We’d been to Latitude 43 on several occasion, so when cruising Cape Ann this past weekend we decided to stop in and give their lobster roll a try. If you haven’t been, Lat43 is harbor side in Gloucester, overlooking fishing boats and the landmark Cape Pond Ice Company. The restaurant is pretty eclectic, with a fusiony menu and a sunken sushi bar. Cool artwork and a tropical fish tank make Lat43 feel quite different than most Cape Ann haunts. In the summer their outdoor seating is right on the water, and they also have live music in their pub area.

As is most often the case during the cold months, we planted ourselves at the bar and inquired about the lobster roll. “They’re good,” our server Will said, and we ordered one roll each.

After a relatively short wait, the rolls were delivered on planks with sides of apple coleslaw and some crispy fries. The lobster meat was very fresh and the portion was a good size… but Houston, we have a problem. Aside from the tabooed use of celery (admittedly chopped very small), Lat43 also uses green onion in their roll. This might not have been a problem, except that they used so much that the delicate lobster meat was completely overpowered by onion. Another problem was the bread itself, which was very large – much bigger than the typical New England-style split-top hotdog roll. In fact, it was so disproportionately large that large mouthfuls of bread tended to mask the taste of the lobster (but, unfortunately, not the onion).

This brings up an important point about The Lobster Roll Chronicles’ methodology. Some roll reviewers will modify their rolls, adding or removing ingredients, or dipping them in butter. We do not do this. Instead, we review the roll as-delivered, just as we received it. We don’t add anything that wasn’t provided along with the roll, and we don’t dissect our rolls to minimize bad ingredients. So, although we may well have improved this roll by removing excess bread, that’s just not what we do.

With all this said, Lat43’s roll wasn’t bad. But a better roll and less green onion (and elimination of celery) would definitely raise their score by several points.

We’ll award the Latitude 43 lobster roll with an ACCEPTABLE rating. Some slight tweaking could easily move them into the Recommended category. Here’s how they stacked up (0-100):

• T’s Rating: 83
• P’s Rating: 83
• AVERAGE: 83
  

Latitude 43 is located at 25 Rogers Street in Gloucester, MA. WEBSITE: http://latfortythree.com. FACEBOOK: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Lat-43/147203808662634. PHONE: 978.281.0223

Not a bad roll, but some slight tweaks could make it a lot better!