Long Island Restaurants

Lobster Roll Restaurant Northside

The Lobster Roll (aka Lunch), a near-legendary Amagansett eatery, has long been renowned for its signature lobster salad and beachy, no-ambience ambience. A few years ago, co-owner Fred Terry opened an outpost on the North Fork in a lovely Victorian-style structure linked to a cluster of quaint shops. An outdoor deck overlooks a children's playground; indoors, a country-chic yellow and white dining area boasts a fireplace and lots of French windows.

If you've only come for lunch, go directly to the restaurant's famous lobster roll, the marine-tasting lobster salad generously heaped on a hot dog bun (ask to have it toasted). Another favorite is the shrimp salad roll, mounded with succulent, sea-savory shrimp. A crab cake sandwich includes two crab-heavy patties adroitly seasoned.

If you've come for dinner, start with an order of "puffers" (not always available), tiny blowfish fried to perfection in a crisp tempura batter. In comparison, ringlets of fried calamari, coated with herbed bread crumbs, seem routine. Clam strips are sweet and crunchy.

Swordfish salad translates into slablets of nicely charred fish crowned with grilled pineapple over fresh field greens. Pan-seared flounder, fresh and delicate, could do without the sprinkling of paprika, a '70s-style touch best forgotten.

Worth remembering are the pies from nearby Brieremere farm. Try a slice of the peerless raspberry or apple pie. Toll house pie, gooey and rich, is always right.

Unlike its South Fork sibling, the Lobster Roll Northside is open most of the year, closing only in January. For North Fork residents and visitors alike, that means an 11-month summer.

-- Joan Reminick

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