Oystercatchers

Oystercatchers: at the Grand Hyatt Tampa Bay, 2900 Bayport Dr, Tampa, FL 33607

My colleague and friend Rochelle and I decided we wanted to have dinner at a fun place with great views. There are two restaurants located at the Grand Hyatt Tampa Bay. Oystercatchers is a seafood restaurant that you take a 5-minute walk through nature to find. She really wanted to check it out since the restaurant is something that many people talk about at the hotel.

The Restaurant:

Oystercatchers is located along the water where Fish Creek meets Old Tampa Bay. You can dine inside or out, and there is a small bar inside that seats about eight people comfortably. There is a mix of tables and booths inside and outside on the terrace, you will find tables of various sizes.

Oystercatchers Food:

Oystercatchers started us off with a couple of refreshing drinks from their specialty menu and some of the best fresh-baked bread I have had in a long time. And the bartender recommended that we try the smoked sea salt and butter with the bread, and she was right. It was a flavor explosion in our mouths, and we wanted more.

Up next, we tried the Calamari fries. The breading was crisp, and instead of being in circles, the calamari looked more like fish sticks than fries. But looks can be deceiving, and they were actually very good. The cocktail sauce that accompanied them added a little extra flavor, and we would order this again.

I ordered a cup of lobster and crab bisque as my next item. The broth was creamy, the way I like it, and there was a decent amount of crab and lobster within. And these were just the appetizers. Knowing that I was going to be pretty full after the heavy starters, I decided my next dish would be the two lump crab cakes. The crab cakes were a perfect size, and something that I felt had a decent amount of crab. So many times, I find them made with almost nothing but filler, but these were a good mix and balance. I highly recommend this dish if you eat here.

The last dish looked amazing. Rochelle ordered Oystercatchers’ grilled seafood trio. A lobster tail, jumbo scallop, and jumbo shrimp are all served on top of confit potato & bacon hash with kale and a lemon garlic sauce. You would think for the price that this dish was going to be amazing, as you can see from the photo. However, they cooked the lobster inside of the shell instead of pulling the shell off the meat to grill it. This caused it to sear to the shell, making it very difficult to remove and also causing the meat to become gummy-like and taste awful. Rochelle was utterly disappointed. She did like the shrimp and scallop, but couldn’t eat the lobster.

Oystercatchers did apologize and made good on the meal.

Pricing $$$-$$$$:  Remember that this is a hotel restaurant, which means it is pricier than your stand-alone eatery.