A carton box with the restaurant’s logo on the sticker, a recyclable bag, white napkins and wooden cutlery, I was so excited to try The Lobster Society menu. Being a big fan of lobster rolls, I’ve had amazing ones in London and New York as well as the delicious ones found at Brgr.Co in Beirut. Lobster Society is a restaurant concept selling the lobster roll as a main item so I hoped the taste would be up to the expectations...
Garlic powder everywhere, an excess of spices, strong aromas... A bizarre first impression... I opened the box and plunged in to have a bite.
- It's a soft French bread, cut on four sides making it look like a roll - trying to imitate the ones in London. A fluffy bread - not the real brioche but simply french bread - gently toasted, soaked with butter and stuffed with few grams of lobster. Probably 30% fish and 70% bread, this sandwich made of a spicy sauce, cabbage and a tiny bit of lobster is far from being a real lobster roll! Too spicy for a lobster roll, too bready and way too expensive for what it is! The box comes with a side salad of lettuce and cabbage.
- Brown bread soft shell crab sandwich... fried like tempura, the crab has a hard chewy envelop and a bit of tender crab in the middle - if it can be found! The brown bread is softer than the white one and is covered with sesame, a chewy shell and a super salty sauce. Hard to eat, this sandwich is way below expectations.
- After eating the two sandwiches above I couldn't understand what this LBP24,000 salad is all about. Sesame, crunchy vegetables, edamame and four shrimp! Too complicated, too acidic and overrated!
This was back in June so I waited and ordered again hoping the taste and experience would be better.
The second delivery:
- Intensely peppered and spiced, the lobsters are stuffed in a bun, close to a brioche but not the real thing, a certain fluffiness that goes well with Labneh not lobsters. Lacking the needed butter and toasting, lacking smoothness, the roll is a bit disappointing. The lobster quality has evolved since I last ordered and the bread size has changed to fit more seafood but still, the roll is not as good as you expect it to be. The spices, probably the same used on the hard and stale fries are not too pleasant in the mouth.
- Shrimp roll, juicy inside out, great quality shrimp, a touch of lemon, a light crunch and a very soft bread. Even though this sandwich has something missing in it, I liked it.
- Soft shell crab is far away from being soft, hard and chewy, oily chunks of battered crab stuffed in the same chewy sesame bun alongside spices and peppers. Not good, not good at all!
Now the fries; too hard, too cold, too dry. The salad... what’s with the spices? Too spicy, too acidic, too lemony and the cabbage chunks are cut in huge pieces that are unpleasant to eat or chew. The salad pieces were sliding off my lips due to the excess of oil.
Second order, second disappointment. I expected better from the lobster shack of Mar Mikhael.
