86. Hank’s Oyster Bar
In my opinion, Hank’s Oyster Bar should be much MUCH farther up the top 100 list than number 86. I’ve been there many times since it first opened and once seriously thought about renting an apartment across the street just so I could keep an eye on the wait time from the comfort of my sweatpants. Alas, I don’t live within spying distance so I have to wait for a table the old fashioned way. There is always a wait at Hank’s on a Friday or Saturday night, and unfortunately there aren’t many places to stand inside unless you want to get very friendly with the poor suckers who get seated at the tiny two-top by the front door. I always call ahead to put my name on the list, and that usually works out. It did last night—I called ahead and the wait was 40 minutes, by the time I got there and checked in, I only ended up waiting about 10 minutes. Enough time to eavesdrop on a very awkward goodbye session from a meet-the-future inlaws dinner that did not appear to have gone very well.
We were seated in the back part of the restaurant which I think is a great place to sit if you’re on a date, but not nearly as lively as the front section. The ceiling is much lower, which cuts down the noise, but it doesn’t have the same cool beachy vibe as the rest of the restaurant. In my opinion, the best seats in the house are the two tables in the front window or the ones on the long wall on the left. Any other table and you spend half your meal scooting in and out to let people squeeze by.
Hanks has a pretty standard menu that doesn’t change—oyster po’ boy, lobster roll, crabcake, raw oysters—well done seafood hits. I always try to order off the two specials menus (one is small plates, the other is full sized entrees), with the my fall back always being the lobster roll. Last night, I thought the specials looked amazing so I ordered the Grilled Octopus and the Crispy Pork Belly, while my dining partner Lindsay ordered the Ceviche (off the regular menu) and the Seared Scallops. After we finished our ordering, the waiter informed us that they were out of the octopus, the ceviche, as well as the clam chowder. Would have liked that information a little earlier buddy. And as the lovely Lindsay pointed out, god knows what they’ll be serving the rest of the weekend since they obviously won’t be getting any seafood deliveries until Monday. Good thing we didn’t go to dinner on Sunday night! Anyways, we got over our issues and I decided on the crabcake instead of the octopus and Lindsay switched the ceviche for the Lobster Bisque. Then the waiter asked us if we wanted to share the bisque. I would think that soup is just about the only thing on the menu you couldn’t share, so we politely declined.
Lindsay’s bisque was a great dark color, not a lot of lobster chunks in there, but no biggie. She raved about the scallops, which were served with golden beets and looked very pretty and light for a relatively big entree. I could tell you that the pork belly was amazing, but really, when is pork belly not a life changing experience? Their version was nice because it was served with braised red cabbage, which balanced out the saltiness of the pork perfectly. My only complaint is that the piece wasn’t nearly big enough. Truth be told, they probably could have served me the entire pig and it wouldn’t have been enough. The crabcake was great, not a ton of lump crabmeat but they don’t use much filler so I didn’t even notice. It was served with a yummy tartar-esque sauce that I gobbled up. One of my favorite things about Hank’s is as many times as I’ve been there, I always get the same line after my meal. The waiter plops down a dish of dark chocolate chunks and says “we don’t serve dessert”. It’s like a weird proactive way to insure no one will sue them for lack of ice cream. Luckily Hank’s is the type of place I think wouldn’t be too annoyed if you showed up with a little cooler full of Ben & Jerry’s to finish the meal. One of the many reasons I love it there.
