LTK A.K.A. Legal Test Kitchen

Legal Test Kitchen

225 Northern Ave

Boston, Ma (Seaport District)

Menu: Seafood, various size dishes

Atmosphere: Loud, large bar crowd, identity crisis.

Kid Friendly: Actually there were a ton of kids there the last time we went. It added to the chaos.

Price: Expensive for what it is.

If you haven't been to the Seaport area of Boston in the last few years, you are missing out. restaurants, residences and hotels have sprung up all over the place, and the area continues to grow.

The old mainstays are there like No Name Seafood, Yankee Lobster and Anthony's, but there are bunch of new places which have opened.

One of the first of the new was Legal Test Kitchen or LTK because in a world of texting you need to have an acronym. Don't worry, they aren't trying to horn in on Legal Seafoods name, they are owned by Legal Seafoods.

I went to LTK within the first couple weeks it was opened, and I have visited about once a year since. I still don't know what the concept is all about. In all honesty, I think they suffer from identity crisis.

When they first opened they were one of the only new places in town, so everyone was checking them out. I would have said back then they were a test kitchen created to try new concepts out which would potentially be used in Legal Seafoods. At least that is how I understood it. They had wireless flat screen computers they would give to kids to keep them busy at the table. They had ipod docs if you preferred listening to your own music. The menu was mostly smaller dishes almost like a tapas feel with some bigger entrees, and a create your own dish section where you could pick the fish, the sauce and the side, noodles, rice, etc...

The first few times we ate at LTK it was clearly a restaurant with a bar. There was attention to detail with the food. The food was very good, as well as the service. I would say they were going for more of an upscale ambiance. During those first days, wait times were long. They had seating outside, but they weren't very good at planning for rain. I was there once when they sat the whole patio and it was apparent the rain would start any minute. When it did start, our wait shot up an extra hour, and nobody took the time to let us know. Since that time, the outside seating was covered with a very practical year round canopy sporting sides which can be opened or put down depending on the weather. Smart move LTK.

After my first two visits to LTK I didn't go back for about a year. When I did, I noticed the menu seemed a bit less original and a little more typical. I don't remember a burger being on the menu before but not only was there a burger but a hot pastrami sandwich. The wireless computers and ipod docs were MIA, and the bar crowd seemed to have swelled to a healthy after work crowd. The food was still good, but not quite what it had been when they opened. I wondered if the management had changed? I wasn't sure I was going to come back. I thought the prices were a little steep for what was turning out to be an average meal.

About a week ago, I broke down and gave LTK one more shot. This time there was more of a bar crowd than anyone eating in the restaurant. The crowd was so large we had several people almost hovering over our table when we first sat down. Our server was nice enough, but I could get the same service at Applebee's for about half the price. We got the Calamari to start. LTK does theirs with lots of hot peppers on top of a garlic aioli. It's a little spicy but they always cook the calamari perfectly which means tender not rubbery. For dinner I got the hoisin glazed salmon on top of pad thai noodles. Lou got the lobster mac and cheese. His lobster was scarce, my salmon had too much hoisin and the thai noodles had an abundance of scallions in them. The noodles themselves were a bit hard. We only drank water.

For this meal we paid $54.41!!!! Sorry LTK but I think you have turned into a local watering hole. My suggestion is stop cooking food. Leave the testing at the corporate office and make lots of money on the bar crowd.