The Review: Blue Plate Oysterette reels in one star and a good bit of praise

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OK, so L.A. has its Issan Thai restaurants, Sichuan and Shanghai style places, Tuscan trattorie and Provençal bistros, Yucatan and Oaxacan joints. Why not an East Coast clam shack? Well, now we have one, fetchingly called Blue Plate Oysterette.

I’m surprised no one has tried it before. There was the short-lived Menemsha, but it was a much more ambitious East Coast seafood place. That this one is small and cozy with a studied casual air and a great front of the house -- not to mention it’s just across from Palisades Park and the Pacific -- gives this place a fighting chance.

Owner Jenny Morton, who also owns Blue Plate on Montana Avenue, went for a neighborhood kind of place rather than something glitzy. The menu is smart too. Pretty much everything that people love about East Coast seafood -- oysters, clams, mussels, lobster rolls, fish ‘n’ chips, steamers -- is listed on the one-page menu. But if you’re looking for grilled or steamed Maine lobster, you’re out of luck. No clam bakes either.

But then you can’t have everything, can you? What’s best here is the raw seafood -- oysters, clams, ceviche and some, but not all, of the cooked dishes. New York’s Pearl Oyster Bar, this is not. But the service from waiters in blue-and-white gingham or striped shirts is eager and willing and the front of the house bends over backward to accommodate everyone.

To read the rest of S. Irene Virbila’s review, click here.