Best seafood restaurant
And the award goes to ... Legal Sea Foods. Perhaps you've heard of it? Landlubbing tourists certainly have, descending on the franchise in droves for what they all call, with a wink, "chowdah" and "lobstah"; the folks at Legal deserve kudos just for laughing politely 300 times a day. But why do locals still give Legal's restaurants props? Because they still try, still evolve, still succeed. One day they're sprinkling ayurvedic spices on their grilled fillets; the next it's Chinese fruit sauce; still the next they're rolling out salmon-falafel balls. And frankly, balls are what it takes to strive for change when you don't have to.

It looks for all the world like a glorified fish market, but after all these years the East Coast Grill isn't in the business of justifying anything to anyone - it just is. Is a respected barbecue joint, is a beloved brunch hangout, but above all, is the genuine seafood haven Chris Schlesinger built. His primary tools - pristine ingredients and flashes of heat - still do their work with gusto, from the blackboard specials to the raw-bar bivalves to the signature dishes such as buttermilk-fried oysters and white-pepper-crusted tuna. So you'd best do yours: eat.

Legal Sea Foods, multiple locations, www.legalseafoods.com; East Coast Grill & Raw Bar, 1271 Cambridge Street, Cambridge, (617) 491-6568, www.eastcoastgrill.net.