Sotto Mare
Seafood restaurant · North Beach ·
Classic Italian seafood spot famous for cioppino
Classic Italian seafood spot famous for cioppino
"A beloved stop for rich cioppino (seafood stew) that epitomizes classic SF flavors." - Sharan Kuganesan, Oset Babür-Winter
"When you want a classic San Francisco seafood experience, head to Sotto Mare. The walls of this North Beach spot are covered in toy boats, wooden steering wheels, and nautical memorabilia, and the bar is always full of people eating huge portions of Italian-American seafood dishes. Their cioppino is solid, but our favorite thing is the linguine (get it with the cream sauce) that has shrimp, clams, squid, diver scallops, and mussels. It's big enough to feed the entire 49ers defensive line. And if they have branzino as a special, order it—their pan-fried version with butter and capers is as old-school as it gets." - lani conway, julia chen 1, ricky rodriguez, patrick wong
"The ocean theme is full throttle at Sotto Mare. The seafood institution is loaded with life-sized swordfish, model boats, and other maritime paraphernalia, just in case you needed a reminder that you’re about to eat a lot of things from the sea. Go for the gigantic cioppino—it’s big enough to fall into and loaded with crab legs, shrimp, mussels, and squid. It comes with the requisite plastic bib, which you should proudly wear while admiring the decor and taking down another round of free bread." - julia chen 1, lani conway, patrick wong
"Sotto Mare is sensory overload. Life-sized swordfish are mounted on the walls, ticket orders fly across the kitchen on a clothesline, and bowls of cioppino are so big you could fall in. On top of all this, the wicker baskets are stocked with so much free fluffy bread that they could function as a pillow (in case you need to nap after polishing off that cioppino). You get nine slices of the crusty-fresh good stuff. Yes, nine. Everyone, take notes." - julia chen 1, patrick wong
"Sotto Mare embodies everything we love about North Beach. The Italian seafood spot feels like a divey, rambunctious party revolving around seafood—it’s where to go for bowls of cioppino so big you could fall in, and giant portions of linguine with clams. Expect controlled chaos inside. Tickets fly across the restaurant on a clothesline, and every square inch of wallspace is covered by life-sized swordfish, slightly askew photo frames, and other maritime-themed paraphernalia. Throw on your requisite plastic bib, roll up your sleeves, and get to cracking those crab legs." - julia chen 1, lani conway, ricky rodriguez