Sotto Mare

Name: Sotto Mare
Address: 552 Green Street, San Francisco, CA 94133, San Francisco, CA, US
Telephone: (415) 398-3181
Price range: $

📍 North Beach 💰 $ 🍽️ Italian Seafood

The Verdict

"Great Italian seafood in North Beach. Known for their Cioppino. "

What you need to know

Sotto Mare calls itself an oysteria. It’s a North Beach seafood counter on Green Street serving cioppino, fresh oysters, and Dungeness crab from a tightly packed 30-seat dining room.

What to Order

Cioppino: A large bowl with Dungeness crab, clams, mussels, shrimp, and fish in a tomato broth. Bring an appetite and ask for extra bread. Cioppino is the seafood stew associated with the Italian-American fishing community in North Beach, in use since at least the late 1800s.

Crab Legs: Prepared with butter and garlic.

Oysters: From the raw bar. Ask what’s in that day.

Calamari: Fried, tender inside, crisp outside.

Pasta with Seafood: An alternative to the cioppino.

The Space

A narrow space on Green Street with a counter wrapping around the open kitchen and a few tables against the opposite wall. About thirty seats, usually full. The counter lets you watch the kitchen work.