Vancouver bars that will make you an oyster-lover
While raw oysters aren’t everyone’s cup of tea, once you’ve tasted them, there’s no denying their bracing, briny flavour. They’re also a good sustainable choice when it comes to shellfish. Delectable, decadent and downright delicious, leave the shucking to the pros and hit up these bars, stat.
Joe Fortes Seafood & Chop House
777 Thurlow St, Vancouver, BC V6E 3V5There is no better way to enjoy these briny delicacies at this historic downtown seafood restaurant than at its central, round bar where an apron-clad bartender will expertly shuck to your heart’s content and sling champagne, vodka or your drink of choice while you shoot the breeze and slurp back oysters. There’s an excellent full menu, but for some good after-work fun, stick with the brass bar and the oysters and take in the atmosphere. The perfect start to the evening.
Rodney's Oyster House
405-1228 Hamilton St, Vancouver, BC V6B 6L2What is it about oysters and good times? Maybe it’s that you eat them with your hands, or their fabled aphrodisiac effects. Either way, the guys at Rodney’s are having a great time and encouraging you to do the same. Waiters shout down orders from the loft-area dining room to burly shuckers waiting at the bar to crack into Kusshis, Fanny Bays and Malpeques. Shoot ‘em straight up or with an impressive selection of house-made sauces and garnishes.
Oyster Express
296 Keefer St, Vancouver, BC V6A 1X5This low-key, somewhat hidden gem tucked away on the corner of Gore and Keefer in Chinatown may be spare in its interior — unfinished pine and large, perfectly round windows are the main design features — but the oysters are abundant and the owner, Shawn Chesney, is an award-winning shucker, previously from Rodney’s Oyster House. Happy hour is every day, but hit it up on Sunday or Tuesday when it lasts for 5 (very happy) hours, from 4:30 till 9:30, and oysters are $1.50 each.
The Daily Catch Seafood Company
1148 Davie St, Vancouver, BC V6E 1N1Not an oyster bar per se, but The Daily Catch is definitely all about bivalves. The seafood counter displays its selection of fresh fish and seafood daily, and this usually includes a variety of oysters. It’s not advertised but if you ask, happy fishmongers will eagerly ready one half-shelf for you at a time for just one dollar each. An instant shot of protein, this is a new twist on healthy, fast food to go.
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