First Stop: Red's Eats - 41 Main St, Wiscasset, ME 04578 - 3.5 Forks
The first stop on my whirlwind lobster tour of Maine was the famous Red's Eats. It's probably on every "must visit" Maine lobster tour list and has gotten accolades on almost every single food blog and mainstream food publication. So of course it had to be the 1st stop on my Maine tour. Being the most famous lobster shack in all of Maine does have its downsides - which I'll get to in a second.
But first, this stand (it's literally a stand with 1 window) is located about 1 1/2 hours from Kennebunkport (which was where I was staying) in a cute town called Wiscasset. There are a few cute antique shops and local mom and pop markets but there's really not much else to it. Janet and I got to Red's exactly when it opened, 11:30 AM, and there was already a line that snaked down the block. I was hoping that the line would move fairly quickly considering most people in line were probably going to order the same thing, the lobster roll. But this place was horribly inefficient and is an operations professor's worst nightmare. There is only 1 window and the same person who is taking the orders is also serving the guests. No wonder it took forever for the line to move. We literally waited an hour to get up to the front of the line, order and to get our food. For that alone, I really had to knock off 1/2 a fork because even though it's a small operation, there were plenty of other small lobster shacks that I visited that were run much better with larger menus.
But on to the food.
Of course you have to get the lobster roll ($19) and we also got an order of the fried clam roll as well ($17) and two diet Pepsi (another strike against them that they didn't have coke). When you first see the lobster roll, it literally takes your breath away. They shove an entire lobster on to the roll. They really barely touch the lobster because they put the entire tail, both claws and some of the body in the roll without really chopping it. They pretty much remove the lobster straight into the roll. So that was quite impressive. The roll was also nice and toasted with a nice hint of butter to it. Unlike most of the lobster rolls I've had before, this one was pretty much naked - no mayo, no butter, no celery, no nothing, just plain lobster meat. In theory that is a great idea and should have really brought out the natural flavor of the lobster. We did manage to pour an entire side of melted butter on the lobster but it was missing some seasoning. I'm not saying it needed a lot, but it was a bit too naked for me. But in all honesty with the amount of lobster in there, I really can't complain too much. I've never seen a roll packed with this much whole meat in it. As for the clam strips - there was a lot of clam filling stuffed to this sandwich but I did think there was a bit too much batter on the clams themselves. Once I stripped away some of the batter and got down to the clams, they were delicious. But I did enjoy having a thin salty layer of batter on them while dipping them in a classic tartar sauce. All in all, it was a great but very slow start to the day. I probably would have really enjoyed my meal a lot more if it was just run more efficiently. Total bill: $42 total
2nd Stop: Five Islands Lobster Company - 1447 Five Islands Rd., Georgetown, ME 04548 - 3.5 Forks
The 2nd stop on the tour was roughly 30 minutes away from Red's in a cute town called Georgetown. The place is more of what I had envisioned for my Maine experience. The setting is absolutely stunning - it's located right on the water with a gorgeous picturesque background of boats, pine trees and big lovely houses. It was just a very soothing place. The shack has a slightly larger menu than Red's with whole lobster, crab cake sandwiches, Jenny special (what?! I should have gotten that - it's grilled Haddock with a crab cake on top of it), Haddock sandwiches, grilled salmon, clam baskets, scallops baskets, shrimp baskets, fish and chips, burgers, hot dogs, grilled cheese, and sides such as chowder, stew, corn, fries and onion rings to name a few. I was so torn but since this was the lobster tour, we continued with our lobster roll (we got the small size which is a 1/4 lb of meat ($15) vs. the Big Boy option which is a 1/2 lb of meat) and I got a side of fish chowder ($6) since I felt like I needed to branch out. The operations here was much smoother than Red's and we barely had to wait in line or for a food.
The best part of the dining experience here is the large dock full of benches with great views. You can just plop down a few inches away from the water and enjoy your food. Given that we just came from Red's which had lobster overflowing, it was a bit underwhelming to get a roll with only a 1/4 lb of meat - but that's probably the normal amount of meat one should expect in a lobster roll. Similar to Red's, the meat was kept fairly intact and not served with a lot of extras on top of it. There was a very light touch of mayo and a lettuce leaf on a grilled hot dog bun. Overall, it was a very clean lobster roll. The chowder was a haddock chowder with corn and potato. It was a little bit runny and not as thick as I would have liked a chowder to be but since I was preparing myself to eat for the next 48 hours straight, I appreciated that it was on the lighter side but it's definitely not a chowder that could stand alone as a meal. All in all, I would also highly recommend this place, not just because of the solid food and quick turnaround but because of the gorgeous scenic views. It's really what you think of when you think of Maine. Total bill: $22
3rd Stop - The Lobster Shack at Two Lights - 225 Two Lights Rd., Cape Elizabeth, ME 04107 - 4 Forks
As if the views at Five Islands wasn't beautiful enough, we ended our tour of the day near Two Lights State Park and finished our night at The Lobster Shack. It's also your classic Maine landscape with lighthouses, sea gulls and waves crashing on the rocks. It's a great place to bring your family and it's also kind of a romantic spot. It's less of a shack here and and more of a cafeteria style building. Again - similar menu to most other places and we came here for the lobster roll, Janet also got a chowder and we indulged and got homemade strawberry rhubarb pie and local Maine blueberry pie with whip cream. This was the 1st lobster roll we had that really favored mayo. They put a pretty large dollop of mayo on top of the lobster and maybe it was because the past 2 rolls we had didn't have any mayo, but it almost felt like there was too much mayo here. But having the mayo on the lobster roll did make me realize how much I do prefer having a mayo based roll vs. a butter based one. It may be really unhealthy for me but I really loved having that extra touch of mayo on the lobster. The bun here was also a standard hot dog bun but it wasn't really super buttery or toasted. I had a few bites of Janet's chowder and she thought it was a bit too thin but it was pretty full of lobster meat in there as well. But the big star of the meal was dessert. Oh my - that strawberry rhubarb pie was out of this world. You could tell that everything was homemade. They were simply delicious and really just used the sweetness of the local fruit to bring out the flavors. The crust was perfect - not too overcooked and hard but not too chewy. I loved that fact that they just slathered the entire pie in whip cream - that's totally the way to do it! Even though it was a bit cold and windy, I was really happy to end my meal in such a lovely setting and with great food, especially in the dessert category. Total bill: $29
Day 2 coming up......
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