Lobster Rolls of ‘The Big E’ Review – West Springfield, Mass.

At the Eastern States Exposition, there’s a row where each state in New England has their own building. There are four that sell lobster rolls and we tried them all!

The Eastern States Exposition, colloquially known as and renamed “The Big E,” is an annual fair in Massachusetts. The Big E runs for 17 days and is the largest agricultural event on the Atlantic Coast as well as the fifth-largest event of its kind in the U.S. A section of the fair grounds has a building dedicated to each of the six New England states. The buildings line what’s called Avenue of States and each have vendors from their states with a focus on regional foods. Rhode Island, Massachusetts, Maine, and Connecticut all have booths with lobster rolls.

What’s a lobster roll anyhow?

A lobster roll is a sandwich made of lobster meat. Traditionally, it’s stuffed into a plain split-topped bun. There are two common methods of preparing the lobster meat that makes up the “salad.” The Maine way, which is served cold with mayonnaise. And there’s the Connecticut way, hot and drenched in butter. There are other variants you might encounter, but those are the two ways you’ll most often find lobster rolls served.

The rest of the fair

While we’ve only checked out the lobster rolls in the state buildings at The Big E, there’s a ton of other food options on the grounds. We also did not try out any other lobster treats such as the lobster mac and cheese in the New Hampshire building — we did get that mac and cheese, just sans arthropods. So if you were navigating the fair grounds or the midway and ran into the best lobster roll in the world, send us a message about it and we’ll check it out next year.

Ranking

We’re going to save our ranking from best to worst until the very end of this review. But there’s a possibility you’ll be able to figure it all out before you get to our official scores. Spoiler alert, there being four rolls that we tried out, we did end up with two rolls tied for second place. It was a toss-up between the two. Third place and first place both handedly earned their spots on the letter board with large deltas between them and the second place sandwiches.

Maine

Everyone knows the Maine lobster and goes gaga over them. Rightfully so. When you think of lobster, it’s usually the Maine lobster variant of the American lobster folks are thinking about. Even if you’re eating a Canadian lobster, while slightly different, it’s the same species of the American lobster.

The Main lobster roll was served by “a family who feel as comfortable on the ocean as in the Maine Building.” The link on the Big E’s website for the Maine building simply takes visitors to SeaFoodFromMaine.com. You can only pay cash, so we don’t have a credit card receipt. We don’t really know “who” makes the lobster rolls from Maine.

The Maine lobster rolls were served cold with a lite amount of mayonnaise. It was a standard split-topped bun, which they’ll toast for you if you want. The sandwich was not overly stuffed and was pre-made sitting there for the taking. The lobster meat was crisp and sweet.

The lobster rolls from Maine were $24.00, cash only.

While we were visiting Maine, we did also have some maple milkshakes and maple coffee from Tree of Life Maple Farm. Both drinks were delightful. We also may have had a baked potato.

Connecticut

We’re discussing the Connecticut lobster roll next because it was served in the style after its namesake. The Constitution State lobster roll comes hot and buttered, as mentioned above. The vendor that was selling the rolls at the Connecticut building was Lenny & Joe’s Fish Tale from Westbrook and Madison.

Lenny & Joe’s sells their lobster rolls in three different sizes; mini, regular, and jumbo. In addition to the iconic sandwich, they offer lobster mac and cheese, lobster grilled cheese, regular grilled cheese, lobster bisque, and New England clam chowder.

We got a regular size lobster roll which cost $25.00. The location does take credit cards and with a bottle of water plus tip, we were $32.20, all in.

We really loved this lobster roll. The meat was nice and chunky and the hot butter really complimented the sandwich. Like the Maine — and Massachusetts — lobster rolls, the Connecticut roll was served in a split-top roll.

Massachusetts

The Massachusetts lobster rolls are sold by the Massachusetts Grange. The rolls were pre-made, cold, and cost $18.00, credit card accepted. With tip, we were $20.70, all in.

