Anchor Oyster Bar — Restaurant in San Francisco

My party came at 7:30pm for a table of 6... WORST IDEA EVER! The restaurant is super small - has a bar that can accommodate 8 -10 people and 5 smaller tables that can accommodate 5 max per table. We ended up waiting for about 1.5 hours for 6 seats at the bar cause otherwise, we would have to be split up into two separate tables. However, it was very nice of them to bring us clam chowder while we were waiting in the cold!

The food was pretty awesome, but after a while, everything will start to taste the same as it's all shellfish, with the only difference in the broth it's in. Overall, I really enjoyed my time there since I love seafood. Everything was super flavorful and cooked to perfection!

Garlic Bread Cheesy, not too garlicky, and just enough crunch! I mean, the garlic bread was good, but I don't think it's out-of-the-world good as some reviews have described them to be.

Kumamoto Oysters Some of the best oysters my bf has had.

Clam Chowder Loaded with potatoes, just the way I like it! It's creamy and flavorful. Not overpoweringly rich. I wish the bread it's served with was more hearty and dense so that it can really soak up the chowder. The bread kind of just shrivels up and dissolves when it's dipped in the chowder. But I wouldn't mind having this chowder everyday :)

3.Steamed Clams Ooops.. my party ate all the clams they had! Clams were fresh, and I really enjoyed the sweetness and freshness of the broth.

Combination Steamed Shellfish Loaded with seafood - prawns, clams, and mussels! This broth was more tangy, not as good as the steamed clams broth, but I still enjoyed it!

Cioppino Noms! Again, loaded with seafood in a tomato based soup. Seafood was very fresh and the soup was very flavorful. Generous portions!

Would definitely come again, but either at 6pm or after 9pm, and with a party of 4 or less! You have...

I suspect this restaurant got, and kept, its reviews because a) the food used to be stellar and b) long time customers feel a great deal of nostalgia when they visit. I went with a friend for lunch - there was a small waiting line (2 people), so it wasn't horrendously busy. The wait staff were lovely. The atmosphere, ditto. We were ready to enjoy ourselves! We shared two dozen oysters, a variety of choices. I have to say, as someone who loves oysters beyond measure, that these were... okay. Two of them could have done with some cleaning, the slight taste of sewage was enough to put us both off. We were very excited about the dungeness crab soup, on special that day. Since one of us is highly allergic to "fake crab" (surimi, krabstick, and a host of other deceptive names!) they decided to ask the waiter if it was all real crab in the soup. The other objected, saying "It's the Anchor Bar. Of course it's real crab!" After explaining to the wait person that if there was any fake crab in the soup, they'd need to go to the hospital, we were told that it was "half and half". Half fake crab and half real. Serious? At Anchor Bar? It made us afraid to try the crab cakes, or the crabmeat salad. After making sure it was all real, we settled on splitting a cioppino, which outgoing customers had told us was fantastic. It was all right, though my companion muttered "it's a waste of good crab and shrimp, covering it up with this". The bill was reasonable, particularly for the area and city, but the restaurant was really a...

It took me years to try this place because the wait is always LONG. Now that I've eaten here, I understand why people wait so long. First, it is teeny-tiny. Thank goodness they've been able to add parklets to increase capacity slightly. When you arrive (and I recommend you do so EARLY), you put your name on the list and then you wait, often more than 90 minutes. I suggest you cross the street to Swirl, buy a bottle of wine, and enjoy it at Swirl while you wait.

Anchor also offers a $15 corkage fee, so you can bring in any bottle of your choice.

We started with crab cakes and oysters. I tend to avoid crab cakes outside of the Eastern Seaboard, but these were sublime: lightly crispy on the outside and full of real crab on the inside. The oysters were fantastic. I tried one of several types. Most of the food is served in large plates, so it is shareable, as was the Caesar Salad. One serving was more than enough for the three of us.

We ordered the large Cioppino, and it was HUGE. In retrospect, the small, which is also huge, would have probably served all three of us, as we ended up taking some of the Cioppino home. The Cioppino might be the best I've had in San Francisco, which is saying something since San Francisco is the birthplace of Cioppino, and many restaurants brag about theirs.

To accompany the Cioppino, I highly recommend the garlic bread, which perfectly soaks up the tomato base.

This was a birthday dinner, and it couldn't have been a...