LEGAL SEA FOODS,

Legal Sea Foods is a restaurant that didn't just gulp and accept the-challenges, it grinned and thrived. Well, at least the happily self-sacrificing signature fish is grinning on the logo. Originating in 1950 as a Cambridge fish market, Legal opened there as a restaurant in 1968 and has since expanded down the East Coast as far as Florida, with more than two dozen locations. The chain's attention to quality control has gained it a widespread thumbs-up rep. Legal's eclectic offerings for divergent tastes point to why the place is so busy. In addition to the raw bar and "Legal Classics" -- from baked scrod to almond-encrusted salmon -- there are regional seafood dishes from outside New England, plus various exotica. For appetizers, we could get Maryland crab cakes ($10.95), spicy Baltimore peel & eat shrimp ($9.95), and not only the ubiquitous coconut shrimp ($9.95), but blackened raw tuna sashimi ($11.95).

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