Victoria's hottest new seafood restaurant is a one-stop shop for oysters

Though Victoria is certainly no stranger to amazing seafood options, with restaurants on every corner offering incredible fresh fish, seafood chowders and raw sushi bars, Shuck Taylor’s takes things up a notch.

Opening their official storefront back in August of this year, they offer some of the most refined seafood dishes in the city with freshness being a top priority—you won’t find fish and chips at this shellfish-forward restaurant, rather, an emphasis on seafood in its purest form. Think octopus ceviche and caviar served with potato chips.

Not to mention a lobster sandwich—with your choice of mayo or butter, as well as the selection of coleslaw, fries or potato chips—that comes at the generous price of $45 per serving.

Though Shuck Taylor’s has only recently celebrated the opening of their new brick and mortar location, owner and founder Jess Taylor has been working for nearly a decade in the food industry as a professional chef, oyster shucker and seafood connoisseur.

You might have spotted him running his catering business—the Wandering Mollusk—at weddings and community events, offering patrons a cart of delicious seafood options like crab buckets and, of course, freshly shucked oysters.

Simultaneously fuelling his passion for seafood and getting recognized by other businesses, it was only a matter of time until he transformed his catering cart into a full-blown storefront that doubles as a restaurant and oyster shop. Guests can drop by for a luxurious meal at Shuck Taylor’s and take home with them wide varieties of fresh shellfish from the Wandering Mollusk next door, a feeling similar to buying from a fish monger sitting right on a dock.

“We give a shuck about our oyster program,” the restaurant recently wrote in an Instagram post.

“No small boy stuff here. The oyster bed is the heartbeat of our oyster house. Every day it’s changing just like the tides, bringing you the freshest and most interesting oysters that are available. Always!”

The menu itself at Shuck Taylor’s is full of surprises—as written in one of their job ads for a kitchen manager, they “play favourites but the menu will change with the tides”—recently introducing dungeness crab boils onto the list. A meal perfectly fit for two, it comes with crab, mussels, clams, prawns, sausage and with a starchy accompaniment of potatoes, corn and baguette to finish.

As the restaurant is still in its first stages, it’s already making a big scene and shows promising signs of being a Victoria fixture for incredible seafood. You can find out more and stay up-to-date with the latest oyster news on their website.

Address: 1324 Blanshard St., Victoria