212 Lafayette Street (off Kenmare St.) 212-925-9332 www.cafeselectnyc.com
Seafood. Ten bucks says you’ll never guess how to find this restaurant. Enter a café, pass through their common kitchen, open the steel door and, voila, you’ve arrived at Cervantes’ Oyster Shack & Bar. All that’s missing is the secret knock.
Once inside this intimate space (five tables, three or four bar seats at most), you’ll encounter metal chemistry lab chairs, wooden church pews, a wall mounted rotary pay phone, one disco ball and an excellent range of music. You might be wondering what kind of food to expect from such digs. The answer: utterly delicious.
It’s a seafood joint, but the offerings are plentiful and extend far beyond. Their zucchini chips rival the addiction quotient of any potato chip and the accompanying dips (eggplant, tzatziki, hummus, spicy feta) will fuel your passion even further. I also familiarized myself with the outrageously refreshing special salad (watermelon, feta, red onion, mint) then went fish loyal, increasing my devotion taste after taste. Both the lobster bisque and octopus (shaved celery, cherry tomatoes, fennel) were totally fulfilling.
But the height of the meal had to be the lobster salad (Maine lobster, basil-Szechuan pepper mayonnaise, baby spinach salad). The shellfish could not have been sweeter or this dish closer to heaven. Know what? Keep your ten bucks and put it toward an evening at Cervantes’. It’s a bet you cannot lose.
Seafood. Ten bucks says you’ll never guess how to find this restaurant. Enter a café, pass through their common kitchen, open the steel door and, voila, you’ve arrived at Cervantes’ Oyster Shack & Bar. All that’s missing is the secret knock. Once inside this intimate space (five tables, three or four bar seats at most), you’ll encounter metal chemistry lab chairs, wooden church pews, a wall mounted rotary pay phone, one disco ball and an excellent range of music. You might be wondering what kind of food to expect from such digs. The answer: utterly delicious. It’s a seafood joint, but the offerings are plentiful and extend far beyond. Their zucchini chips rival the addiction quotient of any potato chip and the accompanying dips (eggplant, tzatziki, hummus, spicy feta) will fuel your passion even further. I also familiarized myself with the outrageously refreshing special salad (watermelon, feta, red onion, mint) then went fish loyal, increasing my devotion taste after taste. Both the lobster bisque and octopus (shaved celery, cherry tomatoes, fennel) were absolutely fulfilling. But the height of the meal had to be the lobster salad (Maine lobster, basil-Szechuan pepper mayonnaise, baby spinach salad). The shellfish could not have been sweeter, this dish closer to heaven. Know what? Keep your ten bucks and put it toward an evening at Cervantes’. There will be no regrets — it’s a bet you can’t lose.