This is Cleveland: Alley Cat Oyster Bar

Last winter while visiting home for the holidays, my dad, sister and I spent the day at the Cleveland Museum of Art. They had a special exhibit of Money’s works, who is by far my favorite artist. Not that I’m a huge art buff, but I have a select few favorites. I’ve always loved the idea of being knowledgeable about the deeper meanings behind artwork. Perhaps I’d sit in some hipster cafe, glasses on the edge of my nose while I sip tea and speak softly about the personal demons of some tortured artist. 

Eh, I’ll stick to food. 

I’m very surprised that the Alley Cat Oyster Bar’s overall Yelp rating is only a 3! I thought the food here was amazing and the interior has a dark, sexy ambiance. We stopped by on a Sunday night and only ordered drinks and appetizers, but it was enough to be a full meal.

In my original review, I took note that the restaurant is very inconsistent about their hours. We arrived to find locked doors at 5 pm, and looking up their hours was of no help since they weren’t even on the website. They are now posted. I’m not sure when they opened, so maybe they still had to get organized. 

Despite this, the food was beyond good!! We ordered the following appetizers to share:

Highlights
Clam Chowder (New England style)
Seafood Cocktail (shrimp, scallops, squid, chilled spicy tomato broth)
Alley Cat Ceviche (tostones)
Shrimp Stuffed Peppers (rock shrimp, Spicy mayo, queso fresco, soy sauce{VERY hot!})
Iceberg salad (tomato, cucumber, avocado, egg, miso ranch and I added fried rock shrimp).

All of these dishes went so well together I would even recommend ordering exactly these if you’re a hungry party of 3! The Iceberg Salad and the Seafood Cocktail stand out to me the most. I added fried rock shrimp, which, paired with the cold lettuce and ranch dressing was sooo good! The cocktail is a very liquid-y mixture of all the seafood and vegetables (I was expecting similar to shrimp cocktail) and served in a cocktail glass. You use a spoon to dish it out. These two were by far my favorite, but every single dish was amazing!