Takeout from Legal Seafood

Legal Seafood.  An institution in Boston.  But ... as ... takeout?  Yup.

If you are unfamiliar with Legal Seafood, you might want to start with my reviews before from actually dining at a regular location, or getting takeout from a Legal location in an airport, or visiting a concept locations, Legal Crossing.

Update Review, Harborside Location, July 2020

Although I didn't love Legal Seafood takeout the last time I got it (see original review), the summer of 2020 called for ... different times.  I was in Boston for just one day, in transit to my parent's house in NH (escaping from lockdown SF!), and decided to get my takeout from Legal, just a couple blocks from the hotel I was staying at.

Easy Takeout Meal: Fish & chips, grilled shrimp, sauces, and rolls.  ~$20.

From past experience, I ordered from the kid's menu, to get a more appropriate portion, and added on grilled shrimp to round my meal out.  Oh, and all the sauces I could order, of course.

The portions and value were decent, but, for the most part, the food was very lackluster.  Except the rolls.  And the lemon butter.  Those I'd go back for, any time.

Setting

Legal Seafood's Harborside location is located, well, uh, harbor ... side? 

Curb Appeal.

A huge, 3 story establishment, a flagship location.  Of course, this was July 2020, so it was mostly closed down, no indoor dining.

Outdoor Dining.

They did have outdoor dining available, but I still took my food to go.

Food

Reduced Menu.

This was a unique menu for Legal Harborside.  They usually have a menu that is distinct from the other Legal establishments, but, again, because #covid they were simplifying things, and offered a reduced menu, of Legal Seafood classics only.

Fish & Chips - Spicy. Kid's. $10.95.

From the kid's menu, I ordered the fish & chips, after confirming that it was literally the same as the adult's version, just, smaller portion, 2 full pieces rather than 4 (e.g. not something like processed fish sticks, etc as sometimes happens for kid's versions).  The only difference was that the adult's version comes with fries and slaw, and the kid's version comes with fries and fruit.  Yay for promoting healthy kids?

I had my choice of regular or spicy fish, and went for spicy, because, why not?  I asked to sub slaw for the fruit, and that was done with no problem.  It came with packaged Legal Seafood branded tartar sauce.

The portion was plenty for me, and I was glad I ordered the kid's version, particularly because, um, it wasn't good.

The fish was soggy.  The crust fell off.  It was fresh, but, soggy, and just not well executed.  The fries were also quite fresh, literally fresh out of the fryer, but they were also not very good.  Very very very greasy.

Overall, so very lackluster, and I really didn't like much of anything here.

The adult version is $19.95, the kid version is $10.95.

Cole Slaw.

The slaw portion was laughably small, I'm not sure if it is a bigger portion when served in the restaurant, but this was literally a little dressing container only.

I wasn't that upset, it was fine, but. nothing special.  I needed to add pepper.

Add grilled shrimp skewer. $6.95.

"Add a skewer to any grilled dish"

The menu states that you can add a skewer of shrimp or scallops to any grilled dish, but I know you can add them to any order.  I've gone for the scallops many times, but this time I decided to get the shrimp, to do it kinda like shrimp cocktail.  I wanted *something* not fried with my meal.

The grilled shrimp were ... fine.

Seasoned.  Cleaned.  Not rubbery.

But not great either, not much grill taste, just average.  I wanted more grilled flavor, more smoke on it.

For $6.95 for 4 shrimp it was ... fine.  I wouldn't get them again.

Red Onion Jam / Lemon Butter.

Add on protein skewers come with a choice of "flavor", kung pao sauce, red onion jam, lemon butter sauce, cajun spice.  I've tried all but the red onion jam before, with the scallops. 

I knew I loved the lemon butter (review), which was great with scallops, and I knew it didn't really go with anything I had ordered, but, I wanted it, just to take home and use with, well, anything later.  I also wanted to try something new, so went for red onion jam.

The lemon butter was still totally delicious.  I enjoyed dunking bread it right then, and later used it with lobster ravioli (from Trader Joe's - recommended!), and it was great then too.  I'll continue to get this.  Mmm, lemon butter sauce.

The red onion jam was decent.  Sweet, savory, could be a good spread for something, used in a sandwich perhaps?  I probably wouldn't get it again, as I just don't have a need for it.

Ketchup / Red Onion Jam / Cocktail Sauce.

I also asked for the cocktail sauce to dunk my shrimp in, and it, like the tartar, was pre-packaged Legal Seafood brand.

Dinner Rolls.

Legal Seafood always serves dinner rolls with butter when you dine in, but doesn't include them for takeout.  I knew this however, and asked for them to be included when I placed my order.

Amusingly, these are what held up my order, making me wait for a little while past my pickup time.  Everything else was ready, but these somehow took much longer, as they were being baked off still.

It was worth the wait.  I adore these rolls.  Perfectly crusty.  Moist inside.  Complex flavor.  Just, stellar, stellar rolls, which is rarely something I ever even care about.  I dunked one in the lemon butter then, and brought the other two home to dunk in clam chowder later, and that was even more amazing.  These are *perfect* chowder dunking material!

Best part of my meal, no question.  I was provided with 3 with my takeout order.  Will continue to ask for these every time.

Original Review, Copley Place Location, October 2018

Takeout: Kid's fish sticks, grilled scallops, sauces.

