224 Boston Street, Dorchester, MA USA

Ordered at 224 Boston Steeet in Dorchester, Massachusetts.

Walking into 224 Boston Street I felt nothing but excitement. I had never dined in Dorchester, but had heard positive reviews about certain neighborhoods and their local “spots.” Tonight was the night to try one out!

This was not a decision spearheaded by me. Nicole, Rachel’s friend, had just moved to a “posh” area of Dorchester and lived down the street from a “great” restaurant: 224 Boston Street.  While Nicole wasn’t too familiar with the spot, her friend that joined us grew up down the street and confirmed before ordering our mains that “everything here is amazing.”

Really, walking into 224 we felt nothing but excitement, I can’t stress that enough. The place was packed – barely room for our table. And all locals. This was definitely not a tourist spot and even me being from Boston had never heard of it. I was really glad we didn’t have to wait long to be seated, and as we passed by tables pointing out food that looked delicious, excitement kept creeping up and I looked forward to dining in Dorchester and loving it.

Our appetizers were extremely disappointing. We shared the tuna tartare and mussels. Tuna tartare was bits of tuna diced over giant tortilla chips covered in a mayo and red sauce. There was hardly any tuna in this dish. The mussels literally smelled like feces and we stopped eating this dish immediately after tasting. To this, Nicole’s friend replied “oh I never order those.” Well played. Let’s see if their mains will win us over.

I was mentally fighting with myself to go with either the steak (which the table next to us had; looked yummy) or the self-titled 224 Lobster Club. Self-titled-dishes usually always guide my decision. Plus it’s a club sandwich; how could I say no?

So I said yes.

The 224 Boston Street Lobster Club starts with the menu’s description: 5 ounces of Maine Lobster Salad, Avocado crème Fraiche, Applewood Smoked Bacon, Lettuce & Tomato on Toasted Sourdough served with Truffled Fresh Fries. Yum.

5 ounces of lobster salad does not mean 5 ounces of fresh lobster meat. What does it mean? It means some unthawed (previously frozen) wet lobster mixed with mayonnaise and celery… making it weigh 5 ounces. 5 ounces to begin isn’t a ton, so with the rest of that “stuff” it didn’t add up a lot… lots of bread left over after my club was eaten. Sadly, the lobster meat had been clearly frozen; each bite was a little “wet” and I could feel nothing but disappointment eating frozen lobster in a city that sourced nothing but incredibly fresh lobster.

Was the restaurant cutting corners here? I think so.

The extra mayonnaise in the lobster salad was unnecessary will all of the avocado crème fraiche. Or maybe the avocado crème fraiche wasn’t necessary because it was more like a mayonnaise. Either way, too much sauce and wetness in this club.

The bacon is where this club really hit home though. The nice crunch followed by a delicious smoky flavor really really added to this sandwich and gave it a yummy edge, which it desperately needed. I can confirm this, because Nicole didn’t order bacon in her 224 Lobster Club, and the wet lobster meat simply wasn’t fun to eat without this ingredient.

Sourdough bread was also nice and soaked up a bit of the sogginess that the rest of the ingredients brought with them – that tomato was lovely, but more moisture was just unnecessary. And overall at $18 for this club, the value just wasn’t really there.

The truffled fries, which I was excited to try but felt totally unnecessary to have (regular fries would have been just fine), were barely truffled and I wouldn’t have even known this was an ingredient if not for the menu telling me. For reference purposes, the next night for Rachel’s birthday we went to Market by Jean George at the W Hotel Boston that had truffle infused dishes that were literally overflowing with delicious truffle; if it’s on the menu, make sure I taste it.

So the overall experience at 224 Boston Street was very mixed. It had alllll of the right touches, from ambiance to menu selection, however I personally feel that it was the ingredients that let this club and restaurant down rather than the chef or any individual serving the food.  Even though I watch “The Next Iron Chef” and they give these chefs ridiculous ingredients to make delicious food out of, unless you’re an iron chef, it’s pretty impossible to take poor ingredients and make deliciousness out of them… what do you think?

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