Insta-Assessments of the One Day-Old Luke's Lobster

Yesterday Luke's Lobster, the lobster shack that is currently rocking the East Village to its core, opened to the public. The locals, the foodies, the curious onlookers came, dutifully ate their lobster rolls, shrimp rolls, and crab claws, and filed their insta-assessments. Please peruse the early reviews and stay tuned for around the clock Luke's coverage.

The Ecstatic News: Here's how one Yelper breaks it down: "What you need to know is that Luke's has stupid huge lobster rolls. And the prices? They are preposterous. If you are reading this you are likely thinking '4oz of lobster for $14...I don't know...maybe that is a good deal, I'll have to think about it". Wrong. Once you see how much lobster that is on one roll your next logical thought should be 'well that much for $14, this most be pretty low quality' Still wrong. Take a bite and you'll be five staring Luke's on yelp fo sho." [Yelp]

The Pretty Great News: The first tip on Foursquare: "Go to Luke's and TRY to eat just one roll!"

The Top Tier of Lobster Hierarchy News: An Eater operative and lobster roll expert files his take: "The lobster rolls at Luke's Lobster are somewhere in the top tier of the lobster roll hierarchy. What is necessary to get into the top tier is to have only big chunks of real lobster meat on the bun, and for these chunks to be sweet, soft, and succulent. With these building blocks, the rest is just details: spices, butter/mayo levels, bun toastiness, and perhaps lobster temperature. As served at Lukes, the lobster is sprinkled with some oregano and pepper, which is not the most pleasing of accents, and a little bit of mayo or butter...The lobster meat is kept in individual cellophane packages in the fridge, so when served, the meat is cold. I would prefer room temperature. The owner says that they will soon have hot melted butter, which I think will add a good balance to the cold meat." [Eater Tipline]

The Mostly Good News: From the Eater tipline: "Mayo on the bottom under the lobster instead of mixed in. They didn't have clarified butter(for the bun) today for some reason, but the lobster was very fresh, NOT overcooked. Mostly claw meat, slightly seasoned with a season salt type mixture, which added some nice flavor.The "lobster roll lunch box" came with a Maine root beer, chips, and a Jonah crab claw, for $18.00. Should be killer once they get some butter on those split-top buns. Also important, no filler, all lobster!" [Eater Tipline]

The Cautionary News: A friend of Eater offers up his assessment along with some ordering advice: "The lobster roll is really good. It's not some sloppy mayo thing but just a decent amount of really good lobster meat and then some mayo and butter spread on to the bread. Get the big one though, the small one is pretty small and probably not close to what you would need for lunch. Do NOT get the lunch box (which is what I got) because it's definitely not worth the price. The box is $20 and comes with a big lobster roll, one claw, and then a bag of chips and a soda or water, so you're essentially paying $5 for a claw (very meh), bag of chips, and water, which seems ridiculous." [Eater Tipline]

The Excellent News: One of the first tweets is a positive one: "Lunch@ Luke's, new E. Village spot. Fresh ingredients shipped from Maine daily: crab claws, lobster tails, lobster knuckles Maine beer-YUM." [Twitter]

The Not so Great News: One Yelper isn't won over: "1. I was under the impression that there would be whole lobsters. This may be my own fault. 2. The lobster for the rolls was in vacuum sealed packages. This bothered me a little. 3. $30 for two lobster rolls? A little on the high side. At mermaid you can get a lobster roll with a beer and fries for $20. This seems like a better deal to me..." [Yelp]
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