Cool City Oyster Bar

This was truly one of the worst dining experiences I have had in Toronto. I should have been tipped off by the restaurant’s terrible name.
We got there on a Thursday night and the restaurant was completely empty. There was maybe 1 other table of people. We ordered a round of drinks and proceeded to wait 20 minutes for them to arrive. When they finally did arrive, I was horrified at the extremely small portion size — no way it was even an ounce. For $ 11 cocktails, I expect more than ¹⁄₃ of a glass.
We then proceeded to order 3 dozen oysters. I cannot think of a food that should come out faster and yet we waited 40 minutes for the order to come. However, when our order came, we were informed it was only half of our order (18 oysters). They were just ok. We also ordered the prawns which were actually delicious and came out in a reasonable amount of time.
I expressed to the waitress our displeasure and she refused to apologize and informed me I «wasn’t going to win». I wasn’t aware there was a competition, but she was correct as clearly a person who waited as long as I did for oysters was in no position to be victorious. After waiting another 15 minutes following the first batch of oysters, I informed the waitress that we would like to take whatever oysters were ready and our bill. She brought out a dozen oysters as she informed us it would be a few more minutes for the remaining 6 oysters and we were not prepared to wait. At least the 2^nd batch of oysters were a bit better than the first.
To summarize: terrible service, mediocre oysters, no atmosphere and overpriced. At least it is a nice patio? None of us will return, that is for certain.

Ugh, I write this review with the same regret that Ed P. shared — I think we may have been watching him and his party wait (and wait and wait) for a table after our own incredibly long and similarly-​ignored wait.
To begin: I’ll start by saying the blonde server was working her ass off. She was running back and forth, trying to keep on top of things, and I think she was really doing her best. Alas, she was not our waitress.
— I *know* they were slammed, probably because of the rain + Open Roof crowd trying to stay dry, but they did not maximize their potential. Bar-​style seats were filled by purses rather than people. We would have gladly and comfortably shared our oversized 4-​person table and indicated as much by sitting on one side of it. No one seemed to even consider this — despite a line-​up of people wanting to eat their arms off (myself included).
— Our looooooooong wait in line was completely unacknowledged. Gimme a hint — 10 mins? 30 mins? Do you know I’m alive? Do you even want my money?
— The menu was very vague: lists of ingredients, but no descriptions. For example, something like «lime» could mean a whole damn lime served raw or a squeeze of lime (hint: it’s probably just the squeeze). When [what I can only presume were] entrees range from $ 15-​$ 24 (iirc), I want to know a bit more.
–Waitress totally walked away after I ordered a drink, but my partner had yet to do so. We laughed it off, but after reading another review where the same thing happened, I had to wonder.
— Food review: we had fries (big, salty, satisfying as food replacement for arm-​I-​had-​wanted-​to-​eat), the three beef «snackers» (aka, sliders), and chicken yakitori. I’ll get to those, but the sliders were really good, if not a bit simple. I would have ordered ½ dozen oysters had the waitress followed up with me about them like she said she would, but no.
The killer: after being SO hungry and SO happy at the arrival of food, we realized that we couldn’t eat a third of it. We tore apart the sticks of chicken yakitori only to discover that they were way too pink inside. I’m not a picky eater, but I am a sensible human being trying to keep myself alive. It was a huge disappointment. I hate not eating food!
And then we waited. We had nothing on our table except this rejected plate of undercooked chicken skewers and no-​one cared to notice. When we finally got the attention of our server, I said «We can’t eat these — they’re really pink inside,» she asked «Did you want them reheated?» Uhhhhhh…“Um, no… I want them… gone?” (also by the magic that is the passage of time we were not hungry any more)
The KILLER killer: they were on the bill. We slapped down some cash and left. (ps, miss, in case you’re wondering, your tip was included in the bill under «CHICKEN YAKITORI»)

