Are lobster rolls really worth the price?

I see lots of posts mention the desire to find a good place to get a lobster roll in the Canada/NE ports.. However, when I pull up the menus of these rustic beach shacks that serve them, their prices seem to run into the mid $20's for the sandwich. Now unless these are really BIG rolls stuffed with lobster I don't understand the appeal? With the flash freezing they have these days for seafood, I can buy my own lobster tails at $5-$6 for the 4 oz size.

Are there really any reasonably priced seafood markets where you can buy it off a pier, they cook it there and you can eat it inside or out on picnic tables?;) outside

I see lots of posts mention the desire to find a good place to get a lobster roll in the Canada/NE ports.. However, when I pull up the menus of these rustic beach shacks that serve them, their prices seem to run into the mid $20's for the sandwich. Now unless these are really BIG rolls stuffed with lobster I don't understand the appeal? With the flash freezing they have these days for seafood, I can buy my own lobster tails at $5-$6 for the 4 oz size.

 

Are there really any reasonably priced seafood markets where you can buy it off a pier, they cook it there and you can eat it inside or out on picnic tables?;) outside

We generally don't pay that much for a roll, so I'm not sure where you are looking, or even what ports you are looking at. Around Portland, prices are in the $12-$16 range, some list "market price", but still around that, don't think I've seen one for over $20, even at a sit down restaurant.

As for frozen lobster, that changes the texture of the meat, so it doesn't really compare with fresh, and a 4oz tail is probably a spiny lobster. A good lobster roll will also have knuckle and claw meat, which is by far the best part.

When you say you want it cooked there and eaten there, are you talking a roll or a whole lobster? It takes a while to steam the lobster, let it cool, then pick it apart for meat and build the roll. Most places will cook a few bugs in the morning and have someone pick them and put the meat in the cooler for rolls for the rest of the day. While a 1.5lb lobster will run you $6.99/lb these days, and yield about 3/4 lb of meat, picked lobster meat goes for $25-35/lb at the best of times.

I agree, they are pricey, but I think it is worth while to try atleast once when you are on the east coast. As a pacific northwest coaster (and a recreational fisherman) I get my fill of Dungeness crab, but I always have some lobster when we are back east. It is a treat and we are on vacation. I would never pay $15 for a sandwich at home, but when sitting on a pier in Portland or Bar Harbor, Maine, absolutely I am going to enjoy a lobster roll. They really are tasty!

Yes...we have found lobster rolls a little pricey on all our NE/Canada cruises....and sometimes they do seem a bit small..:( BUT--we always have to stop and have one at least one time on each cruise...:D

I did try to duplicate one at home with (very good quality) frozen lobster meat..but alas...just not the same;)

Our lunch at the Side Street Cafe, in Bar Harbor, was pricey IMO, in May. We had one lobster roll and one lobster Cobb salad. Both were about $25; I think the lobster Cobb salad might have been $1 more than the roll.

Personally, I don't think the roll is worth it. While the filling is very tasty, and the bun it came in was good, it was too much bread for my mother's taste. I believe it came with fries, which are sooo healthy:rolleyes:!

The lobster Cobb salad had the same lobster filling from the roll but served with a traditional Cobb salad. It was really good! And a little healthier, too! Still more than I wanted to spend but I'm glad I had it. My mother wished she had chosen the salad instead of the roll.

We don't get lobster at home, so it was a bit of a treat. Okay, we can get lobster at home but it is very expensive, so we choose not to buy it.

We get lots of cheap live lobster at home, so as much as we love it, we tend to be quite fussy about lobster rolls when visiting the Maritimes or New England. I'd certainly never pay $20, but for someone without access to good lobster at home and looking for a treat, $20 probably seems reasonable.

Yum! They are so fresh and good! Worth the price! :D

The classic New England lobster roll is all about simplicity and freshness. Yes, a sandwich made from frozen lobster tails (spiny lobster) would be cheaper. But the point of the New England lobster roll is that it's fresh from the sea. It's cooked, and the meat pulled from the shell, including the claws and knuckles, only moments before serving. Some people are underwhelmed, expecting something stupendous or fancy or amazing. Instead, you just get the freshest lobster possible, freshly prepared. Just the bread and the lobtster. Possibly a bit of butter to toast the bun, and possibly a tiny amount of mayonnaise or drawn butter to barely moisten the lobster, or a few droplets of fresh-squeezed lemon juice. The whole thing depends on the freshness of the lobster.

Dismantling a freshly boiled or steamed lobster is a whole ceremony, taking time and effort to extract all the good stuff; which for many people goes beyond the tail and claws, to include the tomalley, the walking legs, the tail fins, and the roe. With a lobster roll, you bypass all of that. All the work is done for you. So yes, it costs more than just buying fresh live lobsters, or frozen spiny lobster tails. You get the freshest possible lobster meat, without any of the effort and mess.

