Matunuck Oyster Bar has been serving "pond-to-plate" oysters and day-fresh seafood in South Kingstown since 2009.

The medium-sized Matunuck oysters are grown in Potter Pond, which the restaurant's waterfront patio rests upon. These delightful bivalves possess a bright briny taste with a firm texture. In addition to being offered raw with mignonette and cocktail sauce, they can be served Rockefeller-style or charbroiled with a bourbon chipotle sauce.

The co-owners of Matunuck Oyster Bar are Jeff Cruf and Perry Raso. Cruf is the Executive Chef, previously of Providence's Gatehouse and Newport's Cheeky Monkey. Among other roles, Raso effectively runs the restaurant and is the brains behind the aquaculture involved in Matunuck's shellfish harvesting. Together they have created a uniquely awesome seafood dining experience that is not limited to their oysters. In fact, I'd argue that calling their restaurant an "oyster bar" perhaps sells the operation short.

Matunuck Oyster Bar's golden fried clams are some of Rhode Island's finest and are a joy to eat: the petite, juicy bellies could melt on your tongue if you let them, but I prefer to savagely bite into them, coating the inside of my mouth with a mixture of grease, ocean, and quickly-disintegrating fried coating. I generally found Rhode Island clams to be "gritty" due to mostly coming from sands rather than mud, but these are grit-free. I'm a fan of fried clams from the seafood shacks and the beachside roast beef shops north of Boston, as it is rare and unusual for me to find a full service restaurant like Matunuck Oyster Bar that does fried clams this well.

Also excellent have been Matunuck Oyster Bar's Baked Stuffed Lobster and Clear Clam Chowder, both of which would be the best thing on the menu of most other restaurants around Rhode Island. Vegetable side dishes and salads are of similar high quality, with many of the vegetables and herbs provided by the restaurant's organic vegetable farm on the north end of Potter Pond.

Unfortunately, Matunuck Oyster Bar isn't exactly under-the-radar. EVERYONE knows about this place, and everyone knows how good it is. Prepare for a long wait at dinner time during peak summer months, mandatory valet parking, town police officers directing traffic outside their parking lot, and so on. In other words, you'll probably want to come off-season (when you can make a reservation on their web site) or during lunch time.

My other caveat? On my most recent visit, my server was excruciatingly slow in closing me out and, rather than leaving, I sat nearly 20 minutes longer than I needed to after I finished my meal. And, for that, I couldn't get too upset, as the wait-staff mostly consisted of teenagers on their first summer restaurant jobs. One could argue that a place with $20-$30 plates of food should have higher standards, but you tell me where to find experienced servers in RI who are willing to work here temporarily to deal with the summer surge.

Despite these issues, this is a "must visit" restaurant if you're planning a trip to Rhode Island -- you just need to be careful and pick an off-peak time to experience it. I cannot think of any place I'd rather eat seafood at in Rhode Island.