Pearl Oyster Bar

True story — I saw a mouse run around the restaurant while being served dinner here. One of the waiters used what appeared to be a napkin and chased it around, caught it and threw it out. So… no, I won’t be returning. The food was very mediocre and I’m truly surprised by the high ratings. I had a taste of the chowder that my friend ordered and it was very ordinary. I had fish which was cooked nicely but bland. Definitely overpriced.

Great casual Dine! Food is Delish ! Good parking ! Must have the salted crispy shrimp and the fried oysters !!

Great old stand-​by, full of energy and welcome everytime we visit. LOVE oysters, (raw, fried, baked)…they are always SUPER fresh here. The classic West village neighborhood restaurant.

Pearl is an NYC institution so if you haven’t been and you’re visiting NYC, go enjoy for that purpose, and for raw oysters but not much of the food. The lobster roll, for which they’re famous, used to be better. The lobster meat is very decent but it’s slathered in tasteless mayo, blech. Better to just have the lobster meat. The clam chowder was too salty and missed the depth and character of a good chowder. It was like weak cream soup. The only dish that was «ok» were the fried oysters, but come on, anything fried with decent tartar is going to light up the fat receptor happy cells. Service was really poor. The seafood dishes may be better, but we didn’t try those so can’t comment.

had lunch here, nice place, friendly people, beautiful food, delicate, call it delicate, i call it washed out, too delicate for my taste. i like my sea food to deliver a punch of the ocean, salt, brine, iodine with intensity. the oysters were beautifully fried but with a faint flavor, if there was such a thing as fresh water oyster they would taste just like these. the clam chowder: i closed my eyes and i thought i was eating a potato soup, no ocean inside that bowl.

I mean, if it’s one of Ina Garten’s favorite restaurants it must be good, right? Yes, that is correct. And after having spent the past ten years of my life in Boston I can tell you this is the real deal for New England style seafood. Everything we had was fresh and delicious. The place has a bit of a weird layout, but luckily that doesn’t impact how the fish taste ;). I’ll be back here the next time I’m homesick.

Lovely little place. Absolutely delicious cod special of the day with well partnered veggie: Brussel sprouts, carrots @ parsnips in a white wine sauce. Paired with a sweet Italian white.
No changing table for kids. Not a lot of room for a stroller.
They don’t like anyone using phones in the restaurant.

I like a lobster roll, but I LOVE the lobster roll at Pearl. Their fries are out of this world too. The oyster appetizer is also a must on their menu. And the mussels. Pearl is a hidden gem in NYC!

The BEST lobster roll in the city. We crave this place once a month. Get there early or be willing to sit at the bar will help you get in and out. It’s expensive but quality. Why question?
The mayo is perfect balance without overpowering the fresh quality of perfectly cooked lobster. Brioche bun. Shoestring fries. Perfection!
We always finish our meal with a crumble pie to share. Blueberry only in the summer but apple and sour cherry works in the fall. Do it!

Best seafood ever!
We had blue point oysters, fried oysters, salted shrimp, clam chowder, and the scallops were heavenly!
Simply amazing!
Adequate and friendly service, not super engaging but that’s ok, the food was top notch and so fresh!!!

Nice little place
We started with oysters and finished with Raspberry pie with fish in between
All good
A little pricey

This place deserves 5 stars all the way and I really don’t understand why it only has 4. Yes the lobster roll is a little pricey but nothing compares. The truth is I am a little tired of lobster rolls and don’t even order them anymore although Pearls were the best I ever had.
I highly recommend the seafood combination cocktail appetizer. Its almost like a mini seafood tower served in an ice cream dish. SO SO SO yummy. I have been thinking of ordering 3 of them for myself as a main course one time.
As I previously mentioned I am a little burnt out on lobster rolls. SO last time I ordered the whole fish. I got a dorade and recommend it highly. This is probably the best fish I ever had in NYC and one of the best ever! It came out steaming hot the way I like it. It was so tender and flaky and delicious I am going to let this run on sentence run on.
SAVE SOME ROOM FOR DESERT
The ice cream Sundays are outrageous and are made with the best vanilla gelato. I always get one of each. The butterscotch/​caramel/​praline is ridiculous as is the the hot fudge. If you don’t think you can finish 2 share 2 with a friend and check them both out.
Get ready for a new favorite!