The best lobster rolls are neither cheap nor complicated. It's just a simple and classic way to eat the finest, freshest, lobster available. If you expect more, you might end up disappointed. If you get much more than lobster in a roll, you're getting away from the simple tradition, which is fine if that's what you like.

Easy - buy one 'real' roll, and one McLobster (now available throughout all branches in the maritimes, as well as occasionally brought over to Ontario and other parts of the country). Compare & contrast.

The McDs version is still 100% fresh lobster meat, never frozen and no other filler seafood, but adds lettuce to the bun and binds the lobster chunks with some mayo, celery, & seasoning. For under $7...

Frankly all the Maritimers I know are much more inclined to eat McLobsters than any roll made in a seafront resto (all too often = inflated price tourist trap) if they aren't making their own from lobsters they've caught themselves. McLobster season is looked forward to much as the McRib is in other areas.

From personal experience the roll itself will probably be less good at McDs - it's the same sort of processed bread as the burger buns just a bit denser, no real crust to speak of - but the filling is just as generously-filled, fresh and tasty as anything from anywhere else. Indeed, there's more texture and flavour than in a 'classic' roll because of the added celery & seasoning. Often there's too much lettuce, but that's easily yoinked out.

I'd rather eat crab than lobster any day of the week though, unless it's a whole one where I can get at the tomally. For those I'd suggest driving around and looking for signs at local churches and rec halls to see where there's a community lobster boil going in - massive portions, friendly folks, and dirt-cheap compared to the restos.

I think it depends. They are not usually for me, because I don't like mayo. I found one restaurant (unfortunately it's now closed) that made them with butter rather than mayo, and those were very nice and well worth $18.

The biggest thing in the cost is not so much the price of the lobster, but the work involved in getting the lobster meat out of the shell. Food at restaurants is priced to include not only the actual cost of the ingredients, but the cost of the labor required to produce it. And many times consumers don't consider the labor costs. Think about how much work there is for you to pick your own lobster -- it's not an easy or quick task.

Now, to frozen lobster. If the lobsters are flash frozen on the ship or on the dock, there is virtually no difference between those and a fresh lobster. I've seen the research done on it (and yes, someone paid for a research experiment for that). And I've experienced both flash frozen on the dock and fresh cooked lobster side by side and I could not tell the difference. But they have to be frozen on the ship or the dock. Cooked and then frozen, or frozen in more traditional methods will make the meat tough, rubbery, and bland.

Our lunch at the Side Street Cafe, in Bar Harbor, was pricey IMO, in May. We had one lobster roll and one lobster Cobb salad. Both were about $25; I think the lobster Cobb salad might have been $1 more than the roll.

 

Personally, I don't think the roll is worth it. While the filling is very tasty, and the bun it came in was good, it was too much bread for my mother's taste. I believe it came with fries, which are sooo healthy:rolleyes:!

 

The lobster Cobb salad had the same lobster filling from the roll but served with a traditional Cobb salad. It was really good! And a little healthier, too! Still more than I wanted to spend but I'm glad I had it. My mother wished she had chosen the salad instead of the roll.

 

We don't get lobster at home, so it was a bit of a treat. Okay, we can get lobster at home but it is very expensive, so we choose not to buy it.

We loved Bar Harbor's Side Street Cafe's lobster roll last fall. I just checked their current menu on line and the lobster roll is advertised as " Our rolls include 5 OUNCES of hand picked, never frozen, claw, knuckle and tail meat. $19.95 " We were a group of 4 and all said it was the best we ever had. At the later stop of Newport, RI in a restaurant recommended by a native we had a a very good lobster roll that didn't quite measure up to our expectations because we had been spoiled by the Side Street Cafe's lobster roll.

Our cruise has multiple Canadian stops and then Portland, ME and Boston, MA. Do the Canadian ports (Halifax, Sydney, PEI, St.John, Gaspe) do the rolls?

I see lots of posts mention the desire to find a good place to get a lobster roll in the Canada/NE ports.. However, when I pull up the menus of these rustic beach shacks that serve them, their prices seem to run into the mid $20's for the sandwich. Now unless these are really BIG rolls stuffed with lobster I don't understand the appeal? With the flash freezing they have these days for seafood, I can buy my own lobster tails at $5-$6 for the 4 oz size.

 

Are there really any reasonably priced seafood markets where you can buy it off a pier, they cook it there and you can eat it inside or out on picnic tables?;) outside

Yes and no. They are NOT large sandwiches AT ALL. It seems that most of them are more of a "snack size" as they typically have only 4 oz of meat in them. However, done correctly, with the RIGHT crab meat they can be VERY tasty. There is a LOT of debate about whos is "best" but in general you are going to have to pay between $12 and $21 for THE BEST ones. I would LOVE to find a quality, large sandwich for under $20

Our cruise has multiple Canadian stops and then Portland, ME and Boston, MA. Do the Canadian ports (Halifax, Sydney, PEI, St.John, Gaspe) do the rolls?

