If you’re heading to Mad Seafood Boiler, which features delicious seafood soaking in a pan of seasonings and sauces, then heed my recommendations: wear the bib and the gloves that come with your table! You’ll need them as you’re cracking, peeling and slurping. Also, don’t come here on a first date.
To get started, you can either choose a combo platter of seafood, or you can mix-and-match items such as blue crab ($12.99/lb.) and clams ($12.99/lb.). From there, you choose either lemon pepper, cajun or garlic butter flavor, followed by heat level and then a side.
All the seafood was fresh and served in a big metal pan (previously, it was in a big plastic bag). Their taste was enhanced by the sauce; in my platter, it was the cajun, which was buttery, oily and so delicious that I wanted to dip bread into it.
I got Combo A ($20.99), which includes a half-pound of shrimp (with or without the heads), a half-pound of snow crab legs and either a half-pound of mussels or crawfish (I picked the latter). I chose to keep the heads on the shrimp for the extra flavor, and I smeared that perfectly cooked shrimp into that aforementioned sauce–yum! The crawfish did pick up the cajun flavor, and the snow crab legs were meaty and tender.
There are five combo platters, and all come with corn, red potatoes (which was perfectly soft) and sausage (which was mild and tender).
For those not looking for a messy meal, Mad Seafood Boiler has an extensive selection of sushi rolls (regular and special), sushi appetizers, sushi entrees and even poke bowls that weren’t part of its initial menu.
The Forbidden roll ($12.95) is unique for its use of black rice. The cream cheese is a bit overwhelming, but the other components, from the creamy avocado to the crispy softshell crab, make it worth ordering.
Other rolls include the Tiger roll ($10.95 with spicy shrimp), the Madison roll ($11.95 with snow crab) and the Fancy lobster roll ($14.95 with lobster salad).
Gyoza ($5.95) and shumai ($4.95) are among the appetizers. I loved the tuna pizza ($8.95), which is like an open face sushi roll. The finely diced tuna, roe and slightly sweet sauce sit atop a crunchy scallion pancake, which had enough thickness to it not to fall apart.
Mad Seafood Boiler is open every day for lunch, dinner, carryout and delivery.
The Madison Blind somehow survived two years on the top floor of the Graduate Hotel despite seemingly little dining traffic. Its replacement, 
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You’ll find four types of montadito, which is basically sliced baguette with grilled meat on top. The Spanish sausage ($4.50) is tender and has a bit of heat to it. The lightly toasted bread maintains its texture against the sauce, and the onions and black olives add a bit of breadth to the flavor.
