Legal Sea Foods is a well-known restaurant with locations across northeastern United States. I did not know this while I was in Boston though; I knew it only as the restaurant near our hotel that had the funky vertical sign. Our group of eight walked in without a reservation on Saturday night, and at first they said we would have to wait at least 40 minutes, but when we turned to leave, they ended up seating us in a private dining room. Our waiter was amazingly accommodating. For example, after we’d placed our orders, we noticed on our informative place mats that Legal was known for their clam chowder, which none of us had ordered. So we called our waiter back and he brought us a bowl and eight spoons to share. In a matter of seconds, the bowl was empty and we were fighting over who got to lick the bowl1.
Their assortment of seafood was overwhelming, and it took us a very long time to decide what to order. When the food came, none of us regretted our choices, although I attribute that more to the fact that everything at this restaurant was nothing short of delicious.
I chose rainbow trout from their list of grilled fish, which you can pair with your choice of seasoning/sauces. It tasted great with shandong sauce, as the fish itself was lightly seasoned, with flaky but tender flesh. I could tell it was quite fresh, as there was no “fishy smell” that comes from fish flesh decomposition when the fish has been sitting on land for too long.
We were so full after the mains that no one could manage dessert, but how could we leave without trying the Boston cream pie? So again, our waiter brought us one Boston cream pie and eight spoons, and again we fought over who got to lick the plate.
In hindsight, the mains may have been delicious simply because of the fact that their seafood is fresh (good relationship with suppliers maybe?), since most of their dishes ranked low on the creativity scale (except the almond-crusted salmon). I mean, when you have a plate of fresh mussels, lobster, and scallops, who cares how you make your tomato base? On the other hand, thumbs up for good supply chain management!
The restaurant is large and fairly noisy, probably because there are two bars in addition to its dinner patrons. Our location had a very modern interior, with winding staircases, pleather couches, and hanging spiraling glass. Their wine selection is quite long and varied, with very reasonable prices by the glass, half-bottle, and bottle. I chose a 2006 German Riesling to play it safe with the crowd, but a medium red probably would have been more suitable for our meal. There are not as many high-end wines, mostly wines in the low to mid price range, which is perfectly fine with me. Our waiter was very amiable, although he was slow to get us the bill, especially considering he knew we were in a hurry to get to the Boston Symphony Orchestra on time (it seemed like their customer to waiter ratio was on the low side, or maybe it was just Saturday night).
All in all, it was a lovely meal to complement a lovely evening.
Rating: 
- For both the soup and the dessert, I did not get a “before” picture because I was fighting off the masses for my spoonful of heaven. [↩]