By far, the Massachusetts’ lobster roll was our least favorite. Spoiler alert. While it was the least expensive of all the lobster rolls we encountered, our public service announcement is that you get what you pay for.

They were served cold with some chunks of meat but those chunks were mixed in with minced lobster to “bulk” it up — not that bulk is a word we’re comfortable using to describe this sandwich. If there was any mayo mixed into the salad, we did not detect it.

When we got our Massachusetts roll we did express to the workers that it was much smaller than the Rhode Island lobster roll. Their remark was: “They’re triple the price.” Their statement wasn’t accurate by a long shot, as the cold Rhode Island lobster roll costs $34.00, just two bucks south of double the price of the substandard Massachusetts roll.

Sorry Bay State, we won’t even try to hide it or sugar coat it, your lobster roll was downright pathetic.

Rhode Island

Little Rhody is not an island, a fact I had to point out to a cousin once — fuhgeddaboudit. While the Ocean State may be the smallest state in the Union, its lobster roll packed a serious punch. The vendor was Southeast Light Delights and they did have the most expensive lobster rolls. Much like our comments about the sad excuse Massachusetts served us, you get what you pay for.

Southeast Light Delights serves both cold and hot lobster rolls. They also have a variant that might be a bit of a cheat, but I say it’s next level; the spicy cold lobster roll. Another thing that’s going to be worthy of trying out next year is their panko crust lobster, an interesting twist on the traditional lobster pies from New England.

Besides “lobstah” rolls, Southeast Light Delights serves scallop rolls, block island lobster rangoons, lobster risotto bombs, lobster grilled cheese, grilled cheese — with or without tomato and bacon, lobster bisque, and some drinks.

The rolls were made to order. You weren’t getting some soggy sandwich that was just sitting out for however long. They would take pre-measured amounts of meat, plop them into a bowl, and mix up what you want right in front of you. As with some of their other departures, Southeast Light Delights did not mess around with the split-top bun but rather served their lobster rolls in delicious buttery brioche buns.

As noted, the lobster rolls come with a hefty price tag, up to $35.00 for the cold spicy roll, but these are worth it. Don’t worry, they take plastic if you’re intimidated by the price.

We tried the spicy roll, which the meat is tossed in a smokey chipotle mayo, and one of our travel companions got a traditional cold lobster roll.

I loved the spicy roll but as a matter of personal taste, I’d say extra mayo in the future. The spicy elements are only a slight hint and they don’t allow the dressing to overpower the sweet large chunks of meat. My better half liked the roll but would go with a regular cold roll in the future.

“Really good. Tons of lobster. Good bun.” is what Larry, one of our companions, had to say about the cold roll. Never shy to share his opinion, Larry was pleased with the roll he had.

For our spicy roll, cold roll, tax, and tip, we were $87.84, all in.

The verdict?

There was no real contest here, Rhode Island dominated in the great Big E lobster roll grudge match.

Tied for second place were Maine and Connecticut. Both had formidable, but different selections — close enough to another to be tied.

And at dead last — not even close to the second runners up — Massachusetts. I don’t know what the Bay State thinks is a good representation of a lobster roll, but this ain’t it. Maybe they tried to offer up a “the people’s” roll, something accessible to the masses? But with that low price comes low quality — there’s a lesson to learn in there somewhere perhaps.

Our advice? Try them for yourself and formulate your own opinion. Maybe skip Massachusetts but stop by to tell them they have stiff competition.

After dropping $164.74 on lobster rolls, one bottle of water, tax, and tip, we will be sprinting to Rhodes Island for our future lobster rolls when visiting The Big E. We know we’ll be getting a quality product. We’re happy we won’t have to suffer through stuffing four different sandwiches into our extra savory stomachs in the name of lobster roll grading science again. Also on our revisit list would be Connecticut if we’re feeling all hot and buttered.

The Big E is an over two-week long fair that starts on the second Friday after Labor Day and is located at: 1305 Memorial Ave, West Springfield, MA 01089