This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate

Live Dungeness crab is now on offer at China Live in San Francisco. Crab Appetizer Bites

The Dungeness crab at Nisei in San Francisco.

Sweet, buttery Dungeness crab is finally here. 

After delays due to whale protection and then a string of storms, it’s taken longer than usual for local Dungeness crabs to hit stores and restaurants. At last, the wait is over. 

Some restaurants are longtime fixtures for crab, like San Francisco’s Thanh Long and its fabled garlic crab, while others spin out new specials every year. Regardless, expect plenty of simple, classic preparations — from chilled crab with lemon to hefty crab rolls — because crab this good doesn’t need much. 

Here are 24 Bay Area restaurants serving local Dungeness, listed in alphabetical order. Note: This is not an exhaustive list, and there are many other delicious places to get local crab, including longtime seafood haunts like Swan Oyster Depot and Woodhouse Fish Co. Usually crab specials are listed as market price, which can vary, but you can expect to pay anywhere from $25 for toast topped with crab salad to $75 for a whole crab at a classy restaurant. — J.B.

Afici: Part of the Alexander’s Steakhouse Group, this refined San Francisco restaurant added a Dungeness course to its tasting menu this week, for those who want to try crab prepared multiple ways at once. Expect a crab cake and crab crostini with consommé among the tiny bites, plus a cold crab option available at the bar a la carte.

680 Folsom St., San Francisco.aficisf.com

Anchovy Bar: The State Bird Provisions’ team’s seafood-focused restaurant — one of the best in San Francisco — is pairing crab with somen noodles, anchovy sambal and crunchy curry leaves.

1740 O’Farrell St., San Francisco. theanchovybar.com

Ancora: It’s no surprise that this fish-centric restaurant, co-run by the owner of sustainable seafood company Water2Table, is serving three different crab dishes. There’s a crab and little gem salad; zuppa de pesce (fish soup) with crab broth; and whole, cleaned crab head gratin with marinated legs.

557 Valencia St., San Francisco.ancorasf.com

Billingsgate: Crab season is big at San Francisco’s Billingsgate, a seafood market and restaurant in Noe Valley. Diners can order thick slices of griddled brioche toast piled with a layer of sweet crab salad. Or, get the same crab salad — lightly dressed with crème fraîche, lemon and aioli — on butter lettuce. Billingsgate also sells whole cracked and cleaned crab.

3859 24th St., San Francisco. Billingsgatesf.com

Camper: Head to Camper in Menlo Park for pasta crowned with crab meat that’s been braised in cioppino. The fresh spaghetti also gets tossed in the reduced cioppino sauce, and then dressed with Meyer lemon, Calabrian chile and garlicky breadcrumbs.

898 Santa Cruz Ave., Menlo Park. campermp.com

Chez Panisse: The more casual upstairs cafe at Berkeley’s Chez Panisse has Dungeness crab cakes on the menu, paired with a radicchio salad, marble potatoes and creamy aioli.

1517 Shattuck Ave., Berkeley. chezpanisse.com

China Live: One of this modern Chinatown restaurant’s Lunar New Year specials is whole live Dungeness, which can be ordered with ginger-scallion sauce or in the classic Chinese salt-and-pepper style.

644 Broadway, San Francisco. chinalivesf.com

Cotogna: It’s hard to argue with crab pasta, especially when it’s at this San Francisco Italian destination. Here, tagliolini comes with hefty chunks of crab and Meyer lemon. 

490 Pacific Ave., San Francisco. cotognasf.com

Damansara: This new Malaysian restaurant is serving chile crab, whole crabs dressed in a sour and spicy house sauce made from chiles, fermented bean sauce, tamarind, garlic and tomato. Deep-fried mantou buns arrive on the side for dipping. Be prepared to get messy: Bibs, gloves, crackers and seafood picks are provided.

1781 Church St., San Francisco. Damansarasf.com

Chile crab with fried mantou at Damansara in San Francisco

Fish: Every winter, this sustainable seafood restaurant overlooking the harbor in Sausalito makes a classic crab roll, full of buttery Dungeness — and butter. 

350 Harbor Drive, Sausalito. 331fish.com

https://www.sfchronicle.com/restaurants/article/For-generations-Thanh-Long-in-San-Francisco-s-14999095.php

Jo’s Modern Thai: This popular East Bay Thai restaurant is serving crab two ways, though the variations may change depending on the night, from salted pepper chile garlic crab and crab-back fried rice to vermicelli noodles with crab curry. 

