Betty Lou's Seafood & Grill — Restaurant in San Francisco

I am a San Francisco native and watched all these hoity-toity places come and go. Betty Lou’s is a family owned Italian bistro. The place is perfect for that special date, or a group of 20 family and friends sharing bread, wine and food together. You will feel welcome from the time you enter and the time you leave. I’ve been to Betty Lou’s four times now and must declare that this is the best fish in town! The key is not only how it’s prepared but how fresh and where the fish is procured from. Its obvious Betty Lou’s uses only the best available ingredients and sources of their seafood. Chef Hector’s sand dabs are pars none the best in town! The fried calamari is one of the best this city has to offer. The perfect size, light and so crispy, with a hint of lemon. The sautéed calamari in a rich tomato sauce is cooked to perfection without being overdone and rubbery. Never any fishy taste… On my first trip, I shared the combo Louie salad and ribeye steak. AMAZING!! The steak was delicious and cooked to perfection. The salad had both jumbo prawns and medium size shrimp along with a generous portion of Dungeness crab, hardboiled egg and tomato. Better than any place on the wharf! I have had both the linguini & seafood, and risotto & seafood now. Loaded with clams, mussels, prawns, calamari, scallops and shrimp again cooked nice and tender with so much natural flavor! Thank you Betty Lou’s for the wonderful food and service! I give you FIVE STARS and will...

We were having trouble getting a reservation anywhere for 7 but they accepted is right away. So, Saturday, the day before Father's Day, my family had a wonderful meal. Decently priced Italian deliciousness. Parking was a bit of a search as usual. We got there about 15 minutes before our reservation and only had to wait a couple of minutes while they cleared of the newly abandoned table and set up for us. When the table next to us vacated they cleared their table, moved it over, and gave us a chair to go at the head of our table.

We got bread, calamari, crab cocktail, shrimp cocktail and chowder for appetizers. Besides the chowder the apps were pretty basic. Calamari needed the lemon and sauces it came with but was at least crispy. The cocktail apps were plain crab meat and bay shrimp with cocktail sauce but sauce was good abs seafood fresh. The chowder was delicious!! Bread was standard table bread with butter packets.

The entrees were typical and not a huge selection. Basically you pick from a few pastas, sauces, and proteins. Also, there was the same set up in grilled our sauteed variations. Everyone enjoyed their food except one of my sisters who ordered the "garlic and olive oil" sauce for her pasta which had no flavor.

The wines were pretty good and there is no dessert so we went across the street.

Sorry I forgot to take pics because we were having...

Beautiful seafood and wonderful service!

My experience at Betty Lou’s was hospitality realized; a warm welcome at the door, great banter, and fantastic service. We started our meal with a dozen East Coast oysters (blue point) and a half-dozen West Coast oysters (Miyagi), which came with strong horseradish, cocktail sauce, lemons, and Tabasco or Tapatio on request.

For our mains, I had the branzino special, served with a lemon butter sauce with capers, some garlic sauteed carrots and Brussels sprouts, and a side of scalloped potatoes, while my aunt had the seafood risotto (clams, mussels, prawns, sea scallops, bay shrimp, calamari) and my uncle had Mike’s wok crab (whole cracked crab, scallions, cilantro, garlic, ginger, soy sauce). Absolutely everything was cooked beautifully!

We had a great time chatting with our server and the owner, who also recommended great spots just down the street for dessert and coffee.

While some might see Betty Lou’s described as “old-school” and think “outdated”, I’d invite people to see this restaurant as classic, unpretentious, and straightforward. Yes, there are restaurants with more modern, or contemporary takes on seafood, but I really enjoyed that Betty Lou’s took the time and the care to make sure that seafood is the undeniable focus and that it’s done well. I’ll...