Elvis N.
Yelp
While I'm happy the Bay has some new vibey oyster places, Broad St was unfortunately not up to par with what I had expected with all the hype that's associated with it.
The location is prime foot-traffic. Right in front of the fountain nearby the Ghirardelli entrance. Spacious interior with a second floor, bright yellow and teal color scheme, lots of great lighting. It's undeniably cute. But like a Kardashian, what it lacks in personality its making up for in cargo space. (White Collar reference for those that know)
The place was bare as the neighboring sea on a beautiful Tuesday afternoon. There was only one table eating besides us in the entire restaurant. There's no table service. You order at the counter, take a number, and the food gets dropped off to you. There lacks a personal touch that's associated with shellfish and seafood eateries. All very transactional by design here. The staff don't look like they want to be there either, waiting for time to pass. Strange ambiance.
Onto the food. We ordered a beer, a Michelada, a dozen oysters, the soft-shelled crab sando, the sea urchin pasta, and the famous lobster roll topped with caviar. They didn't have uni yesterday.
The oysters were magnificent and are the only things saving this review. The Salt Bay oysters from Nova Scotia were some of the sweetest and silky oysters I've ever had, now a favorite for me. The Brunswick oysters were very tasty as well. The mignonette was super sour. They need to fix their ratios there to balance it out.
The soft-shelled crab sandwich was not great. I ended up scrapping half the bun and slaw. The bun is waxy and bland, the slaw was super watery and sour making the crab soggy. The batter for the crab was boring, nothing special here. Skip it.
The sea urchin pasta was the blandest pasta I've ever had. I took two bites and knew I had to box it up to fix at home. Missed all notes -- not enough salt, fat, acid, heat, aromatics, etc. Skip it.
Onto the pièce de résistance -- the lobster roll. It's beautiful. One of the prettiest lobster rolls I've seen. However, the bun was dry and disappointing. The lobster didn't taste like anything special. I ordered it warm and buttery, but it was neither warm nor buttery. Caviar was tasty. If you need something to eat along with your oysters, this isn't a bad option, but I'd skip it next time.
I really wanted to love this place, but I can't see myself coming back. If I were to return, I'd order a dozen oysters and call it a day. There's better options in the City at the same price point.