Coastal Prime — Restaurant in Boothbay Harbor

I made a reservation for 7:15pm on the patio. When we showed up the person at the check in Looked at us and said they didn’t have any tables available. Told him I’d made the reservation which he looked and could see, so he said he’d check and see if he could find us a table. He came back saying he did. We followed him outside and was offered a table in a closed section of to the side. We took it as it was the only choice. Felt very judged as I guess we were not their usual type of patrons. Looked over the menu and we decided what we wanted but had a question about my entree. Asked the server about what I’d chosen and she explained that my Confit Cod would have a white cream sauce. I chose that based on what she had told me. When it arrived the cod was dry and had a chopped tomato on top and no sauce and also no potato. The broccolini was two of the thickest toughest tree trunk stalks that I’d even seen instead of nice slender tender stalks. Said about the missing potato to the guy who brought the food out and he took it off to get the potato. Waitress brought it back with the smallest portion (about a tablespoon)of mashed potato. Told her about no cream sauce as well which she went to get. 10+ minutes later she returned with more of the same topping which was already on it. I said, you said it would be in a rich white cream sauce not dry fish with tomatoes on it. She said they changed what it was. Told her I couldn’t eat it and she took it away. She didn’t ask if I wanted something else as an alternative. I sat there with nothing while the other two in my party finished their food. I asked to speak to the manager. He came over several minutes later. I told him about our experience about coming in and the food issue and about not being asked about some alternative. He apologized and asked how he could make it right. He talked me into a different dish (which was good) but sitting eating it alone when every one else was done (and in the dark) was not what we planned for our evening dinner. Sat there after I was done waiting for the check which didn’t come. Temperature had dropped and we were cold waiting. My elderly mother was freezing so I went inside to get the check. When given the check it had my alternative meal price on there. It was supposed to have been taken care of by the manager. He was close by and did tell the server to take it off which she did. Just NOT a great experience from this supposedly...

Let me start by saying that the food and ambiance of Coastal Prime are unmatched in Boothbay Harbor. The deck is incredible! The food is wonderful -if not a bit overpriced for what you get. The restaurant has a great drink menu (the Maine blueberry Mojito is awesome!), with a great selection of local beers on tap and a decent wine list.

Why I cannot give a higher rating is because of the host staff. We checked in right on time for our reservation and were asked to wait. We then proceeded to watch as the hostesses checked in two other reservations after us and seat them before us. Both of these reservations were for a later time then ours. The hostess then told us that they would "look for" a table for us and tried to seat us at a table in the middle the thoroughfare between the bar area and the deck. This table was also right near the entrance to the restaurant and too close to another table (especially given Covid-19 social distancing measure). I informed the hostess that this table was not acceptable and questioned why were not seated before the other two reservations that were after us. I received a significant and unnecessary amount of attitude and condescension from the hostess that was so off putting that I nearly left. She was completely inappropriate. Upon another survey of the deck she seated us at a table nearly in the dark by throwing the menus onto the table and walking away. The table we were seated at that required us (not the staff) to move it because it was so close to an umbrella that I couldn't get into my seat. The table was also very dark and without a little orb like lantern like every other table in the restaurant. Thankfully, our wonderful waitress found not one but two for us, upon request, so that we could read our menus and see our food! The rest of the meal was enjoyable and the food was great.

I have worked in restaurants before and my old bosses would say "people come to a restaurant the first time for the food and they come back for the experience." Sadly, the experience we had, even with the good (but overpriced) food and drinks and wonderful waitress, do not outmatch the negative experience we had with...

We arrived at 8:45pm last week on a mid weeknight where they were closing their kitchen at 9pm. Of course a person arriving 15 minutes before closing should receive the same great experience as the person who arrives at 6pm. Lol that didn't happen. The person who seated us informed our server that he had "2 for dinner". After some very obvious eye-rolls, due to the fact that the poor staff would have to stay a bit longer, the server came to our table. There was never, at any point, any evidence of anyone "in charge". It was a crew of team members just dying to go home! We were instructed to order quickly because the kitchen was closing soon. I appreciate this because I too am in this business. We ordered 2 glasses of wine and a "Seafood Tower". The tower consisted of 6 shrimp (obviously stored poorly because they tasted like cold cuts - gross!), 2 halves of a 1/4 lb lobster (very small and totally tasteless) and Sashimi (raw) Tuna, cut into 1/4" strips in a small side bowl. All presented on a magnificent, 3-tiered bed of crushed ice. When it arrived, before tasting anything, we looked at each other with that, "really????" look. It was aweful. We asked for bread, hoping to get some sort of substance from this $100 entre. Our server brought cold rolls with no butter. At this point we could only laugh. We finished our wine, paid our $160 tab and left quickly. We would have gladly paid $300-$400 for a good meal!! We spent 2 days in beautiful Booth Bay Harbour and had so many great experiences .... dining and otherwise. We will absolutely return to the area but we know for sure where we won't go. Shame on you - such a great atmosphere but clearly no idea of great...