River View Dining

We had a fair bit of good food on our trip to Long Beach. We can't say enough good things about the 42nd Street Cafe with its freshly caught, simply prepared sturgeon and meltingly tender seven hour pot roast. We loved our bison burger at The Depot. Our lunch at Gunderson's in Astoria was great, but the real find of this trip was in South Bend, Washington, right on the river.

It was just a little restaurant that one of our friends remembered from a stop on a group tour. It didn't look like all that much from the street, except for the big black metal grill and smoker fuming like a locomotive out in front. They had oysters on the menu, and we could see the oyster flats across the street and the grill on the near side. We ordered the barbequeed oysters. They were delicious, cooked in beer and served with a butter based barbeque sauce full of garlic, chile and coriander. Sure, the shrimp tacos were good, but the oysters were something special. If you are ever heading through South Bend, slow down, stop by. Order the oysters. (Unless, of course, it is raining. That's the one great drawback of a outdoor cooking.)

The restaurant with the big grill and smoker out front

The best barbequeued oysters ever

The kitchen in action