Neptune Oyster - for an Out of This World Raw Bar Experience

Since I live in Providence, RI, I have many times been to Boston, MA and to the North End for dinner. The North End is a nice Italian neighborhood with tons of restaurants ranging from expensive and fancy to casual. There are bakeries and cafes as well to give it is unique European like charm..

On this most recent trip to Boston, I along with the people I was with decided to get some oysters. While quite a few restaurants in the New England area have raw bars, this time we decided to ask someone at our hotel what she would recommend. Her recommendation was Neptune Oyster on Salem Street in the North End. She informed us that it was very small and quaint.

In my many trips to Boston's North End I had never heard of Neptune Oyster. On the first walk over Neptune Oyster was a jam-packed hole in the wall. We walked around a bit and were finally lucky to get a few seats. Ordering is like most raw bars select which type of oysters, clams etc. you want and how many of each.

They are shucked right there in front of you and delivered to your seat. They oysters range from local east coast oysters to some from as far west as British Columbia and Washington state.

If you are a fan of throwing some Tabasco sauce and/or horseradish on an oyster and sucking it down this is your place. Being from the East Coast I am quite familiar with great shellfish and have to say that Neptune Oyster is one of the best.

They also offer a wide variety of regular cooked food from steamed littlenecks to Cheeseburgers (of course the cheeseburger comes loaded with fried clams). Although my only experience was with the raw bar, the regular menu looked quite delicious as well.

Neptune Oyster was the perfect place to enjoy some oysters and clams. Sometimes those little hole in the wall places turn out to be the best. If you are ever in Boston's North End and love a great raw bar I highly recommend Neptune Oyster.

http://www.neptuneoyster.com/menu.html