King Street Oyster Bar — Restaurant in Leesburg

TLDR: Tasty small plates, however the cocktail program misses the mark. Come for the happy hour specials (apps and beer/wine only).

Vibe: 3/5. Located in the heart of downtown Leesburg, King Street is a relatively small restaurant. Seating is composed mostly of 2 tops and counter seating that are tightly packed into the restaurant's layout. During our visit, we sat at the counter seats in the large display glass window looking out to the street. Unfortunately, this seating area was extremely tight, with only a small wood counter to eat off of. Nonetheless, we made the best out of the situation and used vacant barstools as food/drink rests. If visiting, highly recommend sitting elsewhere.

Service: 4/5. Even with us seated at the way front away from the main dining area, the servers at King Street Oyster never forgot about us. Our drink and food orders were taken promptly as well as busing our tiny dining area between dishes. When it was time to settle up on the bill, we did not have a problem flagging a staff member down to complete the transaction.

Food/drink: 3/5. We decided to come during their weekend happy hour to take advantage of their extensive small plate menu and cocktails. The small plates were great, however the same cannot be said about the cocktails. On the food front, we ordered the tuna tacos, 1/2 dozen raw oysters, crab cake sliders, pastrami sliders and the ceviche. All the small plates came out perfectly cooked and overall were all tasty in their own regards. Shout-out to the ceviche and pastrami sliders as being the best of the bunch. The cocktail that rubbed me the wrong way was their special cocktail for the evening, a riff on the whiskey sour. This version had all the makings of a traditional sour, but with the addition of red wine at the end. The cocktail was extremely unbalanced, with the sourness overpowering the drink. This lends me to believe that sour mix was used vs. fresh lemon juice. The wine really didn't add or detract from the experience as it was completely overshadowed by the tartness. No egg white was used to froth, which could have been a saving ingredient to bring much needed creaminess to the drink. The beer and wine list was fine, with both local and domestic craft options available. Overall, the food was absolutely passable, but definitely pass on the cocktails and stick to the beer/wine list...

Went for Easter brunch. This has been a place that I’ve been wanting to visit for a very long time, but just never did for no reason in particular, but it was definitely a disappointment. I walked in, no greeting even after I politely greeted the girl at the podium. Just immediately asked how many people. Then our waitress took close to 20 minutes just to bring water to the table. The table next time me, who arrived at the same time as us, got their water right as they sat down. Our waitress Grace wasn’t really attentive. I had to ask for food that was missing that I ordered, but she was constantly at the table next to me asking how their food was and seeing if they needed anything. It wasn’t busy at all. I was just uncomfortable all around and wanted to leave once I noticed how long it was taking to simply bring water to the table. Maybe I came on the wrong day, but the food was very unimpressive. These were the worst Rockefeller oysters I had in my life and I’m a huge oyster fan. I just came back from a week trip in Atlanta and the oysters I had today were nothing compared to the oysters I had from various restaurants while I was in Atlanta.

When it came time for the check, I got the check and gave her my card. She made sure to bring drinks for the other tables and ask how they were doing before swiping my card so I can leave. I normally tip 20%, but even more on holidays, but I couldn’t even bring myself to do it today. I tipped only a bit over 10a%. I felt slightly bad, but then I remembered how my service was by her compared to the service I was seeing her give the tables around me and that bad feeling went away.

I won’t be coming back. I felt unwelcome and uncomfortable. Even though the food wasn’t good, I would’ve given it another try, but it’s just not worth it. And after reading other reviews, I know I’m not delusional for my reason for feeling uncomfortable. Simply leaving out, the girl at the podium just stared. Hopefully they do better and train their staff to be welcoming to everyone and not just a certain look. I grew up in this area…went to college in the very conservative South and never experienced anything like...

First time there, restaurant is very small. Tables are small and very close to each other. If you make a reservation they contact you around 3/4 times to make sure you come, as if you making a reservation doesn’t mean “your coming” The food was “ok” and service was average, they were very busy but food came out hot so that is as expected with those food prices. I felt my meal had great taste but not as described . I ordered the jambalaya and it is supposed to have chicken, shrimp, crab meat, and their sort of veggies cooked in rice but when I looked for the crab meat, it had a super small piece of it on the corner and that was it!? When I asked my server about it he simply replied with a tone like this is not the first time he answered that question since he knew right away what to say, “the meal is prepared by a recipe and that’s is just how they make it” then dismissed my question with his, “is there anything else you might need?” I was immediately disappointed since the description of the meal does not say “a dash/tiny piece of crab” instead it states it has crab meat in it. I guess they should change the description to a lot of chicken, some shrimp and a tiny piece of crab mean so people don’t get their hopes up. The appetizer ceviche Peruvian style is not worth it, they serve you “what ever the cook wants” as I understood the give you a small cup of it and chips or corn or something else I careless to remember at this point. We got a small cup of ceviche and some chips next to it. Price was very high for all dishes and amounts are decent but not enough to fill you up, and as the server said, “if that doesn’t fill you up order more food.” Might give it an other shot but just with the wife and maybe an...