Six years later, chef Rob Rubba’s Michelin-starred Oyster Oyster is still serving an innovative vegetarian tasting menu ($135 per person) in D.C.’s Shaw neighborhood. Rubba’s commitment to being as vegetable-focused as possible (except for that optional oyster course, of course) is unwavering, even as the market has been flooded with steakhouses and organizations like the Michelin Guide move away from awarding sustainability.
The dishes at Oyster Oyster have only become more layered and time-devoted over the years. Here’s a sampling of what you might find on the tasting menu.
What you’ll eat
- The first bites are a jewel box of treats each on their own blue and green plate. During my last visit the standout bite was berbere-spiced beets topped with shredded red cabbage on a caraway cracker. It was the definition of earthy, with a little dill to cut the peppery flavors.
- Another course includes the signature nutty and deep brown Old Bread New Bread made with leftover breadcrumbs that were slowly fermented into miso over the past four years, alongside a marigold and sunflower-seed butter that is creamy and tahini-like.
- A late course, the lion’s mane mushroom, has a spongy texture you expect from the porous fungi but it’s charred on the outside and seasoned with spices.
- A fruit dessert, usually with a nut or seed-based sorbet, comes at the end of your meal alongside Rubba’s signature porcini spicebush shortbread cookie, paying tribute to the native mid-Atlantic shrub.
The vibes
With only about eight tables and a four-seat chef’s counter in the sunken dining room, you truly get VIP service at Oyster Oyster. A different chef from the bustling open
kitchen delivers and gives you a quick description of each course, but if you ask questions they love to linger and tell you their favorite parts of the cooking process.
Insider tip
Take advantage of that open kitchen and peek around to find clues to how your meal is being made, see if you can spot a container of bread miso growing on the top shelf or a server between customers on a slow day plucking marigold petals that will become a golden butter.
