Ocean Avenue Lobster Roll: Linda Kate Lobster & Seafood

For the past year or so, I passed a building on my way home from work on Ocean Avenue in Portland that was under construction. Having grown up in that area, I'm always interested in what goes on so I kept a close eye, wondering what it would be. And then one day the sign went up and "Linda Kate Lobster" was revealed as the business setting up shop. But I still had no idea what it was all about... Well turns out, Linda Kate Lobster is a local family-owned and operated seafood harvester and wholesaler.

So fast forward to one super rainy Friday – I escaped from the office early to take the afternoon off and found myself parked in their lot wondering how fast I needed to run to not get completely soaked on my way into their storefront. I had heard they dished out a pretty good lobster roll and I was hungry so I had to stop and give it a try!

They serve their lobster roll two ways, both on brioche rolls:

Mainer - mayo and shredded lettuce - $15
Simple - served warm with butter - $16

I picked the Mainer which I deemed the lesser of two evils. I've been burned a few times by warmed lobster so I decided I disliked lettuce less. It came with some weird pickles but no other accoutrements at the price listed above. This place is strictly take out so I can tell you about the view – it was of my bloodhound staring at me, drooling over my vittles while I dined.

Let's start from the bottom up. I should know by now that no matter what condition a brioche roll is served in, I'm going to hate it every single time. Sure this one was toasted nicely and it looked like your average split to roll but it was SO doughy. The bottom piece of the roll - you know, the piece that keeps the roll standing up tall - was possibly the thicker than the height of the rest of the roll. Too much bread!! *insert frustrated emoji face here*

And I know I said I wasn't going to complain about lettuce anymore but most lettuce-happy places tend to use full pieces of greenery which are easy to remove from the sandwich with little to no rebuilding necessary. This lobster roll had shredded lettuce and a lot of it – so much that I would've starved to death by the time I picked it all out of the damn thing.

There appeared to be a fair amount of lightly mayo'd lobster at first glance, but once I started to inspect the roll closer and push the lobster around with my fork, I realized the bun to meat ratio was quite lopsided. I can't think of much worse than biting into a lobster roll and tasting mostly bread and that's exactly what happened. Even the lobster I did taste wasn't that memorable.

I was saddened my my less than stellar experience with this place... mostly because I drive by it often and could see it becoming a regular stop. I would highly recommend they rethink their bread choice and maybe slop on a few more pieces of lobster.  Oh well... lunch and learn, I guess.