Three I can recommend (each has a slightly different take on the roll) in Portland are Portland Lobster (about 700' from where the ship docks), which would most closely match your original description of "right on the dock", Becky's Diner about 1/2 mile from the dock, and Bite Into Maine a roach coach (food truck) in Fort Williams Park, Cape Elizabeth, where the Portand Head Light is if you are lighthouse looking.

Yes and no. They are NOT large sandwiches AT ALL. It seems that most of them are more of a "snack size" as they typically have only 4 oz of meat in them. However, done correctly, with the RIGHT crab meat they can be VERY tasty. There is a LOT of debate about whos is "best" but in general you are going to have to pay between $12 and $21 for THE BEST ones. I would LOVE to find a quality, large sandwich for under $20

Just love those crab meat lobster rolls! :)

Our cruise has multiple Canadian stops and then Portland, ME and Boston, MA. Do the Canadian ports (Halifax, Sydney, PEI, St.John, Gaspe) do the rolls?

Yes. I am most familiar with Saint John where I visit several times a year. In Saint John there are two locations I frequent for a Lobster Roll. Deluxe French Fries is a fast food outlet in the food courts of Brunswick Square ( and Market Square ) just up the street from the cruise terminal. The roll is a simple top cut hotdog roll and the price is under $10 for the sandwich only. The other location is Lord's Fish Mart in the Saint John Market, again not very far from the ship. I am less fond of their roll because there is to much bread. The roll is to large. In both cases a platter which includes fries and coleslaw with a drink is less than $20 but I can't remember how much less. People who have opinions on the merits of various styles of Lobster Rolls will dispute which is best but in reality, either is pretty good. In general, I prefer the version served by Deluxe, and I like their fries better as well.

In Halifax I recall picking up a lobster roll in the food court at the Historic properties area. I have not been to Halifax in a few years so my memory is slipping on the details.

Edit to add: Regarding Saint John. There are two good " dine in" restaurants in the same area. Grannon's in Market Square and Billy's at the Saint John Market. I'm sure you can get a Lobster Roll in either place but i never do. I am interested in the scallops, mussels, and crab along with the wonderful chowders when I eat at those locations.

If you are going to Peggy's Cove outside Halifax, stop at Ryer's Lobster and get lobster boiled for you with a table and necessaries to eat it: http://www.tripadvisor.ca/Restaurant_Review-g635951-d2252615-Reviews-Ryer_Lobsters-Indian_Harbour_Halifax_Region_Nova_Scotia.html

Here are some other threads with info about lobster and lobster rolls:

http://www.thecoast.ca/halifax/how-we-roll/Content?oid=4352691

http://www.tripadvisor.ca/ShowTopic-g154976-i327-k6754726-Lobster_Rolls-Halifax_Halifax_Region_Nova_Scotia.html

http://www.tripadvisor.ca/ShowTopic-g1555466-i14120-k8569821-Where_is_the_best_Place_to_have_a_Lobster_Dinner_in_Halifax-Halifax_Region_Nova_Scotia.html

Pretty sure the McDonalds one is frozen meat, there's no tail meat in there at all and the stores don't have the ability to buy locally. I did have one last week and for $7.99 it's not a bad lobster roll. I still much prefer the (frozen) one at Sullivan's, for $10.95, but they are both better, IMHO, than the frozen lobster roll from Kelly's.

Just love those crab meat lobster rolls! :)

LOL... Oops, typo. I was trying to say CLAW meat.

LOL... Oops, typo. I was trying to say CLAW meat.

Hey, my spell checker makes far bigger "oopses" than that! :)

If you are going to Peggy's Cove outside Halifax, stop at Ryer's Lobster and get lobster boiled for you with a table and necessaries to eat it QUOTE]

 

On our recent visit to Peggy's Cove we stopped at the quaint Finer Diner in Hacketts Cove for a delicious lobster roll and other tasty seafood.

Another delicious lobster roll was enjoyed at Carr's Oyster Bar on Prince Edward Island.

Another delicious lobster roll was enjoyed at Carr's Oyster Bar on Prince Edward Island.

I know that PEI is pretty small, but could you give at least a small hint as to where it is? :) Your previous post mentions Hackett's Cove, but here there's no reference at all...

I know that PEI is pretty small, but could you give at least a small hint as to where it is? :) Your previous post mentions Hackett's Cove, but here there's no reference at all...

Carrs Oyster Bar in Stanley Bridge

Carrs Oyster Bar in Stanley Bridge

Thank you! :)