The Best Seafood in Boston

The shucker in a blue apron working the window display is a fixture at this North End seafood spot, where oysters rest on crushed ice behind the glass like a slow-motion invitation. Inside, mosaic tile, white marble, and red leather banquette make a narrow room feel considered rather than cramped. The day's oysters are listed on a small card; the wine list leans European coastal. The New York Times put it on their restaurant list, and the line outside most nights explains why.

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3. The New York Times The Restaurant List

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2. James Beard Awards 2026 · Semifinalist · Outstanding Hospitality

Moëca is named for a soft-shell crab and runs on the same idea: something from the sea, handled with care, at the right moment. It's a neighborhood seafood restaurant in Cambridge that reads as date-night territory without making a thing of it, low lighting and a room that actually works. The menu is built for sharing, with global flavors pulled across small and large plates. Bon Appétit named it one of America's Best New Restaurants in 2023.

1. New England Pastry Chef of the Year · Yankee Food Awards · Renae Connolly
2. Bon Appétit America's Best New Restaurants
3. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant

An L-shaped pewter bar anchors this compact seafood spot tucked into the ground floor of a Back Bay rowhouse. The menu shifts with the catch, running from daily crudo and Maine uni toast to whatever oysters and shellfish came in that morning. The plateau de fruits de mer is the move if you're with someone you like, or someone you want to impress. A James Beard semifinalist, 2025.

1. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant
2. James Beard Awards 2025 · Semifinalist · Best Chef: Northeast · Michael Serpa

Mosaic tiles and fishing-net chandeliers set the mood at this polished Portuguese seafood restaurant in the South End, where the menu moves through salt cod fritters, piri piri chicken, and a shrimp Mozambique swimming in a garlic-butter sauce that makes the grilled bread feel mandatory. Save room for the pastry side of things: the sonhos are the kind of fried-dough situation that quietly becomes the point of the meal.

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2. Boston Magazine #28 · Top 50 Restaurants in Boston

Lobsters caught by the chef's cousin arrive within 48 hours, which goes some way toward explaining the lobster roll price. Row 34 is a seafood restaurant that does all the expected things, clam chowder and halibut and calamari, then goes a little further: house-smoked fish, cured things, pâté, saltines baked in-house. It's the kind of place where the extra effort shows up in the details rather than on a placard announcing it.

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2. Boston Magazine #35 · Top 50 Restaurants in Boston

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2. Boston Magazine #35 · Top 50 Restaurants in Boston

A raw bar and seafood bistro in Back Bay where the tinned fish wall alone could occupy you for an embarrassing amount of time before you've even looked at the menu. The kitchen's approach to classics has range, from lobster rolls to raw preparations to globally inflected dishes. Caviar service is on the menu and taken seriously enough that Boston Magazine noticed. The room runs indulgent without trying to make a statement about it.

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2. Boston Magazine #44 · Top 50 Restaurants in Boston
3. Boston Magazine 2025 · Best Caviar Service · Best of Boston

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The lobster roll comes on a bao bun, which tells you pretty much everything about what this casual seafood spot near Fenway is up to. Fresh shellfish arrives daily, and the kitchen folds in Asian flavors in ways that feel considered rather than gimmicky. Oysters finished with kimchi ice are a recurring reason to show up. It draws a crowd before and after games, but the food holds up without the excuse.

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1. AAA Approved
2. Boston Magazine 2025 · Best Casual Lobster Roll · Best of Boston

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2. Boston Magazine 2025 · Best Clam Chowder · Best of Boston

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1. AAA Approved

1. AAA Approved

1. AAA Approved

1. AAA Approved

Michael Schlow, the chef behind the late Radius and Via Matta, runs this polished seafood restaurant inside Encore Boston Harbor. The move is the deluxe seafood tower, which arrives before a menu of composed, elegant entrées. Make time for Old Wives' Tale, the nautical speakeasy tucked inside, where cocktails come dressed in mermaid sculptures and scattered seashells, as if the bartender and a prop department struck a deal.

1. Boston Magazine #50 · Top 50 Restaurants in Boston