I have seen Eventide Oyster Co. on several lists of "must trys" in Portland. People rave about the food, the atmosphere, the quality. I shall be raving myself, but in a very different way.
To be completely honest with you, I'm not sure what anyone actually likes about this restaurant unless they have had an entirely different experience than I had with my friend today at lunch. I will give them this--we walked right into seats for lunch (now I know why but what I don't understand was why there were people actually waiting for tables when we left). I will say there was a lot of money put into how the restaurant looks. The poured concrete bars are lovely. The fresh oysters on ice that greet you when you walk in give the impression that you are walking into a place where oysters rule.
The waitstaff sends in orders via smartphone, which I think is a cool idea but why don't they just give us ipads to order things ourselves? Based on the waitress we (allegedly) had, the ipad would have had more personality and cared more about our being there.
I tried to order two kinds of oysters, they were out of one of them. I ordered sriracha ice, they didn't have any. These things were both on the menu and the waitress didn't tell us they weren't available. We ended up ordering 3-4 small plates. I'd like to put the word small in quotes but they were indeed small. Aside from the oysters, no plate we ordered had more than 3 bites to it, yet they were quite expensive.
The razor clam dish was the most disappointing. It was supposed to be grilled razor clams with carrots and mole. When the dish came, there were a few deep fried clams on top. These deep fried clams were overcooked so the batter tasted burned, the clams rubbery. This resulted in the rest of the dish being absolutely flavorless. My friend and I agreed that it takes true culinary talent to make carrot puree and mole sauce have absolutely zero flavor.
My friend had the oyster bun and she said the jalapeno and pickles gave it some flavor (and some oyster shell for unintentional crunch). We had a squid and noodle dish that was pretty bland.
The best dish was the oysters on the half shell. Untouched by the kitchen, need I say more.
This was a super, super expensive lunch. Nearly $80 for two people and we were still hungry when we left.
My friend's comment was (and I think this sums it up), "No wonder the music is so loud, they don't want you to hear other people talking about how bad the food is."
To be completely honest with you, I'm not sure what anyone actually likes about this restaurant unless they have had an entirely different experience than I had with my friend today at lunch. I will give them this--we walked right into seats for lunch (now I know why but what I don't understand was why there were people actually waiting for tables when we left). I will say there was a lot of money put into how the restaurant looks. The poured concrete bars are lovely. The fresh oysters on ice that greet you when you walk in give the impression that you are walking into a place where oysters rule.
The waitstaff sends in orders via smartphone, which I think is a cool idea but why don't they just give us ipads to order things ourselves? Based on the waitress we (allegedly) had, the ipad would have had more personality and cared more about our being there.
I tried to order two kinds of oysters, they were out of one of them. I ordered sriracha ice, they didn't have any. These things were both on the menu and the waitress didn't tell us they weren't available. We ended up ordering 3-4 small plates. I'd like to put the word small in quotes but they were indeed small. Aside from the oysters, no plate we ordered had more than 3 bites to it, yet they were quite expensive.
The razor clam dish was the most disappointing. It was supposed to be grilled razor clams with carrots and mole. When the dish came, there were a few deep fried clams on top. These deep fried clams were overcooked so the batter tasted burned, the clams rubbery. This resulted in the rest of the dish being absolutely flavorless. My friend and I agreed that it takes true culinary talent to make carrot puree and mole sauce have absolutely zero flavor.
My friend had the oyster bun and she said the jalapeno and pickles gave it some flavor (and some oyster shell for unintentional crunch). We had a squid and noodle dish that was pretty bland.
The best dish was the oysters on the half shell. Untouched by the kitchen, need I say more.
This was a super, super expensive lunch. Nearly $80 for two people and we were still hungry when we left.
My friend's comment was (and I think this sums it up), "No wonder the music is so loud, they don't want you to hear other people talking about how bad the food is."
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