It was our anniversary. I wanted something special but not too formal. Located in the Hyatt, they were fantastic about everything. We booked reservations a week earlier for the Saturday (they aren't open on Sundays) and the only complaint we had was parking. We ended up parking away because the parking lot was full. So we parked down underneath Jack Singer and Plus fifteened it to the hotel ... about a 5 minute walk. The parking for The Catch and their Oyster bar is complimentary, if you can get into the lot.
The service was excellent. We booked through Open Table and the restaurant called to confirm that we would be keeping our reservation for the date and time and I mentioned it was our anniversary, so yes we would. As a result we were served complimentary bubbly .. a dry Italian Presecco that was quite nice and fooled me into believing it was a Cuvee! Naughty little wine.
Since we're eating healthy, my date (aka the long suffering husband) chose a Caesar Salad with Pancetta and I chose the orange cranberry salad. We each had a dozen fresh raw oysters with the accompanying sauces. Served on the half shell with crushed ice and small chilled sauce containers dug into that ice made for an excellent presentation and kept our oysters nice and cool while we finished our salads. Delicious. The New Zealand, PEI and Nova Scotian Oysters were fresh and fabulous with each of the sauces and just enough to leave room for dessert!
Our server explained a little about each type and even showed us how the oyster shells indicated farming or not! After a glass of Presecco we ordered a lovely Canadian Pinot Gris I'll be buying again. The wine list was on a tablet, and was quite elegant. It is not listed on their website, so after a bit of a search .... Sandhill Pinto Grigio was light, easy to drink and sold by the glass and went perfectly with the oysters.
The dessert was served in small mason style jars and topped with fresh berries and a white chocolate triangle. Chocolate cheesecake for Him and chocolate licorice pudding for Her. Lovely. And the decaf coffee didn't taste like decaf, it was wonderful!
I would not recommend this place for families with children, there is very little on the menu that young (unless they're very precocious and love raw seafood) children would like. The ambience is very adult and yes, you can wear your designer jeans there, in fact two of our waitresses were wearing jeans!
The Catch also has a 'buy fresh fish' service. It would be fresh, if the oysters were any ndication, but it has to be pre-ordered, so planning a meal and *Evil Wicked Grin* parking is going to be considered when making such a purchase.
My Dearly Beloved is looking forward to trying The Catch upstairs for next year's anniversary.
In the meantime, I'm glad we visited the Oyster Bar!