White Oak Oyster Bar & Cocktail Lounge

Update: 1÷29÷2016
Returned for our third dinner and our experience with White Oak also wasn’t the same. Yes, they are still friendly and accommodating but the service and food we ate were questionable.
Service — servers
Joel — Amazing
Another sever (name left out) — questionable.
— I ordered their delicious fried chicken sandwich and asked to upgrade the side chips to truffle fries which usually cost an additional couple of dollars but instead our server placed a truffle fries order which was too much for us to eat or wanted to pay, truffle fries $ 14.
— our check was $ 62. I gave $ 80 cash and I think there was an misunderstanding, she didn’t return my change. Normally, I will tip 20% which in this case was ~$ 12-​$ 13, $ 18 for the service and food we received was a bit high. I kept silent since my return was likely.
Ordered
Cocktails. well made and delicious
Oysters — best place for 1 dollar oysters. Hands down
Truffle fries. Delicious.
Friend chicken sandwich — hit or miss
1^st time, delicious and highly recommended
1÷29÷2016 — Personally, disappointed that the burnt chicken sandwich passed the kitchen’s approval. My fried chicken was burnt, crispy/​hard, and chewy.
Previous review — — — — — — — — — — — –
Truffle fries
Chicken sandwich
Cocktails.
Oysters — 1 dollar on Saturday. Clean, and worth it!
All delicious. Go go go

Awesome place for $ 1-​$ 2 dollar oysters with a minimum drink.
Place is tiny with outdoor patio. Good for small groups.
Other small finger foods available and average pricing.
Owner and staff is super friendly.

Loved every moment of my first experience at the White Oak Oyster Bar! The owner, Dean, pays attention to detail and makes sure that all of his customers are comfortable and get the most of the social and sophisticated ambiance. Our waitresses Andrea and Shelby were delightful! They recommended great specialty drinks and walk our table through which oysters were their favorites (try the Sexton Blond, it’s delicious!) it was also my birthday and they made me feel so special with a delectable cinnamon pastry desert. Visiting from Maryland, I know I will definitely come back the next time I’m in the city.

My first time here, my friend had me try oysters which was something I had never tried before but after having them here I crave them. «Their» Margherita flat bread is also really good. Atmosphere and service is good as well!

My new favorite bar/​lounge in Hell’s Kitchen. The space and décor are hip and modern with brick wall on one side and gypsum wall on the other. The lighting is dim and overall the vibe is pretty relax. There’s an outdoor/​backyard seating that opens when the weather gets warmer.
The foods here are yummy. We ordered the salmon tacos, blue point oysters, shrimp cocktails, crab crawls and the burger. The burger here has this perfect combination of taste and juiciness. The servers are super friendly and helpful. We even get to try some drinks prior to ordering them. Overall I would recommend.

Owner and staff truly cares about service and cleanliness of this little gem. Great music and really good food. We had 2 dozen oysters and the grill cheese was to die for. The spinach dip was one of the best I have ever had.
Will be back and I am so happy they are in the neighborhood. We had a little holiday gift exchange here with some friends and it was festive and put us in the holiday spirit.

A bunch of us went for dinner and drinks. Great music playlist. We shared a few plates (chicken wings, spinach artichoke dip, west & east coast oysters, BBQ grilled cheese … everything was amazing. Very tasty meal. Great place, Dean!
Komoto Oysters! Fab

