Ebb & Flow

We came here on a whim right after they opened. For a brand new resto, it was great. Nice décor, not too kitschy on the nautical theme, but still evocative and appropriate.
The only pointer I have would be to work on the fries… You can’t have fish and chips with bad fries. Everything else (from starters and entrees to drinks and dessert) was great.

This place is strange and in my opinion not good AT ALL. Everything about it seems confused. They say they serve sustainable fish and organic food. Yet non of the staff has a clue about where anything comes from. If you actually care about this subject, as I do you. I suggest getting your questions answered BEFORE going in. That is if anyone ever answers the phone. I should have known better as I have tried to check their website since before they opened and it STILL says «coming soon».
I wouldn’t go back nor recommend it. I heard the people at the next table talking about how bad their meal was. This is also when I found out this place has the same owners as Craig’s Place. Dammit wish I would have known before I dropped 80 bucks.
Never again!

Ventured out here on Friday night with the most beautiful girl in the world and we were not disappointed! Here is what we ate…
Oysters
Mussels
Crab Cakes
Ceviche
Asparagus
Sun chokes
Spinach
And of course Viognier
Everything was made very simply, but had incredible flavor. The crab cakes are incredibly generous in portion and the light crust is perfect. These could be the best crab cakes in San Francisco!
The oysters were delicious and the ceviche was really really really tasty! The mussels were to die for with a rich sensual creamy broth.
The sunchokes are a fun surprising delight that you cant find in many places — I recommend a try sometime. And if you like spinach and garlic then the sauteed spinach is for you!
We will be back!

3.5
After circling the area for much coveted street parking in San Francisco, we found a spot near Dolores Park. It’s a nice walk into the famed foodie area of the Mission — home of Delfina, Bi-​Rite Ice Creamery, Tartine Bakery, and now Ebb & Flow.
At roughly 8pm, there were still seats available and our table of 3 was seated instantly. Just note that this restaurant does not take reservations.
As a seafood restaurant, the décor is appropriately classic nautical. It felt like I stepped into a vacation beach house, with a fish net and antique map decorating the walls, sheer white curtains, and navy blue & white mosaic tiles decorating the bar area, and napkins with a rough burlap sack-​esque material.
The menu is also quite simple — offerings of fresh oysters, various grilled fish, the standard «fish and chips» — nothing surprising. I was in the mood for something light, so I ordered the fresh and zesty ceviche appetizer and cup of seafood chowder with chorizo bits, though it was slightly watered down. My fiancé went an alternate-​seafood route and ordered juicy kobe steak strips with hearty fries (a daily special) and my friend enjoyed her flavorful seafood risotto with slightly charred calamari and scallops. I found the food to be good, though slightly over-​priced. It was a nice dinner all in all.

After a recent muni breakdown (shocking) I was not able to get home to the ‘stro so I made some lemonade and hopped on BART, grabbing dinner here on my way. The old Craig’s Place spot looks great. Still the same high-​ceiling inviting space but with a more fish house style décor.
Service was friendly. Our waitress noticed my squint at the specials board and came over to read them to me! They didn’t mind my husband sitting with a glass of wine until I made it there either which was nice.
Food wise I enjoyed the ceviche and the grilled fish special. My husband adored the seafood sausage and made a meal of this appetizer by adding a delicious chowder (best we’ve had in a while) and some roasted sunchokes. Totally yummy, and we’re for sure coming back.
As for the random review below – Gabriel D… One star based not on the actual visit and dining experience, but a random trip to the restaurant to try and use the bathroom without being a paying customer… please get over yourself. There is no sense of entitlement for being one of 1700 other Dolores Park guests who want to avoid the park bathrooms and try and use the facilities of a local business. The fact they even entertained the idea of letting you use it for $ 1 just shows how cool they really are. And god forbid they don’t remember a random customer who ordered cake. The nerve of some people! Insert Eye Roll here.

