For the Love of...: ...Hog Island Oyster Co. - San Francisco Oyster Bar

Overall - 9/10
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Food - 9/10
Service - 9/10
Ambiance - 9/10

Our week spent in San Francisco back in May seems like ages ago. The standout meal that we remember very fondly to this day was our lunch at the Hog Island Oyster Company located in the historic Ferry Building. It must have been the amazingly fresh seafood served next to the beautiful views of San Francisco Bay that make us think back to this meal so often. This casual eatery is popular amongst visitors and locals alike and does not take reservations.  We were very excited for this meal, so we milled about the entrance an hour prior to the opening at 11am to ensure we got a table especially since we had Baby S in tow. Our over eagerness paid off and we found ourselves at the head of a line that wound itself down the boardwalk 30 minutes before the doors even opened.

We started our lunch off with a half dozen of the freshest pacific and atlantic oysters we've ever had. They were served perfectly chilled with a shallot mignonette and lemons. The bread served alongside was sourced from the Acme Bakery next door and was your quintessential crusty sourdough loaf.

One of the specials that day was a marinated razor clam dish served with kumquats and fried crispy shallots. Razor clams are much more tender then their round shelled cousins but no less flavourful. This was our first time having a dish with kumquats as an ingredient but the sweet fruit and slightly bitter rind added a great complexity of flavour to each mouthful.

Next up was a bowl of steamed Quahaug clams with sausage. As expected, the clams were tender and fresh while the broth was rich and warming. Our attentive server was quite generous with the sour dough bread and ensured we had more than enough to mop up the delicious broth.

Our main dishes were the delicious seared piece of wild Alaskan salmon served with a sweet pea relish and crispy fried potatoes and a rustic seafood stew. These two dishes summed up what Hog Island Oyster Bar is all about; perfectly cooked fresh seafood and delicious but unpretentious flavours. The seared piece of salmon in particular was the most memorable due to how fresh and intensely flavoured the fish was without any hint of fishiness.

Hog Island Oyster Bar definitely has set the bar to which we now compare our future oyster bar/ casual seafood experiences. Stay tuned for our opinion on how our local Rodney's Oyster Bar stacks up!