Legal Sea Foods has been at the core of Boston sea food and New England restaurant industry since 1950, but it seems like every couple of months they have something new to try (especially at the Test Kitchen!). I’d been to the Legal Test Kitchen in Boston’s Seaport District and Legal Sea Foods in the Prudential Building, but never had checked out any of Legal’s restaurants at the airport. Admittedly, I was a little apprehensive about the idea of eating in the airport.

I immediately thought: Expensive. Unhealthy. Boring. (By the way this is the same thing that tripchi customer’s think also based off of our survey). But, I had two evening trips last month, and knew that I would have extra time before boarding the plane so would otherwise just be sitting around. So I decided to give airport dining a shot. Two trips, one out of Boston Logan Terminal A (Legal Test Kitchen), and the other out of Terminal B (which had Legal Sea Foods cafe-style and Legal C Bar). I figured on each trip I’d check out a different flavor of Legal–I knew that if any restaurant could deliver a quality and fresh experience in the airport, it would be Legal Sea Foods.

On my first trip to Logan I was flying out of Terminal B. Upon arriving at the terminal, I checked tripchi while I was waiting in line at security to see where Legal was located. I discovered that there was actually a Legal before (Legal C Bar) AND after security (the one I was originally intending to eat at). I made a mental note to come back to Legal C Bar the next time was picking someone up at the airport and had some downtime, and proceeded to the Legal Sea Foods post-security. Luckily security was short (thanks MassPort!) so I still had a couple of hours to kill. Again I pulled out tripchi to figure out which gate it near. Luckily I didn’t have to spend much time fumbling around through the app because tripchi is smart–based on a prior assessment tripchi had done of my personality, Legal was already listed as the featured recommendation when I opened the app. And tripchi told me that Legal was near Gate 8.

When I arrived at Legal Sea Foods, I was promptly seated. Looking over the menu, there were plenty of options for both the seafood foodie and someone relatively new to seafood. I was torn between a scrumptious sounding tuna burger at $13.95 and the Boston Scrod at $17.95 (and with two sides this is a pretty good deal). They also have a few different vegetarian and gluten-free options and a kids-menu (which I was actually tempted to order off of 🙂 ). And believe it not, the prices in the airport were about the same, and in some cases less, than what I remembered paying at the Prudential location–in other words, airport prices aren’t necessarily gouging. As far as drinks go, I personally chose a nice glass of white wine with the scrod I ultimately ended up ordering. In fact, Legal Sea Foods has one of the best wine selections you will find at any chain restaurant. So all in all, there are plenty of good options to pick from if you have the time to sit down. Check out the menu here.

On trip number two I was leaving out of Terminal A, so thought that I’d stick with my original plan to eat at Legal Test Kitchen, which is a great concept restaurant where Legal can have a little fun and experiment with new dishes (hence, the “test” kitchen). LTK is trendier and self-fashioned hipsters like me tend to like it: “contemporary cuisine at jet speed.” As this phrase connotes, LTK airport-side actually is nice alternative to fast food when you are in a hurry at the airport. If you’re REALLY in a hurry, you can even do a grab-and-go sandwich (after all, it’s so much better than airplane food!). I was actually in a little of a hurry this time because security took longer than I expected. Again,  tripchi knew how long I had until my flight left, so it already had LTK as a highlighted food recommendation waiting for me when I opened the app. And, it told me that location–post-security by gates 1-6. It knew I had more time than a grab-and-go sandwich, but less time than a formal table, so tripchi recommended that I sit at the bar. I did just that, and I wasn’t disappointed. At LTK, the raw seafood bar is a great option (yum), and they have both traditional “buy the piece” as well as a more multi-cultural sashimi offering. Check out the menu here. Finally, the bar had a good game on when I was there (hoops, of course) and the bartenders were very attentive. As last time, I thought it was very good value for the money, and the option of getting faster (but still good) food at the airport is appealing when you are under a small time crunch.

With restaurant week coming up here, the need for a good dining experience becomes all the more important….so, if you’re in Logan you have to check out Legal Sea Foods or Legal Test Kitchen (I’m sure Legal C Bar is also great, but I’ll have to save that for another trip!). Legal is also mentioned in the article “Where to Eat at Boston Logan International Airport.”  tripchi foodies will love Legal’s local and fresh tastes. Makes me actually look forward to my next trip.