Description: Legal seafood has grown from one restaurant next to their fish market in Cambridge to over 30 restaurants in 8 states and the District of Columbia. What hasn’t changed in over 50 years is their dedication to serving the freshest fish available.
On Friday as we were waiting for the Trolley at Long Wharf we realized that facing us was Legal Seafood. We decided that we would return to have dinner there after we had completed our touring.
We arrived at 5pm. We thought that if we arrived early we could avoid having to wait and we were right. We were seated immediately and were placed our drink orders in a snap. We were given a basket of nice rolls and butter while we looked at our menus.
They have just about anything you could possibly want when it comes to seafood. There are raw choices, 5 types of oysters and 2 kings of clams or f you can’t decide there is the Treasures of the reef an assortment of shucked and chilled raw shellfish. If raw isn’t your thing, and it isn’t mine, there is smoked salmon, steamers, and mussels in a white wine sauce.
If you are looking for Chowda then this is your place with New England and Fish offered as well as Lobster Bisque. I decided to start with a cup of chowder and very good chowder it was. It was creamy but with that clammy brine that keeps it from being too rich and plenty of chunks of potato to enjoy.
Both Irene and I decided to try the same entrée, Legal’s Signature Crab-cake Combo. The combo has one lump crab-cake with grilled shrimp and scallops. It turned out to be a near perfect dish. The crab cake is just that crab, there was almost no visible filler just sweet juicy crab. The scallops and crab were also perfectly cooked, very simply but so perfect that there was not even a hint of the chewyness that is the result of over cooking. The fish was accompanied by a small green salad that was served on the plate with the fish.
You have the option of ordering many kinds of fish wood grilled. It is served with two sides and you can add spices or sauces to personalize your choice. They have many expected choices like popcorn shrimp and fried clams and some really exceptional ones like nutty wild salmon and red onion jam swordfish.
The only place they fell short was in the coffee department. We ordered two cups of decaf. Irene added two creamers to hers and it was still a very dark muddy color. I asked out waiter if it was the bottom of the pot and he said no it has to be new every hour. Well it was awful, I just couldn’t drink it. He took it back and credited our bill for both of them, a satisfactory solution but I would have preferred a good cup of coffee.
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