The Consulate Upper West Side: $2 Oysters and $13 Cocktails a Block From Central Park
The Consulate Upper West Side has a happy hour Monday to Friday from 3:30pm at 519 Columbus Avenue, on the corner of West 85th Street: $2 Blue Point oysters, $12–$14 cocktails, $10 wine and $7 beer, plus bites from $11. The happy-hour menu says it wraps at 6pm, while the restaurant’s location page says 6:30, so treat 6 as the real deadline.
The verdict: this is the Upper West Side’s best-value way into a full-dress French brasserie. At dinner, half a dozen oysters is $28 and the house cocktails run $19–$21. Between 3:30 and 6 on a weekday, the oysters are $2 apiece and the same cocktails drop to $12–$14. That gap is the whole argument. The catch is the calendar: weekdays only, and it ends before most people get out of work.
The Happy Hour
The happy-hour menu, from the restaurant’s own site (checked October 2026): Blue Point oysters at $2 each with apple mignonette and hot sauce, three-piece minimum; $11 escargot (six, with garlic butter and country bread); $12 crispy tuna tacos (three); $13 fish and chips; a $14 pulled pork slider; and bigger plates like $16–$18 pinza breads and $19 lamb meatballs. Cocktails are $13 for Your Love Is King and The Consulate Old Fashioned, $14 for Oui Mademoiselle and $12 for the French 85th — all $19–$21 on the regular list. Wine is $10 a glass (pinot grigio, Côtes du Rhône, Provence rosé, cava) and beer is $7 (Kronenbourg 1664 or Blanc, an IPA, a porter, Allagash White).
The local move: a half dozen oysters and an Old Fashioned for $25, then walk it off in Central Park a block east.
The Room
The Consulate sits on the corner of Columbus and 85th, a block from Central Park and a short walk from the Museum of Natural History. It serves all day — weekday lunch until 3:30, weekend brunch from 10am, dinner nightly from 4:30 — and the kitchen is French-American brasserie: French onion soup, croque monsieur, $54 steak frites. Reservations go through OpenTable, and the restaurant takes cash and all major cards. The B/C and the 1 both stop at 86th Street.
Also at: The Consulate Midtown on West 56th and The Consulate Murray Hill on East 38th, with the same $2 oyster happy hour. For more deals in the neighborhood, see our Upper West Side happy hour guide.
Who The Consulate Upper West Side Is For
| Occasion | Why It Works |
|---|---|
| Oysters on a budget | $2 Blue Points on weekdays from 3:30pm, $28 a half dozen at dinner |
| A cocktail before the park | $13 Old Fashioned a block from Central Park |
| Museum day | A short walk from the Museum of Natural History |
| Weekend brunch | Saturday and Sunday 10am–3:30pm |