Seattle has become a globally expensive city – we know it. But the shock of having the most expensive food (and drinks) in town is real. In this series, Seattle Times food critic Bethany Jean Clement tests some of the city’s priciest items — including, so far, a $28 burger, a $55 pie and more — to rate if they are worth the price of ingesting.
THE ITEM: The Double-the-Lobster Lobster Roll at Bar Harbor in South Lake Union.
THE PRICE: $40.
CONSIDER THE LOBSTER ROLL: A lobster roll is inherently a New England specialty, because that’s where the lobsters are found – in Maine, mainly, where at the time the Atlantic was so full of these crustaceans that they were the opposite of luxury. So many lobsters! The lobstermen and lobsterwomen, in particular, probably got tired of eating this largesse. Many chowders were prepared. And why not serve it as an unpretentious sandwich on a bun similar to a hot dog?
Different preparations have their very partisan fans. There’s the lobster roll served hot with the meat drizzled with melted butter, generally called Connecticut style; Maine style now means either meat mixed with mayonnaise only, or celery and/or chives. Beyond that, you’re venturing into controversial innovation territory; there’s talk of places in the East serving them flavored with wasabi, chipotle and curry, which must drive lobster roll fans crazy.
For the purist, the style of the bun is not up for debate: it will be a vehicle of soft, split-top, flat-sided white bread, with its exterior buttered and toasted until ‘it’s golden. And, clearly, the lobster should be made up of pieces that are easily identifiable as such – from the claw and other good bits.
In New England, the lobster roll became so widespread that a version was sporadically available at McDonald’s. In the Pacific Northwest, just ten years ago, they were rare; Lobster is a delicacy here, imported with high carbon content and a price to match. But New Seattle privilege has apparently manifested a new appetite for that lobster sandwich (probably bolstered by the little prestige gained from posting a photo of a sandwich on social media). There are now many lobster rolls around town and, my friends, most of them are not very good. Which brings us to…
COMPARISON-PURCHASES: Bar Harbor’s $40 price tag may cause sticker shock, but the point of comparison here is that place’s regular, non-double lobster roll: It costs a relatively reasonable $26 for hedonism and comes in three traditional styles, with your choice of salad, coleslaw or chips.
Downtown at Luke’s Lobster, a national Maine chain, the $24 lobster roll comes just hot or cold with butter (or with spiced honey or truffle butter, simmer, for a dollar more ). My cold roll had frozen and refrigerated butter coating the meat, and the kitchen’s entire output here is sprinkled with a proprietary spice blend noticeably containing oregano, with the unsettling result of a lobster roll that smells like pizza sauce.
Nearby, Mason’s Famous Lobster Rolls is another Maryland-based chain synonymous with crabcakes (and, what news in the world, Mason’s just opened an outlet in Milan). My $22 sample here tasted pretty good, but it came with just a hint of pickle and felt noticeably light in the hand, with excess cottony roll at each end. Add in a distinctly chain-like antithesis of atmosphere, and it doesn’t seem like a good deal.
Across the street at the Seattle Art Museum’s MARKET (and also in Edmonds), the dining experience is much nicer and the $34 lobster rolls come with good fries. The meat in these buns, however, is dosed with Old Bay, imparting an acrid smokiness to what should be purely seafaring. Most lobsters were chewed stringy and hard; the roll lacked butter, toasted until dry.
The $28 lobster roll at Bar Miriam on Queen Anne is served in an unorthodox open format with lettuce, Old Bay-flavored mayonnaise and pieces of oddly sweet and watery celery described as candied. More troubling than that was the absence of small, recognizable pieces of lobster, with most of the meat consisting of pasty-textured strands.
Don’t go to Pike Place Chowder for the $34.95 lobster roll – it’s not called Pike Place Lobster Roll for a reason.
CAUTION : All that being said, let’s remember that there is actually no such thing as a local lobster roll in Seattle, and the resources required to put one to your mouth here are considerable, and that supporting our northwest fisheries of the Pacific is the right thing to do. . To that end, consider the Dungeness crab roll: Bar Harbor makes a wonderful one, in regular and double-stuffed sizes, for a dollar cheaper than the lobster version, too.
THE TASTE TEST: Owner Ben Hodgetts opened Bar Harbor in 2016; he’s from Maine and takes lobster roll matters just as seriously. The $40 Double-the-Lobster extravaganza is filled with whole chunks of beautifully orange and red shank and claw meat – it’s so stuffed as the butter-grilled Macrina roll. (Hodgetts does not deploy cheaper tail meat, which he says is not suitable for the roll configuration.)
It all tastes noticeably fresh: the sweet ocean lobster, the soft bun, the just-light amount of mayonnaise, if you like it that way (Hellmann’s/Best Foods only, per Hodgetts’ dictate). The coleslaw strays on the sweet side, but the mixed greens salad with toasted pepitas and balsamic vinaigrette makes for a welcome palate cleanser; opt for chips and you get the contrasting crunch of the now classic Tim’s Cascade.
It could be argued that if you’re going to splurge on a lobster roll, why not go all-in on the quantity of the star ingredient? I was expecting an affirmative review, but it’s possible that double that is…too much lobster?! It’s a lot, anyway, and Bar Harbor’s $26 regular lobster roll is also magnificent: Each specimen is topped with a whole showboat claw. After admiring it, Hodgetts advises squishing it shamelessly into the roll for optimal lobster bread bites, and then the proportion seems just about perfect.
Bar Harbor also offers a pleasant neo-nautical interior with ideally friendly service, a full bar, and a menu too delicious to enter—it’s an oft-overlooked Seattle spot, with a huge outdoor patio that’s fun in the summer. , Also.
IT’S WORTH IT? Having recently eaten my own weight in local lobster rolls, I’m going to call Seattle’s most expensive lobster roll in Bar Harbor its undisputed best – and its less over-the-top, less expensive little brother is also perfect.