Quincy Market
Market · Downtown ·
Diverse global cuisine, seafood, lobster rolls, chowder, & desserts
Diverse global cuisine, seafood, lobster rolls, chowder, & desserts
"I remember Quincy Market as a once-great food center that reopened in 1976 with original tenants from the wholesale Boston food market, no chains, and fresh, original dishes, but over the decades it has declined into a tourist-focused, captive-audience food hall where cramped booths, limited prep and refrigeration, rising rents, landlord-tenant mistrust, and operator complacency incentivize 'fast and cheap' food; that decline was crystallized recently when two Houston tourists ordered a cold lobster roll with crawfish tails tucked inside, prompting outrage and an apology and confirming many locals' belief that the market now flops." - Erika Adams
"The centuries-old Boston food hall known as Quincy Market is called a tourist trap and, in the article’s words, 'generally speaking, a terrible place to eat'; it’s the location of the Boston & Maine Fish Company stall where the mixed lobster-and-crawfish lobster salad roll controversy occurred." - Erika Adams
"A historic, ever-crowded food hall attached to a famous marketplace that functions more like a glorified mall food court; it's worth walking through for photos or a quick stop but is widely considered a tourist trap that often sells overpriced, mediocre meals to the underprepared. There are some decent quick-food options inside, but this shouldn't be the top stop on a serious local food list when better, more authentic choices are a short walk away." - Erika Adams
"Located within the larger historic marketplace, this building contains a long stretch of counter-service food stalls—some open for decades—and a large centralized dining area, along with a few full-service restaurants elsewhere in the complex. Its dense concentration of eateries and communal seating makes it a major visitor draw, but the ongoing dispute between the leaseholder and the city over missed PILOT payments and a lien has introduced uncertainty that could affect the longtime food vendors during the pandemic." - Terrence Doyle
"Dating back to the 1820s, Quincy Market is Boston’s original food hall and a historic precedent to the modern food-hall trend discussed in the piece." - Rachel Leah Blumenthal