The name makes more sense once you meet them. Chef Hugo Galván runs the kitchen. Hugo Osorio runs the bar. Together they run Hugo’s Seafood Bar at 334 W. Davis Street in Bishop Arts, inside a room with an original stamped tin ceiling, exposed brick, and an octopus painted on the wall. The place seats fewer than 30 people. On a Friday night it feels like twice that, which is not a complaint — it’s the sign of a room that has figured out exactly what it wants to be.
What it wants to be is a serious raw bar with an equally serious cocktail program, operating in the same space without one overshadowing the other. Galván is a veteran Dallas chef whose fish handling shows it — the crudo section alone runs ahi tuna, scallop, and hamachi, all with cucumber, radish, serrano, lemon olive oil, and Hawaiian salt, or all three together for $26, which is the way to start if you haven’t been before. The scallop aguachile with U-10 scallops, green aguachile, tomato, serrano, radish, orange supremes, and lemon olive oil earns the attention — the tart and buttery elements push against each other in a way that makes you slow down.
The Ultimate Hugo’s Tostada loads jumbo shrimp, scallops, and octopus onto a corn tortilla with tomato aguachile rojo and avocado, and at $22 it is one of the better deals on a menu that is already priced honestly for what it delivers.
The raw bar runs East Coast oysters at $22 for a half dozen, premium oysters at $24, and the House Royal Oysters — with lemon juice, uni, royal caviar, salsa macha oil, and chives — at $45 for a half dozen. The oyster shooter is a $7 raw oyster with trout roe in a ceramic shell, described by some as “delicious fun,” which is accurate. If you want to go further, the caviar program runs American Paddlefish at $65 for a half ounce and Royale Kaluga at $80, both served with potato chips, crème fraîche, boiled egg yolk, egg white, and red onions.
The Cold Seafood Platter — six shrimp, eight East Coast oysters, tuna tartare, scallop aguachile, and a whole lobster for $120 — is the table order when the night calls for it.
The kitchen doesn’t stop at the crudo bar. The pasilla pork belly with fried oysters — 24-hour braised pork belly, pasilla red wine reduction, three fried oysters — is the dish that surprises people who came in planning to eat only fish. The lobster and crab croquettes with velouté and guajillo oil, the chargrilled oysters with garlic, cilantro butter, and Iberico chorizo, and the deviled eggs with crab, trout roe, and Dijon mustard round out a menu of smaller plates that makes it easy to stay longer than planned.
For something more substantial, the lobster roll at $24 with homemade fries is the lunch order on weekends, and the 12oz Prime New York strip with bone marrow butter and roasted potatoes — with lobster meat available as an add-on for $15 — is the kitchen saying it can do more than seafood when the occasion calls for it.
Osorio’s cocktail program is the other half of why this room works. The wine list is curated and specific — not long, not padded with filler — and the craft cocktails run alongside a mocktail selection serious enough that the menu doesn’t treat it as an afterthought. Texas Monthly called the cocktails and wine “refreshing and balanced with fresh fish,” which undersells what Osorio has built at that bar, but the point stands. If you’re deciding between drinks and a raw bar platter, the right answer is both.
Hugo’s Seafood Bar. Open Tuesday through Thursday 5 to 11 p.m., Friday and Saturday noon to 1 a.m., Sunday noon to 9 p.m. Closed Monday. Reservations at hugoseafoodbar.com. Follow @hugosbishoparts.
