Let's be honest, if you're planning on going to the North River Lobster Company, you're mostly going because you can sit on this small, but nice boat while drinking buckets of beer for as long as you want. It's a bonus that they have a menu but the food isn't really the star here. But of course I had to check out the food while I was there anyways. They have a pretty sweet sounding line up - a raw bar with oysters and clams, lobster rolls, lobster salad, full steam lobsters, New England Clam Chowder, peel and eat shrimp, fish tacos, shrimp po boys, as well as a basic burger and chicken sandwich. They also have a cocktail menu of cute sounding cocktails - which are all served in those uber trendy mason jars.
My first piece of advice is to get here early if you want a table upstairs in the sun. Or be prepared to just stand and hoover over people for their table (that was my tactic). There are 3 levels and the bottom two levels are indoors but who wants to be on a boat and be indoors?
My second piece of advice is to just order as much as you can at once. There is no waitstaff, you go up to the bar to order and they give you a number you put on your table. The line can be very long, so either just get a bucket of beer ($28 for 5 beers) or be ok with waiting in line every time you want a drink. Usually I am a total sucker for a lobster roll, but since I had been eating kind of poorly lately and I knew that I was going out to dinner only a few hours afterwards, I opted for the lobster cobb salad ($13) and Holly got the lobster roll ($18) and we split the fries ($5). I kind of knew going into it that I would probably regret not getting the lobster roll and I was right. While the salad was fine and there were several medium sized chunks of lobster in it, it just wasn't super flavorful and the greens were kind of wilty. This is what I get for trying to be healthy and avoiding mayo and carbs. Meanwhile, Holly's lobster roll looked lovely and delicious. It was poached with a yuzu aioli and served on a brioche roll and served with a bag of chips. For $18, it was surprisingly pretty stuffed full with lobster. I was totally drooling over it by the time I reached the bottom of my light salad. Holly mentioned that she really enjoyed it and she's had many a lobster meals with me before. The fries were your standard thick bar fries. Like I mentioned earlier, the best part of this experience is just being able to sit on the boat for free (well free meaning they don't charge you separately for the boat ride) for as long as you want and every hour they set sail for a quick 15 minute spin around the west side of the island. Holly and I stayed on for about 3 sails and while it does get kind of repetitive after a while, it's just nice to be able to sit outside and for once imagine that you're not in the city. The crowd is not a douchey as the one at the Frying Pan but I'm sure once word gets out, it'll be full with partying kids who couldn't make it to the Shore or to the Hamptons. Total bill: $70 for the food and bucket of beers
Photo Credit: Yelp
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