After a nice beach day in Avalon, some friends and I decided to go Sylvester’s for dinner (it was three blocks away and BYOB). We determined the restaurant closed at 9, so we wrangled up some loose beers and white claws and walked over at about 8:20 for a table of 7. They were VERY nice and did not seem annoyed that we were showing up at this time with a bag full of drinks. Great setup at the restaurant, a lot of long picnic tables outside, most of which were under a tent. We got a table next to an oscillating fan (I was very excited).

They brought over two buckets of ice for our drinks and a 10 year old read us the specials. She did one hell of a job. Nothing popped out to me on the menu, so I decided to work the appetizers and soups. The entrees are a bit on the pricy side (and this clearly going to be an evenly split meal situation), so I knew I needed to reach the $20-25 range to keep things even.

Waiter came over and I ordered:

Cup of She Crab soup: $6

Oysters on the half shell (6): Market Price

Jumbo Crab Strips: $8.99

The She Crab soup was decent. There was a good amount of crab chunks; however, the soup was too creamy and thick. As soon as it started cooling off, the viscosity really got to me.

The oysters were excellent, but I don’t like the word “Market Price” and when I saw the bill I noticed they were $15.99. This seemed like a lot especially when you are used to finding $1 oysters and having a field day. It’s possible all oysters are the same and shouldn’t be priced different.

Jumbo Crab Strips… WOW! These were great: super crispy, high quantity of strips, and lots of crabmeat. I highly recommend getting one of these for the table when you go. It was served with a small cocktail sauce packet. I would have preferred two of these and maybe some tartar sauce, so there is some room for improvement, but you need get this.

We ate and drank until about 9:40. No one seemed to mind that we were overstaying our welcome. Topics included “active chubby”. This is basically an overweight person that works out and “can go on a hike”. Also, some of the couples we were with were discussing their first kiss and “smooch” was used quite often… “I smooched her in the corner”, “She didn’t know I had smooched Julie already” and “I didn’t want our first smooch to be outside of that bar.” Maybe it’s an underutilized word. Lastly, I gave a toast to my friends for having me down to their beach house and accidentally ended it by saying, “Cheers to your lovely guests (me).” Oh well.

Overall, good experience and a place I would recommend. 8.2/10