Some friends and I came here for lunch and had a wonderful meal.
Décor: I am a huge fan of the décor of this place. From the outside it is a bit unassuming but once you step inside you are transported to somewhere in New England, a quaint little café/​restaurant. There is a really cool bar area and the dining room, albeit small/​cozy, makes you feel right at home. The kitchen is right behind you and the wooden tables are very welcoming. Between the natural light from the front windows and the ambient lighting the atmosphere is completed nicely.
Bathroom: clean and matches the feel of the rest of the place
Staff: Our waitress was very laid back and cool. You could tell she knew the insides and outs of the menu and had no problem subbing upon our request.
Food: We started with the mussels and a shrimp cocktail and boy am I glad we did. Both were absolutely fantastic and the mussels especially… the broth… out of this world. We moved on to our lobster rolls and were shocked at the size of them. I’m used to Luke’s Lobster and this place blows it out of the water (in a size comparison). Now, as it was explained to me and I would concur, this is a totally different style of lobster roll from Luke’s but it did not disappoint. Combined with the shoestring fries… WOW. Perfection!
Value: It’s a nice place and it’s seafood, naturally the prices will be higher. But the atmosphere and the food… you certainly get your money’s worth here. Of course I’d like the prices to be a bit lower but what can you do.
For my first every non-Luke’s Lobster lobster roll I was blow away. This place is great and I cannot wait to come back!

Best Lobster Roll in the North East.
Best Fried Oysters Ever!
Dream about this place.
Perfection is hard to beat and this restaurant surpasses perfection.
Service is great
Everyone super friendly

I love love oyster. In a hot summer night. That’s everything I wanna have for dinner. Thanks for my bf I discovered this place. Will come back soon !

The Quick: The menu is as small as the restaurant, but what they do, they do very well. Seafood only. They don’t accept AMEX.
The Details: If you’re not overly excited about seafood, this is not the place for you. The menu is filled with options such as branzino, whole cooked fish, lobster rolls, and a raw bar. The fried oysters stole the show for me. The softshell crabs were also delicious. Glasses of wine were $ 9/​$ 10. Overall a cute spot in a nice area of town.
The Damage: I thought it was a little pricey, but we did get a plethora of quality seafood. Two entrees, fried oysters, and drinks for 2 people came to ~$ 130 before tip. I would return.

If you’re searching for lobster rolls or fried oysters, Pearl’s got you covered. Not a huge place and relatively limited space, but not an issue if you don’t have to wait for a seat. However, I can see how cramped it can get by the door as more and more people start to gather. Since they don’t take reservations it would be best to plan accordingly if you intend to dine with a group.
I came here with my fiancé and ordered their fried oysters, combination cocktail, lobster roll and their bouillabaisse. Everything came out fairly quick. Not a long wait for any of the dishes. Service was friendly and straight forward as they pointed out their specials of the day on their chalkboard and took our order.
Their food was a big hit for me and my fiancé. We both enjoyed their large combination cocktail dish. It contained 2 fresh and peeled jumbo shrimp hang on the edge of a tall parfait cup, while clumps of lobster meet and a claw is placed inside on top of freshly shucked oysters and claim meat. Their cocktail sauce was standard and barely worth a mention but all the seafood in the combination were fresh and had the natural briny flavor. The fried oysters were really good. Not fried to a crisp and not too oily which left the flavors of the oysters intact. Their tartar sauce was not too heavy, with bits of diced veggies and had a good mayo tang. Each piece of fried oyster was a plump morsel of juicy salty seawater. I certainly felt like I could’ve had a dozen or two.
The lobster roll was well plated, with a warm and lightly toasted bun on the bottom and a decently sized piling of chunks of mayo mixed lobster meat. If you’re not a fan of mayo, you probably won’t like the lobster roll they have here at Pearl. My fiancé said their lobster roll was one of the best she’s ever tasted. An assortment of shellfish and crustaceans, the bouillabaisse was nothing short of delicious. Nice briny broth topped with half a tail of lobster, one shrimp, one grilled scallop, two clams, grilled dorado and mussels galore. Salty like the sea, the broth was so good that dipping some bread in it was a must. There were a few mussels that had a funny flavor but still edible.
Price is a bit high, but the food was very good. They don’t accept Amex. Waiting for a table could take some time.

If only Pearl Oyster Bar wasn’t $$$ in both my eyes, I would eat here every week.
On a Saturday evening they were completely fulled and my lovely boyfriend knew that I want lobster roll so bad so we decided to wait. We just waited about 45minutes, it was totally worth it. (45mins only? I think I’m lucky!!)
We started off with drink, a beer. The we ordered ½ dozen of blue point of oysters, pan roasted sea scallops, Seafood cocktail and my favorite Lobster roll!!! Of course, hot fudge sundae is a must for dessert, yummy!
The service was great, food are delicious. Omg I’m in love with the lobster roll.

