Tom's Oyster Bar — Restaurant in Royal Oak

I was there Sunday 2/21/21

We had 5 o'clock reservation for 2ppl.

That was our first time, and we had a high expectation because seafood is our most favorite kind of food.

We wanted to order the famous Grand Tower.

Our server told us it's not available today. Also our sushi is not available until 6pm or so.

WHY?

We asked her why they can't serve it. She told us this.

"Well, it's Sunday and if we serve you one of those, we won't have enough seafood to serve everyone else and we're gonna have to close the restaurant for the night. We can't do that"

Wow...really...

What a disappointment😔

We were actually gonna leave to go to somewhere else but we decided to stay because the weather wasn't great.

We started with a cup each of the lobster bisque. I was not impressed at all. It was so bland, and I didn't taste much lobster at all. Bisque was very thick though. It felt like it was smothered in too much corn starch🤢

Here comes another disappointment😰 We ordered total of "3 dozens" oysters, however, most of the oyster had fragments of shells and sand sadly. It was unpleasant. Oyster itself tasted good though. Then one of the oysters was half buried in a greenish mud. It was unedible.

Yup we lost an expensive oyster.

Oh well it's better than eating the piece and get food poisoning.

They were out of mignonette sauce but one of the lady staff(not our server)went above and beyond to get us her own arranged version of mignonette with rice vinegar!

Her sauce was very lovely and it definitely went well with our oyster. I don't know her name though we both appreciate her so much.

Then we also ordered steamed mussels.

Looked like the mussels were steamed with saffron broth. It was definitely fancy base but the taste was far from fancy. It was way too bland. I had to pour bunch of salt...

Other seafood places I go comes with some kind of bread/toast/rolls to soak up the broth but there was no such a thing with the mussels. Disappointment again...

I will talk about our entrée now. First we ordered the lobster entrée to share which came with 2 tails and roasted potatoes and broccolini. Our server was kind enough to split the plate to 2 so we can eat it easily. That was very nice and we appreciated it.

I had my first bite of the lobster. It was unfortunately very dry... My jaw was getting tired of chewing it. And it was real fishy too. I've never had lobster dish that super fishy like this. It was definitely not fresh. Well I was hungry, so I ate it all.

We each ordered King Crab dinner.

They were wonderful and very meaty, succulent, and perfectly cooked unlike our lobster tails.

The King Crab dinner definitely worth it.

Even though our king crab was phenomenal, there were too many items that didn't meet our expectations. Also it was not a smart thing to not to have sushi until 6pm. Might as well, take sushi out from your menu.

I don't know if we ever...

Hard to believe but I think this was my first visit to Tom's Oyster Bar. It was tough to come up with an overall star rating for this review because it was a mixed bag. I would probably give it a 2.5 if I could but decided to round up to 3. My wife and I met friends here for dinner and enjoyed our table outside on a beautiful evening. Our server was very friendly and attentive. After ordering drinks (more on this to follow) we ordered our meals. My wife only had the appetizer crab cake as her meal. I ordered a bowl of clam chowder and a lobster roll. My friends had the crab cake dinner and perch dinner. When there was no sign of my soup I told the waitress when she walked by that I would like my soup before my entree. (Side note. Doesn't this go without saying because this has happened to me a few times lately). She said sure, let me get that for you. A couple minutes later a server arrives with our entrees. I told the server that my soup never arrived. A couple minutes later my soup arrives. Bad start. The clam chowder I must say was excellent. Our server told me she would take the soup off the bill which she did. My wife thought the crab cake was good...not the best she has had but good. I thought my lobster roll was pretty average. Fries that came with as a no upcharge add were great. Our friends both enjoyed their meals The bill arrives and upon review I am shocked by the price of my Tito's on the rocks...a new record for the most I have ever been charged in Michigan for a Tito's on the rocks and that includes places like Capital Grill and highest end restaurants in the city and Tom's is a rather pedestrian neighborhood seafood joint certainly not a "Michelin Star" restaurant or anywhere close to that to warrant a drink price like that. The Tito's was $12 and $4.80 upcharge for on the rocks. It's not at all unusual to see an upcharge for rocks but I have never seen a $4.80 upcharge. I have never seen $16.80 for a Titos on the rocks in Michigan. Only place I have paid that is in New York City. It wasn't even a huge pour either. Tom's manager needs to check the market and get his drink prices in line. I don't care about the $5ish "overcharge" on the drink....its the principle. And with the food being nothing to rave about, that obscene drink price is enough for me to not...

visited here on friday february 9th, oysters rockefeller were amazing as usual! bartender was very friendly and fast. my only issue was with my entree which was lack luster and the service with my waiter. unfortunately he assumed that i tipped him a quarter on a $30.74 tab when in actuality i gave him 2 twenty dollar bills in the booklet. i think communication got confusing because i was saying to him that i wish i had 74 cent to make his tip a full $10 instead of $9 and change and that i would pay the change amount on my card so that i could give him an extra $5 via card. a $15 tip in total was my intentions. the quarter fell out the booklet and he picked it up, i said “im so sorry i only had a quarter for the change but i wanted to get you close to $10.” he then sarcastically said to me “im sure it’ll change my life,” rolled his eyes and went to cash me out. i was embarrassed and appalled. because i was confused! as someone who was once a server, i would never!! originally my bill was $41~ but there was a misunderstanding with charges so he fixed it for me and i was thanking him. i was fine paying the original bill because it was a mistaken order on my behalf so i put $40 AND my card in the booklet to pay and tip! but my friends were saying he was going to fix it so he brought me the $30 check. cool. he tells me take my card and money from the booklet so when he brought the updated bill of $30.74 i put the 2 twenties back and told him to keep the change which he thought was just a quarter! upon realization that i tipped him nearly $10 he came back and apologized profusely saying that he didn’t mean to be sassy, and asking if i would like the change back but the damage was already done. h*ll no! my intentions were pure. i always tip. i understand everyone has bad days and waiters don’t make much but each person at my table tipped $10-20 on tabs ranging from $30-50. so with 4 of us he made a decent tip overall from the table. i’m saying all this to say that he needs to have a lesson on customer service because in the service industry you cannot say whatever you want just because your...