Clark's Oyster Bar- Menlo Park — Restaurant in Menlo Park

My husband and I went to Clark’s for his birthday lunch. We started out liking the ambience and were excited about the menu options. Although the waiter was really nice, he was not helpful and was hard to understand from time to time. It started off fine. Again, he seemed really friendly and wanted to be helpful. Just that he wasn’t actually helpful.

We were seated, got our menu, asked if we wanted water (sparkling), asked if we wanted bread, got our bread and finally got to order. It was almost a different person each time bringing us our stuff. In between each step after we got our menu we tried to flag down our waiter to order food. The process took ~ 10 mins to finally order food. It’s fine, we’re having a good day. All is good.

We then finished all of our bread and over half of the bottle of the sparkling water. It was 50 minutes from the moment we RECEIVED our bread to when we received our food. I know because that’s the time I took the photo of the bread.

We ordered a clam chowder soup, beef tartare, a dozen oysters, and a lobster roll. Someone explain to me how it takes 50 mins to serve at least one of these appetizers.

In between the 50 minutes I had asked repeatedly if we could just get the clam chowder soup to start because we’re starving. The waiter repeatedly said it was coming. It’s almost ready. 50 minutes later, we received our food and everything (except our Lobster roll) came out at the same time. So only appetizers took 50 mins.

Why couldn’t we get them one at a time? We were so hungry. The waiter keeps telling me that there’s 3 more oysters to shuck. Maybe give us our soup first? Or beef tartare? He just keeps telling us that the food is coming.

We ended up sending back our beef tartare because it was too salty to keep eating. There was an ingredient in there that makes it salty before the added salt and pepper. We really wanted to try it with less salt and this time I think the cook just went with no salt at all, just pepper. I could see only the pepper and no salt because it was not mixed well. You could argue that salt was just melted into the beef, but that part where all of the seasoning was should have been extra salty then. The flavoring was just off. I was too hungry to care at that point, but at least it was edible the second time. Just don’t order the beef tartare here.

For the price of this meal, we really have to rethink whether it’s just best to go to Hog Island Oysters in SF. Or quite honestly, Zola nearby had pretty tasty oysters too and much better service for roughly the same price. If I had to recommend food at Clark’s, I would say get the west coast oysters, the frites, and the lobster roll. The lobster roll with frites was good, could use a tiny bit more salt on the lobster itself.

By the end, we wanted dessert but guess what? We couldn’t flag down the waiter. So after 1.5 hours of lunch for oysters, soup, beef tartare, and the lobster roll we decided we didn’t want to wait possibly 30 mins for a scoop of ice cream because it took another 10 mins to get his attention. ~5 mins for the check, fortunately he was already getting another table’s check. We had to ask other staff in between to help us, because although we explicitly said we were going to share, no sharing utensils were provided. Like an extra bowl for the soup.

All in all, the check came in 2:11pm when we sat down at 12:38pm according to the receipt. We ate really quickly too, like 20 mins? So for this lunch to take almost 2 hours feels sort of ridiculous.

If you read any of my reviews I rarely give anything less than a 4 stars but this was a really poor experience overall. I don’t know if we’ll go back again. Also, for the price of a restaurant like this, for birthday’s, usually a scoop of ice cream/ dessert is provided.

I had really high hopes for this place but we were really disappointed. It was a surprise birthday lunch so this really sucked. We didn’t even take a photo together for his birthday because we just wanted to get...

Having gone to the original Clark’s in Austin, I consider myself a fan. I saw that they opened recently in Menlo Park and decided to see if they were the same Clark’s and, upon arrival, it was clear they were.

They nailed the decor with an expansive bar seating area, plentiful tables, high ceiling and a memorable clear fish tank like the Austin location. They also have outdoor seating like the Austin location that is very popular.

We were seated shortly after arrival for lunch and the restaurant was about 1/3 full having recently open and on a weekday.

Our server took our order and the complimentary sour dough bread came. It’s absolutely delicious and the simple radish, sea salt and butter are the perfect complement.

Although I’m watching carbs, I soon found myself finishing the whole thing because it was that good but also because after ordering, the wait was longer than expected (~35 minutes).

I’m guessing it’s opening kinks as they’ll have to speed up if it gets busier or to get the work crowd back in time for their 1 hour lunch.

Our main order were the oysters and we went with the recommendation of all East Coast ones at $4.50, highlighted by Pink Moon and the St. Simon. The oyster shucker may have not been the fastest but the quality and flavor for our dozen oysters was excellent. This area doesn’t have many oyster options anymore so Clark’s already sets the bar.

Next, we had the chowder and while it’s a bit light on clams, I loved the serving temp (very hot), plentiful celery and bacon, and hearty bacon.

Finally, we finished with both a lobster roll and a crab Louie salad. Both are pricey but were perfect for sharing and again temp was perfect (warm toasted lobster roll, cold lobster pieces, chilled lettuce for the salad).

Overall, despite the minor wait, we had great service with servers checking in multiple times, offering water refills and busing our dishes that we had finished.

Clark’s is a seafood and oyster bar that the Peninsula really lacks and while the prices are higher, the quality is better; it’s more polished and authentic than Restoration Hardware, the old Scott’s Seafood, or nearby Cook’s.

Welcome to Menlo Park! It’s been tough with establishments closing in downtown MP, but Clark’s is a welcome addition.

Clark’s accepts reservations but walk-ins are accepted. Dining is available indoor and outdoor and all credit cards...

Menlo Park is overdue for a "fresh" restaurant so we were excited to try out Clark's...uhh...I guess we'll have to keep waiting. First of all Clark's is LOUD. Too loud. I don't mind a lively atmosphere but the acoustics were ignored here and it completely ruins the experience. Don't come if you want to talk to the person sitting across from you. The service was below average...food came late, food didn't come at all, dishes were not cleared, table was not cleaned...I could go on. Just not acceptable. As for the food, it was hit or miss. The octopus was great; the chowder, shrimp toast, and shells & cheese were okay; and the grilled kale was poor (excessive liquid smoke). Oh, I had an excellent Pimm's Cup! Lastly, the prices...absurdly high. $27 for shrimp toast?! $55 for cioppino?!! MAYBE that would be okay if the atmosphere, service and food were all great, but they're not. Management needs to reflect on what they want to be and how to do it, but until they make some significant changes, I'll be...