NEW ENGLAND LOBSTER MARKET & EATERY
ADDRESS: 824 Cowan Road, Burlingame, CA 94010
WEBSITE: https://newenglandlobster.net/
My cousin Linda was the one who introduced me to New England Lobster Market & Eatery during one of my previous trips up to the San Francisco area back in July 2016 with my brother Kevin. Ever since then, this place has been on my list of spots I wanted to review. Now, all these years later, I found myself headed back to the area, taking a stop in for lunch before heading over to Bayfront Park to do some planespotting at San Francisco International Airport.
This is definitely a pretty massive space, with extensive indoor and outdoor seating options available. You order up at the counter when you first step in before they direct you to one of the tables either inside or outside. With the outside seating area looking pretty packed and what appeared to be some overcast weather moving in, I decided to stay on the safe side and sit indoors. In addition to the eating areas, there is also the market area located to the left of when you first walk in, with refrigerators and displays to showcase fresh seafood items for you to take home as well.
As you might have guessed, this place specializes in lobster in a variety of forms. Lobster rolls, lobster platters, lobster tails, lobster mac and cheese, it is certainly featured prominently on their menu. But their other seafood options are not to be overlooked either, where they also serve a number of dishes featuring shrimp and dungeness crab. During my first visit, I remember walking away very impressed with their seasoned lobster roll (lobster meat tossed with mayo, salt, and pepper, topped with avocado and bacon). This time around, their Taco Tuesday special was catching my eye, with a trio of seafood tacos (lobster, shrimp, and crab). I figured that since the opportunity wouldn’t be often that I’d be visiting on a Tuesday, I ought to take advantage of that special.
I have to commend the staff on how quickly they are able to turn out so much food to such a large dining space. I arrived around 1:15PM and the place was still pretty packed; I can only imagine how it must be when the lunch rush really rolls through. It took probably about five minutes total before one of the staff members was walking out to my table with my taco trio tray.
Each taco was constructed on a handmade corn tortilla that had been cooked up on a flat-top grill. The shrimp and the crab tacos were dressed with pico de gallo on top, while the lobster taco was paired with shredded cabbage. House-made chips and coleslaw came standard with the tray, along with butter for the lobster and a remoulade sauce. I squeezed the lemon wedge onto all three before getting started with the shrimp taco first.
The shrimp taco probably had the most heft out of the three, in terms of overall quantity of seafood. While I thought that the shrimp flavor itself was good, I think it could have used just a hint of seasoning, since I needed some of the remoulade to really give each bite a bit more depth. As for the crab taco, I thought that those flavors were pretty good as well, complemented nicely with the acidity from both the pico de gallo as well as the lemon juice. Texturally, both of those tacos were benefited by the slight crunch that came from the corn tortilla itself.
Last, but not least, the lobster taco. I was sure to drizzle some of the melted butter on top before going in to take a bite. There’s definitely a hearty amount of lobster meat within the taco itself, and the butter helped with providing a smoothness to each overall bite. But oncemore, I found that I could have done with a slight bit of seasoning to help make it even better.
That’s not to say that I did not enjoy the tacos, as I’m glad that I was able to branch out to give some of the other seafood options a try. But perhaps the use of slightly more seasoning is why I had preferred the dressed lobster roll in the past, and why there was a small part of me that missed that as I was eating through these seafood tacos. In the end though, the freshness of the seafood really stands out at New England Lobster, and I’m sure that is part of the reason why the place is still so popular, even after coming back here seven years later. I’ll be sticking with lobster rolls on any future visits, and if you’re also a lobster roll fan too, this is definitely a spot to check out.
Let’s now take a look at the New England Lobster Market & Eatery Dish Spotlight. Asterisks (*) below mark my recommended dishes.
** Seasoned Lobster Roll **
Lobster meat tossed in mayo, salt, and pepper, topped with avocado and bacon. Served with house-made chips and coleslaw.
~><~
** 3 Amigos Taco Trio **
Shrimp, lobster, and dungeness crab tacos (pictured left to right), served on handmade corn tortillas. Served with house-made chips and coleslaw.
~><~
And finally, here are my rankings for New England Lobster Market & Eatery:
Food: 4.75 / 5
The quality of the seafood was definitely noticeable and I thought that the portions provided were great as well. There are also a number of different options to choose from, even if lobster is not your main favorite.
Atmosphere: 4.75 / 5
The interior décor definitely has a very nautical feel to it as a whole, with the blue colors for the walls along with the metallic red chairs and wood for the dining tables. Outdoors, the bright red and white umbrellas over the picnic tables set up in front of the restaurant made the place hard to miss.
Service: 4.5 / 5
Given the number of people that occupied all of the tables, I thought that the staff still did a relatively good job keeping on top of the orders to get the food out in a reasonable time.
Price: 4.5 / 5
For both the quality and quantity of the seafood that you end up getting, I thought that the price points were relatively good. It’s certainly more expensive than what I remember from my last visit here, but food prices in general have gone up everywhere.
Overall:
18.5 / 20
(93%)
Categories: California, Restaurants
Chu On This 