Bill’s Oyster

You can probably guess at least one of the items you’ll find on the menu at Bill’s Oyster downtown on W 3rd Street. Outside of the obvious, there’s a small raw bar menu, two seafood towers, three types of caviar, and a few hot plates like crab cakes and Maine lobster rolls. This is technically a New Orleans-inspired oyster bar, serving mostly East Coast oysters, and operating with New England-style prices.

The first thing you’ll probably notice is that it’s very loud in here, and the small, packed dining room is usually filled with smoke from a lack of proper ventilation. There’s also a TV behind the bar showing sports, while bartenders stealthily pour pre-batched cocktails for $16-18. None of these issues are deal breakers on their own, but if we’re paying fine dining prices, we want a little more of a fine dining experience. 

You can generally expect most of the food here to be pretty good, even if the beef tartare arrives (confusingly) topped with a fried egg, or the chips sometimes seem to have lost their crispiness. This is more a place to head for a quick post-work Happy Hour, or post-yoga snack than for a special occasion, and you don’t mind dropping a date-night dining budget for the experience. 

photo credit: Nicolai McCrary

photo credit: Nicolai McCrary

photo credit: Nicolai McCrary