I was in the Marina this afternoon and had a late lunch at Popi’s Oysterette, a seafood restaurant helmed by chef and former “Top Chef” contestant Melissa Perfit, who also worked at Bar Crudo.
I got there just in time for their happy hour, which is on weekdays from 3pm to 5pm.
The menus, including the happy hour menu.
To drink, a glass of Tacolicious cava off the Happy Hour menu ($8).
I had a half dozen oysters ($12) from the happy hour menu. They were perfectly shucked with no shell bits, and were good. I think it was a mix of the day’s oysters based on appearance. There was a mignonette, cocktail sauce, and lemon.
I also had two of the Vanilli grilled oysters ($14), which were also good. They had dos ajis (not sure what this is, maybe some peppers?), garlic, lime, and cilantro.
And the Cured Trout Dip ($14.50), which had trout roe, sour cream, chives, tarragon, served with crispy crostini rounds to spread on. This was very good, creamy and trout-y with brininess from the roe.
And also the Steamed Mussels ($8) off the happy hour menu. This was very good. The sauce was tomato based with fennel, onion, and garlic. It was thick and rich. I put some leftover crostini from the smoked trout in to soak up some of the broth.
Finally for a main I had the Cioppino ($38.50), the classic San Francisco tomato based seafood stew. There were mussels, clams, rockfish, squid, and shrimp, along with some slices of toasted sourdough which were great for soaking up the sauce. This was a very good rendition and quite hearty. The tomato sauce was very good and quite similar to that from the mussels dish.
This was an enjoyable seafood lunch. There were a bunch of other things on the menu that looked appealing, like a crab roll and a Louie salad.
