Turner Fisheries

Delicious food and decent service. Quite expensive even after the groupon so be prepared to bring your wallet

Turner Fisheries is amazing. Took my girlfriend here last night for our three year anniversary an I took her here.
First off the atmosphere and décor of this place is top notch. The staff was very attentive and well knowledge about the food they serve.
We started with the shellfish tower for two. It had lobster, clams, oysters, shrimp, crab, muscles, and scallops. This was a great appetizer to start the meal.
After we finished that our wait brought over warm towels with lemon. First he squeezed the lemon over our hands (this helps get rid of the fish smell) then gave us warm towels to was our hands.
For dinner I order the Surf & Turf was fillet mignon, lobster tail and claw, Yukon mashed potatoes. Excellent presentation and flavor full.
My girlfriend order the 2.5 pound Maine Lovster it was huge but she loved it. She couldn’t finish it. Lol
Our server then brought us out desert with a candle on it since it was our anniversary.
This place was great start to finish and we will be going back again to try the other dishes.

Keeping in mind that ratings are relative to the establishment (i.e., I am comparing Turner to other high-​end chop/​seafood restaurants and not to any local pub), I would give them three stars for meeting our expectations for a good meal. The food was fresh and tasty. My friends had the clambake which looked awesome and had generous portions of food. They were all very pleased. I had the special (halibut) and it was good but not anything to write home about.
Their menu was varied and provided reasonable options but I’m glad we had a gift certificate to defray the downtown Boston prices for what was good, but *meh* for the price food.
A final note, the wait staff was excellent. A+ for service here.

–Overpriced
–Soccer mom cocktails
–Terrible beer selection
+Good execution of standard NE seafood dishes

I’m surprised by the mixed reviews about this place. I went in late on a Friday evening, not knowing what to expect. I’d never heard anything. I just had a
certificate and wanted to use it!
I was pleasantly surprised by the experience at Turner Fisheries. I mean, the place is across from a mall and attached to a hotel… I didn’t think much. But the food was so good that I felt transported. I had to look at my glass of wine to make sure I wasn’t actually just drunk. But no worries, I wasn’t. I was really just THAT into the food. The oysters were wonderfully served with descriptions of each type. The lobster risotto was great too. My date asked for his swordfish to be done differently than on the menu, and they were flexible! Beyond the food though… I just really liked this place!

We opted for the Wednesday $ 35 lobster special which was supposed to be a 2 lb. lobster. Two members of my dining party ordered lobster. Neither one was a 2 lb lobster. I would estimate that they were 1 ¼– 1 ½ lb lobsters. There were no sides or any other accompaniments. Just a simple undersized boiled lobster with drawn butter for $ 35. No bargain at all. When the lobsters arrived, the claw meat was already removed for us and the lobster was split. No bibsor crackers were provided and the waiter proceeded to remove the tail meat from our lobsters with a fork despite the fact that we told him that we were well equipped to tackle the lobsters on our own.
One member of my dining party ordered the shrimp cocktail for $ 14. This consisted of three jumbo shrimp and cocktail sauce. WAY overpriced. This will likely be my last visit to Turner Fisheries.

I typically do not write reviews unless i have gone to the establishment 3 or more times, but I don’t think I will be going back to Turner any time soon and here’s why: Service– I’m not sure where to start really, its not that it was bad, it was just weird! Our waiter seemed very disorganized and that he didn’t know what day of the week it was but then he was nice enough to split everything we had so we could share and brought out extra bread (because he set our first basket on fire!) Off into the distance we were watching interaction with the other waiter that was on staff. The table was quite annoyed at his over bearing approach of smothering the table with an abundance of fish knowledge, we were too. Next the food– We started with clam chowdah! Not bad at all I must say, good consistency and flavor, just wish it has more clams. Next, on to the oysters, super fresh but were not properly shucked, it was really difficult eating.
We then had the broiled oysters which were properly shucked and quite tasty! On to The Bang mussels, while cooked perfectly and and were very fresh there was no substance. When I’m rip open a mussel i like to have a little sauce and chorizo inside the shell to complete the slurp but I had to dig deep to get that to happen with very little chorizo-​ness. Lastly I got the Peppered Ahi tuna, and I am really glad I did. It was great way to end the meal. Perfectly cooked, perfectly peppery, perfectly fresh, They should call this the perfect pepper ahi! So overall it was decent experience, I wont rush back, but if all my favorite seafood places are booked, I’d swing by.

