Where to Eat Oysters in Seattle
Oysters on the half shell are a frequent—and welcome—sight on restaurant menus. Then there are the specialists. The places that let you mix and match between various Washington inlets and serve their wares by the dozen on giant platters of ice. Seattle has plenty of great spots that serve oysters (Bar Harbor, Le Coin, Frank's Oyster House, and Shubert Ho's Market in Edmonds come to mind, among many others). But the places featured on this list offer a selection one can reasonably describe as an oyster program. In other words, these are places where you can break out the mignonette and go to town.
The Walrus and the Carpenter
Ballard
East Anchor Seafood
Madrona
Technically this next-door sibling to Vendemmia is a seafood market. One that sells three rotating oyster varieties you can take home and shuck. But East Anchor’s small and mighty food menu includes fresh-shucked oysters with mignonette, horseradish, and lemon. How handy, the shop also sells oyster-friendly beer and wine.
White Swan Public House
South Lake Union
Take an oceanside roadhouse, hide it in the crook of a yacht marina, and add food worthy of its restaurant sibling, Matt’s in the Market. Here, surrounded by boats and water views, the kitchen will shuck you as many (or as few) of the three daily oyster varieties as you’d like. Champagne pairings start with a half dozen with a split of Chandon and get more elaborate from there. A weekday happy hour includes $2 chef’s choice oysters.
Taylor Shellfish Farms
Capitol Hill, Pioneer Square, Queen Anne
Washington’s largest oyster farmer has three dining outposts in Seattle, each with its own menu and ambience. Pioneer Square and Seattle Center have their pre-game charms. But the outpost on Capitol Hill is also a market, where oysters, crabs, even geoducks bubble in water tanks. It’s an only-in-the-Northwest backdrop for your perfectly shucked oysters. Taylor’s selection includes uncommon species like the Virginica and, if you’re lucky, the Olympia—Washington’s only native oyster. No wonder this place is always crowded (the beer, wine, and other seafood dishes are also on point).
Elliott's Oyster House
Downtown/Waterfront
Boat Bar
Capitol Hill
Seabird
Bainbridge Island
Four oyster varieties (with intentionally distinct flavors) lead off a menu filled with painstakingly sourced seafood from the Olympic Peninsula. Brendan McGill’s newish flagship is no stranger to exacting technique and dramatic platings. But for oysters, they keep things simple: sturdy metal platters, mignonette, dropper bottle of house-fermented hot sauce.
Matt's Rotisserie and Oyster Lounge
Redmond
Westward
Wallingford
Renee Erickson—ever heard of her? When her Sea Creatures restaurant group took over this restaurant on Lake Union’s northern shore, it imported its oyster-loving sensibilities to a food menu that spans the length of the Pacific coast. Now, on most days, Westward’s oyster selection is even bigger than the one at Walrus and the Carpenter. They come raw and perfect, or as mezcal shooters, paired with agave spirits, or as part of a resplendent seafood tower. However you take them, oysters come with an ample helping of lake and skyline views.
RockCreek
Fremont