Mainely a Good Dish

Mainely Lobster & Seafood brings atmosphere, food and value from Maine

Story and photo by Kyler Klix

In the North Country, many restaurants take the Adirondack theme of pine trees, bears and other wildlife. Plattsburgh is over a hundred miles away from the ocean, but this unique restaurant brings Maine to the North Country. Mainely Lobster and Seafood brings fresh seafood to the table six days a week.

For arriving at the early-bird-dining time, the appearance of the restaurant was spotless. There were wooden benches similar to ones found around Maine beaches. The color theme was similar to many beach houses on the coast — blue, white and wood. A few pictures of beaches hung on the wall with other decorative plaques with sayings such as “Fisherman’s hangout.” There were plenty of life house and sailing objects scattered around, and an essential decoration to the seafood restaurant adorned the back walls — a couple of lobster traps.

A Plattsburgh baseball jersey hung on the wall showing the home-town spirit. I was looking forward to a quirky map of Maine (either it wasn’t there or I missed it), and I would have liked to see more memorabilia from the beaches of Maine. I needed something more to remind me of how it was when I used to stay at a beach house in Maine.

The atmosphere was very open and gave the restaurant a home-town style vibe to it, which is all right compared to the often crowded feel-like-your-on-the-boat types of seafood places. It is also a one-of-a-kind seafood restaurant because the seafood comes directly from Maine twice a week brining in the fresh catch.

The service was friendly, and the menu was original with names representing a New England/Maine-ish accent. Saying good beginnahs, from the fryah and the dinnah table out loud give it the Maine-ish accent.

For the special price of $29.95 for two “Lobstah Dinnahs” on a Tuesday, it didn’t feel like you were paying for fresh seafood in the North Country, but since the waitress called them “lobster dinners,” I knew I was still in New York. The Lobster weighed 1.5 pounds and came with two sides, a dinner roll, lemon and butter. The sides included homemade french fries, a baked potato, cottage cheese, apple sauce or the vegetable of the day.

As a staple of any seafood restaurant, I tried the clam chowder, and was dissatisfied. It was not creamy or thick like anywhere else I’ve ever had it. The broth was so thin that it reminded me of chicken noodle soup, except instead of chicken and noodles, it was clams, potato chunks, onions, butter and water.

When the waitress brought the dinnahs out, the lobsters steamed and gave off the fresh, steamed seafood aroma you get a restaurant along the coast. You also need several utensils along with the meal. It comes out with a dish to put the pieces of lobster shell, a nut cracker to break open the claws and tail and wherever else you need to get the meat out. Along with this comes a small two-pronged fork. Extra napkins of course because it’s messy, but the feeling wouldn’t be complete without wearing a big, to make sure you don’t get your clothes all messy.

I went right for the main part of the meal, and the lobster was scrumptious. I started with the small legs and then went to the claws. The meat was a bit slimy, but it was pleasant and tender. Of course, I ended with the tails — saving the best for last. The lobster tail were savory and when I got down to the last bite, I dipped it in some butter wanted the taste to last forever, or eat another lobster. This last bite was the climax of the meal.

My baked potato was baked all the way through and topped the meal off with a healthy starch. I chose green beans as my other side. As the vegetable of the day, they weren’t very fresh and reminded me of eating canned green beans. The dinner roll concluded my dinner. Bread is always a fine addition to any meal. This dinner roll was fresh, but there wasn’t anything too special to describe about it.

For desert, I decided to go with a slice of cheesecake coated with strawberries. For $3.95, this was a worthy desert to choose. The size already proved how much it was worth, which is a larger piece of cheesecake compared to many places I have seen, but the size did not compromise its taste. It was fluffy, had a lot of flavor and melted in my mouth. The strawberries added some more sweetness to this delicious treat and gave it more texture, but the strawberries were not fresh strawberries, they were from a can.

As far as bringing Maine to the North Country, the restaurant succeeds in bringing a lot except the sand. Some more flair and design could put this place over the top, but as far as providing real seafood at a good value, Mainely does a wicked fine job.

Do you like seafood or are you a landlubbah?