3725 MacArthur Blvd., Oakland. Josmodernthai.com

Kin Khao: This Michelin-starred Thai favorite is making black pepper crab, tossed with curry leaves, butter, chile, garlic and, of course, tons of black pepper.

55 Cyril Magnin St., San Francisco. kinkhao.com

New England Lobster Market: This Peninsula seafood market and restaurant started getting local Dungeness last week, so you can expect it in all the menu’s crab variations: crab roll, crab sandwich, crab melt, crab taco and crab salad.

824 Cowan Road, Burlingame. Newenglandlobster.net

Nisei: The Japanese fine dining restaurant recently added Dungeness crab to its tasting menu: It’s served with grilled matsutake mushrooms, winter melon and a miso made from the intensely flavored crab head.

2316 Polk St., San Francisco. restaurantnisei.com

Palette Tea House: At San Francisco’s glitziest dim sum restaurant, you can order live Dungeness crab, which the chefs will fish out of tanks and cook in a wok with garlic butter. Suggested add-ons include garlic noodles and shaved black truffles. 

900 North Point, San Francisco. paletteteahouse.com

Spruce: This Michelin-starred San Francisco restaurant is sticking to a classic crab pasta rendition: tagliatelle with saffron, fennel, crème fraîche and Meyer lemon.

3640 Sacramento St., San Francisco. sprucesf.com

Stillwater: At this destination-worthy bar in Fairfax, crab salad starring Mendocino Dungeness gets stuffed into a buttered roll for a seasonal lunch. It also comes with garlic fries.

Finis Jordan from Oakland (left) relishes the just-delivered crab dish before starting his meal with his wife at Thanh Long restaurant in S.F. on Valentine's Day in 2011.

Thanh Long: There may be no other Bay Area restaurant more closely associated with crab than San Francisco’s iconic Thanh Long. The Outer Sunset institution is switching to local Dungeness this week, an employee confirmed, for its famed roasted crab with buttery garlic noodles. 

4101 Judah St., San Francisco. thanhlongsf.com

Top Hatters Kitchen: This stylish San Leandro restaurant is serving cracked Dungeness with a side of crab fat-spiked butter and a side of lemony greens.

855 MacArthur Blvd., San Leandro. tophatterskitchen.com

Valley Bar + Bottle: A crab sandwich has joined the menu at Sonoma’s Valley Bar + Bottle, served simply on a buttery bun with aioli and lettuce. Sometimes less is more. Note: The restaurant is closed for a winter break through Jan. 25.

87 First St. W., Sonoma. Valleybarandbottle.com

Local Dungeness crab is on the menu at the Vault Steakhouse and the Vault Garden in S.F.

The Vault: Sister outfits the Vault Steakhouse and the Vault Garden are both serving chilled and cracked Dungeness crab legs with a dip made of the picked crab meat, lemon aioli and celery. Each order comes with a mustardy aioli and vinegar chips.

555 California St., San Francisco. thevault555.com

The Village Bakery: Crab stars in this seasonal pot pie special with leeks, potatoes and vegetables encased in a flaky crust at Woodside’s Village Bakery.

3052 Woodside Road, Woodside. tvbwoodside.com

The Village Pub: Silky risotto gets paired with sweet Dungeness crab, saffron-fennel bouillon and Parmigiano-Reggiano stravecchio (a deeper Parmesan that’s aged longer) in this indulgent dish at the Michelin-starred Village Pub in Woodside.

2967 Woodside Road, Woodside. thevillagepub.net

Z&Y Restaurant: The spicy whole crab showered with crunchy garlic is always a highlight at this popular Sichuan spot in San Francisco’s Chinatown. Now, it’s made with local Dungeness — stir-fried with spicy sauce. 

655 Jackson St., San Francisco. zandyrestaurant.com

Janelle Bitker is the senior editor of Food  + Wine. Elena Kadvany is a staff reporter. Email janelle.bitker@sfchronicle.com, elena.kadvany@sfchronicle.com

Janelle Bitker spearheads The San Francisco Chronicle's Food & Wine department. She joined the newspaper in 2019 as a food enterprise reporter, covering restaurants as well as Bay Area culture through a food lens. Previously, she served as a reporter for Eater SF, managing editor at the East Bay Express, and arts & culture editor at the Sacramento News & Review. Her writing has been recognized by the California Newspaper Publishers Association and Association of Alternative Newsmedia.

Cured Surimi Elena Kadvany joined The San Francisco Chronicle as a food reporter in 2021. Previously, she was a staff writer at the Palo Alto Weekly and its sister publications, where she covered restaurants and education and also founded the Peninsula Foodist restaurant column and newsletter.