Where the Locals Eat Rating
Best Seafood
Top 100 Restaurant, Chicago
"The Shaw's oyster bar features sushi and regional oysters on the half shell. Shaw's main dining room serves more than 40 seasonally fresh seafood entrées. ... Sushi chef Naoki Nakashima creates wonderful nigiri and sashimi combinations as well as exquisite maki creations."
– Shaw's Crab House website
"Big room, big-time seafood house. Looks and feels right in every respect. The atmosphere smacks of seafood restaurants of the '30s. Top-notch service, impeccably fresh seafood that ranges far and deep. Oyster bar adjoining is a hot scene."
– Chicago Sun-Times
"We appreciate this place not for long, three-course dinners of bibs and shrimp cocktail, but for the old-school-ish oyster bar next door. Take a seat at one of the stools, order a sampler of plump, meaty mollusks, dab a little mignonette into the shell and wash it down with a swig of sauvignon blanc. Or just use the oysters as a preface to the Parmesan-crusted haddock. Either way, you're eating the same stuff as the folks next door. You're just eating it with a lot more style."
– Time Out Chicago magazine
"Far from both the Atlantic and the Pacific, Chicago is not known for its seafood. And over the years, Shaw's has had us both clucking with delight and moaning with despair. Nevertheless, the boldness and bravura of the place lures us, because Shaw's deals with only top-quality seafood."
– Gayot
Full bar. Serving lunch Mon-Fri, dinner nightly. Sun brunch 10:30 am-1:30 pm. Oyster bar open for lunch and dinner daily, with half-price oysters 3-6 pm daily.
How Others Rate Shaw's Crab House
Zagat 2009
24 Food Rating (Very Good to Excellent)