Bostonist Lobster Rollover: Belle Isle Seafood, East Boston

Belle Isle Seafood
1267 Saratoga St.
East Boston
$16.99

Perched next to the bridge to Winthrop, at the very edge of East Boston, Belle Isle Seafood has a strong claim on the title of best lobster roll in the city.

The first thing anybody mentions about the place is that it's a shack. In fact, the word "shack" hardly does it justice. It's more like an outpost. The building is directly on the water, across the harbor from the landing fields at Logan; Belle Isle gets its fish straight off the boat. And the freshness of the fish is evident.

The fish counter takes up the prime real estate just inside the entrance. It's likely to be filled with clams, shrimp, cooked lobster, cod, and other staples of the New England diet. What it doesn't have is a nasty, fishy smell: the hallmark of a great seafood shop.

The walls are hung with kitsch: a blue wooden anchor here, a miniature ship's helm there. The words "Belle Isle" carved into a wooden fish. There are only eight seats available along a counter in the back, and, when Bostonist visited, half of them were taken up by film crew members who were shooting a movie behind the shop. That didn't matter; we ate our roll like the locals do: perched on the Winthrop bridge, with the smell of the Harbor wafting around us.

The lobster roll was nearly perfect. Belle Isle's menu promises a half pound of meat, but Bostonist remains certain that we got more than that. The lobster is a good mixture of tail and knuckle meat, chilled just enough to be refreshing. The meat dissolved with the slightest nibble, releasing a blunt and assertive lobster flavor that stormed the front of Bostonist's palate before dissipating into a smooth, buttery finish. There was more mayonnaise on the roll than we would have liked, but, thankfully, no other accompaniments, save a thin layer of lettuce that offered a contrasting texture at the bottom of the roll.

The deafening roar of passing jet engines never sounded so sweet.

Mayonnaise: