Let’s get this part out of the way first: Oyster Bah is a very dumb name for a very good restaurant. It’s akin to Rich Melman’s Boston cousin opening a steak house called Da Beef. The staff at Oyster Bah know it is a dumb name. This is likely why they refer to the restaurant as, simply, Oyster. As in, “Welcome to Oyster. I hope you enjoy your meal.” Since they do it, I will too.

The rest of Oyster’s menu is sort of a Greatest Hits of New England and Other Places New England Whalers Visited, because why would any self-respecting seafood restaurant want to deprive its customers of ceviche or fish tacos? (There’s also a hamburger and chicken for those who refuse to accept that they are, indeed, in a seafood restaurant.) The most expensive thing on it is the $52.95 chilled seafood platter, which contains oysters, clams, shrimp, crab, and tuna poke, but you could be just as happy with the $7.95 plate of smoked trout dip, which comes with brown bread and cornichons—although it tastes more of paprika than of smoke. None of chef Pete Balodimas’s preparations is very daring or original, but everything is well executed.

Late winter is not normally a festive time in Chicago. Probably not in Maine, either. But we were all enjoying ourselves because the staff at Oyster—like the staffs at most other LEYE restaurants I’ve visited, going back to the theatrically rude waiters at the fake 50s diner Ed Debevic’s back in the 80s—believes that hospitality is just as important as food. The bussers kept the water glasses full, even after we’d paid the check. When two dishes were slow coming out of the kitchen, our server stopped by our table twice to keep us apprised of their progress, even after we told her it was perfectly fine. When she noticed my dining companion was drinking his cocktail a bit slowly, she asked him if there was another one he might like better. When we got the bill, we noticed that the second cocktail and the two tardy entrees had been removed. I have no proof that they didn’t know that I write about food sometimes, but the odds that I was on a review visit were slim. They just wanted us to be happy, and to come back someday. And we were. And we will.  v

1962 N. Halsted 773-248-300 oysterbah.com