Blue Point Oyster Bar has its circa-1940 East Coast look down, from its wood-shuttered windows and overstuffed booths to its retro signage and soft lighting. It looks clubby. It looks well-established. It looks . . . it looks like Shaw’s Crab House, to tell you the truth, though on a smaller, more intimate scale.
That last line probably made the designer wince, but comparisons between Blue Point and Shaw’s are probably inevitable. I don’t think Blue Point is in Shaw’s league just yet, but for a newcomer, Blue Point does enough things right to suggest that some day it might be a serious alternative.
And for now, it’s a lot easier to get a reservation at Blue Point.
Chef Lou Bastian wants to make Blue Point Oyster Bar the place in Chicago to go for oysters, which is no small goal. But Bastian takes his bivalves seriously. At least eight oyster varieties are featured daily, typically balanced between East and West Coast varieties, priced by the piece from $1.50 to $2 — not cheap, but the quality is there. I’ve had some great Malpeques and big, briny Lordship Bay oysters from Rhode Island, and delicious, creamy Snow Creek and Cortez Isle from Washington. Oysters are presented thoroughly chilled, with a horseradishy cocktail sauce and mignonette sauce. Additional sauces go for $1.50, including a cucumber-chile salsa that was surprisingly tame.
Other oyster preparations include spicy oyster shooters, served in a small tumbler; this essentially is a hefty Blue Point oyster floating in a Bloody Mary, albeit one with a bit less tomato juice and a bit more vodka. “Spicy oyster cocktail” might give customers a better inkling of what they’re about to imbibe.
There’s also a decent but unthrilling oysters Rockefeller.
Other appetizers include Cajun shrimp, a reasonably spicy dish of grilled shrimp with blackening spices over a chile-horseradish remoulade; and a fair-to-middling crab cake, not exactly bursting with crab but well-flavored and satisfying, served with a perfunctory tartar sauce and very good cole slaw tossed in a honey-mustard dressing.
Spicy shrimp gazpacho, a special, was a standout one visit; the jalapeno-laced tomato soup is fleshed out with diced bits of celery, onion and avocado. The shrimp, cut into small pieces, adds a bit of extra flavor to every other spoonful.
Grilled baby octopus is another keeper, cut into bite-sized pieces and tossed in a light vinaigrette with arugula and roasted garlic.
There isn’t very much Pacific influence on the menu (Bastian is swimming against the tide in this instance), but one notable exception is the escolar with a habanero-chile glaze, a wonderful piece of fish topped with caramelized scallions and served over rice flavored with coconut milk.
Another star entree consists of thick, meaty scallops, grilled perfectly and arranged around a pile of diced tomatoes and chilled asparagus over a light honey-balsamic sauce. Blackened amberjack isn’t blackened but dusted with blackening spices and grilled, but the firm flesh tastes great, paired with a spicy remoulade (as with the Cajun shrimp) and a very tasty tomato-olive relish.
Other entrees fall short of excellence in minor ways. The softshell crabs here are meatier than any I’ve had this season, deep-fried to a good crunch but then plopped into a forgettable tartar sauce. Excellent Florida grouper is served with a tasty Key lime butter sauce, but arrived lukewarm. Twin salmon fillets, smeared with a mushroom duxelle, are nicely done, served with “risotto cakes” that are twin disks of risotto milanese — a bit too starchy, but OK.
The only disaster was the flavorless sauteed turbot, a $25 special; even the lobster cream sauce underneath was a snooze.
Side dishes are skippable, though the potato-onion-pepper hash, a sauteed melange with lots of garlic, is a very satisfying dish. Sauteed mushrooms with too much rosemary are easily ignored; the sweet corn in chile butter is probably better on average than the fibrous, unsweet ear of corn I received would suggest.
The eye-catching dessert is The Big Cake, a $9.50 monstrosity that will feed at least four. It’s perhaps 6 inches high, consisting of layers of dark chocolate cake and cappuccino mousse, topped with chocolate ganache.
On a more human scale, there is a good Key lime pie topped with whipped cream, and an apple-cheddar crumb pie that is a visual mess but tastes fine. Baked Alaska, served in an individual portion, is a close approximation of the classic — spongecake topped with almond ice cream, encased in meringue and baked — without the fuss.
Apart from one busboy who greets tables with “you guys done?” and carefully places soiled knives back on the butcher paper, service is pretty good. Someone is giving servers a good deal of training on oyster varieties, which is smart. Occasionally our entrees arrived a few minutes ahead of the side dish, but because I don’t recommend you order side dishes anyway, it’s not an insurmountable problem.
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Blue Point Oyster Bar
(star)
741 W. Randolph St.
312-207-1222
Open: Dinner Mon.-Sun., lunch Mon.-Fri.
Entree prices: $14.95-$37.95
Credit cards: A, DC, DS, M, V
Reservations: Recommended
Noise: Conversation-challenged
Other: Wheelchair accessible; Valet parking available.
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Reviews are based on no fewer than two visits. The reviewer makes every effort to remain anonymous. Meals are paid for by the Tribune.
