Island Creek Oyster Bar

Island Creek Oyster BarIsland Creek Oyster Bar
Island Creek Oyster BarIsland Creek Oyster Bar
Bar, Eatery

500 Commonwealth Ave
Boston, Massachusetts, 02215-2606
United States

// CLOSED //

Eastern Standard, Island Creek Oyster Bar, and Hawthorne will not be reopening.
PLACE STATS
Average:
4.16
Reviews:
7
Ratings:
13
pDev:
8.65%
View: Place Reviews
Recent ratings and reviews. | Log in to view more ratings + sorting options.
Ratings by alienlifeforcecube:
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Reviewed by alienlifeforcecube from Massachusetts

4.75/5  rDev +14.2%
great beer selection, great cocktails. lobster roll is expensive but one of the better ones i've had recently. the oyster sliders are to die for. i make it a tradition on marathon monday to go before 10am, have a cocktail and oyster sliders before heading to fenway for the game that starts at 11am. i look forward to it every start of the season...
Sep 10, 2014
More User Ratings:
 
Rated: 4.53 by Lare453 from Florida

Sep 25, 2016
 
Rated: 4.38 by BeerBucks from New York

Jul 21, 2016
 
Rated: 4.29 by SABERG from Massachusetts

Jan 25, 2015
 
Rated: 3.25 by AirBob from Massachusetts

Oct 28, 2014
Photo of Andrez
Rated by Andrez from California

4/5  rDev -3.8%
Tasty food

Limited but regional beer selection

Better for cocktails
Oct 01, 2014
Photo of smcolw
Reviewed by smcolw from Massachusetts

3.95/5  rDev -5%
vibe: 3.75 | quality: 4.25 | service: 4 | selection: 3.5 | food: 4.25
This place is a bit pricey and often difficult to get into, but the food is good and the selection of beers is decent. The food is the main story here, with the beer (or wine) supporting the flavors offered. I would never go here for the beer alone. That said, the beer offerings are varied enough to make it worthwhile to try the food.
Sep 28, 2014
Photo of Redrover
Reviewed by Redrover from Wisconsin

4.25/5  rDev +2.2%
This was my pregame stop during my recent trip to Boston.

I love the neighborhood where this place is located. It is an attractive area with great old buildings and a real hustle and bustle feel. to it.

Island Creek was much bigger than I thought when I saw it from the exterior. It is a large L shaped space. The bar is about 50’ long and is a great place to grab a stool and have some food and beer.

Service was very good. The bartender knew the beer & food menus and was quick to offer water and beer refills.

They have a small multipage book that lists beer, wine & cocktails. While not huge, I thought the beer selection was well thought out in regards to variety and what would pair well with their food offerings.

Speaking of food, I thought their offerings were topnotch. We had some really nice fresh oysters to start. I followed that up with an outstanding bowl of chowder and then had the small portion of their fried calms for dinner. Was full but not stuffed so I had more room for beer.

I would love to have this located in my town.
Aug 22, 2014
 
Rated: 3.75 by Jason from Massachusetts

Oct 10, 2013
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Reviewed by Gavage from Nevada

4.08/5  rDev -1.9%
vibe: 4.25 | quality: 4.5 | service: 4 | selection: 3.5 | food: 4.25
I was in the mood for some oysters, and this place came to mind. This is a large restaurant that has a large stone bar that can seat about 20 people. A very modern feel with a rustic wood planks on charis and walls. The back of the room has a large shell covered wall. The oyster shucking area is attached to the bar.

First off there were about 8 different oysters to choose from. I settled for a mixed dozen. Beer-wise they have a smaller selection on draft. They had 6 beers on, including High and Mighty Pils, LaChouffe, Smutty IPA, and Brooklyn Sorachi Ace. I did not check out the bottle selection.

The service here was prompt, friendly, and knowledgable, especially on the oysters. A bit pricey overall, but it's tough to beat oysters and quality beers.
May 23, 2013
Photo of rousee
Reviewed by rousee from Massachusetts

4.3/5  rDev +3.4%
vibe: 4.5 | quality: 4.5 | service: 4 | selection: 4 | food: 5
Checked out ICOB before the Red Sox game on 4th of July and this place is pretty fantastic. I had tried to go by once before and it was just too crowded for me to deal with. Apparently, they generally arent open in the afternoon unless there's a daytime home game at Fenway. On this visit, it wasnt too crowded at all.