I’m ready to rave. This place was first recommend to me by a foodie friend, the elusive friend who knows chefs and gets to eat their tasty food at Super Bowl parties. The friend that I am really trying to become closer to because damnit, I want to go to one of those parties.
In any case, I forget the exact connection but the chefs are somehow related to Boulevard. Since I’ll never afford Boulevard I figured this was my ticket… and then my Mom came into town and I told her that this would be a killer meal.
I was right!!! There were 4 of us and we had an absolutely outstanding meal. Got in a little before 8 on a Weds, no wait and it was about half full. Full when we left.
Great local beers and wines on the list. Amazing local produce and fishies. I had the Seared tuna salad with polenta — heven. The Tuna was so moist and tender. Hubby had the mussels and loved them. It was strange because he usually doesn’t like mussels! Sister had the fish and chips and wow! Light, crispy and somehow one giant piece of fish. There was not a crumb to spare.
But the all time winner from the entire night was my Mom’s entrée… she got the Halibut special with garlic and bacon potatoes and sauteed spinach. She loved every single bite and graciously gave us all taste. It was SO GOOD! I mean we were licking the place er I mean using bread to get all of the juices. I have never seen her enjoy a fish meal so much in her life.
We all left with happy tummies in the sorta basking glow you get after a good meal. The owner guy drying glasses did not bother me, he stayed to himself. Service was super friendly and they really knew their stuff.
So, I will be back but will also save it for a special occasion. It’s better that way.

I perhaps made the wrong choice here, went with the tuna cassarole because it had peas, my biggest weakness. It was just so so, I felt the cauliflower, peas and much too large greens on top a strange combination requiring just a bit more flavor.
The service was good though.

I have eaten at Ebb and Flow multiple times now, for brunch and for dinner.
Brunch
The Crab Benedict was absolutely amazing! Crab AND crab hollandaise — brilliant! We also had the brunch special of Sauted Spot Prawns. They were by far the largest spot prawns I have ever seen (being from the northwest, this was especially impressive). Great service by our server Andrea. She brought over a bucket for our champagne and ensured our glasses were never empty.
Dinner
The Sardines on Toast appetizer, I believe it was a special, was to die for. Who knew sardines were actually delicious? For my main I had a generous helping of the Steamed Mussels which were just spicy enough.
Ebb and Flow, I will be back many, many times.
*In response to the other reviewer’s critism of the ramp at the entrance: It is for wheelchairs you uncaring jerk! ADA laws, and general decency, require that the management keeps the ramp as it is.

I prefer my chowder on the creamy rich side. The seafood chowder was too liquidity for my taste and too many potatoes but it got better in the end with the chorizo bits on the bottom.
The grilled seabass was okay but what shined was the grilled aspargus that came with it (there was little shreds if crab and peas on top).

This place is great. As a dietician in training as well as a personal trainer I can sigh in relief that there is a restaurant in this beautiful neighborhood that takes so many different factors into consideration. This restaurant only carries west coast beers, wines and sea food. Produce is organic and local and they don’t carry straws!
Recommendations: ceviche (!), Halibut (!), sea bass (!).
Yay for restaurants with small carbon footprints!
Love the Swedish fish =).

Finally the perfect restaurant for this location. I lived across the street from here 157 years ago, and would have LOVED for Ebb & Flow to already exist. Reading the description, we were a little worried it would be a Long John Silver gone awry – fish netting and ship stuff, er… But the décor was subtle and tastful and who cares anyway when the food is that fresh, that well executed, and that well served?!
Try the fried sardine appetizer, the dinner-​sized salad nicoise, grubbin oysters, or any of the fresh fish, obviously. Our server also accomodated food allergies and a theater time constrainst, and helped us order the perfect inexpensive crispy white wine to match our orders.
No reservation accepted (at least when we went), but no problem being seated. I sure hope E&F sticks around! I might have to move back in my old apartment…

I dig this place. Fun seafaring décor! Our waitress was charming –attentive in a relaxed and friendly way.
Crab dip: yum. Tuna casserole: surprisingly tasty, with the pasta and peas and fried onions and creamy sauce, but fresh tuna instead of the canned crap your mom might have used. The fries are thick and freaking delicious. The halibut and scallop appetizer was the only slight letdown, but even that was pretty good. And can I just say how much I appreciate restaurants that serve bread with butter that’s soft and spreadable? I really do.
In sum: casual, cozy, inviting, and yummy. I will be back for po’boys!

