If you include Tony’s Seafood, which is owned by Hog Island, Marin has four Hog Island locations where the briny bivalves are the main attraction, including The Boat Oyster Bar and Hog Shack along Tomales Bay, and Hog Island’s restaurant in Larkspur. No matter where you dine, focus your attention on the top of the menu where Today’s Oysters are prominently featured in raw glory. Available on the half shell, oysters are also grilled with a choice of four sauces. Miso-nori butter pumps up their fatty deliciousness while Calabrian chili and garlic cuts through the meaty heft with prickly heat.
The menu here changes daily, depending on what’s locally available and oysters from the bay just steps from the restaurant are on the menu nearly every day. Look for raw oysters with lemony mignonette and broiled oysters in three styles. We’re partial to the Chard Rockafellar whose topping of nutmeg, Manchego and shallot takes us to a flavorful place that is familiar yet altogether new.
Though the restaurant serves raw oysters with mignonette or warm garlic butter and fried oysters with tartar sauce, be sure to stop by at brunch for a classic plate of Hangtown Fry. A re-tooling the 1840’s Gold Rush era’s most expensive meal of oysters, bacon and eggs (it was $6 then, an astronomical sum) reimagines the dish as an “omelet” with fried oysters, bacon and eggs
alongside skillet potatoes and greens.
What is it about the oysters bingo that makes it a perennial Marin favorite? Made with spinach, baked cheese, and the house’s special white sauce (could it be béchamel?) it is a classic that satisfies modern palates. Many like to enjoy their Bingo with vino. But we think a martini pairs just as well.
We know, we know – HenHouse is a brewery and breweries don’t “do” seafood unless it is fish and chips or popcorn shrimp, right? It is time to reset your expectations because executive chef Lauren Garcia serves up raw oysters – with cocktail sauce, mignonette and Tabasco to make it feel more pub-like.. Double-down on the experience by ordering a Sixer of Grilled Oysters with a
chili, bacon and cotija cheese butter and pair it with the house’s Oyster Stout. This HenHouse sip and slurp special is definitely worth crowing about.
