetizer.

It's also an entrée.

Pesto filled salmon is absolutely fantastic with the fresh vegetables and the rice pilaf with all the mushrooms inside of it.

And if you're a mushroom fan, just spectacular.

It's baked and then kind of broiled real quick to get the nice crispy layer, the parmesan cheese.

And it's just so fantastic.

Henry: If I -- next time.

Sbrocco: Yeah.

Henry: All I did was get the clam chowder.

Sbrocco: Really?

Henry: I would've been happy.

Smith: Good.

Good.

Henry: It was very good.

It was the highlight of the trip.

-What is the dessert that you... Smith: Well, they have your standard desserts, a huge piece of cheesecake.

I don't know that everything's housemade, however.

Just fantastic.

Just big and wonderful.

And you have a couple of cocktails with your slice of cheesecake and it was just amazing.

Deutsch: I was born in Boston and I moved to Maine in 1990 and set up a seafood exporting business where I exported mainly lobster before moving out here and starting the Old Port Lobster Shack.

I bring in fresh seafood three to four times a week, flown in from Boston to San Francisco, including the clams and the oysters and the lobsters, we can either cook them up for you steamed or we baked stuff them or we even grill them for you.

We use exclusively East Coast lobster, which comes from the icy cold waters of the Atlantic Ocean versus the West Coast lobster, which is a warm water lobster and only has a tail to it.

And there's no claws, no knuckles or anything.

We make our own rolls that we brought the pans out from Boston, and it's a New England style top loading hot dog bun.

In addition, we have several beers and sodas that are brewed in Maine.

We like to pride ourselves on the casual dining atmosphere here.

We love having families here and enjoy kids.

And they can come in and they can have a blast, make a mess, and we'll clean it up and we're ready for the next group to come in.

Sbrocco: Okay, Greg, are you from Maine?

Korbel: I am not from Maine.

Sbrocco: Is this why you selected Old Port Lobster Shack?

Korbel: I did not select it because I am from Maine.

Sbrocco: And you don't say chow-dah.

Korbel: I might say lob-stah.

Sbrocco: Lob-stah.

Korbel: I might say lob-stah.

Sbrocco: But they actually do on the menu.

They call it chow-dah and lob-stah.

Korbel: Absolutely.

So the lobster rolls are fantastic.

They come two ways.

One is the old port lobster shack roll, which is just a lot of lobster meat tossed in mayo in the New England style hot dog roll, which baked locally and they're different.

Sbrocco: Right, and the owners, the Deutsches, couldn't find the right bread that they wanted.

So they sort of had a bakery do this special bread for them.

Korbel: Absolutely.

And it's great they grill it on both sides.

So it's a little bit crunchy, but the bread is very soft and pillowy.

And that's just overflowing with lobster.

Sbrocco: Because that is sort of their specialty lobster.

Korbel: That's what they're all about, fresh and simple.

The other's the naked lobster roll.

I don't call this a wine place.

I call it a beer place.

And it's something that you could imagine if you were on the East Coast, it would be outside and you would be sitting on a pier.

Geduldig: And you feel like you're in a grotto in New England.

And you just, you know, they should just have like a little ocean sound or smell in there just so get the full effect, but it's very down home.

Korbel: That's my favorite thing about this place.

You walk in, you order up front, grab yourself a beer and a lobster roll and you have a great meal.

Sbrocco: Right.

Korbel: For relatively inexpensive.

Sbrocco: And you're sitting at picnic tables, flown in from Maine and very casual.

What did you think of it when you went, Leslie?

Autenreith: We had the beer battered salmon and chips and that was really good.

Sbrocco: And steamers.

Autenreith: And the steamers.

Yeah, the steamers was good.

I had never actually tried those before.

Just had regular clams in the past, so.

This was -- they were really good, really good and fresh and really big, hearty, much heartier than regular clams.

So those were good.

Sbrocco: All right, Greg, if people want to go experience some real Maine lobster, they need to go to the Old Lobster Shack, don't they?

Korbel: They do.

