Chesapeake Bay Oyster Company

as of may, 2015, this restaurant has been closed for several months.

Oysters Rockefeller, best I’ve ever had. The oysters, crab cake, bacon wrapped scallops, are one delicious sampler. The oysters topped with bacon and Parmesan were awesome as well.

This place is the reason we go to the annual Oyster Festival in Urbanna. We’ve been going for about 6 years now, and when we first went these guys were in a little booth down by the water. Then they moved into a small building in town a couple years ago. This year, it looks like they’ve taken up permanent residence, also downtown, in a much bigger building and it’s a good move. I’m not a huge oyster fan, but their roasted oysters, with a splash of hot sauce, are amazing. And the oysters rockefeller are a step past that. You can’t go wrong with the Rock & Roast combo. Now that I know they have a permanent building, it might be worth the trip to visit in between oyster festivals.

The Chesapeake Bay Oyster Company grows their own signature Parrot Island oysters that are near the Rappahannock River. You can order wholesale as well as restaurant bulk. When you walk in, to your left, you see the preparation of the fresh oysters that are brought in, so I thought that was pretty cool. When you go through the double doors, it’s the restaurant, where they offer items such as: oysters (raw on the half shell, steamed, broiled, fried, or Rockefeller style), clams, scallops, crabs, shrimp, mussels, conch (Caribbean style salad), Veruka samplers (oysters/​shrimp/​clams/​mussels/​scallops samplers), sashimi tuna, salads, sides (oyster stew, hush puppies, french fries, cheese fries, slaw, and mac & cheese), and beverages. The friendly cashier, Rachel, was such a sweetheart! I asked if she could make a recommendation, and so I ended up getting Parmesan Bacon oysters. If you ‘Like’ their FB page, you get an extra oyster, too, so don’t forget! :D The restaurant itself is pretty new (been opened since about May ’14), and I liked the rustic steel/​wooden décor. Once you place your order in, you wait until your number is called. We sat up at the counter, overlooking the quiet Virginia St, and enjoyed the oysters that come in an aluminium to-​go bowl. The oysters themselves were a little small in size, but they were still plump and juicy. I appreciated that they did not skimp out on the crispy bacon and the amount of Parm cheese — yum!
+receive an extra oyster if you ‘Like’ their FB page: D

I thought this place was great. We drove to Urbanna specifically for some oysters! This place did not disappoint. We also love clams and were pleased to see clams on the menu. We ordered a“full” portion, which was about 30 – 40 steamed clams. They were unseasoned, but served with a drawn seasoned butter. We ordered the veroka sample that included one crab cake, oysters Rockefeller, oysters with bacon and parmesan cheese, and bacon wrapped scallops. We shared this between the two of us and it was more than enough. The crab cake was one of the best I’ve ever had– and I fancy myself a crab cake connoisseur. The scallops were good. Oysters Rockefeller were great as well. The oysters with bacon and parmesan, however, we a little over cooked in our opinion. It made for a very hard top coating to the oyster underneath. It was so hard that I thought my plastic fork would break, so I used the handle of my fork to loosen it up. I will be coming back again. Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed my food. The ambiance is kind of industrialized, what with the galvanized steel décor throughout, but neat. I’d like to come back at night because the lighting looks like it’d be really nice.

This was our first time here. You have to order before sitting down. Menu was on the wall, but after we sat down we noticed that the order was not exactly as we thought we were getting. We ended up with a combo to try out the seafood. It included fried oysters, clams, scallops, and shrimp. The clams were VERY salty and unable to finish them. I thought were were getting fries but since I stated I wanted hush puppies we got them only. There were three of them that included a large drink for $ 4. The butter you got for the hush puppies was I guess there house butter but «what was it»?
We were greeted by a gentleman who said anything on the menu would be could yet his body language implied otherwise. The meal came to $ 44 and the quality was much less. It’s very unlikely either one of us will return. Unless we order just oysters.
The atmosphere is pleasant but the service and workers were lacking personality. We were here for sometime and there were lots of minutes where the workers just on electronic devices. No one came to ask how our meal tasted. At one time we were the only one present.

