Restaurant: Rock Lobster Food
Location: 538 Queen Street West, Toronto, ON M5V 2B7
Price Range: $$
[wp-review]
Rock Lobster has been on my list of restaurants to visit for years now, so when T invited me to the restaurant with his friends, I couldn’t refuse! And well, I never refuse an invitation to eat, no matter how far the restaurant is anyways ;).
The location I went to is on Queen Street West, however there are 2 other locations on Queen Street East and Leslieville as well. The restaurant is owned by Matt Dean Pettit, who is also a host on the Food Network show – Snacks Brother and he also has a seafood line in Sobeys store as well. I went in Rock Lobster with high expectation, well, because if you are going to specialize in lobster and source them from Nova Scotia, it better be good!
The inside of the restaurant was dimly lighted so we decided to sit on the patio as it was a nice day, and had perfect lightning for taking pictures. (This is very important as a food blogger!!). By the time we left, around 8PM, it was packed so I recommend making reservations in advance.
The patio was spacious and can get very noisy at times. We decided to take the booth so it would have been more comfortable than the stools :).
We did some research online so we all knew what to order.
Ignore T’s face at the back lol :P.
There is a reason why the Caesar is the signature drink for Rock Lobster. Trust me, I worked in restaurants before and they all watered down the Caesar, and the one at Rock Lobster is nothing like those tasteless versions at all! We all decided to share this as it was huge for $13, and the drink was garnished with a fresh celery and a boiled half lobster tail! The flavors here were bold, peppery and spicy with a punch. However I was quite disappointed with the lobster tail as it was bland and over-cooked.
Though the dish was supposed to come with the yukon chips, we decided to substitutes that out with seasonal vegetables as the lobster boil came with fries as well, then we ordered the poutine so all together there were a bit too much potatoes :p.
For $16 I thought the roll was a bit small, however it was filled with big juicy chunks of lobster. The seasoning on the lobster was spot on, and I liked how you still can taste the fresh lobster as it wasn’t overly drenched in dressings. The roll was lightly toasted and crisp, not too greasy. The corn was just a typical buttered grill corn, nothing special
I swear I ate so many poutine when T visited Toronto LOL.
I was excited for this, but then I was a little disappointed. It’s not bad, but it’s not spectacular either so don’t expect too much. I didn’t think the lobster made it that much better than any other poutine on the market. At least you are getting big chunks of lobster here, gravy was packed with lobster flavor and fries were crispy. But where are my cheese curds? You can’t call this a poutine when there were barely any melted cheese curds…
For $22.50, this was a bit expensive. Instead of fries, we got the yukon chips on the side and wow, they were pretty much burnt and stale. At least the lobster was perfectly cooked and juicy, seasoned just right too :).
I found Rock Lobster to be ah-okay, as we went during lobster season, and with that kind of price, the food was supposed to be superb! Some of dishes that I recommend are the lobster roll and the caesar, the poutine was decent and my friend said the crab boil was way much better and worth the price. Furthermore, the server wasn’t friendly nor attentive, and I felt the chef didn’t put enough attention and taste to some of the dishes.