Betty Lou's Seafood and Grill

So this spot, is my favorite place by far for a wide range of reasons. Perfect for a date night spot, if you want some of the best seafood dishes in northbeach (its better than the "famous cioppino" spot up the street imo, which I will not name lol), this spot is really a IYKYK kinda spot and trust me I know. I always start off with an order of their fried calamari because why the heck not! Crispy and delicious, you cannot go wrong.

Now for my main I'm a huge fan of seafood pastas and Betty Lou's seafood linguine is PURE perfection. Get it with the creamy tomato sauce! The flavors of the seafood and the pasta just dance so well together, the sauce is not overly watery which sometimes happens where I've dined at other places in the past. Plus, the pasta is loaded with seafood. You'll be sure to get the perfect amount of seafood with every bite. I can't recommend this place enough, you'll just have to try it out for yourself and see!

Small place with BIG things but they work it out! The service was great and the food AMAZING! The staff even surprised me with complimentary wine for my birthday!

Uber kept canceling because they could not "locate" the restaurant and the staff was so patient and allowed us to wait inside since they were closing.

Betty Lou is located in the lively North Beach neighborhood. Don't even think about driving here because parking is literally impossible. There are also lots of dessert places and bars nearby so if you are looking for something to do after dinner, there are plenty of options.

They have a fairly small menu, but every main dish we tried was delicious!!! We got the clam chowder, seafood fettuccini with pesto sauce, wok crab, and cioppino. The only thing I'll say is that I would definitely skip the clam chowder next time. It was underwhelming and overpriced. But you can't go wrong with the cioppino, wok crab, and seafood pasta. The seafood was fresh and portions were super generous! I LOVED the pesto sauce with the pasta. It's not dry at all, and we even dipped the bread in the extra sauce! Soooo yum. The cioppino was authentic and packed with seafood flavor. The wok crab with ginger and scallion sauce reminds me of something you can get at a dim sum restaurant! I wish I had a bowl of rice to eat to soak up all the sauces.

My family of 5 shared 3 entrees and 2 bowls of clam chowder and it was the perfect amount of food! We finished everything and we were satisfied. I definitely recommend checking this place out for a seafood dinner.

Food - ordered the seafood pasta and meatballs

seafood pasta - 5/5 super good! noodles were cooked perfectly, sauce was good and creamy and seafood felt fresh. highly recommend

meatballs - 3/5 were good but standard meatballs

complimentary bread - 2/5 was ok. not super crispy

Service - really good. got seated pretty quickly, ordered and food came pretty fast.

Ambiance - cute little spot in north beach. lots of seating.

The description is accurate, cute North Beach Italian place, was packed for a Thursday but cleared up by 8pm.

Had steamed mussels and clams, linguine with olive sauce and the must have SF treat dish Cioppino. All the food was fresh with generous portions and most importantly darn good !

My first time trying cioppino and omg this one was a very delicious dish. Cioppino is a mixture of seafood in a tomato broth. Well is more than that. It is worth learning the history of this San Franciscan dish.

Amazing service, they were very attentive. And the place is very cute to have a perfect date.

By far one of the best Italian restaurants in sf! We have tried many places because my mother likes cioppino, but nowhere can beat this. It has been top tier before and after covid; there have been no noticeable sacrifices in quality and taste, and the prices are much more reasonable than other places in the neighborhood.

We came on mother's day and had a reservation for 6:30pm. It wasn't crowded at all and there were some seats open early on. Not sure if some parties made reservations or walked in.

Cioppino - 5/5, two huge scallops, a big prawn, and a good amount of crab and mussels. The flavor was amazing! So delicious I couldn't stop stealing a spoonful every now and then.

Seafood linguini - 5/5, lots of mussels and shrimps with a huge scallop. Noodles are perfectly cooked and the sauce is super flavorful and delicious.

Seafood risotto- 5/5, same deal with the linguini but with risotto. Super flavorful with a nice bite to the rice.

Complimentary bread - 5/5, warm and fresh out of the oven. Super soft with a nice crust, delicious. I believe they sell extra baskets of bread for $5, and I would definitely get it if I could eat that much.

Clam chowder - 4/5, good flavor, decent amount of clams but lots of potato.

Calamari - 3/5, the batter fell off and crumbled a lot, which was unfortunate. Calamari itself was alright.

Nice cozy place, very well sun lit seating indoors

Ordered
1. East coast and west coast oysters: rating 5/5
East coast oysters are on the saltier side. We enjoyed the west coast oysters more, mainly due to their larger sizes and more watery texture. Oysters were served with horseradish and ketchup sauces


Tip : do not taste the horseradish sauce like it was ketchup. I did that before others on the table could stop me. Ignorant me was soon rewarded with a gust of heat that ran through my nose upwards to the head and my body wringled in an emotion you get if you eat wasabi directly

2. Wok crab seasoned with herbs, garlic, onion : rating 4/5
First time eating crabs. Learnt how to use the tools and the bib that they provided.

3. Linguine pasta with creamy pesto and chicken : rating 4/5
Nice pasta, sauce was well balanced not too creamy

Looking for a spot that had oysters and sea food.
Betty Lou's was it. West Coast Ousters were great with just the right amount of brine and their sauce was the best. For dinner we shared the Seafood Risotto with Clams, Mussels, Prawns, Sea Scallops, Bay Shrimp, Calamari. Every item was cooked perfectly and there was plenty for the two of us.

What a wonderful restaurant in North Beach. The casual atmosphere paired with their amazing menu was the perfect spot for my friends and I after work.

When we came here at 6pm on a weekday the restaurant was pretty empty so we were seated immediately. The staff was friendly and attentive. I ordered the sauted scallops and shrimps with sides of seasonal vegetable and scalloped potatoes ($33ish). The seasonal vegetables were tasty, and scalloped potatoes were delicious with the top being perfectly crispy. The scallops and shrimp were perfectly cooked and the garlic butter was a perfect compliment to the seafood.

The meal was absolutely delicious, and to be able to have a fancy seafood meal at a non-stuffy restaurant was delightful!