The Oyster & Thistle Restaurant and Pub

Mmmm great food. My fave so far, chanterelle ravioli, and the raw oysters.
Spouse likes oyster sandwich and Ceasar with fried oysters.

Great food, nice ambience, and an attentive wait staff. Me and my wife had a lovely evening together here during our stay in La Conner. Highly recommend if you like good priced high quality food and a nice romantic evening. The Samish bay oysters were amazing, and the entrees couldn’t have been better. We tried the french onion soup, crab stuffed ravioli & breast of duckling. Everything was seasoned perfectly! The onion soup had a tad extra cheese than expected, but c’mon, who doesn’t like more melted cheese!
Will definitely be back here for dinner again!

This is one of those restaurants that deserves a trip to a place just for it. We stayed in La Conner for the weekend and we came here for dinner on Friday. It was so good that we decided to come back on Saturday because we were excited to try the other items on the menu. Of course we were not disappointed. The restaurant has a French inspiration with a local twist. The food is prepared from scratch and carefully sourced. The service is great, very friendly and attentive. We had a few chats with the owner and the other members of the staff. On top of that, the prices are super reasonable. A similar restaurant in Seattle would charge at least the double. All in all, if you are in La Conner you have to eat at Oyster & Thistle. If you’re not in La Conner, consider a trip to try this amazing place.

Rainy Tuesday afternoons in January are very quiet days for businesses in La Connor.
Today my mom and I were treated to a gorgeous meal by Chef Palmer and Cheri; beautiful local food prepared with tender loving care served with just the right balance of attention and distance so that we could talk and enjoy without hurry.
Thank you for a beautiful afternoon.

My girlfriend and I decided to have dinner here at the Oyster Thistle Restaurant and Pub because she loves oysters and I noticed that this place had some great reviews already. We went up to the dining room initially, but then decided to eat in the bar area… I guess it was too «fancy» for her, but our server had no problem moving us. We had the filet mignon, half dozen of their oysters, and the muscle bisque… she had a glass of white wine and I ordered the Irish Mule. My drink was great and her wine was ok, but decent with the oysters according to her. They brought us some bread with butter… very delicious as well. The filet was yummy, but her muscle bisque was a little too creamy and only had 3 muscles in it… I told our server about it and she immediately said that she would take it off of our bill. I wasn’t expecting that, but they went out of their way to make things right. Therefore, I give this place 5 stars. Service was a little slow, but still quite good.

Fabulous restaurant with both French and Italian dishes. My Dungeness crab ravioli was to die for. Service, ambience, cocktails and menu all an excellent choice for dinner.

Excellent late lunch on a road trip from Kirkland to Deception Pass on Black Friday. I had the oyster stew, which was honestly the best ever, and hubby ordered the escargot, which he really enjoyed. We started with the Caesar salad and warm bread fresh from the oven. Add to the meal the excellent local beers on draft and lovely atmosphere, and it was a 5-​star meal. For white table cloth tables and waiters in ties, this seemed like a real deal to us. Made from scratch oyster stew where each bowl is made to order– what’s not to like?

Remarkable little bar downstairs and great food upstairs. We all had the oyster stew and it did not disappoint. The owner was very warm and friendly, this place is clearly a labor of love.

We had the pleasure of dining here on Halloween night. We weren’t sure how busy it was going to be on a rainy, fall Saturday evening so the Mr made reservations ahead of time. To our surprise it wasn’t as busy as we thought. Though we should’ve taken that into consideration when we were sight seeing earlier in the day and the whole town was pretty quiet. From start to finish service was delightful and friendly, there wasn’t any pretentious, snotty attitudes. The atmosphere was warm and inviting, it may be the «fanciest» restaurant in town but we thought it had a place in La Conner. It added to the charm. The restaurant has a pub on the 1^st floor, then their cozy dining room on the 2^nd floor.
Here’s a run down of what we ordered:
Appetizers:
— Shucked Oysters: So fresh, briny and delicious
— Escargot: Tender, flavorful and so good dipped with their bread
— Pan Fried Oysters: Very good, the lemon caper aioli was a great compliment to these juicy bivalves
Entrees:
–Clams linguine (my choice): If you love clams, and clam broth this dish is for you. The linguine is made in house and has a good chew. I asked for extra bread to dip in the broth. Plenty of clams, and they tasted very good. Loved this dish.
–Paella (the Mr’s choice): He really enjoyed the dish, and liked all the different flavors and variety of proteins.
The cocktails we ordered were delicious. I had the Money Penny while the Mr had the Brown Derby, both were strong, but good. I liked the fresh grapefruit juice in mine.
Since we chose not to eat much during the day in anticipation of our big dinner, we ended our wonderful meal with the chocolate mousse. It was made with dark chocolate, and really was a great finishing touch to our meal.
Overall great experience, good, fresh food, and awesome service. Can’t wait to come back when we’re in town.

I really don’t know how to write about this place. I really, and I mean really, enjoyed the food. It was unexpectedly good. The restaurant itself was odd (outside the bar downstairs, which is great). It was trying to be a really nice place in a casual setting. I mean servers with ties in La Conner… it doesn’t fit. The building has an old school wood charm that they over dress. I get the food is not bar or family style food, but you can make a restaurant fancy and special and still keep it casual and fit the area.
They oysters were great. They were served with a mignonette granita. The gnocchi with gorgonzola and pear was delicious. My friends seemed very impressed with their burger and French onion soup.
I felt the service was a little cold and snotty to start, but they did warm up a bit towards the end.
I just felt this place did not fit the setting.

