When It Rains, It Pours: San Francisco Heaps Praise On Sotto Mare

Well it’s a New Year, and believe it or not, we’re already more than halfway through January. And with the reappearance of the sun in recent days, we’ve finally gotten a little break from the wintry weather. No doubt, December was a bear this year. Lord knows we needed it, but I’m happy to have all that rain behind us.

On the other hand, the end of 2021 was particularly good to us here at Sotto Mare.

It started out back at the end of October, when Yelp announced its highest-rated restaurant in San Francisco: none other than Sotto Mare. Keep in mind, our little restaurant took top honors over heavyweights like Nopa, Kokkari and LihoLiho Yacht Club. To say the least, it was kind of a big deal.

We weren’t finished yet, however. Barely two weeks later, the restaurant was featured on Mark Wiens’ YouTube channel, this time for our world-famous Cioppino. In case you haven’t heard of Mr. Wiens, (I hadn’t either), his food channel is enormously popular, boasting over 8 million subscribers.

The video follows Wiens on a giddy culinary tour of San Francisco’s most well-known seafood spots, also making stops at Tadich Grill and Swan’s Oyster Depot along the way. The clip already has over 1.7 million views, and has garnered well over two thousand comments thus far. That’s an awful lot of eyeballs, and we can’t thank Mark enough for including Sotto Mare.

As if all of that weren’t recognition enough, in mid-December the talented people at San Francisco Magazine weighed in, selecting us for their 31 Best Restaurants in San Francisco You Must Try in 2022. The mag singled us out for “the freshest seafood in the city with a side of whimsy for the whole family,” which tells us they know the place well.

This list is absolutely stacked, littered with perennial players like Quince, Gary Danko, Acquerello and Atelier Crenn. You’d think this kind of elevated company might make us nervous––but at Sotto Mare, that’s just not our style.

After all, we’ve got other things to focus on: Dungeness crab, for example. It’s that time of year, and according to the fishermen the crabs are sweeter and fatter than ever this year. We’ve got them six ways, including our famous Crab Louis salad and of course the mighty Cioppino. And make sure to try our newest iteration, Richie’s garlic-marinated Dungeness, it’s our favorite.

Remember, Sotto Mare is always open seven days at 11:30 AM and seating until 9:00 PM, and until 10:00 on Friday and Saturday nights. We’ll see you all in North Beach!