After receiving VERY splendid news, hubbs and I decided to celebrate with some HH, so I immediately Unilocaled nearby spots that offered dynamite specials and oysters on the menu. I came across White Oak and read a few reviews, looked at pics… the usual. I gave them a call to inquire about the daily special and the list sounded great so we took the drive uptown.
Parking was horrible in the area. You have to park quite a walk away because on most streets, parking isn’t avail before 6 or 7 and we got there around 5pm. Basically, by the time you find a decent spot, HH will probably be over. So here’s a tip: cab it or public transit.
The digs are nice, very grown-​up bar scene-​y. I get that their cocktail tables are designed to add extra drinking space to an otherwise, small décor and narrow front house but the decorative wreaths on the wall were clinging to my luscious locks and the tables were definitely not big enough to fit everything we wanted to order. Luckily, a guy at the bar was leaving so, I snagged two seats right next to the door. Downside? Every time someone entered or left, we froze a little. These are issues that really can’t be helped by the bar itself, so I dare not hold them accountable for events beyond their control.
We must have arrived at the perfect moment because, soon after, a hoard of people came pouring in and the place filled up pretty quickly. They have a back room that I believe they were setting up for the large party of people stand behind us. I got a chance to see them setting up while waiting for the restroom. The room they reserve for private gatherings is actually in the rear courtyard. It looks like they have heat lamps and it’s separated from the main. When they’re not using it for parties, they set up for dinner tables.
I knew upon arriving, I wanted oysters. We were lucky enough to be seated right where the guy shucks and prepares the raw bar orders. I asked for a dozen HH oysters, the Blue Points and Sexton Blonds, as well as six Beausoleils (not included in HH but I love them!). They were so fresh and briny and good! Hubby ordered Buffalo and Thai Wings which were both featured for the HH special. The drinks included for HH were not what we wanted. They only offered two types of wine, beer and one specific cocktail. It would have been nice if they offered well drinks because all we wanted was Rum n Seltzer, no fruit. We stuck with a cpl of those. When hubby went to feed the meter, I ordered one more item, the build your own Charcuterie Plate. I love that idea because I don’t eat pork and most most items are of the pig variety, so I’m usually stuck with the cheeses, cornichons and pepper jellies. Luckily, they offer smoked duck so that was a definite contender and, since I chose the three item plate, I paired that with brie and aged goat cheese. It was great. The duck was smokey and tasted wonderful. The aged goat tasted like a creamy bleu and the brie was, well, creamy ass brie! The plate could have used a few more crackers because I love to savour but it was a good celebratory snack. I wish there were more non-​pork meat items, such as a foie, chicken liver pâté or a duck terrine; I would have definitely ordered the five item for more meats.
The service was great. The bartender that was helping us was attentive (if you’ve read my reviews, you know I take that kind of service serious). Our empty plates were removed quickly so that we didn’t have the kitchen sink in front of us for too long. We didn’t have a problem asking for anything, even when it became super packed.
I would definitely come back for drinks and bar bites; probably not for a whole meal but, definitely for pregaming before dinner or for drinks afterwards.

Great service. good food. Awesome oysters. Nice and chill place away for the madness in Manhattan.

Been wanting to go to this place for a while ever seen I learn they had all day happy hour specials. My bestie and I are huge fans of the raw oyster, so any place with good deals and good food I wanna try. So happens in my search, this restaurant popped up so I placed it on my bookmark places to try. Last time while in the city, my friends and I try to come here for dinner but found out that they were close for a private party. Today after museum hopping, my friend and I ponder about where to go for dinner, so I suggested we look up my bookmark of places to try. This place popped up on the back of my mind. This evening we finally made our way here, and it didn’t disappoint.
We ordered 26 raw oysters of both bluepoint ($ 1 ea) and sexton blond ($ 1.50 ea) and a dozen Thai style wings ($ 1.50 ea). The oysters were well presented. It tasted fresh and delicious. I prefer the bluepoint over the sexton and they are 50 cents less. The Thai wings is all the rave. One of the best I’ve had compare with other establishments. For drinks, I tried the non-​alcoholic beer while my friend got the apple pumpkin cider.
As for décor, the place gives off a stylist lounge bar vibe. The place is quite small however. And one negative is that all the seating is stool seats except for the couch seating. But as I am short, I particularly hate stool seats. Hard to get on and off… sigh. customer service is on point. Our waitress/​bartender was very nice and friendly. The server/​General manager (Chef Steven Del Lima) was super friendly and provided appropriate service. Probably one of the best all day happy hour finds in the city. With top notch customer service, great prices, and good environment/​vibe, what more can one ask for. Maybe lower seats. But thats the setup, so probably cannot be changed. Despite that, my friend and I agreed, we will be coming back. Maybe our new go to spot for raw oysters and wings. Yum!