I really wanted this experience to match the charm of this little establishment, but unfortunately the food was not the greatest.
Oyster & Thistle is located inside older hillside house, with fireplace, plenty of art on the walls, small rooms with wood accents and soft carpeting. The first story has a cozy looking bar, and restaurant seating is upstairs.
The service was great: we were pulled in and accommodated quickly by friendly staff. Unfortunately the food was just OK. They baked oysters that we got for an appetizer were slightly overcooked. The Parmesan cheese that was put on top didn’t provide enough flavor for them, as most of the juices evaporated from being in the oven. For the second course I went with the halibut, after hearing from the waiter that now it’s in season and that they get it fresh every day. I don’t know what happened to the halibut that ended up on my plate though. It was a little dry and just didn’t have that rich characteristic halibut’s flavor. The citrus salsa that came on the side didn’t help to liven it up. I paid over $ 30 for that dish and didn’t enjoy it at all!
I came here with a friend after day of exploring Whidbey Island and when we walked to Oyster & Thistle I thought that we are transported to the French country side. Or even to the movie «Sideways» where the actors explore the vineyards and outdoors during the day and for the evening they get dinner at those full of ambiance and rustic looking, but still fine dining establishments. Minus the food itself, that experience was still pretty cool.

The dining room has great ambiance, it’s a little noisy but not loud, and the food is outstanding. Our service was a bit slow, and got slower as the evening wore on. We will be return customers for sure, but perhaps we’ll try one of the other restaurants in the area first.
We did not spend much time in the pub downstairs, but it looked like a great *little* spot for a few drinks. The outside seating looked sunny, clean, and very inviting. Like I said, we will definitely be return customers.
This place is perfect for a date night or a girls night, when you’re not in a time crunch.

We loved this cozy place. It has a very welcoming feel to it. Service was great and the food was outstanding. I had the Pan Fried Oysters with Fettuccine and it was perfect. Nice selection of beers on tap, too. Will definitely return.

We were there in May. The staff was so accommodating because they noticed my husband walked with a cane and wanted to make sure he limited the steps to climb so they offered an entrance through the kitchen which made it sooo much easier for both of us!
Now for the food. Its wonderful. Homemade onion soup, for starters. with gueyer (?)cheese instead of the extremely salty stuff that comes powdered in a box. the salads are cold… served on a cold plate. with a cold salad fork. scrumptious! are you getting it now?
I forget what the entrees were that we devoured because I’m almost 80 now and at the time I had a beer. But I do remember we loved this place on the hill in la Conner… did I mention the word devour? I would recommend this charming restaurant to everyone. it is definitely a destination restaurant!

Among a number of really good quality restaurants for such a small town, the Oyster and Thistle consistently delivers the best overall experience.
I have the privilege of eating here often — typically at least monthly. The food never disappoints, and the meal tonight was good as always. You can get panfried oysters in a number of different dishes, and they are all superb. If raw oysters are your pleasure, you can count on good quality locally sourced varieties. They will also have tempting specials to consider along with the quality items on their standard menu.
Cassoulet is also amazing and a great choice on the menu. You’ll also find a good choice of beers on tap as well as a very good selection of wines.
The service is always impeccable and the setting is very cozy and inviting. It’s certainly the main dining attraction in a town that is worth visiting for the weekend for the food alone.

Lol.
Oh, I’m sorry… Despite all of the available tables … We are booked.
These guys are pretentious as all get out. Hilarious. :)

A wonderful find. We stopped in here after hiking in Deception Pass State Park, and we’re so glad we found it. We ate dinner in the bar area because we were dirty from hiking. Service was friendly and the food was fantastic, especially the crab ravioli, halibut, and apple-​fennel salad. Yum!
My only complaint is that the food took a long time. Even the oysters and salad, which aren’t cooked of course, took a while time to arrive. Maybe they were just short-​staffed that night. Thankfully we were at a booth with a deck of cards to keep us preoccupied.
I recommend it and will be back.

We were only in the pub, but what an awesome little pub it was. Wood everywhere, little booths with slender little tables. It really feels like you’ve stepped into a centuries old pub in Ireland. The food, my god the food, was incredible. Duck Confit flatbread. I had a Boneyard IPA and the wife had a French 75. A great way to end a day of tiptoeing through the tulip fields.

We began our evening with cocktails in the pub downstairs. My lemon drop was made perfectly – not too sweet – not too sour. We moved upstairs for our meal and we’re greeted by a most gracious host, who was also the owner. I ordered boullibaisse and was served a huge portion in which the fish was perfectly done and the sauce absolutely delicious. My husband had the filet mignon with crab stuffed shrimp. Again– done perfectly, tender and delicious. For dessert we had Bananas Foster done table side, the flaming dish attracted the attention of the other diners. It was the perfect end to a perfect meal.
The service was impeccable and our waiter didn’t bat an eye when we informed him that we were both gluten free. He merely suggested a myriad of options already on their menu that would more than suffice.
We spent three days in Laconner and The Oyster and Thistle was our very favorite place to eat.

We went to Oyster & Thistle because of the Unilocal reviews… We started with a cocktail and flat bread int the bar. The flat bread was the best I have ever had with pieces of apple, brie and chanterelle mushrooms topped with arugula YUMMOOOO.
Then we went up stairs to the restaurant for dinner. The wait staff were very professional and friendly. I can not wait to go back and try several more items on the menu, we will definitely be bringing friends.