The Oystermen Seafood Bar & Kitchen — Restaurant in London

I live not far from this restaurant, and I love seafood, so I do visit very often. After being away for the summer months I retuned eager to experience their seafood delicacies, but was unpleasantly surprised by the flat welcome both by the staff, and the food.

The configuration of the restaurant has changed, perhaps for the better? I’m not entirely sure. The window seats have been removed, and replaced by a huge table. There is a partition wall behind the bar seating which means the staff can’t reach you and you have to pass the food down to the next person.

But the most disappointing thing was the food. The dressed oysters drenched in heavy sauces, that completely overwhelm any trace of the subject. Favourites like the apple dressing removed from the menu and replaced with terrible options like the vodka oyster (the worst combination I’ve ever tasted, and it costs a bomb), and A chowder that had tiny irregular off cuts of fish, and a portion size that was frankly embarrassing it was so small and miserable looking with bits of fish floating around.

The last time I visited the service was more terrible than usual, and the atmosphere complete flat. The staff was totally disinterested, the manager raising eyebrows when we decided to sit at the counter and not at the table as we had first said. Our waitress didn’t look our way once throughout the meal. We had to keep reaching out to catch her attention, and even then the drinks and the water took an age to arrive (pls note this was only 5pm and the restaurant was half empty. We were given the wrong bill in the end, and then found out we had to pay more. We were charge for their filtered water which comes in an open bottle and tastes just like tap water. £3.50 for in-house water.

Two people and over a £100 for a very mediocre meal. A far cry from the vibrant, friendly Oystermen I remember , where the staff was warm and engaged, where each morsel was deliciously crafted with attention To perfection, and young chefs and staff were all smiles when you sent a compliment to the kitchen.

The entire atmosphere was bland and flat , with the energy saving lighting, and the strained faces of the staff, no background music ….

I took a guest with me, after having hyped this restaurant up and I felt it fell so flat. A real disappointment. The thing with London is there is so much choice that one just moves on after a few experiences like this, and the restaurant looses a faithful customer. I can’t afford to be giving this place another chance. Besides from the food I feel it’s heyday is over and as is common with restaurants that start out with a bang they can become complacent and loose their mojo.

I wish them luck and hope they get their act together soon and make the changes they need to so as to get back to where they were when...

Closer to a 3.5 but giving it a 3 using a combination of factors including food taste based on what the food is, the service, and the price (economical quality).

I think overall they had pretty good oysters, ranging from the raw oysters to the dressed oysters to the ones cooked in a half shell. They were the highlights of my experience at Oystermen. The daily menu would display what was popular, and under the waiter's recommendation, we got the Gallagher raw oysters, which turned out to be a good choice. It had a strong flavor which was greatly complemented by the condiment and the lemon juice. I also enjoyed the tempura oysters. The champagn aioli and the caviar both enhanced the oyster flavor.

I also enjoyed the sourdough bread and the seaweed butter, although I couldn't say that I tasted much of the seaweed in there. The spicy crab thermidor wasn't a highlight but wasn't bad, either, and turned out to be quite similar to a normal bread dip. The lobster risotto didn't have a lot of seasoning and as a result tasted underwhelming, even if one can identify some extra ingredients added. There was a good amount of risotto and not much of anything else, unfortunately.

The service was meh. Our waiter seemed very nonchalant and failed to respond to some of our requests with a confirmation. What I meant by that was that he simply heard the information and walked away as if he didn't hear anything. There was also one instance when my friend said "do you mind giving us some recommendations" and he just nodded and walked away. I reckoned that he wasn't really listening and was expecting the end of that sentence to be "time" rather than "recommendation" there. Eventually we got everything we needed, but this would be a minus.

For the oysters and most of the starters, the prices were relatively reasonable, but many of the mains were really overpriced, including the risotto that we had gotten, which turned out to be mediocre. I suggest sticking to the oysters and trying multiple snacks and starters so one can get the full-on experience with Oystermen while maintaining...

Got fooled by the good reviews. The first server was good, but not the one who gave us the bill.

We had a bad oyster. My friend puked it out and we called for a replacement. We left one other uneaten oyster on the plate as we were unsure if it was good or not. We smelled the water in the shell of the bad oyster and it smelled like the sewer.

The server came back with one oyster. We returned two and got back one which was fine, but we got questioned as the server said "the chef said the oyster was fine". Surely, it was one of the eaten oysters that was bad, or else we wouldn't known it was ACTUALLY bad.

my friend ordered the half cooked lobster. The meat around the shell was COLD. It was clearly undercooked as the lobster meat was still translucent and not fully white. We returned that. And the server came back with no apology or explanation (the chef probably knew it was undercooked). He asked us if we want to exchange to another dish, however we had no appetite for that.

The risotto I ordered was fine. however I don't get why it was so sour? there was way too much vinegar. I thought my calms were bad because of the previous experience.

there was way too much mayo in the Cod roe. It was like eating fat.

tempura oyster tasted like dough. The oyster taste wasn't strong enough, I'm not even sure if they cooked it with a decent oyster.

Clearly they think we were messing around. The server who came with the bill (I'm not sure if he was the manager) asked if the meal was good. Of course it wasn't because we already called in twice about the food. They did not ask what was wrong with the food at all. He asked if we would like dessert, we kindly declined, and he added that "we must be full from the food" which was absolutely unnecessary and passive aggressive.

My friend ended with eating somewhere else. I would absolutely warn everyone against visiting a place with such a passive aggressive service. Food was not good too. I'd recommend going to borough market...