Seattle, WA

Elliott’s Oyster House
1201 Alaskan Way, Pier 56
Seattle, WA 98101
206-623-4340

Is it proper to call it a restaurant review if the only thing you ate was the oysters? Well, if you’re going to call yourself an Oyster House then it seems right somehow to make it all about the oysters.

I can’t tell you the number of times we sat outside of Elliott’s Oyster House, eating steamed clams from Steamer’s on Pier 56 while being completely clueless to the fact that we were sitting next to one of the best Oyster Houses on the planet. While we’re unlikely to stop going to Steamer’s on any given trip to Seattle, we’ll never again fail to stop in at Elliott’s Oyster House.

How little we knew when we stepped into Elliott’s for the first time. We had no idea, for example, that Fortune Magazine had rated it one of the top 5 Oyster bars in the United States. What greeted us on our first trip was an impressive oyster bar which it turns out is 21 feet long! 21 feet of gleaming silver with tiers of trays filled with oysters lovingly nestled in ice. Surrounding the oysters an array of trophies, most of them attributable to Master Oyster Shucker, David Leck.

David has won many competitions, some based on speed. Check this out:

Before going to Elliot’s I’d had oysters and I knew I liked them but I knew nothing about the different types of oysters and sadly, I’d never had a minionette sauce. What a stroke of luck it was for us to not only discover Elliott’s but to sit down at the oyster bar with David shucking oysters. Because we were interested in the varieties of oysters and how they compared, David took the time to educate us and allow us to try out the various oysters he had on hand. In fact he spoiled us rotten. He may have spoiled us for oysters anywhere else while he was at it. My favorites were the Kumakoto Oysters, a small deep-cupped variety with a pretty fluted edge. They were small but flavourful with a delicate, slightly sweet flavour.

Back in Austin, Tx, we’d only eaten oysters with horseradish, ketchup and hot sauce. Man do I feel like a heathen now. One of the things I noticed about the oysters David served us was just how fresh they were and how much liquor they had. The iciness of the champagne mignonette sauce made for a perfect accoutrement.

After we’d eaten our fill of oysters, David mentioned to us that they had a Happy Hour on Mondays from 3-6 and that the oysters were .50 cents apiece to start with and gradually increased in price. Well that sounded like too good of a deal to pass up so on Monday, our last day in town, we returned to gorge ourselves happily on raw oysters. We managed to eat 6 dozen!

With the taste still fresh in our mouths, we returned to Texas. A few days later, craving more oysters, we made our way to Quality Seafood, undoubtedly the best seafood store in Austin but sadly they just couldn’t compare to the wonderful oysters we had at Elliott’s. This is not meant as a slam agains Quality Seafood, they are excellent and we’re very lucky to have them in Austin! Ah well, back to horseradish, ketchup and hot sauce. Don’t worry Seattle, we’ll be back!

Eliott’s Oyster House, Elliott’s, Oysters, Kumamoto, David Leck, Oyster Bar, Seattle, Pier 56, Master Oyster Shucker, Quality Seafood, Austin, minionette, champagne