My advice is to go with one of the simple steamed items, the lobster, the shrimp, the crab, salads and sandwiches and soups.

The way to go -- simple and fresh.

It's the best you're going to find in the Bay Area.

Sbrocco: Whether it's Mexican ceviche, s Mexican ceviche, a Japanese sushi or oysters on the half shell, our next three guests shared their spots for all things raw.

Martinez: La Viga is a Latin American restaurant focused on seafood with Latin American ingredients, unique and original dishes that are spectacular for our guests.

Hi, I am Manuel Martinez, chef and owner of La Viga Restaurant here in Redwood City.

Cooking for almost 20 years in the Bay Area, from Thailand to French to American, and now going back to my roots, you know, all of those cultures coming to add a little special touch to the cooking.

I hate boring, I hate to be -- I hate to be repetitive.

I rarely use the same sauce from the same plate.

And I have hundreds of sauces.

We're a detail-oriented restaurant in a casual environment, a little bit of the hole on the wall look that we have here.

But, you know, you get a five star service and then five star food.

It's like unexpected, basically.

Once you eat it and then you are addicted to it.

Sbrocco: I mean, even though it's named after the market in Mexico City, it really is Latin flavors in this place.

Vandenbroeck: Latin flavors in every dish.

We always like to start with a tapas plate, specifically the ceviche.

Ceviche mixto is one of my favorites.

It comes with shrimp and calamari in a lime and habanero chili sauce.

And I think it's so light and refreshing, especially on a hot day.

So it's a great starter dish.

It'd be great with the sangria, white or red, which is one of their popular alcoholic drinks at the restaurant.

And so the fruit changes, but the day that I went had pineapple in the sangria and it paired perfectly with the ceviche that we ordered.

But the tapas is that I really like is the pulpos salteados.

Now that has octopus and calamari with sweet potato in a garlic and saffron sauce.

And I was looking for chips, bread, anything to dip in that sauce.

That is a conversation starter tapas.

Copeland: You mentioned the chips and I had to have them take the chips away.

You know, these were light and so flavorful that we went through the whole bowl before the first dish came.

It's like don't bring any more just stop it, stop it.

Then we -- we started off with oysters which were just amazing.

They bring them out.

So we had a half a dozen of them with the salsa in the middle.

They were rich and they were creamy.

Then we had the tacos and the tacos are great.

My dining companion is first generation Mexican-American and she said these are authentic Mexican street tacos.

Kyle: The coconut prawns appetizer.

They were coated in a batter that was a lot of batter but light and it was infused with grated coconut and it came with a sauce to dip it in.

It was to die for.

And we had the clam and mussel dish and sauce and it came with toasted dip and the broths were very, very flavorful and full and balanced.

Copeland: I had to try the paella.

For me, I judge it by the rice, you know, because if you go the place where the rice is crunchy and it's not done right and this was just perfect.

It was just perfect all the way through.

And you had mussels and you had clams and you had shrimp.

It was just amazing.

Sbrocco: Although, that little layer on the bottom of the paella, scrape that up, that's the best.

Copeland: Well, it was in a bowl.

It was in a bowl.

It wasn't in a pan.

Kyle: I'm used to paella being served in the individual pan it's cooked in and I like that crispy rice on the bottom.

This was served in a bowl.

Sbrocco: Did you have anything else?

We had a whole cooked fish which was perfectly done and could have easily fed two or more with a sauce that was creamy but not overdone and not too much of it.

And then the saffron rice, excellent quality of food.

Dungo: Sushi Rapture is one of the unique spots, the hidden gems of San Francisco.

The location of this corner, it's the hub of everything.

Everyone knows each other.

It's a happy place where automatically when you sit down, it's one of those places that you have a friend.

My name is Pedro Dungo.

I am the co-owner of Sushi Rapture in San Francisco.

When you go to traditional Japanese restaurants, they'll have the traditional California roll, spicy tuna.

But what sets us apart are just signature dishes of what's in season.

It's not also just the fish, but it's also the pairing of what we're going to put inside it.

