Restaurant Review: Rodney’s Oyster House
RODNEY'S OYSTER HOUSE
469 King Street West ~ rodneysoysterhouse.com Instagram: @rodneysoysterhouse ~ Twitter: @RodneysToronto Co-Diner: Tim Golem
All I had to hear was that Rodney's makes one of the best lobster rolls in Toronto. That was it. I needed to taste it for myself! As a big fan of anything-seafood, this institution (open since 1987) is the place to be. You'll find them in the Fashion District but they even have a location in Calgary. blogTO boasts about their #1 Best Oysters and I was more than prepared to crush a bunch of those as well. Visiting on a Sunday evening, I was happy to secure a spot on their lovely outdoor patio. In a garden-like setting, the space feels secluded and somehow removed from the downtown excitement. I've heard Rodney's refer to the patio as their "oyster garden," which is the perfect moniker. Heavy wooden tabletops sit on barrels, providing an ever-present maritime vibe to the place. There is plenty of greenery which adds to the sanctuary atmosphere. I didn't get to see the inside of the restaurant but it seems a lot like an awesome fisherman's cave. Apparently there's also a very cool celebrity oyster wall which I would love to check out sometime. Our server was very friendly and upbeat, happy to seat us and to start sending some seafood love our way! To begin, I easily selected the Rodney's Caesar ($13.00) to drink.
In my opinion, a caesar is the absolute perfect beverage to order at a seafood restaurant. Why? Well for starters, it's made with clam juice, which is seafood in itself. At higher-end places they'll usually make the clam juice themselves which adds that little bit of extra quality. This one was spicy, full of fresh horseradish, and adorned with a big plump shrimp. It's kind of like how you get cocktail sauce to go along with shrimp - a caesar just makes good sense. Step one: OYSTERS. They're an absolute must. They can be ordered individually so even just ordering one or two or three is the right thing to do. Rodney's oyster list changes every day and you're able to select whichever ones you want or you can ask the server to put together a plate of the best. And that's exactly what we did. We asked for ten Shucked Oysters - whatever was delicious that day.
Shucking oysters is a bit of an art. There are competitions that test who can do it the fastest. A special oyster knife is used. For me, I look for two main aspects when it comes to a properly shucked oyster. First, the oyster liquor needs to still be present in the shell. This is the natural briney juice inside of the oyster and it's precious. It tastes like the sea and it's amazing - that's why it's referred to as liquor. Second, the oyster meat needs to have been properly released from the shell so that it's easy to toss it straight into your mouth. Both of these points were done expertly at Rodney's, of course. Of our ten oysters, we ended up with three different varieties. From the Atlantic; Lameque Cocktail ($2.64 each) from New Brunswick and Sweet Oysters Blue Choice ($2.89 each) from Prince Edward Island. From the Pacific; Sunseeker XS ($2.65 each) from Vancouver Island. It was actually very interesting to see how different the Atlantic and Pacific oysters look from each other. I loved them all. Each one was briney-sweet, meaty, and ultra-fresh. The Sunseekers were extra meaty. All of the accompaniments were very good and I enjoyed trying them all. The rest of the menu at Rodney's is full of everything that you'd want to see; various chowders, fish & chips, and of course straight-up lobster. But I was really just there for the Atlantic Lobster Roll ($30.00), quite possibly one of the best foods known to humans.
I thought I'd had some pretty good lobster rolls in my day but I was about to get schooled. The main thing was the quality of the lobster itself; huge meaty pieces in great heaping abundance. And the simplicity as well - there isn't much else mixed in apart from some creamy-delicious mayo. Something about the perfectly crispy strip of bacon was just right, adding some saltiness and texture. And the buttery warm bun was exactly right. I was in heaven with every bite and am already trying to figure out when I can eat another one. This really was the best lobster roll that I've eaten thus far. The salad was nice and I certainly appreciated some greens on the plate to help balance all of the heaviness. I personally found the onion rings to be way too heavy. The batter was very thick and it might have just been a case of having so many different things on the table to try. Lastly, I saw on Instagram that the week's White Plate Special was a king crab club sandwich. It sounded incredible with king crab, avocado, lettuce, tomato, maple bacon, and Old Bay mustard aioli. I needed that it my life. And they were serving it until Sunday, the day of my reservation! Hoorah! Sadly... It was not meant to be. They had already sold out of the sandwich by the time that I begged our server to bring me one. Instead, we decided to try the Wild Sockeye Salmon Mac ($18.00).
A lot of restaurants are doing renditions of the Big Mac these days. I've even seen Big Mac pizzas. It's a trend. I'm not angry about it because yeah, Big Macs are good. All you need to tell me is "special sauce" and I'm there. I really liked the fun idea behind this sandwich and I thought that the thin salmon patties were pretty tasty. I also really loved the delicious Brodflour bun, an urban mill that I already frequent. The sandwich really did taste and look like a pretty great riff on a Big Mac. I think if I had eaten this without everything else that we'd ordered I would've been more down with it. It just sort of felt like a lot. However, I absolutely loved the salty skinny fries - you can just keep eating those forever. (I wish it had been the king crab club sandwich.) Rodney's made me really happy. I would return simply to order the lobster roll, switch the onion rings to skinny fries, and probably throw some oysters into the mix because obviously. And now I must do this.
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