Restaurant Review: St. Roch Fine Oysters + Bar

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A few weeks ago, my husband and I had the opportunity for a night out in Raleigh, NC. The evening was planned as part of my birthday gift back in February and our ultimate destination was a screening of the movie “High Fidelity” followed by a Q&A with John Cusack. But first, we had to eat!

There are several restaurants in Raleigh we have been wanting to try but we only get a date night there about once a year, so we decided to do some research and narrowed it down to two choices. One didn’t have reservations available, so we decided to make a reservation at St. Roch Fine Oysters + Bar just a block off Moore Square. We didn’t know anyone who had been there before, but the menu looked great, they offered a selection of my favorite food, oysters, and the reviews on Yelp were solid. 

We arrived a little before 6 PM because we wanted to have plenty of time to enjoy our food without having to rush back to the venue before the screening started. Our reservation had us seated at a table, but once we saw that sitting right in front of the oyster shuckers at the bar was an option, we asked about sitting there instead and were easily accommodated. There were only a couple of other parties in the restaurant that early on a Saturday evening, so I’m sure that helped our case!

Upon being seated, our server quickly let us know that they run a happy hour special on oysters from 5-6 each evening. The particular evening we came in, they were offering Oyster Creek Salts from Davis, NC for $1 per. We quickly decided to order a dozen before the special ended and also placed a cocktail order. I chose and my husband chose. Both cocktails were great, but my husband particularly enjoyed the cayenne rim on his! The oysters arrived quickly and were served with mignonette, horseradish, cocktail sauce, lemon, and fried saltines. These were some of the best oysters I have had, and I grew up close to the Chesapeake Bay and have spent a good chunk of time on the Outer Banks of NC as well. They had a great briney umami flavor that lingered. I added just a pinch of horseradish to mine as I slurped them out of the halfshell and smacked on some of the saltines between oysters. I knew they would be a hard act to follow!

After we enjoyed our oysters, we turned our attention to the rest of the menu. There were so many items that looked enticing, we decided it was best to order a selection and plan to share everything. For our starters, we ordered the Crab St. Roch and Hush Puppies. The crab was a crab salad that would have easily worked as a starter portion for four people. It had a good kick and plenty of lump crab.  It was served over greens and with more of the fried saltines. The hush puppies were fried perfectly and accented with crawfish tails. They were served with a butter that we absolutely loved! It had a good bit of mustard in it, but also a hint of sweetness, but much less sweet than you find in some of the typical honey butters typically served with hush puppies.

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For our entree, we chose the steak frites, an 8 ounce ribeye, cooked to medium rare, then sliced and topped with anchovy butter. The frites were lovely hand cut style fries that were the perfect combination of crispy on the outside and delicately melt in your mouth awesome on the inside. In addition, we added a side of roasted asparagus. This asparagus was served chopped and topped with a poached egg and lemon aioli. Everything went down well and quickly accompanied by a Willamette Pinot Noir offered by the glass.

We were tempted by dessert, but our time was running short, so we decided to forego that option and head on to our event.

There simply wasn’t a moment of disappointment during this meal. We enjoyed every bite from start to finish! While it’s a challenge for us to get to Raleigh for a dinner like this except on rare occasions, we are definitely recommending a meal at St. Roch to our friends who live in the area or visit frequently!