Grand Central Oyster Bar

It’s probably been too long since you visited Grand Central Oyster Bar, and we get it—subjecting yourself to Grand Central Terminal without a train to catch feels wrong. But beneath the celestial ceilings, and the tourists staring up at them, this cavernous seafood spot is a true New York institution, where you should come to eat raw bivalves at least once a year. 

There's a dining room to the left full of people who have been ordering the catch of the day since the ’70s, and a windowless room called the saloon in the back that would be a nice place to go if you needed to hide. But we prefer the counter and oyster bar, right in the middle. They're a bit more dressed-down, and full of people who know how to do Grand Central Oyster Bar right: skip most of the menu, order dozens of oysters, and sip stiff, sloshy martinis in a place where not much has changed since 1913. 

photo credit: Willa Moore

The counter is first come, first served, and as soon as you're seated, a server—who might have an unironic handlebar mustache—will toss you a handful of oyster cracker packets from an industrial grade plastic tub, then ask you what you'd like. You'd like a martini, extra dirty so you can't taste the gin, and oysters. Many. Let your server decide which ones (include the Bluepoints), and they'll bring you an assortment of whatever's available on a clam-shaped metal dish, with paper cups full of cocktail sauce. After over a hundred years, the servers at GCOB have it down to a science.

Around you, families of four order one dozen each. A child switches between a Shirley temple and a cup of clam chowder. A teenage couple vlogs their experience, making a very good case for oysters being aphrodisiacs. A salt-and-pepper haired man eats flounder, a group of businessmen opt for raw clams while discussing quaaludes, and a woman finishes 12 oysters in five minutes flat. (Maybe she has a train to catch.) 

The rest of the menu is pricey and skippable, but you won't find a crowd like this one anywhere else in New York City. So, visit that natural wine bar, and order that caviar-topped whatever, but don’t forget about Grand Central Oyster Bar.