Last week, before the recent cold snap took hold, Nosher and I went out to celebrate a successful speaking engagement of mine. On the basis of a recent Time Out mention, we originally intended to meet at Papillon, a new French bistro in Midtown, but the prices advertised in the window were almost twice as much as we expected and so, despite the nice-looking menu, we decided to pass. Remembering a fine meal I ate at the Oyster Bar last year, I took us on a detour 12 blocks to the south and into the great hall of Grand Central Station.

Grand Central’s Oyster Bar is a real New York institution for several reasons. For one thing, it’s been around in one form or another since 1913 and retains lots of character, architectural and otherwise, from the grand days of pre-war New York dining. Half the restaurant is given over to serpentine stretches of diner-style counters and their companion barstools, with waitresses moving up and down their lengths, serving customers with cool efficiency. Notably, the restaurant is also entirely underground (‘below sea-level’ as the marketers would have it), with massive arched white brick vaults (supporting the Grand Concourse?) lined with smart rows of lights crowning the room. On the other side of the dining area, red and white-checkered cloths cover a few dozen tables, and commuters catching a bite before their trains to the ‘burbs seem to be everywhere. Best of all though, is the approach to the restaurant: the Oyster Bar is off to the side of the station’s lower-level food court, reached via a large foyer famous for its ‘whispering columns’ where if you stand in one corner of the tiled cave, you can hear everything that’s said in the opposite corner. So be careful what you say around here.

If the architecture outside is hushed, the atmosphere inside is positively raucous with the sounds clinking glasses and shouted bursts of conversations among the servers. Once the menu arrives, you’ll need to tune out the noise and focus on choosing what to eat– no easy task, as the Oyster Bar offers an enormous list of fried and grilled seafood, and of course, an extensive raw bar replete with over 20 varieties of oysters. Deciding on just one or two things means forsaking a lifetime’s worth of wonderful-sounding options, a process that wasn’t helped much by, at least on our visit, a harried and impatient waitress.

Nosher and I both ordered clam chowder, he the New England and I the Manhattan ($5.75 and $4.95, respectively). I prefer the red stuff because it is less creamy and often, less cloying. Here, substantially meaty pieces of clam were in evidence, yet there was also something metallic and amiss: we think at least one ingredient might have come out of a can. Based on my spoonful or two, I found Nosher’s chowder to be better, yet he didn’t think much of it, describing it as not very meaty, too bland, and worst of all, suspiciously dense, almost as if a fair amount of thickener such as corn starch had been added to the soup.

Our main dishes were also a mixed bag. I loved the chewy and well-fried Ipswich clams in my clam platter ($19.95); these were piping-hot, less greasy than I sometimes find, and they telegraphed a pleasing hint of seafood brine. The dish’s best attribute, however, may have been the light homemade tartar sauce that helped erase any negative thoughts I might have had about the food.

Nosher’s Point Judith squid salad ($19.99) was a different story. Served as a cool plate of marinated squid tossed with red onions, all accompanied by avocado and a purple basil vinaigrette, this appeared to be a good choice–it smelled terrific when it arrived at the table. However, some of the squid had dried out substantially and none of it was tender; Nosher described eating the rings ‘as like chewing my way through a plate of something you might buy at an office supply store.’ Unfortunately, there was also too much red onion and barely any of the advertised purple basil.

Of course, neither one of us tried the oysters (raw or cooked), which we understand are actually quite good, nor did we try any of the desserts, among which the brioche pudding with crème anglaise ($6.25) looked so good to me I wondered if it could match those we get at our favorite Chicago panaderia. But given our uneven meal, I think we’ll have to wait until we are both craving some deep-fried seafood before we return to find out. That, or killing a little time before we start out on our next railway adventure.

Grand Central Oyster Bar, Lower Level, Grand Central Station, (212) 490-6650