So my friend really urged me write a review for them, cause they’re just that good.
We came cause my friend really wanted oysters. Luckily we came during happy hour, their special is any two drinks and oysters are 1 dollar per blue point oyster and 1.5 per Saxon. We got a bottle of FERRARI-​CARANO FUME BLANC, which was on special for the day, meaning 25% off. The bottle was pretty good — really refreshing, was a really nice summer wine. The oysters were really big and fresh. This place has one of the best oysters I’ve had. For the size of them, they should have tasted pretty fishy or… to quote one of my friends… like horse manure. These were really fresh and good, they just had that oyster taste and nothing more. We ordered a dozen each just because we could… why would we give up on 1/1.5 dollars oysters? Definitely worth the buck.
We also got the Thai Chicken Wings, and Spinach and Artichoke Dip. The Spinach dip was really good, at first my friend wanted to go easy on it cause it has so much cheese. However, after actually tasting it, I literally had to fend him off, war almost broke out between us. As for the Thai Chicken Wings, my friend enjoyed them a lot more than I did. They were a little too sweet for my taste. However, my friend thought they were spot on with the Chinese Caramelized Chicken taste. The weird thing about this is, my friend is generally the one who doesn’t like to eat sweets. So for me to be like omg, it is way too sweet and my friend to be like omg it is wayyy tooo good, is weird for me.
Alright, as for our main course (I know we ordered wayyyy too much), we ordered the Angus Burger with Truffle fries. To say that it is really good is an understatement. After eating sooooo much before hand, my friend still managed to finish the whole thing. I had only a bit cause I was soooo stuffed. But my stuffed-​ness did not hinder the amazing-​ness; the patty was really juicy and flavorful and the cheddar really shined through. I was really happy that they had lettus and tomato but no onions cause I’m no raw onion person. The lettus and tomato really give it a nice lift, so it wasn’t all that dense. Although the heftiness still hit me after we left the restaurant. But the Angus Burger was so good that my friend has been pestering me to go back for the past two days. Every night while we are contemplating for dinner, White Oaks has been brought up. So I am pretty sure we will be coming back.
As for the Truffle fries… What is there to say? They definitely did not hold back on the truffle oil. It was extremely truffle-​y, those who has had umami burger’s truffle fries should give these a try. I think the cheese they use are better, they also sprinkle scallions on top which was a nice touch, the black pepper also give it another dimension of flavor.
As for other aspects of this restaurant, the décor is really nice, the place seems pretty new, lounge/​bar style. High stoles with sofa on the side, and dim lighting, really cozy, chill and laid back, totally can see the high class atmosphere they’re getting at.
The servers are really nice, I think we were served by the owner who was really friendly and attentive. Always had a big smile on his face and was really helpful with the menu.
All in all, I think we had a great time, and we thought this place was definitely worth our money. People are extremely nice, so next time when we do come back, I know for a fact that my friend will get the Angus Burger, and I want the Nachos-​looking-​pulled-​pork thing. I have no idea what it is, but considering I am already set with my next order White Oaks get ready to see me again!

Very disappointed. This is NYC and if you have the word «cocktail» in your name you need to be able to make a decent cocktail. There are so many places to go to happy hour in NYC but I was in the mood for a cocktail so I chose white oak since I figured a cocktail place would have cocktails on their happy hour menu. I waked in and it was decently crowded for 5:30 on a Friday so i took this as a good sign. I took a look at the happy hour menu and there was only one cocktail on it! It was a toasted blueberry cobbler and I usually like blueberry so I gave it a try. My sister ordered the smashing pumpkin off the regular cocktail menu. Well the drinks looked delicious but that was all. My blueberry cocktail tasted like robitussin and the smashing pumpkin had not even the slightest hint of pumpkin in it. Once my fiancé showed up I told him you better stick to a beer. Since the draft happy hour beers were $ 6 and $ 7 he went with the bottled $ 4 blond ale option. He didn’t like it but a beer is a beer so no real complaints there. I more wonder how much their beer is not on happy hour…
To the food: $ 1 oysters were decent. Nothing special but not bad as you get at some pretty awful $ 1 oysters in NYC. Thai wings were pretty good, we all really enjoyed them. Clam casino were good as well.
Service: now here is were I got really confused. It seemed like they had plenty of people working but I’m not sure who was really working. Owner seemed nice enough just focused on getting people seated. There was a bartender, 2 bar backs and another server I think for the tables. I think the bartender was the only one who actually did anything. Once I ordered my drink my sister asked the bar back for a water. He said okay. A while passed and I got my drink so I asked the bartender if we could get some water she said okay and my sister ordered her drink since she got there a bit after me. Drinks take a while to make which is pretty normal for good cocktails but since by this point it’s probably been 15 minutes we asked the bar back again for water. He was so confused and said you haven’t gotten it yet? We said no and he proceeded to walk over to the bartender and tell her we wanted water. How hard is it for him to pour two waters? Seriously it made no sense. The bartender was making drinks and he couldn’t pour a water? So finally my sister got her drink and ordered food and after that we finally got the water from the bartender. Just all seemed very odd considering this guy was literally standing behind the bar directly in front of us doing nothing and couldn’t pour two glasses of water. Anyway all and all a very underwhelming experience. We will not be back. Such a shame too since it is in our neighborhood.