My recent visit to Legal Seafood was a bit different from most.  Takeout, which I'd never recommend for seafood, but I had my reasons.  I was staying at the Westin Copley Place *right* there, and had a salad I had brought from home that I wanted to finish, that just needed some protein to add on.  A skewer of grilled scallops sounded perfect.

My travel companion just wanted some fish & chips, but not a full dinner, so I picked up a kid's meal for him too.  

It met our needs, but certainly was out of the norm for us.  It met Legal Seafood expectations: decent, not remarkable, but reliable.  And easy.

Legal Seafood Copley Place.

This Legal Seafood is inside the mall, on the second floor, so no exterior entrance to the street.  Instead it is at the end of a hall accessed from inside the mall only.  I didn't go into the full restaurant, so I can't tell you anything about it.

Takeout Counter.

On the side, before you even enter the restaurant, is a takeout counter.  The phone was constantly ringing with takeout orders, so this is clearly heavily used, likely by hotel guests?

It was easy and fairly convenient, although needing to walk through a mall and up and down escalators made a quick pickup take longer than I expected.

Kid's Meal: Fresh Cod Fish Sticks / fries / cole slaw / tartar sauce. $9.95. 

"All children’s meals are served with fresh fruit, fresh vegetables and a choice of rice, mashed potatoes or french fries. "

What we really wanted was just a smaller portion of the fish & chips dinner, normally a big pile of fried fish served with fries, slaw, and tartar sauce.  The closest thing on the menu was the kid's fish sticks, so went for it, modifying slightly to better be what we wanted.

For the side, we picked fries, because, fish & chips.  We asked for cole slaw instead of the "fresh vegetables", which happened to be corn that day, and that was no problem.  Same with adding on some tartar sauce.

The fish sticks were ... ok.  Decently crispy crust, but, just kinda overcooked mushy fish inside.  Certainly not the same as the fried fish that is part of the adult meal.

The tartar sauce was unremarkable, just as I remembered from when I had it before.  Just kinda flavorless, although it had bits of pickle in it.

The fries were pretty bad.  Soggy, limp, thin, not salted, just very very very mediocre, the worst fries I've had in a long time.

The slaw was fine, crisp, nicely dressed, decently seasoned.  Nothing special, no different from grocery store slaw, but, definitely the highlight of the kid's meal.  Available a la carte for $1.95, or normally served with fried meals, easily subbed for corn in the kid's meal.

The "fresh fruit" was a little container, same size as the slaw and sauce, with red grapes in it.  They were fine.

For <$10, this really was a reasonable meal, so if you ever need to get takeout fish sticks, fries, and slaw for your kid, consider Legal!

Add a skewer of scallops. $9.95.

I also just wanted some grilled scallops to add to a salad I had waiting for me, as I needed protein to complete the meal.

As always, I could have opted for the full fried scallops dinner (with fries and slaw), or the grilled scallops entree (with any two sides and my choice of flavors), but I really just wanted a few scallops to throw on top my salad, not a full meal.  So I ordered, as I have before, just the add-on skewer of grilled scallops, on the menu (along with shrimp) as something you can add to other entrees.  It was no problem to order this way.

Last time I ordered the scallop skewer I opted for the cajun spice rub, but this time I kept it simple, just grilled, and ordered sauces on the side instead.  I figured no spice on the scallops would make them more versatile.

The scallops were decent. This time my portion was 4 large scallops, rather than the 7 smaller ones that I got last time.  Nice grill marks, good grilled flavor.  Fully cooked, but not rubbery.  Properly cleaned, not gritty.  I prefer mid-rare scallops, but these certainly weren't overcooked.  Three of the four had a nice sweetness.

Overall, good, not earth shattering, but reliable, and a good price at <$10 for the "skewer".

Sauces: Lemon Butter / Kung Pao.

To go with my scallops, I ordered a trio of sauces: kung pao, shandong, and lemon butter sauce.  When I opened my bag to eat though, I found only two.  Doh.

The lemon butter sauce was perfect for the scallops.  I was intending them as a topping for my salad, but I ended up liking the lemon butter sauce so much that I just dunked my scallops in it, and then ate my salad afterwards.  It was just a cream butter sauce, slight lemon flavor, but, the right compliment to the scallops.

The other sauce I believe was the king pao.  I didn't like it.  Not with the scallops.  Not with the fish sticks.  Not with the fries.  It was just sweet, not spicy, too strong on something (soy?).  Maybe it was right for, uh, chicken, but certainly not for anything we had, and I can't imagine anything from the grilled seafood menu that would pair well with it.

I'd gladly get the lemon butter sauce again, with any white fish or crustacean.  I could imagine it going well with the halibut, grilled haddock, shrimp, or maybe even swordfish.  I'd skip the kung pao, and try for the shandong again ...

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Fish Chowder. $9.95 (bowl).

Legal makes three different chowders, the signature famous New England Clam Chowder, a lite version, or a fish chowder.  All are available as a cup, bowl, quart, or gallon.  What we ordered was the clam chowder.  What we got?  The fish chowder.  Oops.

It came with a bag of 3 dinner rolls, quite crusty but actually tasty dunked in chowder, 2 packages of oyster crackers, and butter.

It was ... fine?  Chowder.  Chunks of potato, carrot, fish.  Decently seasoned.  The portion seemed small for $9.95 though.

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