Doc Magrogen’s Oyster House

I spent the past week in Philadelphia doing client work (I’m headed back tomorrow morning and will stay until Thursday night). We didn’t get to go out to elaborate meals every night since we were working late hours, but we did go to Doc Magrogen’s Oyster House last Tuesday night for some drinks and dinner:

It’s located in West Chester, Pennsylvania (about 12 miles out side of Philadelphia) and there’s outdoor dining, which was perfect for my work team since it was a cool and breezy night. We started off with oysters (4 different kinds):

The oysters weren’t bad, but they didn’t taste incredibly fresh, either, so I didn’t finish them all. A while back, I went to New Orleans with my family and we ate so many oysters that I got really sick, so now I’m really careful when I eat oysters that don’t taste fresh (yes, I know it’s odd that I still eat them even though I thought I was going to die when I was sick in New Orleans). I still think the Pearl Oyster bar in NYC has great oysters (and basically EVERYTHING).

Next, we moved onto cheese fries:

No ordinary cheese fries…NOPE…these were fries doused with fondue (well, Doc Magrogen’s take on fondue). The cheese had bits of scallops, crab, and lobster (supposedly) although all I tasted was scallop. They weren’t bad, considering I had been sitting at my desk for 9 hours without food (shocking, I know!).

For my main entree, I ordered a medium rare filet with crab:

I’d have to admit that I was pretty disappointed with the steak. Usually, when you order a medium rare, it’s still red/pink in the center, right? Well, mine was completely cooked through and very tough, too. The waitress forgot about all of our orders and all of our steaks were overcooked. I was so hungry though, so I ended up eating most of the steak (doused with A-1 sauce since the crab sauce was too creamy).

Overall, not a great restaurant, but I suppose there aren’t that many offerings in West Chester, Pennsylvania after 9PM (although, I have to admit, I absolutely LOVE the grocery store Genuardi’s, where I end up going for lunch everyday. They have a large salad bar (and it seems fresher than most grocery stores) and also lots of hot food options.