If you like sushi, then you may find yourself loving raw bars. A trend that’s quickly gaining popularity across the U.S. with private jet travelers, particularly along the coastal regions, a raw bar is generally a small restaurant or a selection of menu items with raw fish and shellfish. The shellfish are shucked in-house and served immediately, and some raw bars keep a variety of live shellfish so there is no question about the freshness of the delights on your plate. Popular menu items in raw bars include clams, oysters, mussels, prawns, crab, fish and even red meat. Before you hop onto your charter jet to find a new favorite eatery, we’ve helped make the search easier with a list of some of the best raw bars in the country.
MAUI, HAWAII—Set on Wailea Beach in the Maui Four Seasons, the in-resort DUO Steak and Seafood restaurant offers private dining options with views of the waterfall pool and ocean. With an impressive spread for the morning buffet, the steak and seafood treats appear in the evening. The restaurant’s award-winning chefs offer a diversity of seafood and steak options that include an assortment of sushi and sashimi, steamed clams and chorizo in a saffron, monchong, local island snapper, mahi mahi, seared ahi, elk steak and cuts of all-natural beef.
Seastar Restaurant and Raw Bar
SEATTLE and BELLEVUE, WASHINGTON—Chef John Howie presents diners with fresh menu items that are seasonal, sustainable, innovative, local, and memorable. Park your private jet at Boeing Airfield and enjoy classic local seafood favorites like Hazelnut Grilled Trout or Wild Northwest King Salmon. The raw bar menu includes ahi poke, giant black tiger prawns, oysters, ceviche, seafood salad with calamari and a variety of sashimi.
Hyde Street Seafood House & Raw Bar
SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA—With an established fan base at their location between San Francisco’s Nob Hill and Russian Hill, the Hyde Street Seafood House & Raw Bar has a tavern-like nautical feel with benches made of wooden planks, lanterns and maps covering the walls. Offering Pacific Coast favorites like King salmon, mussels and scallops, the four-star restaurant also features neck clams and oysters on the half shell, a raw bar sampler with smoked salmon, as well as Dungeness crab.
MIAMI, FLORIDA—With a style reminiscent of South American’s colonial Spanish style, you’ll find SUGARCANE in midtown in an enormous 4,200-square-foot establishment with an 850-square-foot terrace. Receiving accolades from the experts in the restaurant, food, travel and media industries, the restaurant’s raw bar menu offers seasonal oysters, shellfish “towers,” middle-neck clams, shrimp cocktail and lobster. The selection of crudos (raw food) includes seasoned tuna, ceviche, snapper, scallop, the local catch, beef tenderloin and steak tartare.
GrillMarX Steakhouse and Raw Bar
OLNEY, MARYLAND—With an atmosphere of casual, upscale dining, the GrillMarX Steakhouse is a four-star restaurant with an open kitchen, open ceiling and warm organic décor. Offering all the favorites you love from a steakhouse, the raw menu items are seasonal selections like blue points, littleneck clams, and shrimp cocktail.
CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS—This popular neighborhood eatery offers a hometown feel without the sacrifice of fine, quality foods. In addition to finding the raw bar offerings during dinner, you can also enjoy them during the Saturday lunch or Sunday brunch. While you’re at the East Cost Grill & Raw Bar, sample the Asian oysters, Island Creek oysters and littleneck clams on the half shell, local crab claws and the wild shrimp cocktail. Since you made the trip to Massachusetts in your private jet, don’t forget to order a bowl of clam chowder, too!
Raw bars offer a culinary adventure for your palate. What’s the most daring or exotic food you’ve tried?
