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Downtown Menlo Park’s newest restaurant tastes like a fish market and looks like the interior of a yacht meets a 1950s diner.
The menu at Clark’s Oyster Bar, which opened April 22, features 10 varieties of oysters, rotating catches of the day and housemade sourdough bread. The floor is made of rustic warm-toned Saltillo tile, the booths and walls are paneled with white and pastel green shiplap wood and the 34-seat bar features polished mahogany wood with gold accents. The servers wear black bow ties and white button ups, specials are displayed on marquee boards, and there’s a 200-gallon saltwater aquarium.
“I think what’s pretty unique about Clark’s is we’re not a fish market, but we’re almost treating the fish like that,” said Clark’s Oyster Bar co-founder Larry McGuire. “We’re buying whole fish often direct from fishermen and just serving it really simply.”
Founded by McGuire and Tom Moorman in 2012 in a neighborhood in Austin, Texas, called Clarksville, Clark’s Oyster Bar was inspired by San Francisco seafood institution Swan Oyster Depot.
“What I loved about (Swan Oyster Depot) was Anchor Steam beer on tap, big bowls of chowder and then this crudo plate,” McGuire said, which inspired Clark’s signature crudo plate ($26), featuring thinly sliced fresh fish, wasabi and lemon vinaigrette, capers, red onions and chives.
“But it’s just more the neighborhood convivial nature of a fish market-slash-restaurant, I think, is what we were really drawn to,” he said.
Lobster roll with lemon aioli, Bibb lettuce and drawn butter, served with hand-cut Clark’s fries with rosemary ($45) at Clark’s Oyster Bar in Menlo Park. Photo by Justin Cook. 
A dozen oysters with fresh horseradish, cocktail sauce, mignonette and lemon ($54) at Clark’s Oyster Bar in Menlo Park. Clark’s offers 10 types of oysters, including those from Washington, Prince Edward Island and Mexico. Photo by Justin Cook.
While Clark’s has since expanded to five restaurants, with two more in the works, some menu items have stayed since day one, including the wood-grilled shrimp toast with pea tendrils, shaved celery and harissa aioli ($27). An homage to shrimp dumplings found at dim sum houses, the shrimp toast features a shrimp puree slathered onto housemade sourdough bread, McGuire said.
“I think that’s a really exemplary dish of what Clark’s does, which is taking a simple, handmade fresh ingredient, like our sourdough, and then elevating it through a creative process,” he said.
The interior of Clark’s Menlo Park features a 34-seat bar, a 200-gallon saltwater aquarium and booth and banquette seating. Photo by Justin Cook. 
Signage on Clark’s Oyster Bar advertising sourdough, cioppino, Champagne and lobster faces Santa Cruz Avenue. Photo by Justin Cook. 
The outdoor patio at Clark’s Oyster Bar in Menlo Pack. Photo by Justin Cook. 
Clark’s Oyster Bar is located in the former space of Ann’s Coffee Shop. Photo by Justin Cook.
While Clark’s focuses primarily on seafood, McGuire said the goal is to be a neighborhood restaurant where guests would want to dine multiple times a week. As such, non-seafood options are available, including chicken breast paillard, oak-grilled prime 10-ounce New York strip and pan-roasted black Angus hamburger ($26-$64).
“We have this great hamburger that’s probably either the best-selling thing or in the top two at every location,” McGuire said. “So we always want to be accessible and turn it into a neighborhood hub.”
Menu items unique to the Menlo Park location include chilled Castroville artichoke with remoulade and mustard vinaigrette, the Dungeness crab Louie and the Dungeness crab and oysters Rockefeller ($19-$34). While all Clark’s locations have linguini with clams on the menu, Menlo Park’s features an heirloom tomato arrabbiata sauce ($38).
Clark’s offers happy hour Monday to Friday from 3-5 p.m., featuring half-priced hamburgers and martini specials.
“I think the best way to dine at Clark’s is to have a dozen oysters, martinis and then a hamburger,” McGuire said.
The bar menu features seven varieties of martinis ($19-$22), including Bond’s Vesper, made with Ford’s gin and vodka and Tempus Fugit Kina l’aero d’or, an aperitif wine made with cinchona bark, orange peel and wormwood. Other cocktails ($16-$19) include a daily mule, dubbed the “Menlo Mule,” and a Santa Cruz Ave. Sour, made with cognac, rum, lemon-ginger cordial, pineapple, lemon and lime. The wine list features vintages from Monterey County, Napa, Sonoma and the Santa Cruz Mountains.
Clark’s Oyster Bar replaces Ann’s Coffee Shop, which closed in 2021 after 75 years. Clark’s is the latest in a string of upscale restaurants opening soon in Menlo Park. Two restaurants from owners with Michelin cred are opening along Santa Cruz Avenue: Cafe Vivant, specializing in heritage breed chicken and wine, and Yeobo, Darling, focusing on Korean and Taiwanese flavors. Along El Camino, Ren Omakase, the latest project from Sunny Noah, plans to open later this month.
Clark’s Oyster Bar, 780 Santa Cruz Ave., Menlo Park; Instagram: @clarksoysterbar. Open Sunday to Thursday from 11:30 a.m. to 9 p.m. and Friday and Saturday from 11:30 a.m. to 10 p.m.
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