Food was fine, service was a mess. The POS system was down, as it is for every other review below me. Waitress was not having a good night… food was slammed in front of us and she couldn’t even be bothered to waste a smile on our table. We had to really work hard to even order what we wanted from her– she’d just walk away mid order. She was a petite asian lady but I never found out her name.
Our $ 10 beers weren’t even given to us fully filled to the line. Tons of head– just terrible pouring. This happened to all 4 of us that ordered beer. Whoever was working the bar just didn’t care. We also paid $ 10 for two little chicken skewers. Just an unbelieveable rip off BUT the food was mostly good– just not for the price. These shimp-​prawn things that they had were delicious, as was their fish platter and mini burgers. However, these were tiny tapa style dishes that cost what a full meal would. Most of us left hungry after spending $ 400. In addition, the star of the show– oysters– were grainy. They also refused to separate our oyster orders at first, and we had to negotiate to get our oyster orders served per couple.
I probably wouldn’t have considered going back but our experience with the bills solidified our thoughts about this restaurant…
Upon spending $ 400 at their restaurant, we were informed that only 2 separate bills per table could be done. We had 6 people– so silly. It actually makes me angry that we had to spend 20 minutes calculating what we each owed– this is supposed to be customer service and a great night out! After a few drinks, we don’t want to sit there on a Friday night calculating a giant bill that they refused to separate even into three for each couple.
We will gladly go and spend our money elsewhere with this stupid rule. Because of this rule, one guy also accidentally double tipped the waitress and she didn’t say a word– we realized this after we left. She made $ 100 in tip from our table.
Horrible experience.

TERRIBLE SERVICE, will not be returning.
So I’m at the oyster yard as I write this. How do I make this not too long. I love seafood and have been to some of the best in Toronto… oyster boy, rock lobster, Rodney’s…take it from me this place has good food completely ruined by the worst service ever. I have to be the most laid back person in all of Toronto, no joke and this is the only restaurant where I have ever been vocal about the service.
Where do I start, so first off to get a drink and oyster order in it took 30 mins. Our waitress who was completely unattentive and rude told us that the payment machines were down and that’s why things were slow. PLEASE read the other reviews as this seems to be an ongoing problem. Our food took in excess of an hour for simplistic dish such as grilled octopus.
I am with a party of four and our mains all came at different times. I understand a few minutes between dishes but an hour and a half between each one is absolutely ludicrous. When I brought this second issue (the payment system being the first) the waitress said that they were extremely backed up in the kitchen. Which I get, but then looked around to realize there were only 2 other couples In the whole place. Which I said out loud to the server, she then managed another excuse saying the the restaurant is more of a sharing plates style place and that they meant to have the dishes delayed. But she failed to mention this when we ordered. All in all we were there for 3.5 hours. And suffered through the first 1.5 hrs with no food.
I see that many people on here enjoyed the food. It’s sad because this is a fine example
Of how good food can be ruined by terrible service. The atmosphere and service are critical to the success of a restaurant. I don’t think this place will be around for
Long.

New Favourite Restaurant in Queen West
Without hyperbole, this is one of my new favourite spots in Toronto. Got a reservation for 6 people at 8pm on a Friday night –same day– without issue. A+ for each: ambiance, food, beverage list, service and the live blues guitar!
The crawfish boil is a must and if you don’t like the critters, get it anyway just to dip bread (with homemade sweet butter) in the creole broth.
We also ordered popcorn prawns, lobster guacamole, seaweed salad, the tuna and a few plates of oysters. The tuna was bland compared to the rest and probably the only one that can be skipped. It is also a bit painful to pay $ 4/​oyster when buck-​a-​shuck is so readily available throughout the city but the oysters were fresh.
All that and we were comfortably satisfied. The bill came to about $ 50pp including booze, tax and tip.
Now winterized, you can sit comfortably year round to enjoy the crab-​shack-​chic vibes of this little gem.

I tried 3 times to get a reservation at this place. On two occasions they were doing renovations on their patio and the other time they were just closed.
One night my partner and I decided to just walk over and see if we could get a table. Amazingly there was this fantastic waiter who was able to make space for us. However another waiter tried to tell us there was no space. Clearly she wasn’t very customer focused. We ended up getting a nice table and were excited to finally try this place out.
Unfortunately we were very disappointed with the oyster selection as they had about 8 or 10 types of oysters on the menu but only 1 east coast type of oyster. Given that their name was cool city oyster you would think that they would have a better selection of oysters. Many people like either east or wet coast oysters. Perhaps it was just back timing on our part and they didn’t get any east coast selection that day but that is a little weird.
We ordered 12 or so oysters to start but if they had more selection we would have ordered more.
The crawfish dish was very tasty but there was not a lot in terms of quantity.
We had an order of 4 sardines which was extremely tasty and highly recommended.
All in all, the best part of this night was our server. He was super nice, very helpful, and extremely attentive.
Not sure this place lives up to all of the hype.

