Lobster Shop

During our recent visit, my wife and I eagerly returned to this restaurant after its remodeling, only to find it lacking compared to our previous experiences. Despite being seated promptly without reservations, we were disappointed by the revamped menu, which offered fewer choices at significantly higher prices. While I opted for the wagyu skirt steak, which was decent but failed to impress with its attempt at Tex-Mex flavors, my wife settled for the chowder and salad, which were satisfactory. However, the addition of a 20% "service charge" to the bill, purportedly for employee benefits and labor, followed by the option to leave a tip, left us feeling overcharged and unlikely to return, as we now faced a total gratuity of 40%.I doubt we'll return

Amazing views of Ruston. The restaurant sits right on the water and overall a very cozy ambiance. My waitress was super patient and helped explain various options on the menu. There is a 20% service charge added for wait staff so you are not required to tip (disclaimer given on the receipt). The food is expensive and it didn't live up to the price. I had a crab cake which was delicious, along with the bread. Main meal was disappointing and I ended up taking most of it home.3/5

The space is gorgeous. Beautiful view. Wood beams, penny tile floors. Just stunning. We sat in the bar at a table. Bartender was casual but polite. Meal timing flowed well. Crab cakes were thick but fluffy and FULL of crab. I got side Cesar and French onion soup. I loved the fried capers on the salad and the soup was cheesy and silky. Hubs got half French dip and clam chowder. He said the soup was creamy and sandwich was beefy perfection. I want to come back just to try the rest of the menu!

We dined here before a concert in tacoma and the views were spectacular. They were busy, but we made a reservation and had no problems when it was time to be seated. Everyone at the table enjoyed the crab cakes and a bowl of soup. My crab cakes did have some shells, and the chowder was thick, but both had good flavor. The herbs and spices for the bread were fantastic. The Gin drink I had (on the drink menu, but can't remember the name) was so good, I didn't even taste the Gin. And the presentation of the drinks was great. I heard the lobster rolls are where it's at, but they are only served for lunch. May try them one day. Oh, and hats off to our very bubly waitress, she was amazing!

The service was great, Sean was very attentive. The food was mediocre....unfortunately...we've always had great food before. My partner had the copper river king salmon, I had the halibut, our son had the lobster tagliatelle....the halibut was overcooked and on the verge of cool...the salmon was cooked to order but had little flavor and the tagliatelle pasta was not al dente....it will be awhile before we spend that amount of money on mediocre food.

If you're looking for waterfront dining with great seafood, then head over to the Lobster Shop on Ruston Way in Tacoma. If you plan to be seated in the dining room, a reservation is highly recommended. We arrived without reservations at 3pm on a Saturday, and even though the majority of the tables in the dining room were available, we were only offered a table in the bar. After drinks, appetizers, our main, and desserts in the bar, the tables in the main dining area, including the booths, were still available. I wonder if they would have turned us away if we didn't want to sit in the bar.Recommendations: (1) Try the scallops and pork belly. So good! (2) For dessert, the Bananas Foster was absolutely amazing!

We came on a rainy June Sunday. I called 30 minutes ahead for reservations and they had ample seating. The service was excellent, the food was delicious and we got to see orcas as we sat having lunch. The crab cakes were superb. I like that they don't serve large portions, just enough to enjoy your meal. I had the red blend wine and it exceeded my expectations. The Lobster roll was delicious.. I substituted Caesar salad and it was very good. Atmosphere music were just divine.

Came here for my birthday lunch & all I can say is WOW! Everything was perfect. The restaurant itself is beautiful inside & out. Beautiful views of the water & on a sunny day you'll see the beauty herself, Mt. Rainier. For an appetizer we had the crab cakes, great flavor & no fillers; loved the sauce on top as well. For my salad I got the house field greens, loved the balance of it, all of the flavors came together beautifully. My husband got the Caesar salad, he was raving about the croutons. We both got the lunch combo $22 for 1/2 sandwich & soup combo. We both had the Connecticut style lobster roll served warm with butter- SO GOOD. seasoned to perfection, a generous amount of meat as well. I had the lobster bisque which had a great flavor, perfectly sweet with chunks of lobster. My husband had the clam chowder & it had a delicious Smokey flavor. For dessert we got a complimentary flourless chocolate cake for my birthday! Our server, Sophie (or Sophia sorry can't remember), was great! Really great experience and happy I came here for my birthday lunch.

