McCormick & Kuleto's Seafood Restaurant

Many seafood restaurants line Fisherman’s Wharf, but none draw on two ingredients more than McCormick & Kuleto’s, the 480-capacity Ghirardelli Square restaurant that overlooks Aquatic Park. Ghirardelli Square is as famous for chocolate as the Wharf for its fresh crab, so it’s fitting that those two ingredients are crab and chocolate.

Executive chef Liz Ozanich hasn’t yet found a way to combine these two ingredients, but one or the other is featured throughout the menu. Two luscious appetizers are the Dungeness Crab Cake, a large, tender cake with lemon butter sauce and crispy parsnips, and the Dungeness Crab, Mango and Avocado Tower.

Crab Legs, Braised Dungeness, Dungeness Crab Louis and Dungeness Strozzapreti Pasta (with blue cheese, cream and walnuts) are also popular crab-centric entrees. And the most popular Sunday brunch entrée? The Dungeness Omelet, with crab meat, avocado, tomatoes and cheddar.

Moving on to dessert, tributes to the chocolate-maker that once occupied century-old Ghirardelli Square are abundant. (Ghirardelli chocolates are now made across the bay in San Leandro, with only a retail shop now in the Square.) Most memorable is the Dark Chocolate Bag, with a chocolate base so thick that only a sharp steak knife can slice it, and lunchbag-shaped contours filled with white-chocolate mousse and fresh berries. You can chase it with a Ghirardelli Double Chocolate Mudslide, which blends white chocolate, dark chocolate, vanilla vodka, Kahlua and Bailey’s Irish Cream.

While appreciating the crab, chocolate or other menu choices, which change daily and seasonally, you’ll enjoy a view of the Aquatic Park lagoon and San Francisco Bay. Nearly all tables and booths in the restaurant, with its spacious, tiered main room and four private dining rooms, enjoy this view through massive windows.

HelloSanFrancisco tip: Happy Hour is celebrated every weekday from 3 to 6 p.m., with a bar menu and nightly drink specials.

- by Bob Cooper, San Francisco Reporter for HelloMetro  (Click to leave a message)

Bob Cooper

Bob Cooper is a full-time freelance writer (www.bob-cooper.com) who writes about travel, outdoor sports and health. He is a monthly contributor to Runner's World and has written recent articles for other national magazines such as Continental, Ladies' Home Journal and Inc.