It was just OK. Had some really good chowder but the rest of the meal was just OK. Go for the happy hour oysters.

Yes, they offer a $ 5 happy hour bar bites menu.
No, I wouldn’t recommend it.
Unless you don’t mind being treated like a second-​class citizen. Seriously, they won’t even give you the complimentary bread they serve other tables if you ask for the $ 5 menu.
While I wouldn’t rule this out for a nice, full-​price dinner, I will most certainly NEVER return for drinks or a light bite. The bartender, while very nice and friendly, did not know the difference between a pale ale and an IPA. And I realize he was trying to be chummy, but he didn’t even offer to replace my friend’s pale ale after he had mistakenly informed her it was an IPA, even after she told him she was willing to pay the difference.
Definitely not a place you go for the cheap food. I imagine it is a much better experience for dinner, but until then I’m doling out a generous 2 stars.

both the food and service at turner’s always makes for a very nice evening. whether i sit at the bar or at a table, the waitstaff is accommodating, friendly, and prompt. the seafood is very fresh and well-​prepared. the only reason why i am giving 4 stars instead of 5 is that i think for such a high-​end restaurant, there could perhaps be more creativity to some of the dishes.
we went for dinner last night with my fiancé’s family (and have been a few times before) and we all really enjoyed our meal. we started with a few selections from the a la carte raw and shucked list, including the crab claws, shrimp, raw oysters, mussels, and clams on the half shell. eerything was very fresh, and the oysters were briny and flavorful. we also had the crab and avocado salad, which was very nice and light.
for my entrée, i ordered the pan-​seared tuna, rare. it came out perfectly, served over a pea purée. while the tuna itself was delicious, i thought that the spice crust was more just spicy rather than flavorful, and the pea purée did not add a lot of flavor. i appreciated that they substituted grilled asparagus for the french fries.
my fiancé got the 2 lb steamed lobster special, and i ate the legs. they were very good, and it seems as though the restaurant offers very fresh seafood. his sister enjoyed the lobster risotto, which had a nice parmesan base, and his parents enjoyed their fish as well. dessert was 2 scoops of sorbet (raspberry and lemon) and a scoop of espresso gelato served with berries, which was creamy, cold, and just sweet enough to make an excellent end to the meal.
we also appreciated that the waitstaff went out of their way to direct my fiancé’s father to the nearest elevator (through the staff exit) and an easier way out, as he is handicapped and has trouble with the stairs. it is very nice to have that extra touch for him.
turner fisheries actually has great deals at the bar, and for just a few dollars you can get plates of mussels or selections of shrimp, raw oysters, crab claws, etc.

I have always liked this place… This should prob be a three star review, but our waiter was so awesome, that I have to bump it up to 4.
We came in on a Tuesday night, and the place was basically empty. I asked for a corner booth, and they had no problem accomodating us.
We got our water and drinks right away and dove into the menu. We ordered a stuffed jumbo shrimp, Jonah crab claws and the scallops. The stuffed shrimp was tasty, but really rich. The other apps tasted fresh and the scallops were basically perfect. For my entrée I got the swordfish on top of the goat cheese polenta with grilled asparagus. This was AWESOME. He got the «award winning» clam chowder and was not impressed.
But…I like when my glass is full along with my belly, with great service, so there ya go. Four stars!

I only came here once on a Friday evening for their oyster specials. It’s $ 1 an oyster starting at 5pm. It’s perfect for happy hour right?
I ordered 18 oysters and also wine poached chilled mussels that are $ 4 for a dozen. I thought they were both really good. The presentation alone made me salivate. I normally don’t like mussels, so if I say those mussels are good, they are delicious! They are little mussels and they were really fresh. There is some type of dipping they slathered on each mussels that brought out the sweetness of the mussels.
As for the oysters, most of them were good, some of them barely had any meat on them and a couple of them were sandy. Overall, it was delicious and fresh!
I also ordered some wine. I thought it was slightly overpriced, but the food is definitely a good deal. The service was a little slow at first but once we got our food, they came back more often and asked how everything is. I thought I was a little rushed to get out though because they kept checking if we were done with our dishes. But it is a Friday and they get pretty busy. I want to go back every Friday for their oysters!

