I've lived within 5 miles of Blue Lobster for over 13 years, but I've never eaten there . . . until this week. Why? Two reasons. One, my wife and son don't like fried seafood. The second reason is best explained in . . . a gratuitous story.
About one year pre-Pandemic, I was playing poker at MGM. A Harvard student was tutoring a Yale student in how to play poker at my table. Nice folks. At dinner time, the Harvard guy called a restaurant on the other side of the casino and ordered fish and chips for the two of them to share. They got up a bit later, and I said, "See you in an hour or so." The guy responded "No. We'll be back soon. I ordered it for takeout." As they walked away, I whispered to the person next to me, "$750,000 of combined education and they can't figure out hot fish and chips gets soggy when it stays in a closed container?" I later watched as they pretended the moist fish and chips were outstanding. Moral of the story - fried seafood does not travel well. Since my family doesn't like fried seafood and it's not my favorite takeout option, I need a solo dining night for fried seafood. I found such a night this week.
My experience with Blue Lobster was mixed. Some restaurants, on some nights, have a bad energy. That was the case from the time I called in my fish and chips/fried calamari combo until about the time I finished eating. In fairness to Blue Lobster, it seemed like they were dealing with a couple of challenging customer experiences, but unfortunately, I had to listen to the interactions as I waited for them to take my phone order, as I waited to pay and as I sat outside eating. I suspect that's not a common occurrence, but it wasn't enjoyable for me. In addition, I don't know if there is some sort of exercise studio in the area behind the Blue Lobster, but they were cranking out the type of music you would hear in a spin class, and that set a bad tone as well.
The lightly battered fried fish, which came in a few smaller pieces, was fine. The fries, which were medium thick and lightly battered, were slightly below average for me. The creamy well shredded cole slaw was very good and had a nice celery seed flavor.
The calamari was a hot mess. I'm not sure I've ever had smaller calamari pieces in an order from any place. The calamari itself was tender and had good flavor, but the batter didn't properly adhere to many calamari pieces and it was too salty. The marinara, on the other hand, was too sweet and I didn't enjoy the flavor. It improved slightly when I added salt.
In the end, I ate all the fish, most of the larger pieces of calamari (the salty batter to calamari ratio was too imbalanced for the smallest pieces) and about a third of the fries, before my desire to be away from the spin music exceeded my interest in the food.
The Food was 3 Stars for me, but it was really a 2 Star experience given the issues with the other customers and the loud spin music. I'll go with 3 Stars for the review since there were some factors outside Blue Lobster's control. read more