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Catch Restaurant & Oyster Bar

In 2010, Fast Forward Weekly readers voted Catch Restaurant and Oyster Bar the city’s No. 1 seafood destination. It wasn’t the first time the downtown landmark has received the honour.

Located in the Imperial Bank of Canada Building, the sandstone restaurant’s second floor features superb fine dining. When seafood-loving Calgarians push the boat out, this is where they do it. The casual yet equally captivating counterpart to the upscale upstairs is the main-floor oyster bar. It’s a yacht-versus-speedboat comparison.

My companion and I sit at a high table at the end of the long, narrow oyster bar’s row of cozy, brown booths. Up front, the place is packed, and the buzz and clatter is welcoming but subdued. The backroom holds a handful more tables.

Just like Murrieta’s (see Fast Forward Weekly December 9, 2010), Catch’s historic digs provide great atmosphere with old, dark boards and beams, bare stone walls and tin ceiling tiles.

We’re in a festive mood and to fit the spirit of the night we order two glasses of Lina Argento Prosecco ($10.50), and as it turns out, it goes swimmingly with our seafood.

Critically acclaimed, Catch has the swelling weight of expectation to surmount. Is it as good as they say? Excitement grows as two oyster trays arrive. My guest is a raw oyster fan while I am not. However, I’m keen to uphold my reputation as a guy who’ll eat anything. So, first, I ease into hot oysters ($18), six grilled Buckley Bay (Vancouver Island) mollusks prepared with chili butter. The hot shells perched in coarse salt smell fantastic and fairly glow. It’s immediately clear why these things are hyped as an aphrodisiac; they’re way sexy. As all but an oyster novice, upon slurping one up, I’m immediately struck by how perfectly cooked it is. The oysters’ oceanic flavours are tamed with a light, steamy hand.

The other delicious-looking plate holds raw oysters ($3.50 each) on ice: three Sound Select (West Coast) and three Village Bay (East Coast). We try the smaller Village Bay first. They prove ideal for an oyster skeptic like myself. Their cool, almost crisp flesh is faintly briny. The Sound Select are larger and prove to be more challenging. A splash of chipotle sauce, and they’re down the hatch. It’s that same fresh flesh but with a hint of fishy sea-bottom taste. I’m struck with an epiphany: Such acquired tastes are what oysters are all about.

With the West Coast mussels and clams ($9) we choose the beer and sausage option. Tumbled in a big bowl, the mixed crustaceans are plump, juicy and so very succulent. Torn chunks of sausage complement with a bit of fattiness. We finish off the accompanying grilled bread and use the remainder of our complimentary basket of bread to sop up every last salacious drop of juice.

Our main course features two more undersea dwellers. For the roasted shellfish platter (market price), we choose crab and lobster with sweet butter. It comes with a side of fries and chipotle mayo. The half-lobster is meaty and gently cooked. A dip in the sweet butter pot turns its soft, flaky meat into pure bliss. Using hands and claw-crackers, we then demolish several snow crab legs. They’re equally enjoyable and leave me covered in butter and juices to my elbows. The fries, incidentally, go very well with the dip.

Amazingly, I have just enough room for dessert, and for this I am thankful. The Okanagan peach and pear crumble ($9) comes in a petite bowl topped with ice cream and a dried pear chip. As I finish every last creamy, crunchy bite, we realize two-and-a-half hours have passed in a blink. And what an appetizing session it was. I’m now an oyster fan, so bravo to Catch for turning a non-believer into one of those people with an “acquired taste” for oysters in just one visit. And the balance of the meal was nothing short of excellent.

Lip-smacking and ecologically friendly, Catch deserves another serious nod for its commitment to serving sustainable seafood. All of our selections carried the Vancouver Aquarium’s Ocean Wise Conservation Program seal of approv