Grand Central Oyster Bar Visited 4/15/2011 3 Forks

Grand Central Oyster Bar Grand Central Station, New York, NY 10017

My friend Jenn had forwarded me this article from NY Mag that said that the Oyster Pan Roast from the Grand Central Oyster bar was New York's Greatest Dish.  So of course we had to try it.  I had been to the Oyster Bar many years go when I first moved to New York City.  It's your classic, quintessential New York restaurant.  It's a big spacious restaurant inside Grand Central Terminal with classic subway tiles on the walls with lots of noise and commotion going on.  The restaurant is split up into two sections: to the left is the main dining room and to the right is the bar/counter area.

We each ordered the oyster pan roast ($12) and then we split the fried oysters with fries ($22).  Unfortunately I have to say that this is most definitely NOT New York's greatest dish.  It actually wasn't at all what I (or Jenn) had imagined.  Although I had seen a picture of it before, I envisioned it to be much heartier and thicker like a chowder.  The soup that came out was water-y and thin.  It tasted very similar to a light tomato soup sprinkled with paprika.  Although I knew it had cream and butter in it, it didn't really taste very creamy and there was a hit of some sour taste to it.  The bread that was soaking it in was completely mushy and the presentation was a mess.  They brought it out with a giant silver platter over it and "unveiled' it but the soup had sloshed all over the edges, so it just looked messy.  But the good part of it was the oysters.  They were extremely plump (I have no idea what kind they used but they were giant) and juicy.  I wish I just had a huge bowl of oysters instead.  I was able to finish most of it but Jenn couldn't get over the sour taste and barely finished.  We also split the fried oysters and fries, which were fine.  The breading was a bit thick for me and I wish they could have been a bit more creative than to dump a huge bowl of tartar sauce on the side, but all in all they were fine....just nothing amazing.  Strangely, the fries were pretty good.  They were thin but crispy and salted well.

 While I'm definitely glad I tried these dishes and thought it was unique, I was a bit disappointed at the overall quality.  Plus I was a bit annoyed that they only offered seafood sandwiches in the bar/counter area because I think that could have been a decent soup and sandwich combo.  The couple next to us got raw oysters and they looked pretty good, so I guess if I were ever to come back, I may stick to just the raw bar.