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“Ed's Lobster Bar”

Occasion:	Cuisine:	Area:	Cost:	Rating:
Night Out	Seafood	Soho	Moderate	Great

room with about five tightly spaced tables. It's a difficult fit back there, so if you can do a some sort of a cartwheel/jump move, you might have to bust it out in order to get to your chair. I cannot do such a move and so I sucked in my gut and squeezed myself between two neighboring tables and into my chair. Once in, I exhaled and was not moving. Neither were Katy or Steven. We were tucked in and ready to eat.

It was a hot night, so we ordered a bottle of Muscadet ($28) to drink while we got to around to looking at the menu which is printed on white paper that is also your placement.  It's a brief study in seafood shack fare with the usual suspects-raw bar, mussels, fried clams, steamers, lobster salad, bouillabaisse, and steamers in addition to the coveted roll de lawbstah.

We decided to start with a round of the cold watermelon and tomato soup. A sweet cool tomato broth was bobbing with juicy chunks of watermelon and ribbons of basil. The soup was simple and refreshing, and tasted like taking a running plunge into a cold lake on an oppressively sticky summer afternoon. A Bibb salad was massive (for all of $7)-a chest-height pile of fresh and crisp rippled Bibb leaves (the small inner ones and the larger outer ones) topped with ripe red wedges of beefsteak tomatoes, a judicious crumble of Maytag blue, some toasted walnuts, and a few slivers of red onion, all dressed in a simple yet assertive red wine vinaigrette.  I don't remember the last time I was that excited by a salad but when you get something so basic, so right, it's really quite impressive.

From these two dishes it was already clear that Ed's strengths are clearly simple food done right. The fried Ipswich clams ($M/P) were terrific-robed in a tight dry batter that hasn't even the slightest hint of grease. The clams (bellies and all) were really excellent, but what was even more of a treat was the accompanying tartar sauce, a thick dipper that was crowded with diced red onion and pickles. It's killer. I'd slather it on a slice of juicy tomato and have it for lunch.

The PEI mussels ($8) were plump and bursting from their shells, stepped in a rich Dijon cream sauce given some bite from horseradish. Katy and I were spooning the broth into our mouths, when our waiter asked if we might like some bread for sopping up the sauce. We nodded in unison and then spent a good few minutes turning a loaf of bread into edible broth sponges.

Steamers ($M/P) are served ... [more, click below]

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Posted: May 31, 2007

Other restaurants in Soho :
+ Balthazar   + Savoy   + Blue Ribbon   + Lupa   + Public   + Kittichai   + Lure Fishbar   + Barmarche   + Porcupine-- CLOSED   + Ama   + La Esquina   + Jerry's- Closed Now   + The Tasting Room   + Papatzul   + Shorty's.32   + The Monday Room   + Ed's Lobster Bar   + Aurora   + Provence   + Tailor   + Hundred Acres   + Delicatessen, By Guest Reviewer Julie Besonen   + The Mott   + The Dutch   + Cherrywood, by Guest Reviewer Dara Pollak   

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