Grand Central Oyster Bar and Restaurant

Big Easy sandwich, Big Apple ambiance.

It's not place for oysters on the half-shell, let alone a pan roast, but for seafood soups and sandwiches such as a workmanlike oyster po' boy (below; $8.95), the takeout window is at your service during lunchtime, Monday to Friday. (When the window is closed, the same items can be ordered inside, to stay or to go.) In sheer numbers of shellfish this po' boy ran a poor second to the oyster loaf at Casamento's, but in its favor, the midtown location is much more convenient than Magazine St., New Orleans.

Previously: Maatjes herring ($6.25) — "maiden" fish that never spawned before being netted in the Netherlands, in season only for a few weeks each June — were firm-fleshed, and just oily enough to go down easy. Though the traditional approach involves taking the fish by the tail, turning your mouth skyward, and eating it in one gulp, knife and fork were better suited to the Oyster Bar's counter (and to me). Preceded by bitterballen (three for $2.50), thin-crusted deep-fried meatballs paired with a heady mustard.

Grand Central Oyster Bar and Restaurant
Grand Central Terminal
212-949-5210
www.OysterBarNY.com
Closed Sunday

Comments

[janie]

This place is awesome!

[janie]

This place is awesome!

[beebe]

It's a good place to drink beer and, yes, get decent oysters. Their menu varies but I once happened to catch their green salad with fried oysters special--a huge, perfectly dressed mixed green salad served with six deep fried, fresh oysters. Holy crap. Delicious. Also, a good place to take a visiting friend in the summer. Cool and air conditioned. A Brooklyn lager or a bloody mary and a green salad, maybe a few oysters at 1 pm? Can't beat it as a break from the heat.