"When Jeff Strauss opened Oy Bar in 2022, he took over the shuttered 50-year-old Oyster House and turned the longtime Studio City spot into what some consider a hip dive bar. But dive bars don’t have food or cocktails this inventive. But at Strauss’s nighttime spot (he also owns Highland Park’s popular sandwich spot Jeff’s Table), the room turns into a low-lit place where the rotating menu is not so much seasonal as suited to Strauss’s moods. He peruses farmers’ markets throughout the region and settles on dishes that answer the following questions: “What do I want to feed people right now?” “What do I want to eat myself?” “What do I want to celebrate?” Diners might find matzoh ball ramen or Oy Bar’s fish chowder, his version of bass en papillote includes Szechuan oil. The current menu has a crowd-pleasing steak frites with a shiro dashi (Japanese soup stock) pan sauce. The bar menu takes a similar experimental route with a Ford’s Gin and French vermouth concoction called the Freezer Martini. It’s as cold as it is refreshing. They’re slowly reopening the patio and calling it the “Vey,” as in “Oy Vey,” which translates to “dismay or grief” in Yiddish, to handle the seating overflow — Oy Bar is walk-ins only. The spot is better described as a Valley bar bistro that’s anything but dismal. Mona Holmes, editor, Eater Southern California/Southwest" - Eater Staff
