After Austin, Aspen, Houston and tony Montecito, Clark’s Oyster Bar has opened its second California location in downtown Menlo Park.
The restaurant group knocked down the walls between Menlo Bazaar and Ann’s Coffee Shop, which closed after 75 years, to combine and reimagine both spaces. It’s a reminder that the present tense continues to pave over the past at a steady, persistent and sometimes alarming pace.
The new look conjures a vision of Ralph Lauren’s America, where summer days offer endless opportunities for a wide variety of nautical amusements. The lacquered wooden bar shines like the hull of a docked and well-tended yacht. The coveted booths and counter stools are upholstered like the colors of gemstones, in garnet and sapphire. Just inside the front door, tiny fish swim lazily around the circumference of a crystal clear aquarium.
From its perch, a taxidermied marlin, or the facsimile of one, stares out blankly across the dining room. And, most notably, a lovely plein air mural-sized painting of the coastline by Rob Moss Wilson captures the feeling of a sunny seaside walk.
The oceanic theme even extends to the bread plates, which are decorated with anchors. Only Neptune himself seems to have vacated the premises for his undersea kingdom.
No less than ten kinds of oysters ($4.50 each) start the menu off, indicating a bountiful harvest of fruits de mer to come. The long list of seafood dishes that follows includes (but continues well beyond): shrimp or crab louie salad, ceviche, tuna carpaccio, caviar (an order from Uruguay is $155), clam chowder, grilled Spanish octopus, cioppino, and a lobster roll.
With so many items to choose from, our table weighed the descriptions of each dish against the collective lunchtime mood. The heirloom tomato salad ($21) was a light start to the meal and easy to share. In my mind, I picture heirloom tomatoes as beefsteaks but these were cherry-sized and petite. They were arranged, with cucumber and croutons, on top of whipped ricotta spread that ate like a delicious lemony cloud.
After we left Clark’s, one friend said his Dungeness crab omelette ($34) was one of the best he’d ever eaten. The kitchen’s hollandaise also made him change his mind about the sauce, which can turn up as a heavy pour.
His wife was certain she was going to order linguine with clams ($38) but when our server approached she decisively went with crab cakes ($34). Evidently she’d made the right choice. At the end of the meal, there wasn’t a trace of crab or the companion watercress and frisée salad on her plate.
The most controversial food-related debate had to do with the lobster roll ($45). Someone was expecting it to be served hot. I was happy it was cold, like a tuna or chicken salad, mixed together with chopped green herbs and a refreshing lemon aioli. But I did take umbrage with the vehicle it was served in. The term “roll” applied to the sandwich in the broadest possible sense, as in some form of bread. White, nicely grilled bread, but not a roll per se.
The kitchen hollows out the center of what appeared to be a compact loaf before lining the center with a big leaf of bibb lettuce and then stuffing the cavity with lobster. It’s an awkward eat by hand, and much easier to consume with a fork.
When we sat down, the neighboring table had a small mountain of french fries ($14) that seemed to stay at the same height up until the arrival of their affogato ($13). The lobster roll comes with a quarter amount of the same shoestring fries (or cole slaw), and our table of four couldn’t finish them.
My particular dish, crispy rockfish ($42), was a hit with everyone but me. They all oohed and aahed over the stone ground grits laced with parmesan and the kick of spice from the surrounding moat of a sofrito sauce. But I didn’t like the ugly cut and cook of the fish, which turned an unappealing color. Had I followed my intuition that day, I would have ordered a fish from the “catch of the day” list—cod, halibut, opah, branzino or scallops.
The pristine interior of Clark’s proffers a preppy person’s idea of heaven. But the country club vibe isn’t snobby or unwelcoming. The exterior façade of Ann’s Coffee Shop might have been torn down and trashed but the heart of a friendly neighborhood diner is still beating somewhere inside the same address.
Clark’s Oyster Bar, open for lunch Mon to Fri 11:30am–3pm, brunch Sat & Sun 11:30am–3pm, Dinner Sun to Thur 4pm–9pm and Fri to Sat 4pm–10pm.. 780 Santa Cruz Ave., Menlo Park. 650.285.0855. clarksoysterbar.com/locations/menlo-park.
