Big Daddy's Crab Shack & Oyster Bar

Last night, a friend and I went for dinner at Big Daddy's Crab Shack & Oyster Bar, just West of University, on the North side of King Street @ 212 King Street West.


I had been here previously and loved it so much that I had been trying to go back for a while now. The only problem was they were either too busy (long wait for a table), or they were closed (we went too late). At around 7:30pm last night, we decided it would be the perfect place to eat and headed over.

When we arrived, the hostess informed us that there would be a ten minute wait for a table. We decided to stick it out and went outside to enjoy what was left of the beautiful day on Big Daddy's outdoor patio. The minutes passed by quickly and soon enough, we were seated at a great table for two in the main dining room.


Our very helpful server advised us on the wine list, pointing out which white wine she recommended, as we didn't recognize any of the names. I ended up with a glass of Peller Estate Chardonnay - a nice and light white wine, bottled in Niagara Falls, Ontario. My friend ordered a Chardonnay from South Africa (I can't remember the name), but unfortunately it tasted a little sour.

Can you tell I used the iPhoto red eye reduction tool?


Then came time for the food. We decided to take advantage of the delicious oysters that Big Daddy's has to offer and ordered basically a full meal of them, as well as an order of escargots, which we started off with.

This is only the first side of Big Daddy's extensive menu.

Unfortunately, we didn't realize how hungry we were and dove into the escargots before I got a picture of the plate! But after we were more or less finished, I remembered to get a quick shot in. The escargots were in a mushroom and roast garlic sauce, mingling with mushrooms and garlic cloves and topped with three thin slices of garlic bread. We were both fairly unimpressed with this dish, as we felt there could have been more of a garlic taste. We found it to be a little bland, but enjoyed it nonetheless.

Then came the Crabshack Oyster dish.

These oysters were baked with snow crab and cheese on top. They were pretty good, although had a distinct taste of mayonnaise, which was sort of unsettling. Luckily, Big Daddy's provides a platter of jars of different sauces you can put on your oysters to give them more flavour.


The sauces range clockwise from mild - a balsamic vinegar sauce (bottom right), to extremely spicy (top right), with a banana pepper vinegar in the middle and Worcestershire.

Big Daddy's makes all of the sauces in house. (Sorry for the bad quality, it is fairly dark in the basement restaurant and with the flash on, the label is whited out!) This one is a mild sauce and as you can barely make out on the label, it is a cocktail sauce.

Then came the main event: the raw oysters! Big Daddy's has a deal called the "Big Daddy's Oyster Feature", where you get a dozen of their feature oysters for $18.99.

These oysters were from the East coast of Canada and were absolutely delicious. They tasted sort of buttery and not very fishy at all - the perfect oyster to slurp down with some of Big Daddy's house-made sauces.

We also asked our server, an expert shucker, to prepare us a dish of an assortment of a dozen oysters - some from the East and some from the West coast.

As you can see, there are 16 oysters there - the manager sent four extra as an apology for the slow service. There was a bit of a back-up on the oysters, so they took a little longer, but we didn't really notice! These oysters were delicious as well, although they had more of a fishier taste and required more lemon and sauce than the other platter of feature oysters. The non-feature oysters are all individually priced (very reasonably).

By the time we finished our meal, we had devoured 43 oysters and 12 snails!! We couldn't get over it. Our server offered us the dessert menus, which we looked over, but regretted to decline the scrumptious brownies, creme brulee and crepe (with bananas and chocolate sauce) because we were just too full!

All in all, we had a delightful, not to mention delectable, experience at Big Daddy's Crab Shack & Oyster Bar. In future, I would suggest making reservations, as there is no seating area in the main restaurant if you have to wait. There is a bar where you can wait with a cocktail, but it was pretty busy last night and it was only a Sunday.

Party Size: 2
Price Range: $20-$45/person
Visit Again?: Yes
Food: 4/5
Service: 5/5
Atmosphere: 4/5 (it's a little dark, as it is in the basement and seems like it needs a little sprucing up - but the Louisiana decor is fabulous! Mardis-Gras beads everywhere!)
OVERALL: 5/5

As they say down in Louisiana, laissez les bons temps rouler! (Let the good times roll),

StheF