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Scoma's (Seafood cuisine) $$$

Pier 47, Al Scoma Way, San Francisco, 94133 (Directions)

800-644-5852

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Old, family run Seafood restaurant with huge, cheap seafood dishes.
Reviewer: Terry Total Reviews: 730 Reviewed: 9/10/2006 Rating: 9.5 My photo gallery	We were looking for a good place to eat on Pier 39. Last time we ate at the Crab House and it was pretty good, but I needed someplace new. It was a bit of a walk from Pier 39, but we heard good things about Scoma's and had to give it a try. Its a good 5 minute walk from Pier 39 (but you pass a lot of shops, etc, so its not exactly a boring walk at all). Also good to note is that Scomas has valet parking, so if you just want to eat the food, then you don't have to deal with Pier 39 parking garages, etc. We arrive for a late afternoon lunch and the place is packed, enough so that we have to wait 10 minutes for a table. This isn't a big deal as its right on the pier, and there are boats coming and going and the receiving building (where they get their fresh seafood from the fisherman) is there, with windows so you can look in and watch them preparing the latest catches. Our table is finally ready and we are taken inside. The place is a bit cramped feeling, but what do you expect, its an old building on a dock. It has a lot-of-history feel to it, and especially with the sports crowd - a lot of signed pictures, etc. Still it wasn't one of those places with TV's on, blaring at you, it still felt like a good family place. They have a kids menu with all the standard stuff, and crayons and placemats to color on. I scanned the menu, and all of the items looked delicious. Of course a hearty selection of seafood and pasta dishes. There were some house specialties listed, but none of them really appealed to me, so I settled on the 'Pasta Fishermans Style'. Even though the menu says its tomato sauce, you can also get it with cream sauce, which I did. I also ordered a bowl of clam chowder (come on, you have to order that here!) There is an extensive wine and drink menu. I had a diet coke since I would be driving back soon, and the pasta would probably make me sleepy enough. Fresh Boudin sourdough bread was brought to the table and was quickly devoured. More bread was offered, but declined... had to save room for our lunch. I downed the diet coke, and the glass was taken away from me. I guess no refills here. The clam chowder came out first. At $6.50 it wasn't cheap for sure, so I had my hopes high. And I was rewarded. This wasn't the basic stuff out of the can (thankfully). This was richer, and had a ton of clams in it. I think I could have made this a meal along with the sourdough bread and been just fine. I downed this quickly. After a longer wait (but I guess they were busy, so can't complain) the main courses arrived. Wow, my plate was monstrous. It wasn't just the size of the plate that got me, though, but the amount of seafood they had in there. So many little shrimps (and these weren't your standard shrimps you find in the frozen food section, looked very fresh. The crab meat was in there, in huge amounts. They had big pieces of crab meat (legs and claws) and shredded meat throughout the whole dish. It was impossible to eat any pasta without eating a LOT of crab meat. I was completely impressed. Combined with the ultra-rich cream sauce, it was decadent to say the least. The mushrooms and especially the onions added a nice flavor to it that completed the flavor of the item. As hard as I tried, I could only finish half of the dish, and asked for a box for the rest of it. The dish was $29, but could have been another 10 bucks more (at least) and I would have considered it a good deal. I finished the rest of it last night, and even reheated was a damn good dinner. My youngest son ate some of the pasta with me, and finished every little piece of it on his plate (and believe me, that doesn't happen often!) Can't say enough good things about this place. It still ain't cheap, for sure, but when it comes to bang-for-the-buck you never leave Scomas disappointed.


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