LTK

10/24/09

Won't rush back

by goforut

I went to LTK with two main expectations; an adventurous seafood menu to choose from, and then a delicious seafood dinner.

The menu was a pretty typical seafood menu. In fact, given that you can see Boston Harbor from the dining room, the menu was lacking any information regarding which fish was local and which was shipped in.

Our server also explained that the "test" in LTK is more about the atmosphere and using hand-held computers to place the orders, than it is about the menu itself. Ok, whatever.

When none of the seafood options jumped out at me, I ordered a steak tip salad. The tips themselves were excellent. They were tender, well flavored, and cooked to order. The rest of the salad was mostly noodles, with a few leafs of greens and some other things. It was ok, but not great.

The server wasn't there when I needed her, even though the restaurant was not busy. I asked a waiter who happened to pass our table for a few things I needed, and he helped, but grudgingly so.

Overall, an ok meal but not a great experience.

• Pros: Steak cooked perfectly
• Cons: Server

10/26/08

Fair food, poor value, weak drinks, terrible service. Quite a surprise from Legal.

by MF02155

I was most disappointed, and embarrassed as I brought some out of town guests to try LTK for the first time.

I made a reservation, and they were quite specific on the time, down to the quarter hour, but we still waited 20 min only to be seated at a long, bar height table with barstools which we shared with one or two other parties.

The waitress took another 20 min to acknowledge us, than we waited further for her to return to take drink orders. Finally she took food orders, but was more salesperson than server ? consistently recommending the most expensive dishes. She offered several ?specials? (as the late George Carlin said ? if it's do damn special, why isn?t it on the menu? ;) and failed to mention the prices (a common but annoying practice as you know) ? they were generally more than the menu items. Then one guest (a teenager) ordered the Paella and the waitress cheerfully offered ?would you like a lobstertail on that??. While the boy was deciding, I casually asked if there was an extra charge. She sheepishly stated that, yes it was $17.95 additional. $17.95 for a lobstertail! Can you imagine paying $38 total for a dish of Paella?!

The waitress was otherwise slow and unhelpful. She was entirely untrained on presenting or serving wine, we had to seek her out for replacement of utensils taking from the first course.

Food was fair but overpriced, atmosphere was VERY crowded, and too noisy to conduct casual conversation except to one?s immediate neighbor.

I ordered a drink, a Dark and stormy and received a glass of Ice with ginger beer and a ?splash? of dark rum ? couldn?t have been a tablespoon, probably a teaspoon. Once mixed the rum was entirely undetectable by sight or taste. When the drink arrived I observed that ?it wasn?t especially ?dark? ? she glanced, mumbled something and walked off ? no offer of repair or replacement.

All in all a very disappointing experience for me, a 30 year patron and fan of LS. Needless to say I won?t be back to LTK

• Pros: different menu items
• Cons: poor value, poor service, poor drinks, noisy, crowded

02/14/08

Consistent experience with other reviewers

by max26

A date and I went there over summer '07 and while I am just remembering to review Legal Test now, I am surprised how similar the previous reviews match our experience.

The menu selections were impressive along with the wine pairings. We found the cuisine better than standard legal seafood fare, but the service has prevented me from returning.

While the greeter was disorganized when we arrived, she was helpful. However, our waiter seemed pretty inexperienced, not very attentive and then upsold us on our drinks. The wine pairings come in different sizes and he consistently brought sizes larger than requested, which we were charged for. His upsell backfired because I deducted the difference from his tip.

• Pros: Great location, great food
• Cons: Poor service staff