Thursday, June 11, 2009

Elliott's Oyster House at Pier 56, Seattle

Happy Hour Oysters

I avoided coming here at first (1201 Alaskan Way, 623-4340). Everything on the outside just reeked of a tourist trap, being on the waterfront amid souvenir shops and boat tour packages. But a local friend of mine recommended this place when I asked for a good raw bar in Seattle. And it had decent Zagat ratings, so I took a deep breath and ignored everything that my gut was telling me to just go in for a try.

The good thing was that they were offering a so-called progressive oyster happy hour, where oysters were only 50 cents at 3 PM , gradually increasing by 25 cents every 30 minutes until 6 PM. I grabbed a dozen local oysters plus a $3 glass of their house amber ale, neither of which blew me away but were fresh and tasty enough for me to be satisfied.

I also got a plate of their house cured Copper River sockeye lox, as I was told that this Copper River salmon was only available one month out of the entire year or something. I was a bit let down by this one though, as their curing process ended up a bit on the sweet side, which didn't sit with me personally. Nonetheless, one couldn't beat the beautifully sunny waterfront view in June to go with some cheap beer and oysters, the last two items of which alone would have been enough for this ale and shellfish lover.

3 comments:

EatTravelEat said...

I came here 3 years ago also due to the recommendation. They already had oyster happy hour by the time. Unfortunately we didn't get any, but we got oysters from the regular menu which were okay.

Anonymous said...

You should try Brooklyn Oyster House at 1212 2nd Ave Seattle. One of my favorites.

kevin said...

I ate here last year and really liked it. you're right, everything screams tourist trap, but i found the food to be really fresh and everything came out better than i thought it'd be.