This restaurant is completely opposite of what I look for in food. Its fine dining, its seafood, and they have a 20% service charge. Now I will speak more about all of these further into this review, but I wanted to get my early thoughts out. For being the last place I would ever pick based on my previous statement, it wasnt bad. I think most people giving a 1 star are unhappy about the service charge or price, I dont think 1 or 2 are fair at all. Hell 3 might not be fair, but its not my style. So take my review with a grain of salt. I wont be back, I wasnt unhappy, its just not my style of restaurant.Before I dive into my reasoning for hating fine dining, let me address the 20% service charge. I have always hated the automatic gratuity. I have made this clear in previous reviews. Its just not my thing. I think they do it best here. One there are signs everywhere, so you know its included and you dont get tricked to tip on top if you dont want to. Two they have a great FAQ that breaks down how this works. Plus within there you can say you dont have to do the service charge. I dont know the processes, but if thats true, its cool because it gives you an out if you dont like it. Three on the receipt our waitress circled and called out the automatic gratuity. All three of these things allows some freedom of choice and you dont feel cheated. The explanation feels very good as well and not cheap. This will always be a negative, but I think they present as well as you can.I hate fine dining. Its just that simple. I dont like paying too much for nothing special. Since I dont really like seafood, the lobster shack probably wasnt a great pick, but it also wasnt my choice. Its so frustrating going to a place like this and not having real option to spend less than $40 on a meal. I picked the pork chop because I dont care for fish, and the price of steak is stupid. The pork chop was pretty good, not $40 good, but a decent cut of pork, prepared pretty well. Evey thing was pretty good, except the price. The chop was cooked maybe a touch over for my taste, not off by much, but I would have personally pulled it off a minute earlier to keep the same moisture throughout. It wasnt dry, but it was close near the edge away from the bone. The Brussel's were good, but not quite enough. I think 5 full brussel's were included. The finger potatoes were good, but I prefer my potato slight more cooked. It wasnt raw, but more on the firm side for a roasted potato. Nothing on the plate even comes close to justifying $40. Take the most organic, the most prime, cut of any pork chop and I doubt you will get over $12/lb. Hell whole foods organic is $9/lb and I think that is the most I have ever seen. Its a 10oz cut and that means less than $10 of pork chop. The brussels and potatoes probably didnt cost $30 and I cant imagine Apple chutney costs too much. So what did I pay for?? No seriously. I mean the view is ok, less so on a cloudy day. The bread and olive oil were nice, nothing I havent made at home. Thats why I hate fine dining. That pork chop dinner at $20 is still probably high, but decent and I leave smiling. $40??? Literally a joke. Hell my wife got pasta and while the lobster was plenty and the noodles home made, once again nothing justifies the price.I will reiterate the TLDR. For a place that is completely opposite of what I would ever choose, they did ok. The price will always be the biggest hurdle for me. I can say i will likely never be here again, not because of anything any of the staff did, they were lovely. The food wasnt bad. Its the price. I hate that their are no reasonable alternatives to buying over priced food. Next time I will just stay home and let my wife go out with her family.

Really great experience at this beautiful place on the water with some absolutely delicious food, great service and gorgeous ambience. We sat at a high-top in the bar, and even though we weren't close to the water, we still had a pretty nice and relatively unobstructed view. Our server, Sophia, was great at telling us all about the different oysters and flavor profiles of each one, as well as suggesting some drinks! I had a "gold fashioned", which was basically a variant of the old-fashioned, but with saffron bitters. It was delicious! My date enjoyed a gin martini, but with some drops of olive oil which perplexed and intrigued us both, but she absolutely loved it and had a second later on! when I saw crabcakes on the menu, I didn't even hesitate to order them and so those got started right away. They were some of the tastiest crabcakes I've ever had in my life!We weren't super hungry so she just had some oysters and I had a pork belly wedge salad, which tasted exactly as expected... Pork belly is a pretty incredible thing. I had to look at dessert and though I didn't really want any, all of the options listed looked pretty delicious... I figured we might as well share something even if we don't finish it. At the suggestion of Sophia we had a strawberry shortcake dessert, which was made fresh daily and absolutely incredible! One thing to make sure you know is the service charge... More and more restaurants are adding a 20% automatic service charge on the bill and though I don't think there's anything wrong with it, you just need to make sure you know that it's there. She was polite in informing us about it and we left a bit extra as well as we had such a great time. Definitely an expensive meal, but also worth it!