When you think of seafood, it’s hard to go wrong with oysters, shrimp and fish. And with the lengthy NC coastline, we’ve got access to some great seafood options here in the Triangle! Full Moon Oyster Bar is a small seafood restaurant chain with four locations in state. The Morrisville location is one of the newer ones and located in the Park West complex along with Bad Daddy’s and Buffalo Wild Wings. Thankfully I had an excuse for a lunch visit recently and there were a couple of surprises that popped up during my visit…
Up front, Full Moon Oyster Bar is really deceiving. Narrow storefront with the generic strip mall signage. When you step inside you’re immediately in front of a bar-bar area with lots of weathered and antiqued woods. The main dining room is to the side and quite deep! The decor here at Full Moon Oyster Bar is totally nautical with heavy beach influences. The chairs are made of worn colored box slats with oyster bucket lamps overhead. What’s odd is the seating. There’s no standard four tops but instead, 4 or 5 horse-shoe shaped oyster bars with high-chair seating! So not a great option if you’re dining in a larger group and want to have some table conversation. My friend and I grab a couple of seats at the first bar to keep things easy for the staff.
The lunch menu here at Full Moon Oyster Bar is pretty sure, primarily sandwiches but they do serve the full dinner menu all day. My first visit here means I get to try out a lot! We order up a dozen char-grilled oysters to start with and the daily special is a Calabash seafood platter so we’ll take two of those, oyster bar-keep! But before we even get our food, a couple of aluminum trays are brought out with some pre-lunch snacks on it: a dish of slaw and seasoned red-skin potatoes. I’ve never seen this before but I can go with the food flow. The taters are tender and nicely seasoned while the slaw is pretty standard.
Our oysters come out to start the real meal. We’ve got 12 seared oysters with some butter and cheese melty on top. Two pieces of toasted bread are served on top, it reminds me a bit of the char-grilled oysters I’ve gotten in New Orleans. And it’s a tasty, salty and rich treat, while I sometimes enjoy raw oysters, I prefer them cooked up in my world and Full Moon Oyster Bar does a nice job here.
The seafood plate come out next and includes a piece of fried flounder, some smallish shrimp, hush-puppies and seasoned fries. Served with some cocktail and tartar sauce, it’s a good looking plate. Looks like they are using a light corn meal covering here on the fried foods for a bit of substance. The seafood is all solid and fresh, I wasn’t a huge fan of the hush-puppies but the fries are a nice accompaniment to the meal! Overall it’s just the right amount of food and nicely fried (little grease) for lunch.
Oddly enough, service at Full Moon Oyster Bar was a bit slower than expected. While the lunch crowd did grow over time, it was pretty empty coming in and getting the meal wrapped up and grabbing the check took longer than expected. But it doesn’t seem like a regular problem on their online reviews so maybe we just caught them on a tough day. So overall I was pretty impressed with Full Moon Oyster Bar. Standard seafood menu around here but pretty cool decor and reasonable prices for what you get and I’ve got few complaints. So if you’re in Morrisville and wanting a taste of the beach and NC coast you might want to stop by Full Moon Oyster Bar. They’re as real as you get for seafood but in nicer digs, enjoy!
Retake: Enrigo Italian Bistro, Refreshed and Improved!