Quick Summary:
The Lobster Pot on Siesta Key is a great choice for seafood and has some not-so-typical menu items that will keep your taste-buds occupied! Family-owned and in a perfect location, check it out for a great Siesta Key seafood meal!!
Entrees $15 to $25
Review Date: September 12 and September 7, 2012
Our Reviews: This review is part of a series of restaurant reviews that follows Nourish Your Lifestyle’s restaurant review guidelines. My Tasting photographs may not show the true portion of a meal a typical customer would receive. These reviews are based on two visits to a restaurant, one open Tasting where I taste and photograph a restaurant’s best dishes, and one full, anonymous review (like the typical restaurant-goer would experience) found at the bottom. We are honest with our reviews, and assume that each restaurant is consistently performing to the standards we experienced!
Background Info on the Review
I’m not lying when I say I’ve driven past this restaurant hundreds of times…and as creatures of habit, we so often tend to stick with what we know. But now I’m wishing I had stepped in a bit earlier, because I really was missing out on something great on Siesta. Mostly I never went probably because my husband doesn’t like seafood, so this type of restaurant was just never on “our” radar, unfortunately. But I was pleased to be able to experience it from the reviewer’s perspective then, because that meant I would take my trusty Seafood Sidekick, aka Dad, with me to test it out.
This restaurant has a lot of family history behind it, which is something that I love to see and hear about when I’m exploring the restaurants in the area. The Lobster Pot is owned by the Medeiros family – they are of Portuguese descent. I was lucky enough to meet one of the sons of the family named Tony – what a nice guy! The family originally opened the restaurant back in 1940 up in Cape Cod and later on, relocated to Sarasota. You will notice some Portuguese influence in the menu to this day.
Dad and I went in early on a weekday and got to experience quite a few dishes together and I was even surprised because Dad had a really strong reaction to something in particular — I don’t think I’ve ever seen him so enthusiastic about a dish before….like ever! It was an awesome sight to see. Keep reading for more on our experience…
Cheri’s Food Review
APPETIZERS
Good old cornbread to start.
First soup of the day, the Clam Chowder! I always get nervous ordering this soup with Dad because he’s a total Clam Chowder Snob. But he loved this one! He said it was rich and creamy, not too fishy, with nice little chunks of clams. And important to him was that it had the “right amount” of potatoes! I thought it tasted great as well – a comforting type of soup that you want to order again and again.
Here was my favorite soup – the Lobster Bisque. This is just how I like mine to be – with that distinctive flavor and nice little chunks of lobster so you can get a hint of the texture. You can even add larger chunks of lobster for an up-charge if you’d like, and that would be a great choice. Dad didn’t think he was a lobster bisque fan, but then he had a taste of this, and he was hooked! Though he didn’t quite part with his Clam Chowder over it, which was fine by me, because there was more left for me.
The Fiery Scallops. Here was the dish that Dad practically had a heart attack over. I think he was genuinely surprised even himself by how much he loved it. The best part of it is that a few restaurant reviews ago, Dad was one of those people who thought he didn’t like scallops in general. But now, with my best “mwahahaha”, I’ve converted him! And this dish really added to his love….there are flame-broiled scallops, soft and mouth-meltingly tender, if a little small, topped with blue crab meat in a spicy, roasted red pepper cheese sauce with mozzarella on top! The garlic bread on the side is that soft and crispy, oily, calorie-laden kind that you just hate to love. All I heard at this point from Dad was chewing and several “Wow”s in a row. I only had two of the scallops because I was afraid if I ate any more, that he might disown me or something. He ate all the rest (I think there were 6 total, buried in that luscious sauce) and there was no more discussion to be had.
ENTREES
The problem with the next dish, the Salmon Rockefeller was that it came after those tastebud-romancing Fiery Scallops from right before. I think this salmon would be a perfectly acceptable meal choice if you didn’t sully your emotional state right before with the awesomeness of the scallops. The salmon was well-cooked, a thick piece of fish, and topped with a creamy spinach, bacon, Parmesan, Hollandaise-type sauce over rice and served with fresh vegetables. Once I’d adjusted, I loved the vegetables, which were perfectly crisp and a nice departure from the cheesiness of the previous dish. Dad, still hung up on the last dish, experiments and finds out that the salmon, to his taste, is better with the Fiery Sauce than with the Hollandaise, but the super sweet waitress lets him down easily while telling him that the choice already exists on the menu. At this point, I have to demand that we move on from these dishes, as we can’t lose focus on what is to come!