$ 1 oysters & clams. LOVE.
Drinks: Beer good. old fashioned subpar.
nice décor. great service.

I’ve had the pleasure to enjoy the food here on a Groupon deal. Both my companion and I ordered «surf and turf» which was the most expensive item in the menu. I couldn’t complain about the lobster tail, but the fillet mignon was not as tasty as I would think (please see the picture I posted).
I still have to give credits to their appetizer oysters. They were the best oysters I’ve ever had since they were so juicy and delicious.
Overall, the experience was unique. Where did they find those weird-​accented waiters, anyway? I had quite a hard time listening to what they said.

Horrible food, worse service. WORST DOLLAR OYSTER EVER.
We were walking by and noticed that they were having $ 1 oysters on Fridays. Now we’ve been to almost every single $ 1 oyster night in the Boston area but had over-​looked Turner Fisheries until now. Little did we know, our lucky streak was about to end.
We sat at the bar and asked what kind of oysters they had for the night. A pretty simple and basic question right? The bartender told us that if we wanted to know what kind they were, we would be charged $ 2.25 per oyster instead of the advertised $ 1 each. Huh? Really??? It’s as if we actually wanted to know what we were eating we would have to pay a penalty. That’s some kind of special.
And it gets worse. The oysters arrived quickly after we ordered them. It was immediately clear that they had been shucked for some time. They were emaciated, dried out, and tasteless with none of the brine left. It was as if the oysters had been fasting all winter. On top of that, whoever shucked the oysters clearly had no idea what they were doing. At least four of the twelve oysters had been ‘de-​oystered’. All the remained was the oyster skirt with little to no flesh remaining (We’ve posted a picture of a massacred oyster).
When we brought this to the attention of the bartender he curtly replied that there was nothing that he could do and it wasn’t his problem, and that he would take it off the bill and asked us if we wanted anything else before rushing off and ignoring us.
Never before have we felt that free oysters were so repugnant in taste and experience. Never again will we eat at Turner Fisheries.

For a seafood restaurant, the menu sure had a decent amount of non-​sea creature options for the patron who was lured here by the promise of good company against their own personal taste preference.
Out of 16 entrees listed in the menu, four were sans seafood — lamb, chicken, beef, vegetarian. However, nothing on the menu shouted to me. I’m usually drawn to either a delicious sounding entrée or accompaniments. I did eye the Stuffed jumbo shrimp $ 8, however, and upon inquiry, I found out that the price was per piece. Wow, $ 8 for a single shrimp stuffed with crabmeat? I wanted to try it and was expecting a big bugger. But for a large shrimp, it wasn’t THAT large… and it wasn’t served very hot, but I’ll admit that it was tasty.
The bread basket arrived with three choices. The most unusual one was the white crisp cracker which looked like it would taste like cardboard (worst case senario) or perhaps like oyster crackers (since it was of a similar color and texture). But it actually had a simple yet pleasant taste to it, and may have been my favorite of the three.
I had the Hybrid striped bass $ 28 butternut ragout, cannellini beans, broccoli rabe, while my friend ordered the day’s special Mahi Mahi. While my bass arrived with the better sides, the Mahi Mahi was much moister than my bass.
For dessert, once again there was no obvious choice, but I felt like something sweet. I ended up selecting the gold dusted operal cake $ 8 because it was described as having hazelnut mousse. It wasn’t too chocolaty or sweet, so it was okay. The trio of gelato $ 6 came with our choice of flavors. They were creamy and the butternut not overwhelmingly sweet — this may have been the better choice of the two.
Service was okay, but should have been better given the price point and the fact that the restaurant wasn’t busy yet during our early dinner. When we were ready to order, our waiter was no where to be found. But another waiter did step in to take our order, and passed it along to him.

