The Dive Oyster Bar — Restaurant in San Jose

Came here on a Friday night for the first time. Made 6:15pm reservations for 4 adults, arrived at 5:55pm, restaurant was not full, maybe only 3 tables filled. Took some time to look at the menu to decide. Asked the waitress immediately if we could order a few oysters for the Happy Hour price ($2/each instead of $3.75) as that goes until 6pm and she said yes. We had to ask for water, it wasn't brought out when we sat down After looking at looking at the menu a bit and asking the waitress to explain what the pan roast is, we decided on ordering this: For the table: 1/2 dozen oysters (Miyagi & Steamboat) My father: Shrimp Louis Salad & Fried Oysters His Partner: The Dive Chowder My husband: House Pan Roast Me: The Dive Chowder & Fried Oysters Waitress said the fried oysters were out as they didn't get their delivery, so I asked to see the menu again, but they she said never mind, they have it (I got confused here) Now understand the restaurant was us at this point and maybe 2-3 other tables. Got our 1/2 dozen raw oysters fairly quickly. Taste, they were just ok. Not very sweet and tasted a bit on the mushy side. I've had better This is where is starts to go way downhill. My father's salad came out next, and then the 2 sets of fried oysters maybe a few minutes afterwards. Then it was a REALLY REALLY long wait. My father was almost finished with his large salad before my husband's Pan Roast came out, maybe about 15 minutes. Husband has asked for it with rice, but it was Pasta and I had to tell the waitress and she said, sorry and brought my husband a bowl of rice. Well you can't just take the pasta out as it's already mixed in (geez). Then it was another 10-15 minutes before the 2 sets of Dive Chowder came out! My father finished his salad, my husband was half way done with his Pan Roast. These folks need to get the timing of their meals right. Bring out the meals at the same time. Then comes the check. My bad for not looking at it closely before paying and leaving. I got home and looked at the receipt and they charged me regular price for the raw oysters! We had asked (twice) if we could do the happy hour oysters since there was about 3-4 minutes before 6pm and they said yes. Even the receipt says 5:58pm, so they put the order in before 6pm. So dishonest. I'm all about trying new places, but this experience put a bad taste...

The oysters were the only thing that was really good. They don’t have grilled sea bass, swordfish or other fresh cut fish. Seems to be centered around fried and battered seafood. The menu was extremely hard to understand and disorganized. For example on the menu they list a dish as “pan roast” This was just gumbo with overcooked rice. They have various seafood items you can pay extra. I ordered the house special with shrimp and crap and mussels and extra clams added.for anougher $4.60 . There was only 2 medium shrimps , 4 mussels , a few small pieces of sausage and like 10-15 baby clams which i specifically did not ask for. The waitress had assured me they were large clams ( such as cherry stones) prior to the order which was total misinformation. This dish was about $35.00 and with almost no crab meat was very disappointing and marked up price. Was just a little bowl. The first time they brought it out the baby clams were cold which leads me to believe the “pan roast” was not freshly made and they just dumped some worthless baby clams into the bowl for an extra $4.50 . This place is definitely better then McDonald’s but not worth the price. The service is also very bad. Had to get my own napkins , the table was a mess and the waitress was unknowledgeable about the dishes and the ingredients. She was also klutzy ( she spilled the oyster platter ice all over the table and my pants) The side salad was garbage with the poor boy chicken sandwich and the sauces on the sandwiches were lame mustard . The waitress was told to bring there tarter sauce which she failed to do. the sprout salad with burned Brussel sprouts was horrendous.. I think they need to send their cook to chefs school or hire a real chef. If not for the oysters this place would be one star or no star if that was even possible. Also I will note the place was empty so there was no reason for the bad waitress service and poorly cooked food. The staff seemed to be more interested in lollygagging then...

My first time here was fairly enjoyable. The lobster pasta was good, and the happy hour oysters were solid too.

But the name including "oyster bar" is misleading, imo. They had 2-3 types of oysters at most and were out of the oyster po'boys.

Our server was friendly, but she disappeared after we got our food. We didn't see her again until we finally flagged her down for the check about an hour and a half later.

Overall, first experience--decent, would give it another try.

Second experience--put me off from ever wanting to go there again.

There seemed to only be 2 servers for the whole (albeit small) restaurant at a time. One lady, not our server, but delivered food to our table, was absolutely cold and rude every time she interacted with us. For her to smile and wish us a good night only as we were leaving, felt like a joke.

The other guy, our server, was initially friendly (though clueless about the menu--maybe he was new?) while taking our orders, but as soon as our food was served, he switched up his attitude. And wasn't friendly again until we asked for the check.

I'm fine with neutral customer service, I get it, but these servers were just not it. They acted like we did something to offend them or like we were burdening them... it was strange. It definitely left a fishy taste in my mouth, in the worst way.

As for the food, the oyster po'boy was available this time around, and it was not good. Like at all. It was smothered in some type of relish or pickled something, and it overpowered the whole sandwich.

We also got a round of all 3 kinds of raw oysters. They were pretty mediocre and tiny.

I liked it better when it was Slapfish, when the counter staff and food were actually good.

I won't be...