Oystercatchers — Restaurant in Tampa

This past Saturday we went to Oystercatchers to celebrate my 30th birthday with my friends. My husband set this up ahead of time and confirmed 3 times prior. Upon making the reservation for 10 people, my husband told them it was my 30th birthday and we wanted it to be special, they offered the “Chefs Table in a very private room”. Mind you, each time my husband called to confirm, the hostess would say oh wow you have a very nice room it’s stunning. We were so excited after looking at it online it overlooked the water and sunset. This was our main reason for coming to this restaurant honestly we wouldn’t have come otherwise. Additionally one of my best friends is a vegetarian and I wanted to make sure she could enjoy herself as well. Also they said this “private room” was so private that she wouldn’t smell the fish so I didn’t have to worry about that. They assured my husband (3 times) that they had tons of options for her including pasta or whatever she wanted. I was so excited that they were going to accommodate her as the menu is quite limited. On February 8th we showed up at 530pm. My best friend showed up first to set up the “private room”. When she arrived they had no idea it was a birthday celebration at all and showed her to the “private room”. The “private room” was in the hallway next to the fish and kitchen area and was no where near a window and we couldn’t see the sunset at all and this is a high traffic area where all servers are passing by to get the food from the kitchen. You’re basically in the hallway to the kitchen with other tables. I was so disappointed and felt so bad for my husband who was so proud of this “private room”. They told my best friend this is the room they reserved for us, it’s a normal dining room not private. Mind you we can see a room down the hallway that could be perceived as somewhat private I guess but it looked like it was going to be used for someone else and by the end of the evening no one used it at all. Then to put the cherry on top, I asked the server to please explain the vegetarian options to my friend. He said oh we have the risotto and broccolini. I said no we spoke with you guys on the phone weeks ago and your staff said you could make tons of vegetarian options. He was so confused and said no. I said I want to speak with your manager please. This lady came over and explained to my friend her two options, risotto or fish pasta. Again my friend doesn’t eat fish. I didn’t understand why they couldn’t just make her a pasta dish like they promised on the phone. I informed the manager that there have been multiple miscommunications tonight and I was very disappointed. She did nothing about it. However she said she would give my friend some veggies with garlic sauce and put pasta with it. Mind you when it came out, the pasta was dry, they couldn’t even mix it together?? This was a $30 meal and all it had was some veggies in light garlic sauce and noodles on the side. The food is nothing to write home about and my husband and I alone spent $270. I spent half of that at Berns Steakhouse the following night. This restaurant has a great location but I would NEVER recommend this place to anyone after my experience. My table spent very good money here and the food is basic and they lie to you when you make your reservation. Very disappointed coming here for my...

I am not a huge seafood lover, but I absolutely love food food, and this was GREAT food. First, Tyler gave me an excellent way of choosing what to order because I literally could not. Typically, I'm not indecisive, and maybe it was because seafood isn't my number one choice, but after Oystercatchers, it easily could be! I mentioned the server by name because we were a party of 12. It seemed effortless for him, and I've been out with these other 11 many times. We are quite difficult as a group. I love my family, but I always feel a little "oomph" in the gut for the employees we encounter when we're out and hungry (sometimes hangry)

Anyway, I ordered the lobster gnocchi. The chef, I was told, is from Italy and hand rolled it every single day. Usually, I snap a pic of my dish just for this review... I couldn't wait. It was just too tempting. This gives me an excellent excuse to return and get some pictures. I can't guarantee I'll order the gnocchi again because I'll have an opportunity to sample more of the menu. The price is a little higher than some places, but not excessive for the majority of the menu. For reference, a glass of La Crema was $16-ish after tax. There's a $190 tomahawk steak on the menu but the caviar menu is around that amount for the less expensive options (for the caviar menu only.) Prices however should not deter you from dining, after all my dish wasn't near that expensive. I'm bringing this up because when we received our split checks, we were a little confused about how it appeared on the check. Again, it's worth it. It ended up being less expensive than we thought and now I've spent too much time on the subject. Back to what's important, the food. We had a couple shooters, tuna for the first, Hamachi the second. The fish tasted as if it had just burst through the surface of the ocean. There was a lemony freshness in the Hamachi shooter that was heavenly on my palate. My wife ordered seared tuna, and I believe I was espresso crusted. (Other spices and herbs as well, not just espresso) Ahi steaks are her go to at a ton of the places we eat (Again, we're foodies. I hate the term but we are, cliché as it sounds) she recalled to me it was likely the best she's ever had. The lobster on my gnocchi was cooked to perfection. I've had way too many rubbery tails than I'd like to admit, this one was delicate and cut with your fork tender. The sides are family sizes, we ordered shishito peppers and I'm regretting not ordering the Brussel sprouts. All in all I cannot recommend Oystercatchers enough. I only gave 4 starts for atmosphere because I could barely hear. Keep in mind we were a party of 12. Service, food and everything else could easily be six stars and I've reviewed hundreds of restaurants. I think there could be a decor refresh that wouldn't hurt, but I barely noticed because I was having such a good time.

You will not be disappointed, make a date night or special anniversary reservation for Oystercatchers and you will not be let down. Hats off to the chef and doubly so for the staff. Bravo to those folks. The perfect dinner awaits you, so...

You will need a reservation if you want to be served by a server and not the bar staff and you want to sit somewhere besides the bar or outside and you will need to do your reservation at least 4 weeks in advance. If you sit in the bar be prepared to have people in bathing suits walking past your date. I did not see anybody in bathing suits or shorts in the actual dining room but there was definitely a lot of extremely overly casual activity in the bar and outside area. As far as the food it was absolute perfection. I know of no other restaurant that provides smoked salt. The butter is from Vermont and absolutely delicious to go on the bread and they bring three different types of bread with your meal. The bread was warm as well. I had the tuna and requested it rare as it is suggested to be rare and I could not ask for it to have been better in fact it was a 5 out of five stars for the food. My date had the seafood trio and it was also perfection however the bar staff waiter did not bring drawn butter and we had to request it. long and the short don't sit where you're going to be waited on by the bar staff otherwise it will reduce your otherwise great experience. Third visit today's date 6/3/23, we went at noon on a Friday and it seemed like they had lots of availability for seating and we got a nice table by the windows and the waitress was on the money with perfect service I ordered the short ribs and she was able to trade out the fries for salad with the salad was wonderful and short rib was okay it comes with eyes you and I recommend plenty of it because the meat was somewhat dry for $28 I would have ordered something else. The people that I went with were impressed it does smell wonderful because they have the smoked wood smell coming out of the chimney Save your money and order something a little less expensive on the menu because you're paying for the atmosphere mostly and the...