Found Oyster — Restaurant in Los Angeles

I don’t know what it is about these restaurants that are in soon to be gentrified areas, but there always seems to be some bias from the front of house staff at these type of establishments where people of color are just seemed as a hassle or nuisance to wait on or something … and the funny thing is it’s not just this location because I went to their sister restaurant not too long ago and had a similar experience service wise. Now I’ve been to found oyster several times over the past couple of years and I’ve had a great experience. I think more so cause I was focused on the food, but the most recent time I went here was for an intimate birthday dinner for a friend - so it was me and the birthday celebrant and another friend, and I had made a reservation. Upon arriving at this reservation my party and I were about like five minutes not even 10 minutes late, but I’m pretty sure there’s always that 15 min grace period - at least that’s what i remember my reminder text from the restaurant saying. Anyways it seemed like it wasn’t a problem to the hostess and then she was just getting our table situated. It was early in the evening. I think about 530 and then tables were starting to clear up. They have that are - I think they call like the boat or the deck that’s their outdoor patio seating and then they have indoor seating. I had opted and already noted on my reservation that we wanted to be outdoor in like that boat deck area patio. But then they were setting up a table closer to their door just like right on the sidewalk not very favorable in my opinion nor was it favorable to our birthday girl lol so we definitely requested to get seated on the actual patio boat deck that they have since that was on our reservation anyways, but in requesting that the host had made it seem like it was such a hassle and I don’t know if like for some reason that area would’ve been dedicated specifically for walk-ins but we had a reservation so I don’t quite understand what the issue was... she has mumbled something like “oh that area actually…audhdjijrbfkflf” and was walking off. My friends and i looked confused - like do we sit at this table she’s trying to give us or do we wait and see if we can go sit at our desired table? I had also brought a cake and I preface to the hostess as well that if there was by any chance room in the fridge if I could have my friend’s birthday cake be kept in there while we had our dinner. Mind you, this cake is no even 5 inches in diameter if anything it was like 3 1/2 at most so it was a tiny cake. I also said mentioned that if there’s no room or if it’s too much of a hassle, I’m definitely fine with keeping the cake with us. She said there wasn’t a problem and then she noted oh yes, but there is like a cake cutting fee which was something like five dollars per person and then I thought oh well I mean I don’t need you to cut the cake for us since there was a disposable cake cutter in the box i had and the whole cake cutting by staff wouldn’t be necessary. She just looked annoyed and rolled her eyes 😂 I just needed a cooler for the cake. Our actual waiter didn’t have any issues. Something was up with your hostess...

I dined here with two other people and ordered the bay watch platter, the wedge salad, the cod sandwich, and the cheesy artichoke brandade.

Our food was delicious and everything tasted really fresh and was seasoned well.

I am mostly writing this review because I don’t think the service we received was that great. This restaurant discloses at the bottom of the menu that they charge 20% gratuity to all parties. But I feel like waiters and hosts should also verbally tell that to guests as they sit down. Something along the lines of “just so you are aware…”.

Automatic gratuity is not new to LA; but 20% is quite steep and presumes great service. Additionally, automatic gratuity is usually for parties of 5 or more. You get charged this at Found Oyster even if you’re dining solo. This should be disclosed.

We ordered the baywatch platter which is obviously market price; however, not once did our waiter show us the market prices for the seafood or verbally tell us what they were. Most seafood places I’ve been to (cheap as well as extremely high-end) either have their waiters disclose the prices or have a menu somewhere that lists the cost of each piece of seafood.

We learned our lesson that we should definitely ask what MP is going forward. We were surprised to look on our receipt and see that this platter was $88. That is about $4 an oyster… or more. I’m not here to say whether that’s overpriced or not because we enjoyed the food. However, it seemed like the waiter was being a bit sly by not mentioning anything about the price or even offering a menu with a price list.

Last thing I will say: I don’t think the service justified 20%. They took 15 minutes to seat us, 20 minutes to take our order after seating us (our waiter disappeared and never came back for our order even though we filled out the sheet), and the food was incredibly slow (30-45 mins) to come out.

I understand the restaurant is trying to support their staff with good/high wages. I have worked in a restaurant and admire this. But charging high prices and gratuity for an experience that does not equate to what customers are receiving is quite absurd. There isn’t even enough seating to accommodate all guests. Yet, these prices are that of a high-end seafood restaurant on the water (not a hole-in-the-wall in the middle of the neighborhood … lol).

I enjoyed the food but probably would not recommend this place to others. I can’t justify the prices for the quality of the experience. I hope the owners of the restaurant will take this feedback...

This place came highly recommended for oysters, so wanted to check it out. Overall, this was a delicious meal and I would recommend going if you’re comfortable with spending a lot, can go at a time where there isn’t a long wait, can be seated indoors, and you want to experience eating the highest quality raw seafood. If you’re simply craving oysters or seafood in general, I think there are other places that would satisfy the craving with less cost and wait. There is also an automatic 20% gratuity added and frankly, I think this is fair given the staff is constantly working and they are just shucking oysters and prepping seafood non-stop. If the US just paid their service workers more fairly we’d never have to worry about gratuity (shrug)

We (group of 2) ordered the Baywatch platter, two orders of the Maine scallops (big favorite!!), two oysters Moscow, the fried oysters and the fat & flour key lime pie. Only food we regretted ordering was the fried oysters, too much breading and too oily. Seemed like a waste of good oysters and I felt in general, I wouldn’t order any of the cooked seafood given how fresh everything is raw and you can get the same cooked seafood dishes (clam chowder, lobster roll, steamed clams with fries) for similar quality with better pricing. The pie was a perfect end to the meal.

Lastly, I would hesitate to return since we waited over an hour and a half on a Saturday night to be seated and unfortunately, since the indoor space was small we were seated outside when it was getting quite cold. This is called “America’s sexiest restaurant” by Infatuation and I felt like I missed out on the cozy ambiance and allure when I’m eating raw food next to nearby...