Oyster House Brewing Company — Restaurant in Asheville

I was jonesing for fish and chips and the place I had intended to hit was closing for the day. I saw this place had fish and chips on the menu and it was on my to-try list already, so I headed over.

I grabbed a spot at the bar and double checked the menu. Fish and chips, yep, right there. But made with catfish. I'm from the Pacific Northwest, so used to cod and halibut in my dish and chips, but I saw it was catfish and figured it would be similar. Fish and chips are made with white, flaky, fish, how different could it be?

The beers are written on a chalkboard by the bar, which is behind you if you're sitting at the short end of the bar. I guess you're supposed to know that, because the bartender didn't mention it til I asked. I ordered a sour peach beer (delicious) and waited for my fish and chips to arrive.

When they landed I could tell something was off, but it was a new place and I wanted to give everything a fair shot.

I started with the apple cider coleslaw. It tasted a little like nothing, with a very raw bite. I love cabbage, but I hadn't ordered a salad.

The fries were sad. Had they been cooked through and seasoned properly, they would've been tasty. But they weren't.

The remoulade (though, it could have been tartar sauce) was white, lumpy, soupy. and almost tasted like something (pickle), before giving up and tasting like wet nothing.

I went in not knowing much, if anything, about catfish. But now I know one thing - never again.

The crust on the fish was solid (though under seasoned) but the fish was fried so hard it curled. Worst of all, the catfish tasted like mud. Again. I don't know what it's supposed to taste like, and it didn't taste rotten, so I kept going, trying to understand if I was just doing it wrong. I tried it with the white dipping sauce. I tried it with all four hot sauces I could reach. I tried it with malt vinegar. I couldn't get over the muddy taste and the wet, bordering on slimy, grey interior texture. I couldn't do it. It was inedible.

I ate as many of the fries as I could before giving up, finishing my beer, and leaving hungry.

Why didn't I send it back and get something else? Even if that's what catfish is supposed to taste like, the fries, coleslaw, and sauce were disappointing enough to not give the kitchen a second try.

And the service was ...not great. The couple next to me showed up at 5:52 and wanted to order the happy hour oysters. The bartender gave them attitude about happy hour ending at 6 and pushing back before finally giving in and putting the order in.

A family walked in and were greeted with "you'll have to sit outside unless you let me clear this table off". Not "hi, how many?" or other normal ways to greet customers. The family had made no move to the dirty table, they'd literally just come inside. The table just happened to be by the door, so the greeting was needlessly ugly.

The guy next to me very nicely asked if the bartender could change the TV channel to a game he wanted to see. If it's not a bother, if nobody's watching the current game, etc. She did it so begrudgingly, the guy clearly regretted asking.

On top of that, service was slow. It took almost 20 minutes to get the bill, pay and leave, despite me sitting at the (not busy) bar in a small, not-full dining room. The bartender handed me the bill, I handed over my card, and they walked away without taking it. They didn't come back to collect the card for a good long time. The register was four feet away.

I don't understand how such a cute little neighborhood spot with yummy beer could be...

This review will be glowing and for a good reason!

I have no idea why this isn’t in our regular rotation of restaurants. We’ve been living here a couple of decades and I have a radio show down the street on 103.3FM, and we go to all the restaurants around this restaurant, but we just never seemed to go here that much. That will certainly change, because everything was delicious!

I started with a dozen oysters which quickly turned into two dozen oysters. Nice and big, served the typical southern way with horseradish and saltine crackers and cocktail sauce. None of the fancy oddness that comes with some other types of oysters. Just good classic stuff!

Speaking of classic, my husband got the oyster po’ boy and loved it. At first he asked for extra remoulade, and the server forgot it, but by the time she got back, he let her know he really didn’t need it. It’s rare that this sandwich is so well flavored that it does not need extra remoulade. I thought it was just perfect.

I had the étouffée. I love a good étouffée. I want to to have just the right amount of spice and just the right amount of crawfish. Although, I could eat pounds of crawfish, and it would never be enough. The sausages were excellent it had enough crawfish. The flavoring was really good. I could have done with another helping of rice, but that was just because I wanted to soak up all the extra sauce.

We did not have dessert, because we had been baking cookies for weeks at home, and so we had tons left over.

For drinks we had the rotating gingers revenge, which we often have, and we often frequent their taproom as well. And I had a really nice half pour of beer to go with my oysters and a nice house Red to go with my étouffée.

Server was excellent without being intrusive.

My only complaint is that it was a little chilly. But with a big glass window, I suppose that could not be avoided. If I had one suggestion it would be to turn up the heat a little bit in the winter time!

We will be back. I’m craving the...

My girlfriend and I come from BluePoint NY and so we were skeptical about the quality of the oysters here at Oyster House Brewing Company, however ALL of pur skepticism went out the window with the first appetizer that came out. First their oyster shooters if u ask for titos is spot on delish, u can tell right from the start their food is basically right from the lake fresh. The Oyster Bienville was like a bomb of flavor in my mouth. My girlfriend got the B.O.L.T. WHICH IS A TRADITIONAL B.L.T but with Fried oysters and she explained it like going to a seafood carnival. I do NOT recommend the gumbo as the flavor was lacking and made with an abundance of pepper but the Fish and chips definitely made up for it. Not your traditional fish and chips where most are made with cod and battered to the point where the fish is unrecognized, this plate was special. Made with Catfish and Panfried the freshness in flavor was amazing almost like it was caught this morning. Not completely battered but breaded you can tell this was a tual catfish going into your mouth. The remoulade that it cane with was the BEST I've ever tasted and homemade. In fact we had to ask for extra just to dip our fries in. The ambience was exactly perfect for us,and the waitress De was sooo nice and friendly I felt like I was home eating home cooked fresh seafood. This place is A MUST when visiting the West Asheville area... My new favorite...