Restaurant Review: Neptune Oyster

After a horrible experience at Legal Seafood, I was craving some better seafood. I came across Neptune Oyster, considered the BEST OYSTER BAR in Boston according to Yelp.

Neptune Oyster has a very nice atmosphere, with a clean marble bar along with several tables. It really seemed like a communal oyster bar, where the locals come.
Now, let the seafood feast begin.

Triton Plateau platter: Came with local raw oysters, raw littleneck clams, raw hamaguri clams, gigantic shrimp cocktail, steamed lobster with aeoli, lump crab, and steamed mussels. Starting off with the oysters, truly marvelous oysters, with a creamy finish and almost a slight cucumbery taste to them. Exquisite. The littleneck clams were spectacular as well; sweet, plump, and slightly salty. The hamaguri clams were incredible, having an enormous amount of natural sweetness similar to that of diver scallops. The shrimp cocktail was gigantic, almost being the size of small lobsters. Usually larger shrimp tend to lose their natural sweetness and texture. It wasn't the case here, as the shrimp had great texture and just the right amount of natural sweetness to counterbalance the cocktail sauce provided. The combination of succulent lobster and creamy aeoli was magnificent. The lump crab may have been the weakest part of the platter, as i felt that there was too much mayonnaise in the lump crab mixture; nevertheless, the crab had great texture and natural sweetness to it. The mussels were plump and delicious, much better than the ones from Legal Seafood last night.

Grilled calamari salad with market greens and olive tapenade. The squid was very fresh and plump, and by charring it on the grill, it brought out a smokiness that brought the dish to another level. Nice.

Tuna sandwich with fries. Nice, but there were better things on the menu. I don't really know why my dad ordered this. He regretted it, and would have rather ordered the Lobster Roll instead.

I wasn't quite full yet after the platter, so I decided to order a dozen more oysters. I had my waiter help me pick a random assortment of local oysters. Stupidly, I forgot to write down the names of the oysters, but let me tell you they were pretty much the best oysters I've had in my life. What truly set these oysters apart from the oysters I've been eating before are the different flavor profiles they had; many had cucumbery after tastes, some had a buttery finish, and some were extremely brinny. These oysters were delicious.

So what do I think of Neptune Oyster? I love it. Its truly what I look for whenever I travel and search for great restaurants: clean, communal, fresh, and local. I shared my experience at Legal Seafood with my waiter at Neptune, and he simply said that a chain as large as Legal Seafood truly cannot control the freshness level compared to the small, communal oyster bar like Neptune. I'll definitely be coming back to Neptune someday, hopefully in the near future!