January 16, 2013

In Search of Great Oysters

Seafood in a funky, seaside town just doesn’t taste the same on a gloomy day, so we waited for sunshine. Last Thursday, the rain stopped mid-morning. We decided to head to San Leon, Texas for lunch and try a new place — new to us that is. One look at Gilhooley’s Restaurant and you know that you’re not gazing at recent construction.

I don’t want to be insulting. They have to know this already. The place looks really bad. It’s a dive. Signs out front tell you three things … no kids are allowed; they only take cash; and you must leave your pets at home. The pet-friendly part wasn’t so hard to fathom and we didn’t bring any children with us, but we had to do a quick accounting of our combined cash. We usually have none, but since we had a couple of twenties on us, we took it as an omen and stepped inside.

It was smoky and dark in there, but outside the patio tables were still wet from the morning rain, so we found a table near the window and sat. We were discussing the merits of lunch at a great restaurant just down the street (Top Water Grill in San Leon has our favorite fried shrimp) when a friendly waitress stopped by the table with glasses of water and menus. We asked about specials and she attempted to get us to order baked chicken. But we didn’t drive to San Leon for chicken. It’s oyster season; the boats are bringing them in within walking distance of this place. And, January has an “r”, which means oysters are great this month.

We ordered Oysters Shrimphooley, one of the pecan-grilled oyster dishes that has placed this “unique” restaurant in the pages of Coastal Living Magazine and garnered rave reviews from both the Houston Chronicle and Houston Press.

Our oysters arrived on a platter with a paper dish of saltines, a couple of lemon wedges, and plastic cups of red sauce and horseradish. Grilled on the half shell, with a slightly crusty shrimp on top, the open-pit flavor combined perfectly with butter and Parmesan cheese. We ordered gumbo too, but if we had known how amazing the oysters would be, we’d have ordered twice as many and washed them down with their $1.50 domestic beer.

Even after all that food, we asked about dessert. We thought if we were going to tell everyone about our meal at Gilhooley’s, we should thoroughly research the subject. Guess what? No desserts served here, not even a dish of banana pudding waiting in the kitchen to be scooped onto another paper plate. The waitress offered to make us a peanut butter and jelly sandwich if we wanted something sweet, but it didn’t seem quite the same. We were disappointed, but this no-dessert thing doesn’t seem to impact their business. As we dodged puddles on our way to the parking lot, the damp patio tables were filling with patrons. Maybe among them, were a few peanut butter and jelly lovers.

Share your favorite Galveston Bay seafood restaurant. We’d love to try it.

Have a great day!

We thought you might like to see the inside of Gilhooley’s. (Interesting place inside and out!)