I had this place bookmarked for a while, so I was happy to have the opportunity to try it based on the high Unilocal reviews. I was not disappointed. I learned later that this is one of my sister’s favorite places…
It was a rainy Saturday night in NYC… it’d been raining all day. Having just listened to jazz and slamming back draft beers for a couple of hours, we were working up an appetite and Pearl was just aways up the street… utilizing my handy-​dandy Unilocal bookmark distance locator map…
We were 3. I was told it would be about a 20 – 30 minute wait. No prob. A couple of glasses of Chateneuf-​du-​papes and we were fine to sit on the windowsill bench. After a while, I noticed a party of 4 was seated ahead of us. The guy apologized but said he was forced to seat «to capacity» (translation: if you have 4-​top, seat them over a 3-​top). But, noticing our wait, he offered us another round of drinks on the house. Yay. Back to my happy place.
The atmosphere was fun. 2 sides to the place, one with a bar, both leading back into the kitchen. The owner took our order and was helping out with everything.
When we were finally seated, I knew exactly what to order — clam chowder, fried oysters, and a lobster roll, to share. OMG, it was sooo good. Ordered another lobster roll. Then topped it with the chocolate mousse.
Would go again for sure…

I love the vibe of this place – it’s warm, cozy and fits the Cornelia Street character. My friends are big fans of this place, and perhaps if I had ordered lobster rolls like they did, I would agree. In fact, I not only had a mediocre meal, I suffered unpleasant side effects from one of their dishes (or at least I am quite sure it was the cause.)
I ordered the clam chowder and the salt-​encrusted shrimp. The clam chowder was good, but I have had thicker, meatier chowder served from shacks along Highway 1 in California. It was fine but would not rank as one of my favorite clam chowders.
The salt-​encrusted shrimp is where my meal went off the rails – along with the next three days. This dish offers up three large shrimp, battered and fried over the shell.
Now apparently the shells are supposed to be fine to eat and some people claim they add to the taste. I really hated the meal – the shells were gritty and ruined the meal, in my opinion. But, the taste and mouth feel of the dish were hardly my greatest concerns.
The next day, I started suffering from abdominal pain and some other GI symptoms that I won’t detail on Unilocal but come when one eats much too much fiber. That night I got not one wink of sleep because the discomfort was so bad, and the day after that I had to cancel plans. It took three days before I was feeling okay and another day for the symptoms to completely subside.
Maybe my GI system is more delicate than everyone else’s, but if so, this would be the first time the problem has evidenced itself. I will not be eating the exoskeleton of an arthropod any time soon, no matter how hip it is among fans of the Paleo diet. If shrimp shells sound fun to you, then please disregard this review and enjoy the salt-​encrusted shrimp (which really did not taste of salt at all) at the Pearl, but I cannot recommend that meal based on my three-​day post-​meal experience.

The food is pretty fantastic here.
Perfectly grilled lobster, one of the best New England Clam Chowders around, crispy shrimp, fresh oysters. Just do it!

Pearl’s is your no frills seafood joint. The hand full of times I’ve been here through the years have been somewhat inconsistent in terms of food quality. The place is separated into two rooms with the first being where you walk in from. You’ll noticed a bar top to your right and a long counter to your left. Towards the back and to the right is another room for tables which isn’t very big so expect to hear what your fellow patrons’ mother in law told her friend Bernice from Israel.
Based on my record, lobster rolls here are usually a hit or miss. They don’t skimp on the meat and this isn’t your typical New England style lobster roll either. It’s mayo based with a heavy emphasis on mayo. It’s like your ordered a mayo roll with a side of lobster. Pearls also has specials menu which include some type of fresh fish which is grilled /​fried. I’ve ordered the fried skate once and it was way too salty. And there was that time when i ordered the bucket of steamers off their specials menu. Wasn’t cleaned well enough and still tasted the sand. Told the waiter and he said they had cleaned it. I told him to taste anyone of them in the bucket. Of course he didn’t and comp’d me of it.
Everyone other time the food was decent. Maybe it was a change in staff through the years. I mean there’s always a wait for this place during dinner time so they must be doing something right. Not the best but definitely not the worst in town.
Beer and wine only.