Des Plaines, IL · Latin-Asian Oyster Bar · Family Dinner · Just Under $125 for Four
Vika had seen the reviews. Recommendations all over her feed, photos that looked nothing like a hotel restaurant, and a name that promised something specific. So Friday night the four of us drove out to Ostras Lounge & Oyster Bar in Des Plaines. We pulled up, and the first thing I noticed was the Holiday Inn Express attached to it. For someone who travels as much as I do, that is never a great sign. I have been pleasantly surprised by hotel-attached restaurants before, so I parked the gut feeling and walked in with an open mind. By the time the check came, the gut feeling had been right.
This article is not sponsored. We paid for everything ourselves, and we didn’t tell the restaurant we were going to write about them.
The Room: Three Spaces, and a Patio Door That Made Our Night
Ostras is genuinely beautiful inside. Walk in past the OSTRAS shell decal on the front door and you land in the main dining room, with the long bar lined with colorful stools and bottle-stocked archways running along one side. The Heart of the Sea mural is on the wall behind the bar.
To the right of the main room is a lounge with a disco ball and oversized portrait paintings. They have salsa nights here, so I am assuming that is where it happens. To the left is another dining room, the one we were seated in, that runs more like a patio. The whole wall on one side is garage doors that open up. We sat right next to one of them, the weather Friday evening was perfect, the door was open, the AC was still running inside, and we had the best of both worlds, fresh air right at the table without losing the climate control. Honestly that was one of the nicest parts of the night.
The staff was great across the board. Patient, attentive, friendly, the kind of service that makes you want the food to keep up. None of this is the part that disappointed us.
The Drinks: A Margarita That Wasn’t, and a Mocktail That Was Mostly Sugar
I wanted a margarita. Our server was upfront with me before I ordered, the bar doesn’t use fresh lime juice, it’s a sweet and sour mix. I’m not a fan of that, so I went with a Stella from the happy hour beer list at $4. Honest service. I would rather be told than find out after the first sip.
Emily ordered the mocktail. It came out beautiful, deep red, finished with an edible purple orchid floating on top. She liked it. Vika and I tried a sip and landed in the same place, pretty in the glass, very sweet on the tongue. Closer to dessert than to a drink.
The $2 East-Coast Oysters Are the Reason to Come
We ordered a dozen east-coast oysters and they showed up on a clay platter packed in ice, with lemon wedges, hot sauce, and saltines. At $2 a piece on the happy hour menu, that is the cleanest deal in the building. The oysters were great. I cannot complain. We split the dozen two ways and the table went quiet for a minute, which at a family dinner usually means it landed. If we lived a five-minute drive from this place and wanted oysters before going somewhere else for dinner, I would come back for these and a beer without thinking about it.
The catch, and you knew this was coming, is the happy hour window. The menu lists happy hour as Monday through Friday, 4 to 7. Outside that window the oysters are full price, and the value math gets a lot harder.
The Truffle Tuna Tartare Looked the Part. The First Bite Didn’t Land.
The truffle tuna tartare came out plated like a postcard. A layer of avocado at the base, mango cubes, chunks of raw tuna on top, finished with rosettes of wasabi sauce and a few slices of jalapeño. Fresh fish, real plating effort, a tartare flavor that was there. Something was missing. Vika and I tried it and landed in the same place. Maybe the tuna chunks were just a bit too large to let the dish come together, maybe it was something else, but it never moved past ok. At $30, it cannot stop at ok. That is the most expensive thing we ordered, by a wide margin, and it should have been the highlight. It wasn’t.
The Rest of the Table: Guac, a California Roll, and a Chicken Plate We Didn’t Finish
The happy hour guacamole and chips at $8 was the dish where the table split. Fresh, well-mashed, topped with diced tomato and onion, served with a generous ring of fried chips. Vika, Josh, and Emily were happy with it as it came. I would have added more lime and more heat, but that is a me preference, not a kitchen mistake. As an example of the kitchen working, this one worked.
Emily ordered the California Roll at the $12 happy hour price and it was the one she went back to. Josh tried a piece and didn’t complain, which for him is a quiet endorsement. A California Roll is not a high bar, and this one cleared it. If your kid likes rolls, this one is safe.
Josh ordered the chicken off the menu and it arrived as breaded tenders with fries. They had a herb seasoning, dill or parsley, that none of us cared for. Vika and I both tried a piece. We agreed with Josh. We left the last tender on the plate. I do not remember the last time we left a chicken tender uneaten at a family dinner. That is the whole review of this dish.
What $125 Bought the Four of Us
I include the total on every food article we write, because it matters and most places don’t tell you. Our four-top on a happy hour Friday came to $123.19 all in. That covered the happy hour guacamole and chips, the happy hour California Roll, twelve east-coast oysters, the truffle tuna tartare, the chicken tenders, a Stella, Emily’s mocktail, and a side of ranch. The 18% gratuity was added automatically. With a party of four that is not standard everywhere, but it is becoming more common, and at least it made the math easy.
For four people on a Friday night, that is not an unreasonable number on paper. The problem is what was on the table. The oysters and the room earned their part of the bill. The rest did not. We walked out feeling like we paid for a better dinner than we ate.
What we paid: Our total, with the automatic 18% gratuity and tax included, was $123.19. That covered twelve east-coast oysters, the truffle tuna tartare, happy hour guacamole, a happy hour California Roll, Josh’s chicken tenders, a Stella, Emily’s mocktail, and a side of ranch, for four people.
Would We Come Back as a Family?
This was a family dinner, all four of us, so I do not have to speculate about whether Ostras works for a family. We were the family. The kids were comfortable in the booth, the room is easy to be in, the staff was patient with everyone. Emily had something on the menu she liked, Josh had something he did not. That is a normal Friday night. The question is whether we would drive out here again, as a four-top, for what we paid versus what we ate. I do not think we would. The room is great, the service is great, the food we ordered did not justify the trip.
The Verdict
Beautiful room, warm staff, oysters that earned their two dollars, a tartare that did not earn its thirty, and a kitchen that did not match the rest of the building. I would come back for the oysters at happy hour if I happened to be next door. I would not drive to Des Plaines for the menu we ate. If you are going to Ostras, time it for happy hour, order the oysters, and you can probably stop there.
Want to see the oysters and the room? Short clips from this visit are over on Instagram. Head to @travelandfoodguy and have a look.
Have you been to Ostras, or is there a Latin-Asian or oyster spot in the north suburbs we should try next? Drop it in the comments. Vika and I are always looking for the next one.