Over the last few turns around the sun, the space where Ebb and Flow now occupies has seen Craig’s Place, Platinos, a few other restos whose name I can’t recall come and go, and way before that it was a shabby corner store that Bi-​Rite shut down with prejudice. Let’s face it, that spot is going to take some serious genius to make it work. It’s bracketed by Tartine, Pizzeria Delfina and rest of the gourmet ghetto, no slouches among them. Which is why I’m sad to report, as of right now, that wretched corner is pretty much still up for grabs.
Let’s start with the atmosphere of Ebb and Flow. You know that guy who was always there at Craig’s Place? Well, he owns this place, too, and he’s always at Ebb and Flow now as well. It would be one thing if he did any work, but he just sort of hangs around and watches you with an enigmatic smile, and I don’t mean like a Mona Lisa smile, more like a Dollar-​Signs McGinty grin.
They dolled up the walls a bit with some kitchy nets and buoys, which was a start, but you’re not quite sure if they knew it was kitch, because nothing else really winks at you. Worst of all, though, they didn’t deal with that truly awkward, boxy space or the head-​scratch-​inspiring ramp with wrought-​iron railings that slices the dining room in half. I’m no interior designer or anything, but I would have put a few brain cells into those two problems before inviting guests in because when you’re inside, you feel like you’re at the bottom of that trash compactor in Star Wars… you know the one, where Luke gets pulled under water by a tentacle monster? and C3PO nags the other robot to fix it with his robot proboscis in the wall of the death star? But that’s another story I guess.
Ebb and Flow has a shortish, forgettable and confusing menu that jostles uneasily between raw oysters, salade nicoise and tuna casserole. Sure they all have fish in them, but it’s like they can’t decide whether to be Blue Plate with more fish, or a fish place with an American diner sensibility. They need to make up their mind because the menu is all over the place in not a good way.
They do have a specials board, which is nice because it points out what’s new and fresh that day. I ordered sardines on toast as an appetizer. In my imagination, this would have been a delicate. light-​handed preparation of fresh, raw sardine on delicate, small toast rounds kissed with fine olive oil and a little salt-​kind of a classic. Sounds good, right? Appropriately small for an app. Shareable at the table. Instead, it was one honking piece of toast with fishy-​tasting «grilled» sardines and a lot of stuff including pimento and herbs. Yuck. If you’ve ever had fresh, raw sardine, you know how light, sweet and delicate they can be. As soon as you cook them, though, it’s all about the fishiness, and at that point, I’d rather just get them in a can.
Salade Nicoise shouldn’t really be on a dinner menu, in my opinion, but even so, one of my dining companions had the dish and liked it. I have to say it looked pretty good, but it was served in a porcelain boat sort of lunch-​at-​a-​white-​table-​cloth-​place style, while my other companion had mussels and fries in a cardboard tray. Again, confusion, but not mash-​up fun confusion, just mistakes. I had a slab of sea bass (not the Chilean variety, for all you Monterey Aquarium fish ecology list watchers out there, as I am; I think it was Alaskan Toothfish) with asparagus and peas and it was very good. The asparagus was perfect. Thing is, t I’ve had that dish a hundred, nay, a thousand times before. I can barely even remember it. If I ever go back, I’d stick with the fish and chips, but to be honest, I’m not hurrying.

