The stretch of restaurants and seafood stands along the Promenade and at the foot of Broadway is where most Seaside visitors eat, and when it is good, it is very good. Clam chowder served in a hollowed sourdough bread bowl is the standard order — thick, cream-based, full of chopped clams and potato, it is filling enough to constitute a meal. Dungeness crab, when in season from December through August, is the other thing to seek out: fresh-cooked whole crab by the pound, eaten at a picnic table with a crab cracker and a cup of butter.
The quality gap between the best and worst places on this strip is considerable. The best indicators are a chalkboard with the day's fresh catch and a queue that contains local-looking people rather than purely tourists. Fish and chips made with fresh Pacific cod or halibut are reliably good; the frozen-fish variants that some places serve are a false economy. Ask what the fish is before you order.