They have the best oysters! The plan for the day was to drive to Howth and explore the town. But…read moreheavy rains and wind ruined those plans. Since we were on this side of the town, we decided to make the most of it and look for a meal of seafood. I had Octopussy's Tapas bookmarked when researching for the trip, so we decided to stop in for lunch. It was a Thursday at around 1:30, and the restaurant was almost full. It's a very small restaurant and it's mostly high top tables with bar stools, so it wasn't exactly looking baby-friendly, since had our 8-month old and a stroller with us. Luckily, they have a small back room (literally a room that can probably seat 4-6 people) that was available, and they seat us back there. It was nice and cozy, and cute - decorated like you were on a ship. Here is what we ordered:
-Carlingford Oysters (served in the shell with fresh lemon) - these oysters were everything! They were big, shucked properly, and tasted super fresh. It didn't need anything but the lemon but they did recommend us trying their housemade hot sauce. We did and we loved it, and ended up buying a bottle to take home. We also ended up ordering some more oysters for dessert (lol)
-Seafood Chowder (squid, mussels, smoked coley, & prawns served with homemade brown bread) - this was full of seafood. It is heavy though since chowder is cream-based so I would recommend sharing this, as opposed to ordering one on your own. The brown bread was also very nice
-Seafood Paella (paella rice, chorizo, mussels, gambas, squid rings, and smoked coley) - another dish filled with seafood. They don't skimp out here! I could have done without the squid rings (they tasted rubber-bandy, like they're from frozen), and the smoked coley. I'm not a huge fan of smoked foods. I didn't really taste it in the chowder - maybe the cream covered it up, but I was able to taste it more in the paella
-Whiskey Scallops (cooked in whiskey butter) - very rich but the scallops were good. You definitely want to dip some of the brown bread in this sauce
There were so many other dishes we wanted to try but we had to stop ourselves from ordering too much for two people. Overall, it was a great meal and at these prices for seafood?! You really can't beat it.