The closest real clam shack to Boston is outside the city limits, just over the bridge that connects Eastie to Winthrop. The relentlessly humble Belle Isle has a fine retail seafood counter and serves impeccably fresh local fish and shellfish—grilled, baked or fried—along with shore-food classics like chowder, stuffies and fried clam rolls. Its lobster roll is canonical (cold, barely mayo-dressed), huge and brimming with tail, claw and knuckle meat, putting more conveniently located tourist joints to shame.
Belle Isle Seafood
1 South Main St., Winthrop • (617) 567-1619
belleisleseafood.com
Other Winners
-
Lobster Roll
2016 Winner: Luke’s Lobster
Notoriously insular Bostonians greeted the Back Bay outpost of the Manhattan-based Luke’s Lobster chain with the kind of squint reserved for Yankees fans...
- 75 Exeter St., Boston
- (857) 350-4626
- lukeslobster.com/boston
Photo Credit: Sarah Silbiger -
Lobster Roll
2017 Winner: Belle Isle Seafood
Looking for shore-shack ambiance but can’t hit the Maine coast? This fish market/restaurant in Boston’s backyard, just over the bridge from Eastie in Winthrop...
- 1 Main St., Winthrop
- (617) 567-1619
-
Lobster Roll
2018 Winner: Eventide Fenway
- 1321 Boylston St., Boston
- (617) 545-1060
- eventideoysterco.com/eventide-fenway
Eventide: Zack Bowen / Knack Factory