So our sushi chef, Sam, his history is more than about 25 years of making Japanese cuisine sushi here in San Francisco.

I look at Sam creating a dish.

It's his hand movements.

It's how the knife is slicing the actual fish, how it's prepared, what he makes with orange and white and the green.

It's so colorful.

What's great about Sam is that trust and bond that you're going to get.

He'll remember everything about you from the first time you've been here from five years later to now.

He knows what you're going to have with everything else, what your taste buds are going to be that day.

This is the place for a first for everyone.

The first sushi, the first uni, the first tuna tartare.

And it won't be your last.

Sbrocco: All right, Robert, I'm beginning to think of you as Mr. San Francisco.

You know everything in the city.

Now how did you find this one spot?

Banks: I work right around the corner from this restaurant, and I stumbled upon this place.

I went in there.

You wouldn't think of me as being a sushi guy.

Sbrocco: I do.

Banks: But when I walked in this place and the way they treat you and Sam's back there making the sushi, man, I got into it.

And I mean, I love it.

It was great.

I ordered, like, the spicy tuna rolls, I ordered eel.

It's like Sam's back there.

He's doing his magic.

And if you want to, as far as heat, look for a little bit of that ghost pepper on there before -- it'll really shake you.

Sbrocco: And you won't know what hit you.

Banks: Man.

Bip, bam, thank you, ma'am.

Goldman: We feel like we hit the jackpot.

It was happy hour.

Banks: Right, right.

There you go.

Goldman: And we had such a good time.

All I can say is that every corner of the menu had something that was just so fresh and appealing that it just kind of opened me up to just exploring further.

So I had sashimi, which I usually never get.

It's arrayed so beautifully, like a flower with a little herb bouquet in the middle.

I tried it just to say I tried it, but then I was like, I want more.

And it went on and on.

It was a huge portion of, I believe, seven different types of fish.

My favorite was the butterfish, which, you know, tasted very buttery, had some small fish eggs on some roe on them, and it was a lot of sashimi.

And, you know, for $35 I felt like I was getting good value.

Sbrocco: And what else did you have, Judy?

Goldman: Well, we had the seaweed salad, which was a little appetizer and it was really fresh, crunchy, and zesty.

It had a nice dressing on it and a sprinkle of sesame seeds, so just great textures.

And then I just had to go on like I couldn't stop eating and had the hand rolls which were like a spicy tuna and a salmon skin and wrapped up in this crunchy seaweed roll that was divine.

Banks: Well, after I eat a big thing of sushi, then I gotta have more ribs.

Sbrocco: Of course.

Banks: And these ribs, they're just great.

Everything is so fresh and it's right off the grill, they give you this rice, and they give you salad.

And then, of course, once you hit the saki a couple of times, you gonna sock it to me, you know, as I call it.

And I mean, everything is just good.

Sbrocco: I just want to go out to eat with Robert.

I just wanna go -- you are my type.

I'm telling you, goes drinking and eating.

Collins: And those ribs were so -- I was actually -- I got FOMO from not ordering the ribs.

The couple next to us had them and I was talking about them with my date and then all of a sudden they're like, hey, do you want to just try some of our ribs?

Sbrocco: Did not.

Collins: The couple just gave us one of their ribs.

It was delicious.

And we started talking about what we ordered, blah, blah, blah, anyway, it's that kind of restaurant where you just start having a conversation with the couple next to you and everyone there is friends.

Goldman: I have the same experience that it was just this favorite neighborhood place.

The hostess looked at us and said, hey, you're not from around here, welcome, but treated everyone warmly.

Banks: Sometimes I feel like a bull in a china shop, you know, but they just make me feel so good.

I can sit back, get my sushi groove, you know, get my saki on, and then flick the TV to the game and everything is all right.

Grimm: I come from a long line of fishermen.

My grandfather came here from Amalfi, Italy, in the late 1800s, and he was a fisherman who came here to work on the salmon and crab boats in San Francisco.

