A Faneuil Hall seafood vendor offered an apology last week after two Houston tourists discovered crawfish meat mixed into their lobster rolls, Eater Boston reported.

Lennie and Amber Ambrose were visiting Boston last month when they stopped at Quincy Market and ordered a lobster roll at Boston & Maine Fish Company, the news outlet reported.

Boston & Maine Fish Co. also calls its cold lobster rolls “lobster salad rolls,” but the details are scant on its website, which notes only that the sandwich comes served on a roll with lettuce and lemon. 

As the couple ate their meal, they noticed the familiar flavor and small, shrimp-like shape of crawfish meat mixed in with the lobster, according to Eater Boston. Houstonians notably take their crawfish pretty seriously.

“I walked up to the front of the stall and said to the guy, like, ‘Hey, are you trying to pass off crawfish as lobster?’” Lennie Ambrose told Eater Boston. “[The guy said] ‘No, no, no, it’s lobster.’” 

He walked away unsatisfied.

“There’s no way that that is lobster,” Ambrose said. “I eat a lot of crawfish. There’s no way.”

As it turns out, he was right: Boston & Maine Fish Co. issued a statement last Friday acknowledging that its lobster salad rolls are served with a mix of lobster and crawfish, diced celery, mayo, and lemon juice.

“We apologize for any misconceptions regarding our salad being just lobster meat,” the restaurant said. “We recommend trying our Hot Buttered Lobster Rolls made with 100% Maine Lobster meat with butter toasted on a brioche bun for pure lobster delight.”

Co-owner Andre Ornelas also told Eater Boston that crawfish is part of the restaurant’s original lobster salad recipe that dates back to when founder Larry Smith opened the shop in Quincy Market in 1984. 

“We never had an issue before,” Ornelas told Eater Boston. “This is the first time that we are having a problem.”

Read Eater Boston’s full investigation into the crawfish debacle.

Newsletter Signup

Stay up to date on all the latest news from Boston.com