Skipjack Oyster
Martinis arrive on a silver platter with the refill chilling in a glass tube and a tray of olives, onions and citrus to garnish it yourself.3
Why go
It is the raw bar and seafood restaurant in the Westin Austin Downtown at 310 E 5th Street. Nicolai McCrary scored it 7.2 for The Infatuation and his verdict has two halves worth reading together: the drinks and the theater are good, and a full-price dinner is a mixed bag.3 That is the only critic verdict on this room, so take all of it.
Order this / avoid
- Order: the oyster shooters, and take the one with tequila, pineapple, mint, coriander and agave, which is the version McCrary picks.3 For a plate, the blackened Texas redfish: mild, thick, well-seasoned, sitting on a green tomato relish that brings the sweet and the acid. The linguine and clams is the other safe order, with big briny clams in a well-seasoned sauce.
- Drink: the short list of clarified and canned house cocktails, and take them at happy hour.3 A clarified cocktail has had its dairy or fruit solids strained out, which leaves the acid intact and the texture thin, and that thinness is what makes it work next to raw oysters where a heavier drink would coat the palate.
- Avoid: the clam chowder.
The chowder is a bit watery and underseasoned. It's also sparse on clams,
in the reviewer's words.3 The fries dunked in it are the better use of the same pot.
What locals & experts say
- The Infatuation, Nicolai McCrary (page-dated 5 December 2025), 7.2:
The clams are big, briny, and nicely cooked, and the sauce is well-seasoned, even if it could stand to be a bit thicker.
The same review reports that seafood-tower portions vary between visits, from platters overflowing with crab to a few small forkfuls.3 - CultureMap Austin covered the room twice before it opened, on 24 April 2025 when Stella San Jac was told it was closing after ten years, and on 11 September 2025 with the 3 October opening date. The stated brief, quoted from the hotel's release, is the
coastal charm and culinary traditions of the Carolina coast
, with a daily oyster selection as the draw.1 Both are news reports, so neither is a verdict. - McCrary is still the only critic who has scored the cooking here. I haven't found a second review.
Good to know
- Where it is: 310 E 5th Street, inside the Westin Austin Downtown.
- When to come: brunch or happy hour. McCrary's own advice is that the canned cocktails and light bites are the good part and cost less outside dinner service.3
- Not the same business as Austin Oyster Co. That is a different business, inspected under its own permit.
- Hygiene: no inspection record exists under this trading name. Westin Austin Downtown holds the permit at 310 E 5th Street, scoring 85, 90, 83, 87 and 84 across five inspections, and nothing establishes that it covers this kitchen, so those scores are the hotel's rather than the restaurant's.4
Verdict
could-visit — A hotel raw bar downtown with an Infatuation 7.2 and a reviewer who says plainly that the meal is a mixed bag. What works is the theater and the fish: oyster shooters with a tequila, pineapple, mint and coriander chaser, martinis brought on silver platters with the refill chilling in a glass tube, and a blackened Texas redfish over green tomato relish that the review calls thick and well-seasoned. Skip the clam chowder, which the same review calls watery, underseasoned and short on clams, and skip the seafood towers, whose portions vary visit to visit. Go at brunch or happy hour, where the same canned cocktails and light bites cost less. Nobody else has published on the room.