My wife and I got a couple seats at the really tall bar and the decor in here is about as in style as you can get. Very clean and light inside and it has a wide open feeling to the space. They have these little divider things that hang down partially from the ceiling and I think they help muffle some of the noise as it was pretty quiet even though there were plenty of people inside.

This is a relatively new concept in Boston where the owners actually own an oyster farm in Duxbury and thats where the Island creek oysters come from. So its direct--farm to restaurant which is cool. We got an assortment of oysters -4 Island Creeks fm Duxbury, a cpl of Hama Hamas from WA state and one other WA state one that I dont see around as often as Kumomoto. The oysters were about as good as they get and then the manager brought over a little treat of Kumamotos for us since he could tell we like the PAC NW oysters quite a bit.

They dont have a lot of beers in here but they are all nice choices for a beer afficionado. About 5 on tap and I opted for Duvel green. They also offer these real Bloody Caesars where fresh clam juice is used with the tomato as opposed to some mass produced Clamato juice. Unbelievably tasty was this concoction. All the other food was fantastic. They offer extras like a fried oyster on top of your burger and such, great house pickled vegetables, etc. Fantastic !!

The bartender was quite friendly and attentive and it was a wonderful pre-game lunch. Be aware this is not for the budget conscious. I dropped $120 on lunch for the 2 of us and I could have gotten the bill up to $200 w/o much difficulty. I still really like this place and can't wait to go back again.
Jul 06, 2011
Photo of LittleDon
Reviewed by LittleDon from Texas

4.4/5  rDev +5.8%
vibe: 4.5 | quality: 5 | service: 5 | selection: 3 | food: 4.5
Upscale modern interior, lots of space, big inviting bar, mood lighting. I was there on a Wednesday night and it was starting to fill. Appreciate that the noise level was medium low. The selection was small, five drafts maybe a dozen bottles. What they had was all top flight (excluding the Narragansett). Service was phenomenal, but I was there with folks who were regulars. Spent a decent amount of time talking beer and spirits with both the bartender and bar manager. Decent selection of spirits if someone in your party isn't a beer drinker, particularly the mescals and tequilas. Can't speak for the rest of the menu, but the oysters and raw bar were excellent. Price was in line or a bit higher than most oyster places, or a bit more expensive than a typical restaurant of the same quality.
Mar 25, 2011
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Reviewed by morebeergood from Massachusetts

4.2/5  rDev +1%
vibe: 4.5 | quality: 4.5 | service: 4 | selection: 4 | food: 4
My wife and I ate here on Saturday night, as a belated birthday present for me and Valentine's Day combined gift to ourselves. It's located inside the Hotel Commonwealth, right in the heart of Kenmore Square. Super cool atmosphere inside. Very sleek design choices, lots of wood, neutral grey colors, open and tall bar, all different types of seating, soft music, and a whole wall made of oyster shells. We had two servers for the night, so at no point did we feel abandoned. Both were very friendly. Beer selection was as good as you could expect at a high end fish restaurant. They had five taps: two Harpoons, Anchor Porter, Duvel, and a house pilsner, which is what I ordered and liked. There were 15 bottles to choose from, with an array of countries represented: US, Germany, France, Belgium, UK. Nice wine list to choose from also. The oysters here are a bit pricey. They ranged from IC oysters for $2 a pop up to some for $3.50 each. We started with a dozen (two each of 6 varieties). Very fresh. My wife had the monkfish entree which she liked. I had the John Dory, which tasted fantastic but was not plated very well - very boring looking dish. For dessert, the white chocolate and rosemary bread pudding was heaven. We both thought the ambiance was very inviting, the service was great, the food was good but not phenomenal, the drink list was passable, and the prices were on the high side. Going in there, we knew what ICOB was all about price-wise and we were ready for it - and we had an excellent time.
Feb 28, 2011
Island Creek Oyster Bar in Boston, MA
Place rating: 4.16 out of 5 with 13 ratings