Consider The Lobster

On Monday night, to satisfy some out-of-town friends' curiosity, we visited Fishman Lobster Clubhouse. Recently profiled on David Chang's Ugly Delicious Netflix series, it doesn't really need the extra publicity. So even tonight the place was about half-full.

The place is designed to give you a feeling of spectacle. You enter a huge open room, something like a cross between an old-time Chinese tavern (the kind in kung-fu movies) grown to enormous proportion, a fancy banquet hall, and a larger-than-life Texas steak-house. The walls were tiered rows of glass tanks filled with crabs and lobsters. When you order your dinner, they bring the selected crustaceans to your table for approval and with that, the inevitable pics of diners holding aloft their still-living meals.

Our set dinner comprised of a 15 lb lobster mountain consisting of 3 lobsters, a 6 lb king crab, some chicken soup and a dish of snow pea tips. We also ordered some fried noodles for the kids who were only mildly interested in the seafood, though they were keen on the french fries and crispy fish chunks mixed into the mountain.

The top of the mountain was good, with big chunks of batter-fried lobsters to eat. Near the botttom, it was more of a chore with the leggy bits, and felt more like eating chitinous chicken wings. The steamed crab provided a nice change from the fried food.

I knew it was an expensive dinner but the $700 or so bill was a bit of a shock. My portion was about $140. In retrospect, I don't think I would have gone if I had known: not even as a one-time experience. I still eat meat though I'm mostly on a plant-based diet. Yet there was something macabre about the whole photo-op situation. Secondly, eating nothing but lobster and crab for an hour became a chore. Finally, for that sort of price, you can have a fancy 10-course banquet dinner at a Chinese restaurant or visit a higher-end sushi place. Both would give you a wider variety of flavour and dishes.