I’ve been craving for seafood the last few weeks or months, and I didn’t feel like driving to Whittier to go to Portsmouth. I looked up Eater LA, and I found L&E Oyster Bar on their list of 2014 essential LA restaurants at #26.
This is restaurant #1 for my 2014 LA food expedition.
Note for 2022 migration: this is an old post from my other defunct blog. I recall back then this being a super hot spot in greater Los Angeles area. Silver Lake is a bit of a drive going cross-town and has always had that hipster notoriety.
Ambiance
Parking was pretty easy. My party arrived around 7 PM on Friday, and we were able to find parking around the neighborhood. Because they don’t take reservations, they jot your name and telephone number down on an electronic tablet and text you when a table is ready. They encourage you to go upstairs area where you have access to a very limited menu and can have plenty of drinks to choose from.
The wait took about an hour until we were finally notified.
Food
The very first thing they brought out on the house were hush puppies. The coating was very sweet, and the bottom was dripping honey. The breading was quite delicious, and there was a spicy kick to it.
The genius in me took this picture vertically. This is the oyster daily dozen which consisted of 4x Chef’s Creek (Deep Bay, Vancouver Island, BC), 4x Sol Azul (ElVizcaino, Baja), and 4x Fat Bastard (Sammamish, WA). The Chef’s Creek tasted pretty good although it was mild and tame. It wasn’t particularly bold in flavor but was creamy. The Sol Azul was pretty salty by itself, but it had a nice milky texture to it along with flavor. The Fat Bastards were my favorite of this bunch. They were less salty than the Sol Azuls but more salty than the Chef’s Creek. However they have a hint of cucumber in it which makes it mighty refreshing. So for me, the order of preference goes from Fat Bastard, Sol Azul, followed by Chef’s Creek last.
Next up, we ordered all the cooked oysters.
This is the Rockefeller which contains ricard, celery, parsley, lemon zest, aged white cheddar, and cream. Not surprisingly, I couldn’t really taste the oysters at all, but it was good in that all I tasted was cheese and the green veggies you see there.
Next up is the oyster L&E, which consists of duck confit, dried sour cherries, chives, and bread crumbs. Like the rockefeller, this was also pretty good except you couldn’t really taste the oysters. It is interesting to see how they mix the different heated ingredients together.
Lastly this is the casino, which contains butter, paprika, thyme, shallots, and neuske’s bacon. The bacon was pretty good, but it’s no different than the other 2 items. The ingredients pretty much overwhelm the oyster flavor, but again I wasn’t surprised by it. In some ways, all 3 of these cooked oysters basically substituted for a main entree.
We also ordered the fried oysters served with gribiche, which were surprisingly good. I’m usually not a fan of fried oysters since restaurants typically use canned oysters, but this one was fresh, not fishy, and quite tender. The batter they used was crispy but also very light.
We were oystered out and decently full, so it’s time for some desserts!
I’m generally not a dessert type of person, but I’m always down for anything. The first dessert we ordered was the bourbon pecan pie with vanilla ice cream. It was very good. For me, it wasn’t too sweet, and the crust was flaky and tasty.
The last item for tonight was this pistachio creme brulee. I originally thought that the creme brulee was going to be flavored with pistachios in the mix, but they were mainly used as a topping. Regardless, it was pretty good as well.
Final Verdict
All in all, I was pleasantly surprised at how good L&E Oyster is. It is a drive from west LA, but it’s worth it if I ever get the oyster craving again. If there were a few negatives to point out, I’d say the price here is more expensive than other some of the other oyster bar places I’ve been to in Southern California.
Revisions
- Nov 6, 2022 - Migrated post from other blog.
- Jan 11, 2014 - Initial revision.