Lobster roll

Sangita Vasikaran

hi, I'm Sangita, '23 in course 20 (bioengineering) and design (4B) working in food tech! I post a lot of food appreciation @oatmealoligarchy (read: spam) and was asked to share a food review... so i am here to share thoughts on a quintessential Massachusetts Culinary Experience: lobster rolls

A Saturday morning last August, some good friends and I decided we wanted to eat only lobster rolls the whole day in Boston. We asked our coworkers where our first stop should be, and the answer was unanimously "Alive n Kicking!!!!!!". over the course of like 8 hours we crawled our way through the most well-known joints and ate like 4 rolls each (spending wayyy too much of the monthly expenses budget in the process...but hey, priorities...also somehow we did this same thing three more times on other open saturdays throughout the year HAHA). and gotta say, we all thought Alive n Kicking was SUBPAR. the lobster was tough—almost like overcooked shrimp, not very sweet, and mayo dressing bland. the bread here is non-traditional sesame scalia, compared to comforting clouds of brioche almost everywhere else, and that modern touch is usually what gets people excited about this place...but for some reason, this day, it just felt like a pre-wrapped, sitting out all day school cafeteria sandwich. But while we were eating that saturday morning, we saw a big truck drive up and deliver crates filled with literal alive and kicking lobsters. it made sense that our lobster tasted day old. the morals are....

• try to eat a lobster roll in the afternoon. also, in anthony bourdain's words, don't order seafood on a monday—many places don't have fresh supplies in until later in the week, and during the weekend they're often closed, so on mondays you could very well be eating thursday's shipment.

• lobster season is typically late June - Dec, so try to get the tastiest stuff (and cheapest market prices) then! Boston is a great starting point, but if you want the best, you should make a trip up to Maine for fun

• try both a hot roll (warm meat, butter) and a cold roll (cold meat, mayo, but ideally still has warm toasted bread) at some point! your personal preference may play a role this, but i have found some places do cold meat much better (no reheating, no hot-holding means less opportunity for overcooked, dry, sticky-on-teeth meat) but hot rolls often have buns that are not afraid to be really goldenly toasted and interfere with the chilled meat to become lukewarm.

• our combined pool of candidates were from [Boston:] Alive and Kicking Lobsters, Luke's Lobster, Lobstah on a Roll, Pauli's, Neptune Oyster, Saltie Girl, Row 34, the lovely Market Basket, [Portland following:] The Lobster Shack at Two Lights, Honey Paw, High Roller Lobster Co, The Travelin Lobster. So go out and try some more!

• overall, our biggest turn-offs were: a high ratio of (unbuttered, untoasted, dry) bread to meat, flavors that were either too bland or too flamboyant instead of complementing the sweet mellowness of lobster, and overcooked/dry/sticky-on-teeth meat instead of almost melt-in-your-mouth sashimi-like tenderness.

ofc, preparation inconsistency and personal palate matter a lot, so take all of these thoughts with a grain of sea salt and check out @bostonlobsterroll and @thelobsterrollers for more perspective! but without further ado, here are two rolls we particularly loved in Boston and two from Maine

Figure 1. Luke’s Lobster Back Bay

#1 FAV!
Standout quality: softest and sweetest meat (especially the thinner claws) that spent the optimal amount of time sitting on the bread before serving! the two parts thus meshed really well with the perfect thickness of toasted brioche—both harmoniously soft/soaked in mayo and still a slight buttery crunch with each bite!
Quirks: no showy frills, but old bay seasoning in the cold mayo roll added a light but needed and memorable enhancement to the meat flavor

Figure 2. Saltie Girl (Boston)

Standout quality: one of the best toasted buns and temperature maintained despite a cold mayo filling.
Otherwise well-dressed (though not super seasoned), well-portioned meat, but not mind-blowing like Luke’s

Quirks: even more famous than the roll is the Saltie Girl branded, packaged chips (Salt n vinegar, you have to—no real flavor kick in this sandwich otherwise) that come alongside and complement the sandwich really well. Definitely a more pricey option than the others—lots of frills in the actual restaurant!

Figure 3. The Lobster Shack at Two Lights (Cape Elizabeth, Maine)

Standout quality: THE MAYO! Was tangy with pickle juice and salty in the right amount. You must spread it out in each bite yourself. It was a very noticeable mayo but just so complementary. The meat was refreshing and so differently fresh in a way I’m not sure shipped meat in Boston can replicate (this restaurant is on a coastline where the meat is caught in traps nearby). Without the mayo, this roll would be much less.

Quirks: unforgettable view of the ocean while you eat. Pretty sure the salt air smell and panoramic scenery placebo’d me into loving this place.

Figure 4. The Travelin Lobster (between Portland, Maine and Boston)

Standout quality: More than the roll, the in-shell lobster is a must try! The flavor and warmth of the juices in the shell is not capturable in lobster roll form. No seasoning needed. You pour butter as you go, and with the fresh corn on the side, this is what eating your favorite refreshing treat of the summer as a kid feels like.

Quirks: make sure you wear a bib because lobster juice explodes when you least expect 😂. Try the local Maine blueberry soda while you’re at it!