The next meal is the Baked Stuffed Lobster Duchess – a signature award-winner and one of their original recipes! A cracker stuffing goes into a Maine lobster along with some shrimp, and is baked into a tasty concoction, all nestled within the lobster shell. We enjoyed digging out the claw as well, and found the stuffing mixture to be quite tasty. I believe this is the dish that we got with mashed potatoes, and I did love those!
The colossal Seafood Portugal is enough to stop any big-eater in their tracks! A MASSIVE bowl full of mussels, clams, steamer clams, lobster and shrimp, garlic bread, Portuguese sausage, and a half ear of corn ALL served on top of a bed of linguine! There is literally something for everybody in this bowl, and I had a great time trying everything. You’ll find some traditional Portuguese sausage in this dish as well which was a nice touch. I have to say though, that the Steamer Clams were definitely something well, um, “interesting” to try…they tell me this is a favorite from New England and they have a rabid following. To me? Not so much, but I was proud to say I at least tried them. They’re basically like clams but they have a tail-like appendage…that you can peel off the outer skin part and eat the inside, sort of like a jiggly handle. That’s as far as I’ll go with describing that one, because that was all I could really handle. Apparently, sea otters love them, and hey, if you like that sort of thing, go for it! The only thing I could say about this dish was that I had hoped for a more flavorful lobster. I didn’t get the true lobster flavor here, which may have had something to do with the variety of items in the bowl.
The aforementioned Steamer.
You can’t go to a place like this and not try the king crab. You can order legs on the side, which is a solid choice – this guy was so rich and delicious!
DESSERTS
The Key Lime Pie here is not made in-house, but by a local pie company from downtown, and I’ve had this many times before and think it’s a good pie. Creamy and light with a nice graham cracker crust. Key Lime Pie lovers will be satisfied!
Same goes for the Chocolate Chip Cheesecake and I really loved this one. So thick and rich with nice little chunks of chocolate throughout – creamy and definitely enough for two people! They serve 2-3 desserts here at a time, but who’s coming here for the dessert??
Cloaked Restaurant Review
This is the part where I have an anonymous review done to critique the entire restaurant experience in a undercover way so that you can get a good idea of what it’s like for the typical restaurant-goer like yourself! It keeps us all honest!! Here’s what they said:
Initial Impression
The Lobster Pot has a small, cozy ambience tucked to the side of the main street of Siesta Key Village. It indeed had a warm family oriented feel with red and white checkered tablecloths and eclectic fish and ship decorations around the restaurant. The causal dining decor and very laid back beach feel is perfect for Siesta Key.
Although there is cool blue lit bar that jumps out upon entrance, the restaurant doesn’t serve hard liquor, which provides a great atmosphere to talk and enjoy your company. It attracts a more laid-back, less party minded crowd with its close time of 9:30PM.
The Food
We started out with fantastic crab cakes that were served with a house-made mango sauce. The tangy sauce added an extra punch to the tender, crab-filled bite of this crab cake. It was the best we have ever had! We highly recommend this appetizer. Then we proceeded with the award winning Stuffed Lobster Duchess. This was marvelous and wouldn’t let anybody down, if you are up for eating your share of creamy, buttery, cheesy Ritz cracker and seafood stuffing freshly baked with cheese on top.
The combination of clam strips, shrimp, scallops and fish in the Shore Platter is the way to go, if you want variety; there is some of everything of this dish, including your choice of two scrumptious sides. Also, you can customize the preparation for those that are more health-conscious.
We chose the Key lime Pie to bring our dining experience to an end, and we totally recommend it. The lime flavor jumps out, yet the luscious creaminess melts in your mouth. The Lobster Pot gets their pie from the local Caribbean Pie Company, located in downtown Sarasota.
Overall Impressions
We received excellent service. Our waitress was a delight. She was super cheery and provided stellar service. Overall, if you are up for seafood, a laid-back ambiance, and are not on a shoestring budget, the Lobster Pot is a great choice! Our time at Lobster Pot was like a mini-vacation all in one single dining experience.
Cloaked Review Ratings
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Go to my Flickr account to check out my Lobster Pot, Siesta Key, Sarasota, FL, Restaurant Review images set to see the full set of pics.
I can not tell you how much we LOVE the Lobster Pot! When we visit the area, a trip to the Lobster Pot is always on our agenda. The Stuffed Lobster Dutchess is my favorite! Yummy!
Jamie @ http://www.mamamommymom.com
after reading your blog we went to the Blu Que on Siesta Key!!!! Loved,loved,loved it. They had all you can eat whole lobsters for 35.00. Well worth it. My husband ate 3 and wanted a 4th-unfortunately his digestive tract didn’t. The folks at the next table each had 6 or 7!!!!! Very good food , service and atmosphere! Thanks. d.