You know, I ate here and I had a perfectly good experience. But then I walked in here with a friend who wanted to use the bathroom on a Sunday afternoon. And the fuckers who work there told her she’d have to pay a dollar. I thought they were kidding, but they weren’t, so I told them I dropped a lot of coin here and even ate their shitty pumpkin cake dessert. Didn’t help. As if that dollar was going to go anywhere other than their coke fund.
Seriously — there is absolutely nothing worse than a bunch of hipsters who think they’re your social betters because they work in some fucking restaurant. I haven’t seen behavior this childish since the assholes at Radio Shack told a 6-​year-​old me that it cost a quarter to play pong on their shitty Tandy. Two groups of people who don’t realize they ain’t the shit.
Oh, and to the detracting reviewer who tells me to «please get over yourself» and bitches about my «sense of entitlement» as «a random customer,» well, see, there’s this thing called «customer service» in the restaurant industry. And successful restaurants tend to have it. Ebb & Flow is closed a few months after it opened, therefore not successful. Perhaps they should have looked into *good customer service* and how it might generate repeat customers, instead of nickel-​and-​diming potential repeat customers? Do you think the 500 Club told me I needed to pay $ 1 to use the bathroom?
And btw, «sense of entitlement» has to be the most overused and least understood catch-​all insult of the last five years. When did it suddenly become forbidden to be unhappy with a restaurant that treats you like crap when you go in there?

Last Sunday was as nice of a day as we’ve had in SF in quite some time. After lounging in the Dolores Park sun for a few hours drinking a few brews and enjoying the people-​watching, my group of 6 friends set out for dinner. Our foodie friend said we were real close to a new seafood joint that had been getting a ton of press in the SF foodie blogosphere. So, we walked one block from Dolores and found this excellent addition to an already vibrant neighborhood, Ebb and Flow.
Our meal was truly exceptional from start to finish. The ceviche, crab dip, and calimari was a great way to get the party started. I ordered the special that night, halibut with crab grits and believe me my friends, there was not a trace of anything to be found on any of my plates.
The staff was very friendly and did a good job getting our group of 6 all of our drinks (nice selection of NorCal beers) and food in a timely manner even though the place really filled up shortly after we arrived. The spot is small so it filled up quickly but the vibe remained very comfortable and friendly, everyone in there seemed to be having a really fun time. We knew we were eating high quality seafood but it didn’t end up being too pricey, about what I was expecting. The GM who came talked to us a few times, told us they do lunch and will soon be starting up brunch. I will definitely make it back in for that in the very near future and I suggest you do as well.

Very nice staff, including chef Vincent Schofield who came out to greet at tables. Nice concept of seafood in comfort food form but it felt more like seafood in a diner or touristy spot like Swan Oyster Depot (yeah I’m going to get flack for that).
NB: I’m not a saltines kind of girl and I don’t like lettuce. Next time, I will try the cooked dishes as those seem to be more flavorful like the black cod and the halibut. The main thing lacking in what I tried was flavor — blandness abounds.
*Shrimp cocktail — not prawns but small bay shrimp mixed with lettuce scraps and doused in cocktail sauce, served with saltines.
* Ceviche — the night we dined, the ceviche was made with cod instead of rock shrimp. It was the best dish we had. Jalapenos, sliced radishes, and diced avocado, and the acidity was not overwhelming.
* Seared calamari with black chanterelle polenta — the polenta was extremely bland and I don’t know why they bother with the chanterelles because you can’t taste them at all. The calamari was a bit too salty but cooked just the right amount. This is a very filling appetizer.
* Crab dip with carb basket — the carb basket consisted of fried chips, saltines, and dry small toasts (melba style). Props for the dip actually having a lot of crab and tasting like crab instead of fillers. But again, a fairly bland dish.
* They serve bi-​rite ice cream for dessert so you don’t have to wait in line down the block.

