Ocean

What they advertise on the internet: Voted Best Restaurant, Best Chef and the recipient of The Wine Spectator's Award of Excellence for the past five years, Ocean offers fresh seafood in an exciting and contemporary atmosphere. The menu features fresh oysters and fish from around the world. Locally owned and operated by George and Harriet Reis.
Dinner Tues-Sat. starting at 5:30pm. Reservations recommended. 933-0999.


We decided to have dinner on Tuesday night and as we were riding around on SouthSide, we saw Ocean, although we both have dined here before, we thought this could really put the restaurant to the test, with our truthful thoughts about them and being able to come back and write about it, anonymously.

Ocean was not busy this night. We were able to walk right in. The hostess greeted us and we told her we were going to the bar first. Most of the time we have a few drinks at the bar then head to a table. This night, we really wanted to try Ocean out. We decided to have our drinks and meal at the bar.

Our bartender/server was Eric. We ordered our drinks, which came pretty fast as well as the set up for dinner at the bar. (place setting/water/menu/etc.) Eric told us of the nightly special and even recommended a few things. Immediately, we were served with a variety of breads and a dippng sauce and a nice little bowl of a cucmber/tomato greek mixture, which was divine!!

As we indulged ourselves in the "pre-appetizer" appetizer, We decided we would enjoy our first drink then decide on our real appetizer.

Our appetizer - we picked oysters. It was hard not to - since we were sitting right next to them. We were able to watch the oyster shucker shuck these babies and within minutes, we had our appetizer of full and pretty large sized oysters. The oysters came with several dipping sauces, all three were fantastic but I am still a fan of the traditional cocktail sauce and horseradish sauce. Overall, the oysters were good but I personally do not like big oysters and these were quite big. We will request next time, smaller oysters, much smaller.

Our next course was a salad. We ordered just a house salad. And, to be just a house salad, it was fantastic. A must try, is the fried feta cheese. All I can say on that is Yummy !!

Now, for our dinner choice. We choose a pan seared black grouper with vermont white cheddar cheese grits, haricot vertstasso ham in a wild mushroom cream and a wood grilled certified “hereford” filet mignon with hot red skin green bean bacon and maytag bleu potato salad with homemade worcestershire.

After we made our dinner selection, we were able to finish off our drinks and enjoy some good conversation between ourselves as well as with the bartender/server, Eric. He was very polite and was able to answer each of our questions about the different foods and the restaurant history. We were even able to pull out of him, his past experience of working in the food industry.

Our dinner arrived and I must say, what a nice presentation. On both of our first bites, we were both delighted. The fish was fantastic, not real fishy tasting nor dry. The steak was cooked to perfection. The sides that came with the meal, which are not large portions, were just as delicious ! We both nibbled on each others food and I was just as impressed with my friends dinner as he was with mine.

Overall thoughts of our experience, "we will be back." Everything from start-to-finish was great. The overall appearance of the restaurant was very clean even down to the restrooms. Service was great and we thank Eric. We, also, thank the Chef for the wonderful food that was prepared.

Definitely, Ocean restaurant is a place you need to check out. Even if you have to wait to be seated, it will be well worth it !