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2.16 Giovanni’s Fish Market

Posted on May 6, 2008
Filed Under American, Seafood |

Morro Bay is a beach town about 200 miles northwest of Los Angeles. On a recent trip I had the pleasure of dining in the area, and the result is this quick back to back weekend series. Come back tomorrow for even more seafood as we head down the coast to Pismo Beach. Today, though, we’re sticking to the beautiful town of Morro Bay. Known as a fishing port and a tourist town, Morro bay has a good selection of seafood restaurants and I’ve got my sight locked on this one. Giovanni’s is one of those half-seafood-market, half restaurant places. It came highly recommended for their fish and chips, and while I’m game for fish and chips, what I’m really here for is their oysters and crabs.


The restaurant is right on the waterfront and has only outdoor seating with a great view of Morro Rock.


Cute signs.



They have a giant crab boiler right out front, next to the live crab pool. I’m getting hungry just looking at this.



The bowl of clam chowder ($3.99) benefits greatly from having celery in it. It’s thick and chunky, the rich flavors jump out at you. It’s a good bowl of chowder.



I’m a huge fan of oysters now ever since I had some great raw oysters in San Francisco. This half dozen of oysters on the half shell is $7.50, which I consider to be a pretty decent deal. It’s extremely fresh and tasty, while the sauce is good, I like them with just a squeeze of lemon.


Fish and chips ($7.99), Alaskan Cod, lightly breaded and fried. The fish is fresh and flaky, crispy on the outside and hot and moist on the inside. Very good fish and chips. The fries are good but nothing extraordinary.



Finally, the piece de resistance. Giovanni’s had these babies cooked at $9.99 a pound. I had them pick out a big feisty Dungeness crab and here we are. The crab is fresh, obviously, because it was alive not 15 minutes ago. The shell is filled with chunky, full pieces of meat. We tore through this crab in minutes.

Giovanni’s offers a great deal of variety of seafood. You can go for great simple meals with the Fish and Chips or splurge a little with their fresh oysters, or just go all out and order up a 2.7lb fresh boiled live crab like we did. There’s not so much service since you just order at a window and then pick it up from another window. But the view is very nice and the plastic see-through wall does a pretty good job of keeping the wind and rain out. I’d definitely be back for more of their oysters. Unfortunately, they close at 6pm, so please be sure to hit it early.

Giovanni’s Fish market
1001 Front St
Morro Bay, CA 93442
(805) 772-2123

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