Woodhouse Fish Company: San Francisco

Date:  samedi 24 octobre 2009
Location:  1914 Fillmore Street
San Francisco, CA
Tel:  +1 415 437 CRAB
http://woodhousefish.com



THIS PLACE HAS $1 OYSTERS EVERY TUESDAY 4-10PM!  I will be back! 

Great Cioppino!  I was sluggish, slow, and hungover.  Seafood Cioppino was the perfect cure.  Fish, shrimp, crab claws, muscles, clams, scallops.  The sauce may look red based and heavy, but surprisingly it is light tasting and just a tad sweet.  It was a water based stew.  I loved the shrimp and fish in the dish - though they gave us only one large shrimp.  The fish chunks and muscles were tender and juicy.  The had been slow cooking in the Cioppino seafood stew soup for some time.  All the flavors were gently and deliciously packed inside the mini seafood portions.  I think there were clams also but I did not get to try one (hmmm eating partner forgot to share with me haha).  It is a perfect sized dish for two people to share. I imagine it would have paired wonderfully with a Chardonnay, but I just was not in the mood.  Water please!


The sauteed spinach was also a delight and refreshing.  I know we can all sautee garlic with spinach, but their's was so fragrant!  I think because they are using delicate, organic spinach leaves, vs the big testosterone injected ones from the Chinese supermarket that have ginormous, thick, rough leaves.  Anyway, I just loved how clean and green and delicate the spinach turned out.   

We ordered the fish and chips (my bad, my call, because I was hung over, needed some fried bready things).  I have had better fish and chips.  I did not like how their fish was so flaky and falling to pieces in my plate...  the batter was also too floury, so whenever i tried to break a piece off, the chunk just disentegrated to bits.  Frustrating to eat when you are hung over, tired, and have lost some of your senses.  Anyhow, I took a bite or two then just pushed it around on my plate (what I usually do when I come across a dish I do not like - makes it look like I am eating it).  


The ambience is cute, quaint, clean, and bright.  I can see it being a super place to find refuge on a cold, foggy, wet, San Franciscan afternoon, and warm your tummies with steaming Cioppino.  They should add espresso to their list if they do not already have it.  I will definitely try to get back on one of the Tuesday nights for the one dollar oysters!