We have family coming in from northern CA in October. This is my sister-in-law's first trip to New England and her 50th birthday celebration. She would like to have dinner in Boston - and would love crab legs for dinner.

So, expert advice needed - which is the best place for crab in Boston?

Thanks, Sonia

Since it's her first trip to New England she can be forgiven for expecting crab legs instead of a loacl specialty.

Red Lobster is the only place I know of where you can get crab legs. How about lobster or scallops?

she'd do better to look for Maine crab cakes somewhere. Although I'm not sure where the best of these are to be had.

Crab is not a specialty seafood item in New England. What about Lobster, or Clam Chowder?

Boston -- lobster, oysters, fried clams, clam chowder, cod, baked beans. We have blue crabs and other species in New England, but they are not particularly identified with Boston (not that you can't get a decent crab cake). The crab shack thing is a Baltimore specialty. And giant crab legs come from your SIL's neck of the woods. You can get them, but they'll have been frozen and flown in from the Pacific.

Meant to add, a safe but not spectacular choice might be one of the Legal Seafood restaurants. The one in Copley Square offers Alaskan King Crab legs, as well as New England specialties.

There is no Red lobster In N.E., maybe, maybe R.I. as for crab legs..very, very, very expensive..

Please. Introduce her to Boston by taking her to the North End for an Italian dinner she won't forget. Followed by pastry and capuccino at Mike's Pastry or one of the other great pastry places. Wander the North End and see Paul Revere's house. C'mon now.

That's a fine suggestion by jbass because I did the exact same thing he has suggested.

Lots of people feel that Atlantic lobster is more special than crab. And lobster is plentiful in Boston.

Not to mention abundant. And the "pacific" lobster has no claws, so it's not really a lobsta anyway, just a big crayfish.

Boston is so un-crab that we brought crabs home with us on a plane from San Francisco.

Or you could take her to Barking Crab restaurant, order lobster and tell her they are "northern crabs". If you have a few drinks before dinner it might work.

The Barking Crab often has Alaskan, Snow and Dungeness crabs on the menu...the latter of these is popular in N. CA, I believe.

But go for local seafood whenever possible. Take her to Legal's--the menu has plenty of choices for everyone.

You can get them at Legal Seafood - they have several locations in Boston. We were there last weekend and I thought it was a great place to eat. I had the soft shell crab and was in heaven. I see on their menu they have the Alaskan King crab legs:
http://www.legalseafoods.com/

Don't know how handy you are in the kitchen, but they are pretty easy to make. I recently got them at Costco in the fresh seafood dept (although they were frozen). Normal price is around $13 a lb, I got them for $7.99. Anyway, preheat oven to 400, make a slit periodically in the frozen crablegs, place them in a pan at least an inch high, cover with foil and bake for 20 minutes. Serve with melted butter. Perfect!