Tuesday, November 1, 2011

Seafood of the Gods at Neptune Oyster?


Neptune Oyster 
63 Salem Street
Boston, MA 02113

When you are headed to New England for vacation, you definitely have to have lobster sometime during your stay. Like lots of people, I love lobster but do not have it as often as I like. One of the reasons being that I live on the west coast, and it is not readily available. The other reason, of course, is the expense. We were on vacation though, so we decided to splurge. We heard great things about Neptune Oyster, so that is where we headed.

Neptune Oyster is a very popular restaurant as we found out when we got there. It was an hour and a half wait when we got there at eight on a Thursday night. Since we had nothing else to do for the night, and I really wanted to eat here, we waited in the bar across the street. They got our phone number and gave us a call after about an hour.

Neptune is a very small restaurant, in the North End of Boston. A part of the city that is renowned for its Italian food. If you blink you are going to miss this place, it is that tiny. The tables are very close together, so it is easy to meet your neighbors. They do have an oyster bar, but we were here hunting for the crustacean known as the lobster.


Of course, man does not live by lobster alone, and up until this point of our trip, I had not had any Clam Chowder. I rectified that here. This is your classic New England chowder. It was really good and flavorful, but I would have liked this a little more on the creamy side. They were very plentiful with the clams here.


This classy looking appetizer was Katie's choice, a Buttermilk Johnnycake. I was a little shocked that Katie would order this, but it was really tasty. It is a buttermilk cake, with honey butter, smoked trout tartare on top of that, and then topped with Little Pearl caviar. We could have easily eaten three of these. The elements of this all combined in an unexpected way and the result was delicious. The smokiness of the trout, along with the sweet from the cake, and the saltiness of the caviar enlightened our senses. One of Katie's best choices on our trip.


Now on to what we came here for, lobster. We had lobster in the form of a Maine Lobster Roll. They serve two kinds of lobster rolls here. You will see mine next. Katie opted for the roll served hot, with just butter added. This sandwich definitely did not need to be dressed up more than that. This rich sandwich was overflowing with lobster. I actually liked this one better than mine.


My Maine Lobster Roll was not bad by any means, just different. I went with a cold roll and had the lobster dressed up with some mayo. This was another rich sandwich. It had a tuna fish sandwich feel to it, but with the buttery taste of the lobster. I liked the warmed lobster better, but by just a little bit.

Neptune Oyster was well worth the hour wait. Both Katie and I were glad that we chose to have our traditional New England seafood here. The service was nice and polite, the prices were very good for the amount of food we got. The lobster rolls were $25, but they really fill you up on the lobster. I am guessing there was a half a pound of meat or more on these sandwiches. Plus you get the bonus of not having to crack open the shells by getting the lobster this way. Glad we got our lobster fix here.

Out of five tridents, (because Neptune, the Roman god of water and the sea, held a trident), five being best to zero being worst, Neptune Oyster gets 4 tridents.

For more information on Neptune Oyster, click here: http://www.neptuneoyster.com/7cg19egpgi4o214bldvm8hyuc9icbe

4 comments:

  1. Holy cow, Mike, looks rich, very rich... I'm talkin' the lobster rolls. Wow! Do they have the cardiac paddles standing by in case you go into defib? Think they put enough fries on the plate?
    LOL, seriously, looks good... mom and I will have to remember this for when we're in the northeast again. Beats the lobster roll at McDonalds that I had. Yes, McDonalds does have them in season, of course. Who'd have thunk it?
    Dad

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  2. My husband and I ate here in May and it was amazing!! We went in the afternoon on a Tuesday and it was even busy then, but great food, great atmosphere. Also, fantastic neighborhood to walk around!

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  3. Dad - Man, I would have loved to have blogged about the lobster roll at McDonalds. This was one of the richest meals I have had yet, but very good. Thanks for the comment.

    Amanda - You could not be more correct, the neighborhood reminded us of Universal Studio's lot. Lots of character, and great places to eat. We can not wait to go back. Thanks for the comment.

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  4. Funny you should mention a movie lot. They were filming when we were there and there were old classic gangster cars parked everywhere. It was surreal.

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