Guide To Boston's Best Seafood Restaurants
Boston is filled with seafood restaurants, each with their own specialties. The area is known for its many fish selections including everything from lobster and crab legs to oysters and raw bars. You can find restaurants where drinking a beer while noshing on fried fish is the norm, or sit at a more upscale restaurant with wine aplenty, alongside shellfish galore. But one thing remains the same at these Boston locations; the fresh local fish served in a wide range of ways.
Union Oyster House
41 Union St
Boston, MA 02108
(617) 227-2750
unionoysterhouse.com
For seafood with a side of history, head to Union Oyster House in downtown Boston, which was established in 1826. It's a Designated National Historic Landmark, serving as America's oldest restaurant. As the name suggests, locals and visitors flock here for the selection of oysters, with prices ranging from $12 to $25. Find a seat at the curved oyster bar where you can enjoy oysters on the half shell with the house cocktail sauce, hot sauce and horseradish lined across the tabletop for easy access, and watch the experts shuck away. You can also grab a table in the restaurant and slurp up a crock of oyster stew or feast on oysters Rockefeller, fried oysters or one of the many other seafood selections.
Atlantic Fish Company
761 Boylston St
Boston, MA 02116
(617) 267-4000
atlanticfishco.com
Atlantic Fish Company offers the perfect location for shoppers since it is surrounded by the Prudential mall, Newbury Street and is right on Boylston Street. But it also serves up some of the freshest seafood in town. Atlantic Fish Company creates its menus daily and prides itself on offering daily catches and classic seafood favorites. You can have your fish grilled, broiled, fried, pan-seared, blackened or baked with garlic breadcrumbs, and there are plenty of seafood specialty dishes as well. Prices range from $18 for the catfish all the way up to $85 for a massive lobster dinner for two. If you can splurge, lobster dishes are definitely one of the best options with choices like ravioli, lobster bisque, fra diavolo or the baked and stuffed lobster with crabmeat.
Related: Boston's Best Bistros
The Barking Crab
88 Sleeper St
Boston, MA 02210
(617) 426-2722
barkingcrab.com
One of the best crab shacks in town, grab a seat at the indoor picnic tables for a seafood feast at The Barking Crab. Right on the water, take advantage of the great views as you peel and crack your way through lobsters, shrimp and crab legs. The menu features many fish choices including whole local Jonah crabs for $12, a pound and a half of Alaskan Bairdi legs for $31 or get a pound and a half of the Alaskan king crab legs for $49. The Barking Crab has an upbeat after-work crowd too and on weekends, enjoy the warm weather with drinks all day long.
Masa
439 Tremont St
Boston, MA 02116
(617) 338-8884
masarestaurant.com
Located right near the Back Bay in the South End, Masa has a Southwestern menu filled with seafood dishes and tapas. The tapas, like the tuna tartare taco with chile lime and avocado, is served in the bar area for unbeatable prices, from 50 cents to $1 depending on when you go. The restaurant also offers seafood-centric dishes like pan-roasted cod, blackened rare ahi tuna steak, roasted salmon with a chipotle and horseradish crust and pan-roasted monkfish with papaya mole, with entrees anywhere from $18 to $32.
Related: Best Clam Chowder In Boston
Mare
135 Richmond St
Boston, MA 02109
(617) 723-6273
marenatural.com
In the North End, there are over 100 delicious Italian restaurants to choose from including one of the top seafood spots in Boston, Mare. Start off with seafood from the raw bar like the shellfish tower with oysters, clams, Jonah crab claws, shrimp cocktail and lobster. There are a wide range of antipasti choices too like crab cakes or octopus salad for $15. Mare even offers caviar service with polenta blinis and pickled red onions to make your meal really memorable. Indulge in entrees like the risotto di mare which features some of the best fish Mare has including shrimp, scallops, calamari and clams with Italian cherry tomatoes for $21.99.
Michelle Levine is a creative energetic, young professional that is passionate about everything Boston has to offer. She loves to attend local events, dine out, and cook and wants to share her findings with you. Her work can be found on Examiner.com.
