This drives my wife crazy, but I hate to plan details of a vacation before we arrive. I prefer to ask the locals where to go and what to do. Most people love the attention and it is a great way to find those great, little-known stops. Plus, you never know who you are going to meet!
When I arrived in San Francisco, I was picked up by the owner of a house I was doing a home exchange with. He recommended we eat at the Trident Restaurant in Sausalito. Sausalito is the first town north of the Golden Gate Bridge. It is very high-end and has tons of shopping, walking and sightseeing opportunities. The Trident Restaurant is built over the bay near the ferry terminal, just off the main square.
Here’s our overall take on the Trident: The food is excellent. I had a full crab in a seafood soup and it was awesome. Not only was the dish delicious, the crab’ shells came 90% of the way cut making it very easy to eat too. We also ordered scallops (shown below), and a dessert tray with different flavored creme brûlée and fried bananas. Everything was great.
The location is excellent. It is right in the middle of Sausalito and and easily accessed by ferry, or car from both the north and south. Plus, when you are there, you can take a before or after dinner stroll in the heart of Sausalito’s uptown area. The staff was very friendly and attentive to our table. Live music filled the background noise and was a very nice touch with the smell of the ocean and the sounds of the waves lapping against the restaurant’s supports.
Finally, the drinks were incredible. Our favorite was a lavender infused lemon drop martini. Basically, it was made with a lavender infused simple syrup that complemented a lemon drop’s sweet and tangy flavor. We figured out how to make it in this post here: Lavender Infused Lemon Drop. We also ordered an Irish Coffee. Unfortunately, it was too dark outside to take a great picture of this, but it was actually a layered drink with irish whisky and sugar on the bottom, coffee in the middle, and double whipped cream on top.
This particular night, we enjoyed sitting on the patio watching the harvest moon rise over the San Francisco Bay. You can see downtown San Francisco on the right of this picture.
Make sure when you go to the Trident, you give yourself an extra couple of hours to walk around downtown Sausalito, but be prepared to spend some dough. This great food, view, and staff are worth the extra few bucks though.
