Men and women in rolled-up sleeves stir steaming cauldrons of Dungeness crab at several side-by-side takeout crab stands at the foot of Taylor St, the epicenter of Fisherman's Wharf. Crab season typically runs winter through spring, but you'll find shrimp and other seafood year-round.
Instead of dining on the giant, noisy, crowded plaza, head east along the waterfront to the Pier 43 promenade to find benches where you can sit. If you don't mind standing to eat, look behind the crab stalls between numbers 8 and 9 Fisherman's Wharf for swinging glass doors marked 'Passageway to the Boats' and amble out the docks to eat in view of the craft that hauled in your lunch.