Excellent food at a reasonable price. Fried oysters, steamed shrimp and crab cake all top notch. Be sure to try the hush puppies!

Wow! This place takes the idea of ‘fresh seafood’ to a whole other level. You have not had seafood this fresh unless you have been shucking and chomping oysters out of the net, buddy. To say I was blown away when I went in last week would be an understatement. To get a taste of everything, my mom and I ordered bacon and parmesan oysters (6 in the shell), oyster stew, hush puppies, a crab cake, and bacon-​wrapped scallops (6). We ordered so much food and our tab was around $ 35! This was so incredibly cheap, especially finding out that 1) The oysters are from their farm up the road, 2) The scallops are from Poquoson (as local as scallops get), 3) The crab is local (Mathews) and hand-​picked for the crab cake (What?!?). The oyster stew: Oysters, cream, butter, potatoes, and bacon. That’s it. I could have gone swimming in that cup of deliciousness. Oysters: Fresh, juicy, topped with bacon and cheese. Dear God. Hush puppies: golden brown and served with addictive honey butter. Crab cake: My mom makes the best crab cake but the freshness and huge chunks of lump crab may have beaten out mom today. Bacon-​wrapped scallops: You must eat these! You have never had a scallop that has tasted this way. These scallops are never soaked and the taste is incredible. Trust me. Other stuff: The service is very friendly and the décor is cute. The owners are some of the nicest people you will ever meet and the manager, Win, is friendly and very hard-​working. This is a great place to take the whole family to enjoy some beautifully prepared local seafood in Urbanna. While in the restaurant and even in a previous review I heard grumblings about their choice not to serve ‘adult’ beverages. While I love an ice cold beer with my seafood, it is their decision and I respect it. However, there is a very easy solution to this dilemma. They have an excellent take-​away service. Order all the seafood, send your pals to the Urbanna Market or the ABC store and meet back up for delicious food and good times. Urbanna is so lucky to have this gem on Virginia Street.

Great dinner. Excellent menu. The only things missing are adult beverages and something for non seafood eaters. They have quesadillas but maybe a chicken dish would help those who don’t. As it is, the service is excellent though it took a little longer than I expected. The fries are great. I ate oysters and scallops and am already planning what I plan to order next time.

Loved it. Great menu, food and service. The freshest seafood. Complimentary oysters and pups didn’t hurt either. Love the décor and style. Can’t wait to come back.

For my 100^th review I chose to review my new favorite restaurant, and that is Chesapeake Bay Oyster Company. I can honestly say that my favorite kind of food is without a doubt seafood, and you can not get fresher and better tasting seafood than what I got at CBOC this weekend.
CBOC is an actual seafood company, that has been growing their own Oysters on the bay for more than a few years. The restaurant in Urbanna is in the building that used to house Mojo’s, but when you walk in it is a completely different with a nice open floor plan. There is a large wall menu when you first walk in so you can see what you might want to try. I would say it makes it easy to see what you want but with so many great options it is hard to pick. Once you know what you want you simply order from the counter and when it is ready they will call out your number.
I went with the Steamed Veruka sampler which comes with Shrimp, Oysters, Clams, and Mussels. It is a lot of food, and probably better to be shared between two people, but I was hungry and it looked so good. All of it was simply awesome and cooked perfectly. The Oysters and Clams were my favorite as they both had the right amount of sweetness to them, but all of it tasted as though they were pulled from the water this morning. I was also able to try the Crab Cake, Bacon Wrapped Scallops, as well as the hush puppies that other people at my table got. The Crab Cake was great, with the right amount of crab meat in it, but the Scallops and Hush Puppies were the best I have ever had (credit for the hush puppies probably goes to the awesome honey butter they are served with)
If you are from around the area you are certain to run into a few people that you know, both eating at the restaurant as well as working behind the counter. The people at CBOC are putting their all into this restaurant and the final product certainly reflects that. I might live in North Carolina now, but every time I return home I will certainly stop by for some great food and even better company.