Our critic enjoys the creative menu at a Blackrock eatery with a loyal local following
Sea Shanty has taken over the upstairs space at Conway’s Bar in Blackrock. Photo: Frank McGrath
The Great Irish Oyster Revival is well and truly underway. I love the fact that the delicious bivalves are everywhere now, and that it’s a rare restaurant which doesn’t offer some kind of dressed oyster as a snack. But most places get their oysters from a single source, via a seafood supplier, and the majority offer just one type of oyster at a time.
Not so at Sea Shanty in Blackrock, which buys its oysters direct from the farms and, on the night we visit, is offering a choice of oysters from Cromane in Kerry, Killough Bay in Co Down, Woodstown Bay in Co Waterford, Cooley in Co Louth, Connemara in Co Galway and Achill in Co Mayo. The only other place you’ll find Cromane oysters is Allta, and Sea Shanty is the sole Irish stockist of Killough Bay’s, and the only Dublin outlet for the oysters from Woodtown Bay.
