Hiding just off Mission in the SOMA district is Anchor & Hope – an east coast themed sea food restaurant, that aims to make a new englander feel at home out here on the west coast. In addition to their seafood, they have a newly expanded beer selection, both on tap, and in bottles.  Here comes the full disclosure part: I was invited in to come for dinner as their guest, peruse the beer and food list, and see how it measures up as a beer and food location.  So I did.

It’s pretty great – the seafood was fresh (I’m no authority on east coast authenticity) and the beer list was varied and deep.  I particularly liked how the beer was presented not as a focal point – but rather a natural offering, an extension of the restaurant that always belonged there. Developed with the help of local beer authority the Jug Shop, it offered a lot of great local choices, as well as a few surprises. I particularly liked the tasting flights, sorted by type and category – creating a fun, easy way for cautious imbibed to try new beers, without committing to a whole pint.

I wasn’t so cautious, and we started our meal with some full pints of local brews.

We started our meal with North Cost’s Le Merle Saison and Anchor’s 09 Christmas Ale – both of tap.  The Le Merle is a great food beer – providing the right amount of farmhouse depth to make it a natural for any meal.  The Anchor this year is the perfect counter balance for the cold nights we’ve been having – a nice balance of spice and malt.

Our bread was delivered in a cute labelled bag – like most everything here, straddling the line of authentic and costume themed, it’s a nice embrace of just how far from the east coast they are.  Rather than be an east coast restaurant, they are instead aim to be what they really are: a San Francisco, inspired by the other side of the country. The result never feels too forced, but gets you right into the spirit of things. Of course, the beer helps.

We started with a tray of oysters and clams, served with a vinaigrette and fresh horseradish cocktail sauce.   Fresh and well shucked – always a nice way to start a meal.

This was followed by the ahi tuna appetizer.  Lightly dressed – the tuna didn’t need any more, and was nicely complimented by the side of spicy sauce.  It was nicely plated on ice with a fringe of seaweed.

More beer was needed, so we opted for another belgian, Kwak – also on tap.  This also, comes in a very special glass, designed for safe horse drawn carriage driving – should that be how you get home from SOMA later in the night. (Please, be responsible – don’t drink and drive horse drawn carriages)

Next came the chowder – served split from the kitchen.  It was rich, creamy, with perfectly diced ingredients, and nice cubes of bacon.  Rich without being heavy, I cleaned by bowl in minutes.

When I told people I was coming, the one comment everyone made was “get the uni dish.”  The dish is a layer of mashed potatoes, topped with crab and uni, all served in the shell on an otherwise unadorned plate. It looks strange and forbidding arriving at the table.

The taste was the surprise – it’s a big bowl of warm, comfort food.  As strange as it looks and sounds, the contents are simply salty, rich, studded with chunks of uni. It was a great pairing with the Kwak, which brought out he sweetness of the crab.

One last beer was in order – we dove deep into the bottle collection, and came back with a Brew Dog Imperial IPA.  This IPA seemed to have quite a bit of age on it.  The had had receded way back, leaving a herbal, slightly sweet drink behind – which turned out to be a great pairing for our next course.

The squid ink risotto was one of the best examples of the dish I’ve ever had – the rice was perfect with just a bit of tooth, and the squid in seemed fresh and fragrant.  The next table over mentioned that it smelled great.  On top the clams were succulent, and nicely balanced with the fresh tarragon.

Finally we reached our last course: The lobster roll.

We had ours with a side of bacon flavored brussel sprouts. The lobster roll was good – but nothing as special as our earlier dishes.  Maybe it’s just because it doesn’t hold much sentimental value for me, but the lobster roll seemed merely decent – the lobster was sweet, but seemed to come through as very mild, and in need of more (tradition breaking ) punch.  The ships on the side were wafer thin and completely addictive.

And with that, we were done. All in all – a pretty stellar meal.  All of the food was cooked with exceptional technical skill and care.  Everything was served at the right temp and tasted as fresh as can be.  Our east-coaster waitress swears by the authenticity of the easy coast dishes we had  - but the truth was, it’s the creative, more fun dishes that I think made the meal.  I’d come back from the risotto again without hesitation. Order it alongside a beer from a list that has had as much care and attention as the food, and you’re certain to have a great meal.

Tags: Anchor & Hope, Seafood

This entry was posted on Wednesday, December 9th, 2009 at 11:10 am and is filed under Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.