Summer Food at the Summer Shack

After being in Greece for a bit, Nick's sister A emailed him wanting to catch up over some lobsters and steamers. Not in the mood to attempt this meal at home and not wanting to venture far outside of the city, we headed out to the Summer Shack. Having only been to the Alwife location ages ago, I was curious to see how the Back Bay spot would treat us. We had made reservations, which turned out to be a good thing even on a rainy Wednesday night - the place was packed! Once we were seated we were brought a basket of corn bread and rolls, which was a bit of a treat (especially having just come back from Greece, where every restaurant charges you for the bread basket!)

Cornbread and Rolls

For an appetizer we had a double order of steamers - a first for the summer! The steamers were tasty and cooked well. I did not have much sand at all in my portion, but Nick somehow kept eating ones that had a good amount of it! Steamers are one of my favorite summer foods, so anytime I can have them it is a treat.

Steamers!

The time in between our appetizers and main meals was taking quite a bit of time (close to 45 minutes!), and while we did not say anything, the manager brought over the Rhode Island fried calamari - Rhode Island style meaning spicy and greasy, which was good, but the crust didn't seem to want to stay on the calamari. The flavors were good, but it was definitely greasy - a bit too much in my opinion.

Free Calamari

For my main meal I was having trouble deciding what I wanted to eat so I ended up keeping it in the clam family, only this time I got the fried variety. However, I was actually a bit let down by the size of the order, even as an appetizer. Given the portion of the steamers, I thought I would be in for more. Really though, the side of tartar sauce took up more than half of the plate. This aside, they were tasty, and the breading had some nice flavors. The coating stayed put on the clams as well.

Fried Clams

Nick went with the Shack Style Fish Tacos, which were good. The sauce had a bit of heat, which added to the flavor. However, I think the more simple steamed and fried fish, without all the condiments, play more to their strengths.

Fish Tacos

Nick's sister did not mess around and went straight for the 2 pound lobster - anything less is really not worth it in my opinion! The lobster was well cooked and the shell was partially cracked. While they gave out the shell crackers, they did not give out any of the little picker tool so it made the task of accessing the lobster meat a bit more difficult than it should have been. Regardless, it was yummy.

Lobster

Overall, we were pleased with our meal for being at a New England seafood restaurant right in downtown Boston and not up on the beach somewhere. There were definitely lots of tourists snapping photos of all the food (so of course I fit right in!). Other than Legal's I was not really sure where to go for some good seafood downtown, so this did fit the bill. The prices were a bit higher, but really not that much more than what you would pay at some of the places on the North Shore.

Where do you suggest in Boston for some good New England seafood?