The Clam Box is in the town for which the best soft-shell clams are named: Ipswich. A lot of North Shore types cite the Clam Box as their favorite (and therefore the best) spot for fried clams, and the restaurant’s compulsive commitment to clean frying oil — it ceases service at 2:30 p.m. each day to filter and change its frying oil — plays a big part.

The Clam Box is a seasonal joint: It opens the second or third week in February and closes the Sunday after Thanksgiving. Don’t ignore it after summer ends — Rte. 133 in autumn is a leaf peeper’s fantasyland, and it’s made better with a box full of fried Ipswich clams.

This just may be the home of the best fried clam in the world. J.T. Farnham’s, located in Essex, sits at the foot of a majestic expanse of marshland, and at any given moment a diner might spot a piping plover, a peregrine falcon, or a common tern. Bring your binoculars, but also bring your appetite. Like the Clam Box, Farnham’s is located on Rte. 133. Order a box of fried clams, and eat those clams while looking out upon the vast heather and ochre of the marsh.

Farnham’s is also seasonal: It’s typically open from the first Friday in March through Christmas Eve.

Lore suggests the fried clam was invented in 1916 in Essex by Chubby Woodman; an 1865 menu from the Omni Parker House hotel suggests otherwise. Origin stories aside, Woodman’s of Essex has been slinging some of the best fried clams on earth for more than a century. Don’t sleep on the clam chowder, either. Woodman’s is also located on Rte. 133 (sensing a pattern?), but unlike the Clam Box and J.T. Farnham’s, it’s open year-round. Blizzard clams, anyone?

Winthrop, Massachusetts, isn’t the most convenient destination from Boston proper, but Belle Isle Seafood’s fried clams are worth the inconvenience. The restaurant’s corrugated metal exterior immediately announces “We’re a no-frills kind of place.” Get the clams on their own, or couple them with Belle Isle’s excellent fried scallops. Cash only.

Most of the restaurants on this list are on the coast or coast adjacent. Courthouse — both a restaurant and a fish market — is wedged between Inman Square, Lechmere, and Kendall Square, but don’t let its location fool you: It’s serving some of the best fried clams (and fried fish more broadly) in Greater Boston.

This place — which features one of the South End’s nicest patios — knows what it’s doing with bivalves. Go for the oysters; stay for the fried Ipswich clams. And sure, a lobster roll.

Sullivan’s on Castle Island offers fried strips or whole bellies (get the whole bellies.) The scenery can’t be beat at this Southie classic. Sullivan’s is seasonal, but good news: ‘tis the season.

This is the South Shore’s Clam Box (no affiliation with the Clam Box on the North Shore). Like Tony’s (see below), it’s been there for more than 50 years, the right amount of time to perfect its fried clam technique.

Burke’s Seafood in North Quincy is part fish market, part restaurant. It has been open for more than three decades for a reason, and its fried clams are among the best on the South Shore.

Spend the day sunbathing at Nantasket Beach, and spend the evening munching on some fried Ipswich clams from the Hingham Lobster Pound. If this spot looks like a bait shop, it’s because it used to be a bait shop. Unlike most clam shacks, Hingham Lobster Pound adds a layer of breadcrumbs to increase the crunch factor. It’s open seasonally, from St. Patrick’s Day through Christmas Eve.