First Impression Of Ed’s Lobster Cart: Is The Splurge Worth It?

There has become quite the crop of places selling lobster rolls in the city, and downtown has not been immune to this trend. First, there was the Urban Lobster Shack on Stone St. (btw. Broadway & Broad), and now there’s Ed’s Lobster Cart at the marina behind the World Financial Center in Battery Park City. I went two days after it opened, so I’ll keep that in mind with this assessment.  It’s an offshoot of the fancy-pants Ed’s Lobster Bar in Soho, and the prices at this cart are lower rent, but still pricey for cheap-ass lunch’ers.

Since there’s only one sandwich on the menu for under $10 – a tuna sandwich for $6 – the ML price range went out the window. This is definitely a splurge lunch and I’m not sure you get a good value here compared to Urban Lobster, especially since they have to pay rent and this is a cart.

The 3 oz. lobster roll is $15 and that comes with a bag of potato chips. There’s also a 6 oz. version for $27, but there was no way I was splurging that much unless I could personally see Ed cook it while dancing. What you get is a roll that, in my mind, had a couple of deficiencies.

Yes, it was on the standard hot-dog bun, but it was untoasted and instead of being brushed with butter on the inside before the lobster salad was put in, it was brushed outside. This meant that not only the mayo soaked into the bun but my hands were coated in butter grease.

The lobster salad was basically two clumps of quality lobster that was in chunks and not all shredded up. Props to them on that part. Other than a sprinkling of chives on the top, there wasn’t much flavor. I was kind of kicking myself for not putting some of the Old Bay seasoning they had sitting out on it. Apparently bland lobster rolls are an ongoing problem.

I also ordered a shrimp po’boy ($12) that was…an interesting interpretation. My co-lunch’er tried this one, and reported that although it was tasty it had some flaws that included tail-on shrimp (that were still on the skewer when the sandwich was delivered), too much butter and a too-small bun. Hopefully they’re still playing around with this one.

This cart has several things going for it, a big one being that it’s located right near the water and there are plenty of tables to sit outside and watch the fancy yachts docked at the marina. I plan on going back to check it out later this summer to see if they’ve changed anything and to do a +/- .

In my mind, if they threw in a half-cob of corn or something with the lobster roll it would seem like a better deal and perhaps a more-filling lunch.

Ed’s Lobster Cart, behind the World Financial Center nr. Vesey St.

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