Wednesday, February 18, 2015

L & W Oyster Co. Visited 2/13/2015 3 Forks

L & W Oyster Co.  254 5th Ave., New YorkNY 10001



I had walked past this place a few times in the past year and made a mental note to check it out one day because I do love a good oyster bar/restaurant.  Strangely enough, Holly and I always seem to end up at seafood restaurants when we meet for dinner and this was no exception.  Trying to get a reservation the day before Valentine's Day on Opentable seemed to be just as difficult as getting a reservation on Valentine's Day, so it was nice that I was able to snag a table for 3 on a Friday night here.

As the name indicates, this place is pretty much seafood focused and there are TONS of options. Unfortunately, no one at the table was in the mood and/or liked raw oysters but Holly and I did split the fried oyster tacos and the tuna ceviche ($15) to start and we also got a side of homemade cheddar cheese goldfish crackers ($4) to nibble on as well.   The fried oysters came in small hard shell tacos which is something you don't actually really see that often anymore.  I mean, think about it, when was the last time you had a hard shell taco?  The filling inside was good but I would have preferred a soft shell tortilla instead since it was fried food stuff inside a seemingly hard fried outside.  The tuna ceviche was served with a large heaping of avocado, Japanese seasoning and some grapefruit slices.  It was a pretty good dish but it actually could have been a bit cleaner and simpler without some of the seasoning on top of it.

For my main entree, I got the Lobster BLT ($26) which sounded amazing - lobster, bacon, arugula, tomato, pickled garlic and sriracha aioli.  It came on this giant buttery toasted Texas style toast and as much as it pains me to say this, it was almost too buttery.  There was so much bread and butter that it was hard for me to really taste the lobster in there, which should have been the main focus of the sandwich but it sadly wasn't.  It was definitely a lot of food but I feel like it didn't showcase the main ingredients very well.  I was also a bit disappointed that for $26 they served chips instead of fries or even a salad.  Chips kind of seemed like a cop out side dish but at least they were tasty chips.

Despite all this food that we had, Holly, Christine and I still had room for dessert.  We ended up ordering both a chocolate cake and a strawberry shortcake.  I had several bites of the strawberry one and it was light and a nice way to refresh my palate after eating a carb heavy entree.

All in all, the meal was fine but I felt like there was definite room for improvements.  I personally like my seafood to be a bit cleaner, lighter and more in its natural state.  Maybe my opinion might have been a bit different if I had gotten some food from the raw bar.  Total bill:  $80/pp with tax, tip and drinks.

Photo Credit:  Yelp

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