Yesterday, after a very full day of museums, walking around downtown and being touristy, we opted for a late dinner at 42nd Street Oyster Bar.
42nd Street is located at 508 W Jones St, Raleigh, NC 27603. The resturant is a little strange on the outside. Look for lots of neon signs and extremely packed parking lot and you're there.
Walking into the lobby is reminiscent of walking into a 50s diner but the resturant is nothing of the sort. You know those sculptured fish they have on the walls of aquariums? They have those here (you're greeted by a hammerhead shark and if you know me at all, you know I was immediately hooked; no pun intended)! The oyster bar has an extensive liquor menu with wines (some of which are their own brand), beers and specialty cocktails . Nate ordered a mojito and I ordered their Nashville Manhattan, which was excellent and made me feel classy. The resturant opened in 1931 with a daily rotating menu of the freshest seafood selections from around the area.
Decor: good. The resturant is nautical themed, which is a little overdone but it is an oyster bar and seafood resturant. The space has 3 spacious dining areas as well as a large raw oyster bar. The dress is "business casual" according to the hostess whom took our reservation, however quite a few patrons were a tad under dressed.
Food Appearance: excellent! The raw oysters are served on the half-shell with all the traditional fixings; oysters Rockefeller and pimento cheese oysters were served up on a huge platter, shrimp cocktail were served in a chalice with a wedge of lemon and fantastic cocktail sauce and entrees looked delish.
Food taste: excellent! The oysters Rockefeller had the smokiness of bacon (aka God's gift to man), nuttiness from good-quality Parmesan cheese and the taste of the ocean from the oysters. The pimento cheese oysters basically just tasted like pimento cheese, but is that really even a problem? I decided to order the Pan Seared Ahi Tuna sesame seed crusted and served rare with a garnish of wasabi and ginger sauce. The tuna was a beautifully deep red rare (the only way to eat ahi tuna in my humble opinion). The sauces were a little difficult to detect in my opinion because there was so little of them but the flavor of the tuna was so pure and fantastic that the sauces may have overshadowed the flavor of the fish itself anyway. My only knock for my entree would be that the accompanying side salad looked straight out of a bag of "romaine mix" salad. Nate ordered the crab legs. The meat was sweet and tender but boy did he work for his dinner last night! It took him a good 45 minutes to eat all his crab legs and the majority of that time was spent cracking. His side was the 42nd Street Oyster Bar's 1931 recipe of cheese potatoes. These were the creamiest and smoothest potatoes I've ever put in my mouth which is both good and bad. I personally like my potatoes to have a little texture. These extremely smooth potatoes were covered in a layer of cheddar cheese. Mama Hart ordered her oysters on the half-shell (which came in 6 different varieties from around Virginia and North Carolina), I must confess that I didn't try any of these but she said they were all very good and tasted of the sea. For her entree she ordered the peel-and-eat half-pound of spicy shrimp. These shrimp were not veined (which I asked her about halfway through her plate, resulting in her veining them herself prior to eating). She said they were tender and the flavor was excellent but she would've preferred them to be split and veined for easier eating. My father-in-law ordered shrimp and grits (a recommendation from our server) and had the following notes: grits were a little too thick for his taste and he would've liked a side of red-eye gravy to use for flavor.
Service: excellent! Our server was helpful, attentive, friendly and definitely good at what she did. Glasses were never empty for long, empty plates were taken quickly, and we definitely left happy. This service could possibly be the best I've experienced in Raleigh.
Cleanliness: good. The resturant appeared clean; tables were cleaned quickly but I didn't check out the bathrooms. However one thing that I found a little unsavory would be the cleaning crew wheeling the trash cans through the middle of the resturant. Personally I think this practice should be reserved for AFTER the patrons have all left.
Total: 13/15
42nd Street Oyster Bar was definitely a fantastic spot for a dinner with family. It was upscale yet accessible and comfortable. I highly recommend checking it out when in Raleigh.
Wow! Awesome review. Post it on Yelp!
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