Starfish Oyster Bed & Grill is the sister restaurant to Ceili Cottage. Behind the helms is the Captain of shucks - Patrick McMurray (check out his accolades on your way to the washrooms they're quite impressive).
Before hitting a Pink Martini concert, and it being a hot day out - we wanted something light. My first thought - OYSTERS!
Located at Adelaide & Jarvis, this restaurant is especially busy between 3pm - 6pm for Zinc + Drink where you can get a dozen oysters for $15 (1 varietal) + $5 drinks. If you want a mixed plate that'll cost you $25.
Worthy of mention is that the menu is changed DAILY (hot off the press at 5PM).
And while I'm not a huge fan of the redheaded heroine from the hometown of Green Gables, the oysters from this East Coast locale are a winner and my go-to East Coast Canadian shuck. Move aside Malpeques! This is served up with FRESH horseradish (none of that bottled nastiness), cocktail sauce (more like a jam), and a Champagne + shallot mignonette. I'm a purist, so I liked it best with horseradish and squeeze of lemon.
Their Caesar is one of the best I've had in Toronto and at $5 a pop, make that a double ;)
Bread is baked daily in house with the herbs du jour. Today's was a cheese + chili potato bread and it was a nice change from the boring ol' baguette.
We also opted to start with the Duck Rillette served with house pickled veggies, whole grain mustard and spiced pear jelly. The rillette was really well-done, not too dry or tuna-like and it went fabulously with the pear jelly. The crostini were warm and housemade. Mmmm....
For our main we opted for the European Sea Bream served with spaetzle and broccolini. The thin fillets were cooked just right with a nice crisp skin.
I wish I had space left for dessert, but I didn't (though I think I will definitely return to try their Lychee Crème Brûlée with sake. I also saw very nice looking whole boiled lobsters that I want to return for. With their Zinc + Drink promo something tells me I'll be back here quite often throughout the summer.