"Unless you get to Swan at 10am, you’re going to have to wait (and even then you have to wait for the restaurant to open at 10:30am), but the line is just as much a part of the experience as eating all the raw seafood inside. That’s not a problem though, because if you’ve got the time to wait, you can go to the liquor store close by, get a few tallboys, and brown bag it while you wait and make friends with the people around you - a lot of times we end up sitting with the people we meet in line. The staff here knows more about seafood than you know about yourself, so ask them how to navigate the menu if you feel lost. Aside from oysters, get a Sicilian Sashimi and make sure there are raw scallops with that." - will kamensky