I was excited to try Ebb and Flow having read good reviews about it on Unilocal.BUT I got home today from dinner VERY DISAPPOINTED.
We called 2 hours ahead for a party of 6. They DO NOT take reservations. But was told we should be seated easily. We got there, there were tables reserved for 6 for another group. I THOUGHT they dont take reservations?
Few minutes wait, they gave us THAT table. Thank you! :)
Our server was really nice. But waited a looonnggg time for our order to come.
Fish and chips, crab sandwich, tuna sandwich, oyster po’boy, mussels and oysters. ALL TERRIBLE. Im sorry. But they were just all BLAND. A dash of salt would go along way. I had to drown my food with ketchup.
Really disappointed with Ebb and Flow. we will NEVER go back there again.

18^th and Guerrero is one of my favorite food destinations in the city. How can you beat a block that has Bi-​Rite and Delfina’s? You can’t my dear, but you CAN definitely up the ante. Ebb & Flow is a terrific addition to the block and to the Mission.
First off, they do the whole local, sustainable thing (yes!). While the menu is fairly simple (Oysters on half-​shell, chowder, fish & chips, oyster poboys, tuna melts, crab, melts, cerviche, steamed mussels, etc…), everything is exceptionally fresh and incredibly well prepared. For instance, the fish and chips was wonderful and had a terrific presentation. A whole filet (easily as long as the plate) lightly breaded and fried to perfection served on top of hand cut fries with home-​made tartar sauce and and a lovely vinegar-​based coleslaw. My oysters on the half shell were from Pt. Reyes and Carlsbad respectively and tasted fresh off the boat.
Portions in general seem quite generous. The sandwiches (which I didn’t try) looked huge. I didn’t try desserts or dabble in the beer and wine, but the desserts were all from Bi-​Rite and the the beers and wines that I could see were all from California.
The staff is friendly. In fact, I got to chat with the Executive Chef, who actually asked me what I though of my dishes. I think for this first week or so (and maybe longer) that opportunity might be open for folks like me who dig that sort of thing.
The space is small but cheerful and well laid out. The décor is simple. I especially loved the black glass tile trim and the giant fishing chart of the SF Bay. The only thing I didn’t like were the napkins. The unbleached look fits in with the whole sustainability thing, but they never look clean. even when they are brand new like now. But thats more of my personal tastes versus a flaw.
If you like seafood, definitely pay a visit to Ebb & Flow.

So me and a few friends were looking for a place to eat in the Mission (our first choice had a nice 2.5 hour wait… not happening!). We just happened to come across this place in our wanderings. The main appeal was that it was busy but not full (so it looked like a good place) and also it was serving seafood (which is perfect for me on these special Fridays in Lent).
Turns out this place *just* opened a few days before we came. So everything was new and exciting for them. Admittedly the server seemed to have a few early jitters too, but she did her best and was great to our group. Service was friendly and nice.
The menu to me seemed a little small but I’d rather have a restaurant specialize than overwhelm me with huge menus (leave that for the chain restaurants). So selection might be a bit low but rest assured you have a selection of a lot of great seafood dishes.
We got a crab dip appetizer for the table and I settled on a special dish, cooked cod in a butter sauce with various veggies. Crab dip was good (our group of three tore through it) and the cod special, while maybe a bit small, was fantastic. I guess that’s my weakness, just soak everything in butter, haha. But I truly enjoyed my dish and was soaking up the last bits of the butter sauce with the table bread.
So, yes, looking for good seafood away from Fisherman’s? A solid new dinner choice in the Mission? It has arrived!

Date & Time: Wednesday March 10, 2010 @ 6:30pm
Crowd: 20 – 40 Something Couples in After-​Work Attire
Vibe: Whimsical
Music: Eclectic Mix of Reggae, Alternative, Sade & Talking Heads
Décor: Nautical. Blue & White Walls w/​Fish Net & Vintage Map. Expansive Windows & High Ceilings. Raw Bar & Wooden Tables
Service: Female Servers Clad Head to Toe in Black
Imbibe: Beer & Wine
Devour: Hood Canal Oysters on Half-​Shell, Ceviche, Clam Chowder, Crab Sandwich, SeaBass & Bi-​Rite Pear Gâteau
Total: $ 75.56