Oysters and Restaurant Week Dinner c/o Sansom Street Oyster House

My father was up in Virginia for a funeral a few weeks back and let me know he wanted to keep coming north to meet up with me for a meal. He was gung-ho for oysters, so oysters are what we had. I met him at Oyster House on the early side - he was the only customer and already had a dozen oysters in front of him and an open bottle of Sancerre. The 'buck a shuck' oysters of the night were Delaware Bay oysters I believe. They're fleshier oysters with a generally mild overall flavor, not too briny, not very sweet. I had a few of those, but I also ordered half a dozen kumomoto oysters, which are far more delicate little morsels that I always think tend to be sweet and creamy.

These kumomotos were exactly that: sweet and creamy.

It turned out that restaurant week was still going on, so we removed ourselves from the oyster bar to a proper table to avail ourselves of slightly weightier sustenance. We also enjoyed a bottle of sparkling riesling, which I enjoyed. We both started with the chowder, which was solid in its creaminess and temperature.

For my second course I chose the calamari, despite this recent This American Life episode. It was hot and crispy but not overly delicate or memorable. I didn't make much of a dent in my plate, but that may have been partially because of all the oysters and sparkling wine taking away the edge of my hunger.

Then Dad and I split the lobster roll and crab cake. We were both quite skeptical about the crab cake, but the server and menu really highlighted the lack of filler and whole lump element of the meat. Gotta say, it didn't live up to the hype and I couldn't get a good picture, so just, like, know this: if you are a crab cake Marylander snob, not even this crab cake will impress you. The lobster roll, on the other hand, was quite generous in its chunks of lobster goodness, and while the roll was definitely buttery, the lobster wasn't too slick with mayo. I also liked the pickles.

It was a whirlwind visit. Just dinner and drinks and then Dad got on a train to go back down to DC, where he was staying with the T.s after the funeral.