Poll results: 'The world is your oyster' with this list of best places to get one
By a three-to-one margin, Cape Cod Times readers voted The Naked Oyster Bistro & Raw Bar on Main Street in Hyannis as the place with the best oysters served raw on the half-shell.
Executive chef/owner Florence Lowell was pleased but not surprised at the news.
For more than three decades, the French-born chef and her crew (including children Julien and Stephanie) have made a daily trek to Barnstable Harbor, not far from Sandy Neck, where they carefully maneuver the skiff over sandbars to reach Naked Oyster’s two-acre oyster farm.
“We bring them back to the restaurant and we shuck everything to order,” Lowell said this week. “Everyone here knows how to shuck.”
Lowell’s oyster beds are in the northwest portion of the harbor.
“There are lots of nutrients and a wonderful flow of water that makes for beautiful oysters — tasty and plump,” she said.
The Naked Oyster serves raw oysters on the half-shell three ways:
Naked: Straight up with apple-shallot migonette and housemade cocktail sauce; Oishi style with wasabi, ginger and soy; each $18 for a half-dozen or six oysters with caviar for $22.
You can also get an oyster shooter for $4 or add Absolut Peppar vodka for $2.50.
In the oyster poll, The Oyster Company Raw Bar and Grille in Dennis Port and Epic Oyster in Falmouth just about tied for second place with only two votes separating them. The Oyster Company is in its 19th season and, according to its website, has served more than two million oysters, shucking about 1,500 per day. Those oysters, normally $3, are half-price until 6:30 p.m. Owner Greg Burns harvests the shellfish from his own beds and once a customer found a pearl!
The Epic Oyster, at 70 County Road in North Falmouth is located in a 1922 Tierney railway car, which was imported from Wareham years ago and served many years as a diner. Oysters are shucked to order, for dine-in or catering service.
It was nice to see that the vote turned out a good regional representation of favorite places to get a raw oyster on Cape Cod.
Coming in fourth and fifth, respectively, with only one vote between them, were The Wicked Oyster in Wellfleet and Fishermen’s View in Sandwich.
As we mentioned when we asked people to vote for the best place to get an oyster on the half-shell (yes, those are the raw ones), there are dozens of places on Cape to get a good oyster. Sometimes other factors come into play: Fishermen's View, as its name suggests, offers deck seating and a 180-degree vista over the Cape Cod Canal's East End. The Wicked Oyster, in its 20th season, earned attention for its raw oysters, but also has some great alternatives, including burgers, filet mignon and scallop risotto.
This article originally appeared on Cape Cod Times: The Naked Oyster in Hyannis voted best oysters dug from their own beds