Great happy hour special — had a dozen Blue Points and a few cocktails. I especially liked the monkey bread dessert and the flatbread. We got there around 4:30−5, and the place was mostly empty, though I imagine it gets much more crowded later on. Anyway, when I went the service was fine and friendly, and prices were reasonable.

Dollar oysters were very good but require two drink purchase, so more like two dollar oysters for our party of oyster loving alcohol intolerants. The wings were not expensive and also very tasty and the interior was nice with good service. There were some gnats which I read mentioned in another review, just kind of annoying.

Again great place!!1
I‘m not a drinker, but the food was Superb.

Would love to give this place a better review, but between the slow service and lack of preparedness I can’t.
Found white oak oyster bar on Unilocal and on Google so I thought I would give it a try. When I got there it was 10 minutes after opening and I was the 2^nd customer in the restaurant.
I asked the bartender if he had any oyster happy hour specials going on, reviews had said certain days they had oysters happy hour all day. He said yes, but they’re shucker hadn’t shown up. The first customer went to pay his bill upon which the bartender said the manager had not shown up with cash to the till yet! I ordered a beer and visited with the bartender who was quite friendly. About 20 minutes later I asked him if he knew what the oyster specials were, he asked the server who said it was going to be dollar Blue Point oysters with the purchase of 2 drinks. I ordered another beer and waited for the Shucker who finally showed up 40 minutes after the restaurants opening.
The Shucker took another 20 minutes to get the oysters set up and clean and then I then asked the bartender if I could could please get a dozen of the dollar Blue Point oysters. He was then informed by his manager who finally showed up with cash for the till that happy hour was not starting until 4!
I was the only customer in the bar, and was prepared to spend money with them. They would not extend the happy hour to me even though I was told it was an all day event! By this time I had to order food because I had to pick people up from LaGuardia. I ordered the dirty chips which took over 25 minutes to get to me. While they were good I would not say they were great. The barbecue sauce tasted bottled and the chips taste like Lay’s kettle chips, not in house made!
For such a relaxed atmosphere and friendly bartender, I hate to not recommend this place. The complete absence of professionalism and preparedness made for a very unsatisfying experience!

It’s new and it’s block away from the frenzy of 9^th Ave. It’s so new and so clean and so just new. We went there for their all day long $ 1 oysters and some wine. There’s outside seating but it was packed already so couldn’t really check out the view.
$ 1 oysters are what they are. It’s small and there isn’t much to eat. I like the fact that they add pickled ginger and seaweed salad.
I really don’t have much to say about it except I would rather be at Medi Wine Bar than this place on a Friday night.
P. S. Totally forgot that there’s only 1 bathroom for men and women right next to the food preparation stand. Yup. Take it for what it is.

Awesome happy hour specials! Pretty relaxing place to hang out.
Had a couple dozen $ 1 Blue Points and a few Thai wings.
We came across a little stowaway in our oyster (I’ll spare you the video: p). Apparently oyster crabs are a thing — and considered a delicacy about a century ago. The manager was SUPER nice about it and despite explaining how perfectly normal and common it was, still threw in a few extra oysters to compensate.
$ 1 oysters are everywhere in the city, but the service here is what will keep me coming back!

Thanks to a search for «raw bar» on Unilocal,I chose White Oak for my first meal on a weekend visit to NYC. The service is very friendly and welcoming here. We tried the seafood platter which wasn’t very good but at approx. $ 30 bucks we should have known better than to order it. Typically a platter with fresh shrimp/​crab would run you double this.
However, the cocktails were great. The wings were incredible and the truffle fries were AMAZING. Would definitely come back here for drinks, wings and fries. The oysters were good too and they have a great deal on them. All in all, if you know what to order here you can have a very satisfying meal for quite cheap.

What a fantastic find!
My friend and I came here for the oyster special ($ 1 blue points all night with a min of 2 drinks for the table). The drinks were superb and the oysters were fresh and well shucked (none of that piece of muscle stuck to the shell business). We ordered one dozen blue points and four kumamoto oysters. For our cooked food, we ordered the speckle and arugula flatbread. Perfect blend of cheese (fontina was one of them), honey, meat, cheese and the truffle fries that were fully loaded with bacon, cheese, and scallion. Too much food. Very generous portions!
Atmosphere is warm /​inviting and chic. They were playing great alternative music from the late ’90’s. Service was friendly and attentive. Looking forward to coming back soon!