550 Tremont Street
Boston, MA 02118
www.bandgoysters.com
Note: This dinner took place on November 12, 2007.
Char's View:
I have not always enjoyed raw oysters, but many years ago, I did become acclimated to them and developed an appreciation for oysters. Last night, Vichu and I went to Barbara Lynch's B&G Oysters in Boston's South End. For those of you who are true followers of the Boston food scene, Barbara Lynch is also the executive chef at No. 9 Park, the chef/owner of The Butcher Shop, caterer of Niche Catour, and owner of both Plum and Stir. Quite an impressive metropolis if you ask me. I had to say that I quite enjoyed the atmosphere in B&G as it was much like Lynch's other spots: small, cozy, and busy enough to keep you entertained.
We sat at the oyster bar of course and throughout dinner, got to view the talented chefs masterfully shuck oyster after oyster. When presented, they place all the oysters around the edge of a circular tray perfectly chilled with the normal cocktail sauce, horseradish, and lemon slice. They make sure to include a small list of the oysters you selected and arrange them in that order.
Now, being new to the oyster world, I can't really give you an accurate comparison of all these oysters. I can however tell you that we picked the Falmouth, Island Creek, Fancy Sweet, Malpeque, Fanny Bay, and Gold Creek varieties and as you went clockwise slurping these little suckers, they got brinier as you went with an almost a tiny leady aftertaste. I decided I really liked the Falmouth though, they had just the right amount of "ocean" to them and I think I could have eaten like a dozen all by myself.
For our starters, I had the lobser bisque and of course some sips of Vichu's clam chowder. The bisque was yummy! Just the right thickness and creaminess with a hint of smokiness. It was swirled with oil (How can that not be good?) and garnished with small cubes of green apple. I had to say that I thought the green apple was a nice touch. The sweetness and tartness of it complemented the lobster quite nicely I thought. The clam chowder on the other hand does not get as high of a review. In fact, I don't even remember it and probably only had one clam if that.
For the entrees, we ordered the Seafood Caciucco and Lobster BLT. The caciucco was a very good tomato broth with different pieces of seafood in it. The whole dish was a bit overseasoned and I didn't really enjoy trying to identify all the seafood before eating it. The dish also had a few olives in it which looked shriveled and dried. Upon eating one, I made a face at Vichu and politely spit it out into my napkin. The salt content of that one olive was completely concentrated and really ruined the dish for me. Vichu's lobster BLT was a welcome diversion. Although it wasn't completely spectacular, it helped to soak up the salt that was left in my mouth.
All in all, I'd go back to B&G if I was only having wine and oysters with a side of the lobster bisque.
Vichu's View:
Eat oysters only in months that end in “r” so the saying goes. With the advent of overnight shipping and oyster farms this isn’t necessarily true anymore, but it’s a good excuse to get some. Char and I went to the B&G Oyster House in the South End of Boston to grab some of these delicious bi-valves. The entrance alone will give you a clue that B&G Oyster house isn’t going to be your typical dining experience. If you want to eat here you’re going to have to go in through the back. The entrance leads you into a backyard/courtyard area that during the summer you can descend a flight of stairs and enjoy a very pleasant outdoor dining experience or stay on the same level and gain entrance to the restaurant.
When you enter the restaurant you’ll notice the restaurant is dominated by a large bar on the right with seating all around and lining the walls on the left are the dining tables. It has a modern chic feel to it with the walls and ceilings covered in slightly varying shades of ashy colored wood paneling. We were seated at the bar right in front of the Oyster/cooking area.
The wait staff dressed in white shirts and dark, pants were a capable crew refilling water when it got low and were swift to get us food when the kitchen presented it. My only issue was our waitress was a tad hard to understand and had a bit of trouble understanding us.
Since we came for oysters we asked the waitress to pick out 6 of the most popular oysters they were serving. They brought Falmouth, Island Creek, Fancy Sweet, Malpeque, Fanny Bay, and Gold Creek oysters with a mix of cocktail sauce, horseradish and lemons. All the oysters were super fresh iced nicely and exhibited the differences in where they were raised and their species specific characteristics. I’m not going to go into each one because honestly my oyster palette isn’t that refined and I’m not willing to butcher the reviews. I did, however, enjoy the Falmouth oysters best for it’s very clean oceanic taste and crisp texture. So we ordered a couple more and they didn’t disappoint.
For the meal itself we ordered lobster bisque and clam chowder to start. It was a cold day so warm creamy soup was really going to hit the spot. The bisque was an interesting interpretation; the soup was a combination of lobster broth and smoky chili, interspersed with chunks of lobster meat and little cubes of apples top off with a smoky chili oil. The soup itself was very tasty, an interesting combination of flavor and texture, a tad too smoky obscuring a bit of the lobster essence, but I enjoyed it. The only turn off in the entire dish was the cubes of apples. They added an interesting taste and texture change to the soup but was a bit too prevalent in the chowder almost hijacking the dish itself. A couple for interest isn’t bad, but a handful is a bit much for me. Overall I would order this soup again.
The interpretation of the clam chowder was interesting but not necessarily the way I would have gone with the dish. The broth itself was thin, like watered down cream and didn’t have such a pleasant mouth feel. The broth had what I think was meant to be a pleasant amount of acid to brighten the flavour, but goes overboard into “oh that’s just a strange aftertaste” territory. The ingredients inside the soup were also very distracting, there was just to much bacon (lardon), my jaws got tired from chewing on soggy pork. The onions also came in largish dice which if cooked until melting would have been great! But sadly they were more on the al dente side adding a distracting amount of oniony taste to the soup. The potatoes, however, were a perfect dice and was cooked perfectly I really enjoyed them in the soup, and I would have told you about the clams but I don’t think I had a single one in my chowder. I think this soup suffers from an over-interpretation of chowder and poor execution; I didn’t enjoy it and would probably not order it again.For the main course we ordered Caciucco and B.L.T. with lobster. The Caciucco was an interesting tomato based broth with a variety of seafood interspersed through out. The seafood was slightly overcooked but not yet rubbery and the broth was quite tasty. The only thing that brought this dish down were the olives! What the heck were they thinking!!! Did they even bother to taste them? If they did what the hell were they thinking?! I tasted the olive and my head almost imploded from the salt; I could feel the osmotic pressure of every cell in my head trying to release enough water to dilute the olive’s salt content. Maybe another olive perhaps or maybe soak it in something before putting it in the dish. Overall if you avoid the olives this dish was excellent.
The B.L.T was really uninspired it gave off the “just pile on the ingredients on a bun and serve it” vibe. Goodness it’s a B.L.T. with lobster it should be out of this world, but alas it was not so. The bread was soft but uninteresting, and the lettuce was actually on the limp and looked worse for wear and tasted limp. The tomatoes were almost non-existent, and they’re supposed to be the clutch ingredient in a B.L.T. It adds the interesting contrast, the tangy kick that unites all the ingredients, but sadly went almost unnoticed in this sandwich. The bacon was very good but there was just too much of it, the lobster was also piled on but no one really bothered to season it. A perfect sandwich is a combination of excellent bread and the right balance of ingredients, this sandwich focuses on all the luxury ingredients but ignores what makes a B.L.T. a B.L.T.
Overall I would come back here and maybe order something different to eat, and definitely for the oysters!