Came here and I was told I couldn’t order food until 20minutes…
First I was told there are no more tables, so I would need to wait an hour. But they said I can eat at the bar. So I proceeded to the bar.
Then the server tells us that although we are seated, we couldn’t order food until 30minutes later. She gave us the menu to look at, but we couldn’t order…
She didn’t explain WHY we couldn’t order, she just told us we couldn’t order and left us.
I had to wave another server down to ask why we couldn’t order foods, and the server replied it is because they are understaffed that evening.
AND THEN, a third server comes and tells us that we COULD order foods, but only the «hot» foods, not the «cold» foods, and not anything that needs to be grilled.
SO basically, we couldn’t order cold&grilled items such as OYSTERS, hamachi, octopus, tuna salad, sardines
I was annoyed at this point because the first and second server told my group we couldn’t order ANY items from the kitchen at all until 20minutes later. But the truth was, we COULD order, but only the hot items.
Apparently, the kitchen was understaffed so they couldn’t prepare «cold» dishes since those take longer to prepare.
ANYWAYS…onto the food, I only tried a few dishes since the menu was limited.
I had the crawfish boil, clams, and the conch. Overall, I enjoyed the food. The food was okay, but nothing really wowed me.
Near the end of our meal, I asked if I could order the sardines since it was getting less busy. I was able to place an order down for sardines.
I enjoyed the sardines, these were flavourful.
To sum it up, the food was okay. Nothing spectacular to convince me to return again.

Only open from June to October this annual pop up seafood shack /​patio restaurant became a must on my Summer to-​do list!
Arrived on a Friday night with my party of five for our 8:30pm reservation which I highly recommend as there is limited seating! The resto is all situated outside on a cozy wooden deck with tables situated closely together. It was raining out but thankfully the deck is covered so it didn’t bother us one bit!
They have a chalk board outlining the specials of the day, daily oyster offerings and special summer cocktails in addition to regular seafood offerings.
Being an oyster virgin I had to order some to try. Our waiter was really helpful in describing the different types. Based on his description we decided to go with B. C oysters because they are suppose to be more creamier and sweeter so he recommend one called the Royal Miyagi. The oysters also came with a toolbox filled with different sauces… I liked the chili oil the best. However I did my first oyster straight up to find out the true taste… it was a tad bit salty but really creamy tasting! Definitely won’t be my last oyster experience.
Our main reason for coming was to order the crawfish!
1LB Crawfish Boil — Creole seasoning, herb butter, kielbasa, fried onions, finger potatoes, corn
Another first! Came served up in a tin pail in which our waiter poured onto a wax paper lined tray in front of us. It was delicious vision while steamy vapours of spices and seafood invaded my senses. The crawfish was really fun to peel however I thought it to be too time consuming to harvest all those tiny delicious morsels of meat. The mini corncobs that came along with the crawfish was also really delicious as it absorbed all the creole/​seafood broth. I definitely got a lot of corn but only 3 or 4 teeny slivers of sausage and potato which was disappointing.
I loved the unlimited crusty warm bread our waiter kept refilling for us. I greatly appreciated it as it was good to mop up all that juicy broth.
We also ordered a side of
Noodles — cha soba, shiitake, tofu, snowpea, scallions, walnut miso
Served chilled they were super flavouful, loved the taste of the walnut miso which was infused into the mushrooms and chunks of tofu. A must try side!
Overall our group had a great time. The ambiance is really cool and fun and service was great all night long. It’s a great place to get your seafood fix and to try new things such as oysters and crawfish! All in all it made for a memorable night!

really enjoyed the food, atmosphere and service. Crawfish, charcoal grilled sardines and lobster bacon sandwich were my favorites! Conch was delicious too!

I live right around the corner from this place and have been wanting to go for weeks. Finally made plans with a friend and, as luck would have it, the afternoon turned cold and rainy. We weren’t sure if they would be open, but decided to stop in and found that they recently installed a roof on their patio! Timing is everything. The previous reviews indicated slow service, this wasn’t a problem for us. Of course, arriving at 5:30 pm on a drizzly Saturday evening helps ;)
We started with a spicy caesar and dirty martini, both excellent, along with a dozen oysters. We sampled 6 different kinds, all fresh and tasty, and their house made mignonette and sauces were divine! We then split the lobster salad, the mussels, the octopus and the hamachi. The portions were larger than normal sharing plates, which in reflected in the prices, and I’m having a hard timing picking my favorite. They were each unique and incredibly delicious. The lobster salad was rich and creamy with chunks of avocado and a kick or heat from the chillies. The mussels were cooked perfectly with a smoky cream and corn broth. The grilled octopus was nicely charred and paired with explosive flavours: sour pickled fennel, spicy red chillies and smooth roasted garlic and red pepper. Finally, the hamachi was fresh and light with pea purée and radish slaw.
It was a lovely meal with great service. The food was excellent and if I wasn’t so full I would go back and eat it all over again.

