Maine Diner
Coffee
Lobster Pie with Potato Salad and Roasted Squash
Cod Cake with Tartar Sauce
Corn Muffin
She Crab Soup
Jumbo Buttermilk Biscuit
Seafood Chowder
Hot Buttered Lobster Roll with Cottage Cheese
Blueberry Pie
Grapenut Pudding
Indian Pudding
Another Route One favorite of Food Network fans, the promise of “World Famous Food like Grandma Used to Make” brought to the masses when Diners, Drive-Ins & Dives decided to visit during a trip to New England, The Maine Diner has been serving locals in Wells for over thirty years and although options including Baked Beans, Pot Pie or All-day breakfast may beckon the real calling remains that of the Atlantic Ocean.
Bustling at all times, a gift store next door providing distraction to those awaiting the call of a vibrating pager, it was just past two o’clock on Saturday that seating was found in a corner alcove, part of the offerings displayed on the placemat while more interesting signatures are presented via rather substantial menu.
Offering diner-style service, our particular waitress working at the restaurant for over 15 years, it was after long perusal of several ‘named’ specials that meals were selected, the bill’s total not much different than that at Bob’s Clam Hut with far better service and a significantly larger amount of food.
Opting for coffee and water, the brew strong if not particularly well-paired to seafood, it was after perhaps twenty minutes that the table was flooded and beginning first with two styles of soup plus a corn muffin and biscuit the “oldschool” approach was immediately noteworthy, the Sherry-infused She Crab a full-on cream potage while the chowder was of a thinner variety, both rife with seafood and made to be wiped clean from bowls with breads that are difficult to stop eating.
Taking a different approach to the lobster roll by presenting a butter poached beauty tucked into a toasty roll with more butter at its side it was with glee that each diner took two-bites before tasting the crispy cod cake, the texture similar to Brandade as opposed to a fish stick, but still not in the same league as Maine Diner’s signature Lobster Pie that sees a half-pound of sweet meat baked till bubbling in a sauce of butter and crumbled golden crackers.
Stuffed but finding it inconceivable to forgo desserts, the in-house bakeshop presenting no less than a dozen styles of cookies, cakes, puddings and pies, it was with deference to novelties that the table passed on ice Blueberry Chocolate Chip Ice Cream or Bread Pudding, the trio presented highlighted by bursting Mane Blueberries in an all butter crust alongside a thick block of Grapenut infused Custard and New England’s creamy Cornmeal and Molasses Indian Pudding.
