Luke's Lobster Rittenhouse — Restaurant in Philadelphia

I found Luke's Lobster after Yelp-searching "best restaurants" in the Philly area. They weren't in the top 10 but had a high amount of reviews and star average.

ATMOSPHERE: Low tops dominate the space with countertop seating offering views of passersby. The place was clean and cool. A single bathroom was available in the back.

MENU: Soup, salad, lobster/crab/shrimp rolls. Beverages are juice, tea, Diet Coke and root beer. They're also BYOB.

FOOD: The Luke Trios + Soup + Drink The trio is comprised of their three rolls of crab, lobster and shrimp. I made it a combo by adding a drink and soup of Clam Chowder. Though the rolls looked small, they were piled high with cholesterol! The crab and lobster were my favorites, very fresh and lightly seasoned which brought out their natural flavors. I like shrimp but these are the little ones which were boiled (my least favorite preparation) and were too underdone for me. Butter was prevalent in every bite, from the bread to the drizzle on top. The clam chowder was hot and creamy, chocked full of potatoes and a few bits of clam. For my beverage I chose the Sweet Leaf Tea-brand of black leaf lemonade which was very refreshing and low on sugar. Highly recommended.

Poppyseed Slaw - Not available. Boo for my spouse.

SERVICE: Order at counter and the food is brought to you. After you're done, you clean up after yourselves. The staff were friendly and patient.

OVERALL: My months of healthy eating went down the drain in a...

I’ve been coming to Luke’s for years because it’s one of those things that I just get a craving for. Unfortunately I’m writing this review only moments after finishing what was edible from my meal, with hopes to make Luke’s Lobster aware of the lack of quality control in the restaurant.

I typically get a 6 or 8 oz lobster roll. Today I was famished so I went for the 8 ounce roll warmed up with a side of coleslaw. This typically takes only a few minutes to come out but the kitchen seemed like it had a few additional orders so all in all it took about 15 minutes to get my warm lobster roll. A little long in my mind but I thought nothing of it.

I immediately walked from the restaurant with my food back to my car which was only about 20 yards or so away, and prepared to dig in. Somehow the roll was already extremely soggy and saturated with liquid. It also was barely toasted. The lobster was over cooked and had NO SEASONING except for Luke’s blend on top and on top of everything else there was 3 large shells in my roll. My experience this time around for this $60 meal was extremely disappointing and disheartening.

As I said before I am a huge Luke’s supporter and have sent so many people to this particular restaurant and raved about the quality of the food. Please get some quality control behind the counter so that things can go back to how they were before! If I had the courage to go back inside, I would’ve totally asked for...

Good lobster roll. I will look forward to returning the next time I am back in the area. The employee behind the counter was very friendly, and engaged in making recommendations. I appreciated that. In addition to the lobster roll (very good!), I also had a clam roll (meh) and the lobster bisque (also neutral). I don’t think I will probably order either of those again as they just did not strike my fancy. However, I will plan on taking two of the lobster rolls on the next visit. They hit the spot. The atmosphere is very city-center. Industrial (in a nice way) minimalist restaurant interior. Pleasant, but to get folks in and out. More seating than I expected, including bar seating style tables along the walls and part of the front window. It was slow when I arrived, but my table had sticky drink leftovers that I needed to wet and clean off myself, yet overall I would say the place still seemed pretty clean. They may have missed wiping my table, but someone was obviously keeping it fairly well picked up. 4/5 overall, and a worthy offering on the lobster roll. That makes it a...