Wednesdays are their Crawfish night which featured a bucket of Crawfish that we’re decent in size (not tiny baby ones), corn on the cob pieces and bits of sausages which I thought they could’ve added more of. Overall a bucket of goodness and a beer for only around $ 20, that is also a perfect amount for one person. Their lobster was not worth the price, the taste was great but the portion size was not worth $ 20 dollars. The hostess was amazing and super friendly, the service wasn’t as attentive or quick as I would’ve liked but overall the food was great, dim lighting on a cali shack style patio. Next time I go will be sure to check out more items on their menu. Toronto needed this and now its here, go enjoy it!

On the plus side, the wooden-​decked patio at this out-​of-​the way seafood resto is a super sweet space… it feels like a high-​end beach shack and if you’re passing through the neighb, I’d definitely recommend it for beers or a bottle of vino on a nice day. (Note about smoking: it’s open air but you still can’t smoke anywhere on the patio).
But I can’t say I loved the oysters… to be fair, we only tried two varieties but some of them had little pieces of shell in the oyster which is a sign of poor shuckage. Also, I ordered a caesar (off their caesar menu) made with bacon-​infused vodka and smoked tomato juice… it arrived with no salt on the rim (boo) and the flavour of the drink was foul (may just be my personal taste, but I couldn’t stomach it). Pimm’s Cup and Mint Julip were better, but beware because the Julip is one strong-​ass bevvy.
The yogurt with honey and berries for $ 9 was okay but not great.
The Star reviewers loved the food here so go ahead and give’r a try, but based on our drinks/​oyster experience I won’t be running back, sorry guys.

3.5
Only open from June to October the Oyster Yard is a getaway that will make you forget you are in Toronto but in LA or somewhere coastline with the only thing missing is the rolling oceans and a sandy beach.
If it wasn’t rainy we would have been outside on the wooden patio and getting the full experience. But instead we were in their backup room (an event space in 99 Sudbury).
FOOD
They have lots and lots of fresh OYSTERS freshly shucked. They range from $ 2 – 3 each or around $ 30 for a dozen. Different types available but my favourite was the Fat Bastard — fatty but has a taste. If your like me and know nothing about oysters ask the servers about the different kinds and their taste! They will be more than happy to help.
Also very good was the BUCKET OF CRAWFISH. If you’ve never had, it’s the small crustacean that looks like a mini lobster but the size of a large shrimp. At the market price of $ 16 this was really worth it (and kinda of wished I ordered). Part of the fun of cracking it open with your hands and taking photos with a plastic bib.
On Sundays it was PAELLA day, of we we were asked to order ahead of time. About $ 20 – 30 per person, a good sized portion of Paella of various flavours. I ordered the Moorish (hearty, with lamb and chicken breast) but lacked the amount of meat. The lamb seemed like lamb sausages, minor detail but would be nice to know on the menu. The Jambalaya Paella was also filled with flavour, topped with crawfish and had a good seafoody taste. You cant really go wrong with any of them
The rest of their regular menu are a mix of small plates and mains. It’s hard to tellThe SALMON TARTARE ($ 16) was good, but had a mix of cherries, which made the entire dish sweet. It did not go well with the paella. It would have been better paired with just oysters. Unfortunately, it was also warm, thought it would have been better a little fresher.
TUNA SALAD looked also small, but piled high. Not sure if it was worth $ 20, but if you love tuna, might be a good choice.
I was told the veggie seafood salad was a large portion, and seemed like the veggie noodles were a good size but had lots left over for home.
DRINK
They have a good selection of beers and wines. There was a Cider on tap, it was good but had a bit of an after taste I personally didn’t like. Leave it for too long on the table, and I had many flies swimming in it.
SERVICE
I was taken aback when we all sat down, and no one asked us for drinks or anything. It wasn’t until about 30 mins later, that I flagged a busboy down and asked for my drink, and he didn’t ask my husband what he wanted either. They weren’t busy, but there was a lot of running around.
Angela, on the other hand, who serviced our table, was extremely attentive, took the time to describe each type of oyster to us (although didn’t really hear half the time), and knew exactly who we were from our preorders.
And based on that, MANUALLY (POS was broken) calculated separate bills for each of us by name.
More impressed was that she would constantly be taking notes of some kind behind us, and asked for feedback on the dishes. I think this is great, and I think most establishments should do more of this.
We had a great time tonight, and being a big group in a small place we got to do pretty much anything we wanted.
I would say 3 stars for food and value + 0.5 for service.