He also opened an oyster bar on Broadway that was destroyed by the 1906 earthquake, but he continued to fish the rest of his life.

That's how I think I ended up here at the Anchor Oyster Bar.

The staff here at the Oyster Bar has been here almost as long as we've been in business.

We have one waiter that's been here for 27 years.

So it has a very familiar feeling to people, very homey feeling.

Shrimp cocktail, fresh Dungeness crab meat, clam chowder, our menu is the same menu that we've had for the last 30 years.

We have not changed our original menu.

My hope is that when customers arrive here, they feel the timelessness of the restaurant.

I feel it could have been built in the '40s, '50s, '60s.

It has a timeless quality to it.

But I hope when they leave, they feel that they've had a true traditional San Francisco seafood experience.

Man: I'll have another one.

Cronin: Well, first of all, their clam chowder is great, it's so good, it's not too milky, it's not thick.

It's got little chunks of potatoes and the clams are so good.

But my new favorite thing there, I saw it go by one day, and it was a pasta with a creamy red sauce with it had little shrimps in it.

And it was so good.

I mean, it was like -- it was like an experience eating it.

And I've eaten there many times.

But it's my new -- every time I go in there now I look for it.

Sbrocco: You look for the pasta.

All right, Patrick.

Now, did you belly up to the bar when you were there?

Redington: I did not belly up to the bar.

We were lucky enough to get a table.

Sbrocco: It is small.

Redington: It is a small place.

Sbrocco: 25 seats, eight at the bar.

Redington: I went with a couple of friends and I tell you, I feel like I went on a date with this restaurant and it was one of the best first dates with a restaurant I've ever had.

Sbrocco: Oh.

Redington: It was so good.

I tell you, one of the biggest surprises for me was the Caesar salad of all things.

Cronin: Oh, yeah.

The salad.

I love the croutons.

Redington: They have hot croutons, hot croutons on Caesar salad.

I never thought of that.

And we had the clam chowder and garlic bread as well.

And then the mahi-mahi special that was on the menu was quite nice and crab cakes, too.

We just -- we did it up big.

Sbrocco: Oh, good.

Ross: You know, we went there and we had a good experience.

It was just the bang for the buck, just really wasn't there, for me, in particular.

I had the crab cakes.

They were awesome.

They are really crispy, really thick crab cakes.

They were -- they were great.

Crab was really fresh.

But I just -- I just felt that, you know, there had to be something else to it.

So we got the seafood combination platter, which is a bowl of mussels and clams, and there are a few shrimp in there.

But the broth itself was, you know, white wine broth, but it just didn't have that same sort of kick that I've had in other restaurants.

Maybe it wasn't spicy enough or something like that.

Redington: I think that you can get value there.

It depends on how you order.

If you go in for one of those delicious Caesar salads and a bowl clam chowder, you're going to come out thinking that was a great value.

If you go in there and you order up the oysters and the cioppino, you know, the specials of the day.

Sbrocco: And the oyster shooters, I understand, he had quite a few of them.

Redington: Yeah, really good.

We got a few people went on about it.

Cronin: I still haven't tried those.

I haven't tried them.

Redington: They're really good.

Sbrocco: Yeah.

Cronin: If you want -- if you love seafood and you want it prepared the way it's supposed to be prepared, if you love seafood, go to the Anchor Oyster Bar, you will not be at all disappointed.

It's the best.

I think it's one of the best in the city.

Sbrocco: And you can buy fresh fish and take it home.

Cronin: Yes, and you can go there and you can buy fresh fish.

You just go in and say, you guys, what's the market fish for the day?

And you can buy it at market price and they'll tell you -- if you want.

Just go ahead and ask them, how should I cook this?

The chef will tell you how to cook it.

Redington: Wow.

Cronin: Isn't that cool?

Ross: Great.

That's awesome.

Sbrocco: Thanks so much for joining us for a special edition of "Check, Please!

Bay Area."

I hope you can make it out and keep safely supporting our local restaurants.

Until next time, I'm Leslie Sbrocco.

Cheers.