Cooks Resturant, Bailey Island, Maine.....

Cafe Society
1

Cooks resturant, in Bailey Island Maine was featured in a Visa “Everywhere You Want to Be” ad back in the late '80s, since then, Cooks has seen it’s reputation grow, there’s a map in the lobby with pins marking where their customers have travelled from, customers from all over the globe have eaten there

luckilly, we only live a couple hours away, for Mom’s birthday we went up to Bailey Island for the weekend, and since the hotel we stayed at was literally across the way from Cooks, we decided to give it a try

Cooks stands over the Atlantic Ocean on pillars, lobster boats unload their wares on the Cooks dock, you can’t get any fresher than that, the lobster storage tanks are refreshed with cold Atlantic seawater constantly, freshly caught lobsters are quarrantined for two days to allow them to metabolize the bait they’ve eaten in the trap before they’re introduced to the main storage tank (according to the resturant owner it’s so the lobsters taste better, they’ll taste like lobster, not the bait they’ve been eating), all local seafood is brought right to the dock just minutes from the ocean, clams from local clam beds, local shrimp and scallops minutes from the fishing beds

i guess what i’m trying to say here is the food is probably the freshest seafood you can get…

the resturant had quite the reputation to live up to, so did it?

not really, it was actually somewhat dissapointing…

first off, ignoring the half-hour wait (it was very busy, even at 7 PM) to be seated, it took our server at least 20 minutes to get to our table, once she took our orders, it was another 15 minutes even before we got the dinner rolls

once we ordered (i ordered clam chowder and a lobster roll), it took at least a half hour for us to get our food…

okay, food’s here, how was it, after all, that’s the important part of a resturant review, onto the meat (pun intended :wink: ) of the review…

Cooks clam chowder, advertised as rich and hearty with lots of sweet clams…
it had lots of sweet clams, hearty potatoes, but the broth wasn’t particularly thick or hearty, it basically was milk, the clams were also sandy and gritty, heck, I could have made better and i have no cooking skill…
overall rating; 3 out of 10

Cooks Lobster Roll, the classic New England lobster roll, a New England style hot dog bun, grilled, with lobster meat on a bed of lettuce with just a touch of mayonaise, impossible to screw up, right?

wrong

the lobster roll was good, i did taste the difference letting the lobsters digest the bait they had eaten, the meat was sweeter than i was used to, they used just the right amount of mayo, the roll was grilled perfectly, the biggest problem with the roll?

not enough lobster meat, i’d expect a $14 lobster roll (yes, you read that right, $14!) to have more lobster in it than the one i can get down the road at the hot dog stand for $7, if i want to splurge and get an overstuffed lobster roll down at Bosn’s Landing down the road in York (a Bosn’s lobster roll could make 2.5 Cooks rolls) it’ll only run me $12, and won’t take 2 hours driving time to get there
Cooks lobster roll; 6 out of 10, lost points for being overpriced and under-lobstered

sadly, that $14 lobster roll was one of the cheapest items on the menu, leading to my other problem with Cooks, the prices, this place that gets it’s seafood fresh from the ocean, and located in the middle of nowhere, is one of the most expensive places to eat i’ve been in, a single 1 1/4 LB lobster dinner was almost $30, the SAME dinner at a local resturant, a 5 minute drive from home, is $8

overall rating for Cooks; 6 out of 10, nothing special, maybe i’m spoiled by the large amount of good local places with reasonable prices, Cooks wasn’t bad per se, just overrated and overpriced

if i had to choose between Cooks, Bosn’s Landing, and Bob’s Clam Hut, Cooks would lose out bigtime

2

I this is a better fit for Cafe Society. I’ll move it there for you.

3

I’ve often found that “location, location, location” restaurants such as the OP describes are overpriced and disappointing. It seems as though they know that they’ll get a guaranteed customer base purely due to the picture-postcard views, and just try to maximize their profit margin even if it means that the discerning customer has a less-than-optimal experience.

My solution to this is to eat sit-down meals at hole-in-the-wall places situated down back streets, and do picnics and take-out food for the “view” experience. I’d be prepared to bet that the vast majority of meals that I’ve eaten with a view of the Pacific Ocean (my own particular “Ocean of choice”) have been at public beaches, campground picnic tables, the occasional hotel/motel room, etc. They’ve been truly memorable meals due to the location and company, and you can get pretty good prepared food if you don’t want to take the “from scratch” route.

Of course, there are times – and social groupings (such as “Mom’s birthday”) – where al fresco doesn’t cut it, so I quite understand the OP’s disappointment.

Back on track: there are many food-related opinions in this world where it’s hard to reach a consensus, but it seems that the title of “Best Lobster Roll in Maine” might not be one of them. My Maine friends invariably rave about Red’s Eats in Wiscasset, and darn it if they don’t start channeling Bert and I[sup]*[/sup] in their typical Maine loquaciousness (never use 10 words when a monosyllable and a long pause will suffice ;)). Others apparently agree, and since the redoubtable Holly of HollyEats.com says:

I know where I’m eating on my next trip “Down East”. (Note that Wiscasset is no further a drive for the OP than Bailey Island is.)

[sup]*[/sup]If you’re thinking that this should read “Bert and Me” given the sentence structure, you’re wrong. Trust me.

4

While not on an island, Shaw’s in New Harbour, Maine has a quintessential New England view and the prices are right. Everything about the restaurant in the OP is the same - boats roll in frequently and unload their catch, etc.

The difference is that the tables are wooden picnic-type and the food is served on plastic trays and paper baskets. IMO, that’s the way it should be.

5

I’ve been to Cook’s a few times over the summers (the once essential trips to visit the inlaws at their summer digs are thankfully optional) and found the food to warrant a meh. Certainly not inedible, but certainly not a memorable culinary experience. When we did go, I’d finish up early and take the younger kids out to roam around the shoreline looking for shells, hermit crabs, sea glass, and other stuff.

If you want good chowder and you’re close enough to the area to get to Cook’s, take yourself out to the Dolphin Marina on Harpswell Neck. The chowder is so good that I don’t eat any anywhere else since I’m sure to be disappointed. You get all the crackers you can eat. The onion rings are great, and the blueberry muffins are the perfect capper to the meal.

I’d go there for lunch if it weren’t half a continent and a time zone and a half away.