Restaurant:
It seems like oyster bars are popping up everywhere these days, so we weren't surprised to see one in the swank new Shunkan restaurant complex on the top of My City department store. Gumbo and Oyster Bar is a simple but stylish counter affair, serving a simple menu of raw oysters, seafood cocktails, pan roasts, and spicy Louisiana-style gumbo.
The oysters on the half shell here are top quality and are priced accordingly - prices on a recent visit ranged from Y460-700 per piece, with imported Kumamoto oysters from Washington state at the high end. Other popular starters here are the seafood cocktails with spicy barbecue sauce, featuring mussels, clams, shrimp, lobster and clams, and a combination platter of most of the above.
If you want to follow up your starters with something more substantial, the pan roasts are well worth a try. The mussel and scallop one turns out to be a spicy tomato-based stew with a good-sized helping of New Zealand mussels and Hokkaido scallops. Firm chunks of top-grade green asparagus spears provide a nice contrast in both texture and flavor. The gumbo is even spicier - it comes with a do-it-yourself helping of jalapeno sauce on the side of the bowl, half of which was more than enough for this gumbo lover. The flavors are rich and seafood-heavy, soaked up by a big scoop of rice in the center.
The design scheme here is white tile, chrome trim and black counter, with a bit of neon-blue lighting that echoes the rest of the Shunkan complex. Besides the sixteen counter seats there are also a few small tables in back, but if you're looking for a more leisurely sit-down meal you might prefer one of the two Water Grill Oyster Bars (Nishi-Azabu and Akasaka) - with the same management and the same high-quality seafood, but bigger menus and wine lists and more spacious quarters.
Pan roasts and gumbo are Y1400-1600; seafood cocktails are Y1000-2200. Wine is Y700/glass, and from Y4500/bottle (for Rawson's Retreat from Australia).
by Robb Satterwhite
Gumbo and Oyster Bar
Shinjuku: Seafood.
mapShinjuku 3-38-1, Lumine EST Shinjuku Shunkan 8F. [Shinjuku station east exit] Open 11am-11pm daily. Tel: 5369-5017.
Gumbo and Oyster Bar: ShinjukuIt seems like oyster bars are popping up everywhere these days, so we weren't surprised to see one in the swank new Shunkan restaurant complex on the top of My City department store. Gumbo and Oyster Bar is a simple but stylish counter affair, serving a simple menu of raw oysters, seafood cocktails, pan roasts, and spicy Louisiana-style gumbo.
The oysters on the half shell here are top quality and are priced accordingly - prices on a recent visit ranged from Y460-700 per piece, with imported Kumamoto oysters from Washington state at the high end. Other popular starters here are the seafood cocktails with spicy barbecue sauce, featuring mussels, clams, shrimp, lobster and clams, and a combination platter of most of the above.
If you want to follow up your starters with something more substantial, the pan roasts are well worth a try. The mussel and scallop one turns out to be a spicy tomato-based stew with a good-sized helping of New Zealand mussels and Hokkaido scallops. Firm chunks of top-grade green asparagus spears provide a nice contrast in both texture and flavor. The gumbo is even spicier - it comes with a do-it-yourself helping of jalapeno sauce on the side of the bowl, half of which was more than enough for this gumbo lover. The flavors are rich and seafood-heavy, soaked up by a big scoop of rice in the center.
The design scheme here is white tile, chrome trim and black counter, with a bit of neon-blue lighting that echoes the rest of the Shunkan complex. Besides the sixteen counter seats there are also a few small tables in back, but if you're looking for a more leisurely sit-down meal you might prefer one of the two Water Grill Oyster Bars (Nishi-Azabu and Akasaka) - with the same management and the same high-quality seafood, but bigger menus and wine lists and more spacious quarters.
Pan roasts and gumbo are Y1400-1600; seafood cocktails are Y1000-2200. Wine is Y700/glass, and from Y4500/bottle (for Rawson's Retreat from Australia).
by Robb Satterwhite
Gumbo and Oyster Bar
Shinjuku: Seafood.
mapShinjuku 3-38-1, Lumine EST Shinjuku Shunkan 8F. [Shinjuku station east exit] Open 11am-11pm daily. Tel: 5369-5017. img1175085253.jpg]]>