So I wanted to update my review. to include info about Wednesdays. If you didn’t know. they have 2 lbs lobsters for the discounted price of $ 35 on Wednesdays!
That’s a great deal.
It doesn’t come with any sides. but something well worth getting. at a fancy restaurant in Boston, it’s well worth stopping by. Oh. and I also went with a BuyWithMe coupon which made it sweeter… $ 50 off! Great service like last time… stop by on Wednesday!

Reasonably prepared food at inflated prices, Turner’s is the hotel restaurant of the Back Bay Westin, and unfortunately, that’s exactly how it feels. Their website touts accolades such as «Best Chowder» as voted by Boston Magazine (not terribly impressive) and «Best Seafood Restaurant» as voted by Boston’s People’s Choice Awards (What the hell do «people» know about seafood?)
The markups on wine are absolutely outrageous, even for wine in restaurants — $ 12 a glass for an average-​to-​middling New Zealand Sauvigon Blanc is just absurd.
In any case, the atmosphere is perfectly designed for the three-​martini, unbuttoned-​top-​button-​but-​still-​wearing-​the-​tie business folks’ dinner or the wealthy family on vacation, but it’s all manufactured. Glass and steel, wood and recessed lighting all contribute to the artificial feel of the place, though service was timely, efficient, friendly and responsive.
The sirloin was well cooked, but at a $ 36 price point I expect a prep cook to spend a little time with a trimming knife. Broiled asparagus side was fine, if uninspired. The oysters were improperly plated — crowded in a tiny ice dish, still attached to the shell, and served already swimming in mignonette.
The bouillabaisse, while flavorful, was not overly populated with food, and felt more like an appetizer portion than the $ 34 «Classic» it purports to be.
Corporate food, inflated prices with acceptable preparation — this is not a dining destination, but rather just a hotel restaurant with some artificial swank. It’s good, but there are so many places where you could do better for a lot less money.

Airplane Food Quality But Slower
I’m going to keep this review short because I don’t want to waste my time writing about such a terrible establishment. I came here for lunch with a friend on a voucher and am never coming back again. The place was dead empty at 1:30 PM on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving and it took 20 minutes before the waiter took our orders. We ate through 2 baskets of sesame bread sticks during our wait. The clam chowder would have won the award for Worst Watery White Soup ever. The lobster/​crab cobb salad was a joke. The salad was so bad that the lobster was grossed out. The Blue Ocean panini pathetically contained overcooked frozen scallops and UN-​devined shrimp between two stale pieces of bread that came out of elementary school cafeteria. The french fries were clearly from the same supplier as Mickey Ds, but tasted worse than fries from a Happy Meal.
I left this place shocked. A prime location under the Westin Hotel in Copley Square is gone to waste. My best guess is that the chef took the day off!

Though the food wasn’t life-​changing it was DEFINITELY a great deal with our coupon ($ 25 for 2 full lunches! 2 app’s and 2 entrees). I would never, ever come back and pay full price for a meal here.
They need to do something about those cracker sticks. They are dry and really flavorless, so please don’t wait until your customers have to beg for that butter before you bring it over! Cheap-o’s.
Appetizers —
1) Calamari — Holy huge. For $ 10 this was a giant dish of fried squid served with a side of super tart tomato marinara sauce. The bf and I both agree the breading needs to stay on better. We had crusty lips after a couple pieces.
2) Crab cake — one large crab cake that was 90% shredded crab meat. Served with a really rich guacamole-​like sauce. Awesome crisp sear on the outside while soft and moist inside.
Mains —
1) Salmon served over couscous — The salmon was way too dry on the outside, especially the 2 sides where the salmon steak got thin. The center of the fish was tender though. Couscous was SO greasy but oh-​so-​flavorful. It tasted almost Asian.
2) Lobster Roll — I thought it was a FLOP. The bread was cold and SO dry. It could have used some time on the grill. Came with a side of crispy fries and little salad that was unmemorable. I’ve had better lobster rolls in 18 other places. SKIP this.
Service was… eh fine. Nothing spectacular.