Luke's Lobster, literally a hole-in-a-wall in the East Village, specializes in New England style chowders and seafood sandwiches, being particularly known for their lobster roll. Their reputation is also one of being a good value, which appears to be enabled by two things: existing as a hole-in-a-wall in a relatively inexpensive part of the city and the owner's having a father who owns a lobster processing plant in Maine. Being an avid lobster and seafood enthusiast, I and a friend ventured down from mid-town to check it out.
I originally intended to just get a lobster roll, but when I saw that the Maine shrimp season was underway and they also had crab rolls, my friend and I decided to split a “Noah's Ark” for $38, which consisted of 2 small lobster rolls, shrimp rolls and crab rolls as well as 4 Empress crab claws and 2 drinks and 2 bags of chips. We also ordered a small shrimp & corn chowder each.
The chowder came out first. Extremely hot, we needed to wait for them to cool down before we could physically eat them without burning ourselves. As they cooled to merely hot, the flavor improved from initially one note – cream flavor – to a bit more complex and enjoyable chowder flavor.
When the “ark” arrived, we each had 3 small sandwiches: shrimp, crab and lobster along with Empress crab claws. I tried the shrimp first. This was tasty and satisfying. For someone on a tight budget, this probably represents the best taste to price value ratio, as a full sandwich sells for $7 compared to $9 for the crab and $14 for the lobster roll. The crab roll, on the other hand, was quite bland and relatively tasteless despite a liberal application of Luke's proprietary spice powder. I would not order this again. The claws, however were tasty and satisfying. I finished with the lobster roll, which was good and a good value, especially considering that it was essentially all lobster. Unfortunately though, it was neither revelatory nor anywhere near the class of the best lobster rolls I have ever had.
Considering the sourcing connections of Luke's Lobster and their on-line claims, I expected more from the lobster roll than it delivered in terms of flavor. I repeat, it was a good value, but it did not make me swoon the way the very best lobster rolls have. Considering the close Maine connection, I had to wonder why, relatively inexpensive or not, the lobster roll at Luke's was not a swoon-inducer, as I expected it to be. Given the small size of the storefront and no lobster in sight as well as the rapidity of service, I asked where the lobsters had been cooked. It turned out that they had been fully cooked and processed in Maine at Luke's father's processing plant. Perhaps I shouldn't have been had I read their website more closely than I had, but this surprised me and raised a question in my mind: Would the flavor and depth of the lobster have been better had the lobsters been processed right out of the ocean as these apparently were and then shipped and prepare pre-cooked or would the lobster quality have been better cooked on-sight even if it meant that the lobsters would have been days or potentially even more from their ocean home? Clearly the latter, requiring more space and other considerations, would be more expensive for the business, directly impeding the restaurant's ability to sell the product as inexpensively as they do. Just as clearly, there is no question, in my mind at least, that the best quality lobsters come direct from the sea and are cooked and served as close to their harvest as possible. Once again, this method, while superior, would be inconsistent with the business model of selling an inexpensive lobster roll in NYC. As a result, my conclusion is that for their apparent goal of selling a lot of lobster (and other) rolls at very reasonable prices, their way of doing it probably represents the best way of doing so outside of doing it right on the lobster piers of Maine.
For the money, Luke's Lobster makes a worthwhile stop for a quick and reasonable seafood meal if in the East Village, however, it is not in my opinion worth making a special trip to from elsewhere in the city, unless one is seriously jonesing for lobster and can't afford to spend more for a better rendition.
Recent Comments