One of the few good things about work travel is the opportunity to try out some nicer restaurants that you otherwise wouldn't normally try. Unfortunately my plan to try Bavette's in Chicago was foiled by VP, so I had to switch gears and find another place for dinner. I had heard about GT Fish and Oyster in a few food blogs and articles and luckily the price point and location were both fairly reasonable.
We walked in around 6pm on a random Tuesday and the place was fairly empty. They asked if we had a reservation, which we didn't. The hostess then proceeded to tell us that they couldn't seat us but that we could sit at the bar. One of my biggest pet peeves is when a restaurant is totally empty but they tell you that they can't seat you. We didn't feel like sitting at the bar, so we turned to leave and the manager stopped us and said that she could figure something out for us, which was very nice of her. I appreciate it when management takes the extra step to find out a way to accommodate their customers - I do understand when a place is fully committed but clearly they had tables that they could have seated us at but didn't initially.
As you can tell from the name of the restaurant, the menu is strictly seafood focused. Almost every single dish has some kind of seafood component to it, although there are 3 meat dishes at the bottom of the menu, but if you are a vegetarian/vegan, this is not the place for you. The menu is actually small plate style which is unusual for seafood but it actually worked out really well because there were a bunch of dishes that I wanted to try. Once we found out it was tapas style we went to town with the ordering: shrimp bruschetta ($11), tuna poke ($15), clam chowder ($11), oyster po'boy sliders ($4/each), fish tacos ($13), grilled octopus ($16), the mac and cheese ($17) and since I was the only one at the table who liked oysters, I got an order of each of the 3 West Coast Oysters ($2.50/each). I won't go into painstaking detail on each one but overall all of them were solid dishes with my favorites being the mac and cheese (although fair warning, it's sprinkled with lump crab meat on top - so if you don't like that fishy taste with your mac and cheese, this might not be your thing) and the oyster po'boy sliders were great as it came with a nice kick of kimchi in it. I was also a huge fan of their raw oyster selection - they had one in particular that I thought was fantastic, really creamy and filling. I didn't have the clam chowder but it was served in this adorable mason jar (yes, it's quite kitchy and a bit cliched to still be using mason jars but whatever) and Eric was raving about it during dinner. My least favorite dish was the grilled octopus - it was lacking in flavor and I've just had much better octopus before, especially in Greek restaurants. As for dessert, we opted for the key lime pie with gin and tonic sorbet ($9). It was a refreshing tart dessert and surprisingly you could really taste the gin in the sorbet!
I do have to really call out the fantastic and superior service that we had here. The waiter was probably one of the best waiters I've ever had - super friendly, very knowledgable and really made us feel at home and helped guide us through the menu without being too pushy. It really made me realize how important good service is to a restaurant.
Overall, it was a great experience and there were definitely still more things on the menu I would have liked to have tried (I'm looking at you hamachi collar and lobster roll). My initial annoyance with them was quickly washed away by the great manager and waitstaff service, so if you find yourself in the River North part of Chicago, check it out, although it's probably best to make a reservation first. Total bill: $260 including tax, tip and 2 bottles of wine
Photo Credit: Yelp
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