We came here around 8:30 PM on a rather cold Saturday evening. Typically there is a long line outside, but today people were crowded and bundled up inside. I put my name down for 2. The wait was approximately 40-50 minutes. We had contemplated leaving when we heard the wait time, but we decided to power through and wait. It was worth it.
On July 1, 2023, we visited this restaurant again, and it has moved from it’s previous location. For a table of 4, we just had to wait approximately 30 minutes on a Saturday around 7:30 PM.
The Grand Central Oyster Bar is a pretty famous spot in New York City located in the Grand Central Terminal off of 42nd St. This is the central train hub that people take to go towards upstate New York and beyond such as Connecticut. I had been here a while back, but this would be the first time for my partner. What better way is there other than to grab some oysters before jumping on a train back home. This location is at the lower level right close to the dining concourse and right next to the 4 columns that has a distinct sound acoustics.
For New Year’s Eve, we were fortunate to book this restaurant in Midtown East at the very last minute. This was always on our list since outdoor dining was a thing as the pictures of its settings looked quite appealing. Most tables have their own electric heater that sat directly above the table, so it wasn’t too cold compared to other places. For what it’s worth, it was in the high 30s with some wind chills. We did dress warmer just in case though.
You know what’s one of the great things about Astoria? It’s the excellent Greek seafood restaurants that are within walking distances of each other. We had been to Taverna Kyclades before, but it’s been a while since we’ve dined at their competitors. This was a restaurant that was within walking distance from our Food Bazaar trek on the way back home, so we thought to stop by and give this a try.
Close to NYU, this is next door to its parent restaurant Domodomo. This is primarily a rawbar, meaning somewhat affordable raw seafood.
The iced green tea is nice for a warm day. The green tea is quite flavorful, but of course if you want it to be sweeter, you can ask for sugar.
We ordered a dozen oysters. Essentially 2 of the following:
Half Moon (Cape Cod Bay, MA) : sweet, medium salnity, clean finish
Wellfleet (Wellfleet Harbor, MA) : briny, creamy, high salinity
Savage Harbour (PEI, Canada) : crisp, sweet, medium salinity
Chekbooktook (New Brunswick) : buttery, sweet, delicate
Duxbury (Duxbury Bay, MA) : briny, sweet, and buttery finish
the daily oysters : can’t remember what the waiter said about these other than being the saltiest of the east coast
They serve oysters with your choice of 2 condiments: cocktail sauce, mignonette, wasabi lime sorbet, thai chili, and ponzu. Pictured is the cocktail sauce and mignonette. East coast oysters tend to be more briny and salty than west coast, but the best part of this is that it’s simply not as expensive as other places. The average Manhattan east coast oyster price is $3 per.
This place is one of Jean Georges’ new seafood-centric restaurant situated right at the corner of the Pier near South Street Seaport. This area has a tiny Boston like mall where people can shop and eat at some decent restaurants. The iPic theater is also here too.
The area is largely going through some sort of construction. The restaurant is located at the edge of the pier and overlooks the water facing towards the Brooklyn Bridge. In fact, just about everywhere in the restaurant you can see the Brooklyn Bridge without much obstruction. If you do try to make a reservation, I definitely think the second floor seating is more beautiful than the first.
This used to be in the Lower East Side, but I guess they set up shop in this Gansevoort Market area. It wasn’t that good. I prefer the A Salt & Battery place instead.
Got the soft shell poboy. Was decent for lunch. $17 for fries, drink, and a poboy. The normal stuff is rather expensive. Probably a $2-3 per pound markup compared to LA.
