re you a seafood lover in Montreal? Anxious to find a new place in this great multilingual city to snack on some of the tastiest treats straight out of the ocean? Then it's high time you found your way to Oyster Shack. This new restaurant is taking Bishop Street by storm and offering hungry patrons plates full of the tastiest damn sea-dwelling creatures around. The two-floor restaurant boasts the half-ironic design of a vacation destination on the eastern seaboard. You'll swear that you can smell the ocean, but it's probably just the odor of hundreds of pounds of frozen fish defrosting in the kitchen.

The menu is surprisingly big and packed with all sorts of classic seafood dishes like mussels Provencal, surf and turf (with an orgasmic slice of filet mignon), live lobster, and of course, fresh oysters. While there are a few items like breaded shrimp that are sure to cause customers to have Red Lobster flashbacks, these items are primarily there to please the kiddies who come to dine with their parents. Overall this place has a much higher standard of quality than that chain and serves fish so fresh that you'll swear it reacts when you bite into it. Stubborn land-dwellers will be pleased to learn that fish-free items like Cajun chicken are also on the menu, but the real treat is the Oyster Shack's secret weapon: clam chowder poutine. That's right, fresh clam chowder ladled over a pile of fries that is infamously more appetizing than it sounds (seriously though, did fries with cheese and gravy really sound all that appealing before you tried it?).

Some of you less adventurous diners will balk at the concept of clam chowder poutine and run away from the restaurant as fast as you can, but you should know that you're missing out. The item makes for a quite delightful flavor combination that really shouldn't be missed by anyone who claims to like food. It's difficult to create a seafood restaurant that truly creates something new, but the good people at Oyster Shack have done it. Sure, most of the dishes available are fairly standard seafood fare, but overall this restaurant is easily one of the best of its kind in the city. Stop by for a little nibble, you'll be surprised how quickly your seduced and singing "Under The Sea" in between mouthfuls of soup-drenched fries.—PB