Oyster Shucking at Tomales Bay

Oysters are easily ordered in restaurants around the world, but there’s something oh so satisfying about shucking oysters yourself. Tomales Bay Oyster Company, nestled just north of San Francisco in Marin, is a beautiful picnic area with all the tools for shucking your own oysters! We took the tastiest day trip of our lives to Tomales Bay and will be day dreaming of the delicious oysters for weeks to come.

Tomales Bay is perfect for a picnic on a beautiful day! There are plenty of picnic tables (Each equipped with a special block for shucking oysters), but tables are first come first serve so you’ll want to get there early to snag your table. Trust me, by 10:30 am Tomales Bay is already packed.

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Your group has snagged a table and is all set up – now it’s time to choose your oysters! Tomales Bay has an extensive menu of oysters to choose which you can buy by the dozens or in bags of fifty. Fifty oysters may sound like a lot, but our group of 10 people devoured almost 200 oysters. You do the math.

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Tomales Bay oysters are harvested right on the California coast! Visitors can order up at the oyster bar and are given their bags right out of the tank.

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Our group ordered Extra Smalls and Smalls for most of the day, but we also tried out the Golden Nuggets. Tomales Bay provided us with a basket to carry our oysters back to our table and even put them on ice for us for free!

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No worries if you aren’t a professional oyster shucker – Tomales Bay has all the tools you need and they’re happy to lend them out. Tomales Bay also sells limes, lemons, and different sauces to drizzle over your freshly shucked oysters. Our group brought several homemade sauces to Tomales Bay along with a bottle of Tabasco.

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There are grills set up next to each picnic table at Tomales Bay and we took full advantage, loading our grill with sausages and corn on the cob! These made awesome side dishes to our oysters.

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If you don’t have time for all the extras (sausages, homemade sauces, etc), Tomales Bay oysters even taste amazing with nothing more than a little lemon juice.

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By the end of our day at Tomales Bay we had eaten nearly 200 oysters! Don’t judge us – they were delicious. It was an unforgettable memory spending the day in the sun with friends shucking oysters and having a beautiful picnic!

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Have you ever been to Tomales Bay?

xoxo Blonde