THE COPLIN DINNER HOUSE — Restaurant in Coplin Plantation

Every so often something in my travels takes my breath away. It can be a stunning, picturesque view or a spiritual feeling a place gives me, or sometimes it’s the taste of real, good food. I had one of those moments at the Coplin Dinner House in Stratton, Maine, home to Maine’s famous skiing adventure land: the Sugarloaf Mountain. Not only is it a beautiful area with stunning wilderness and impressive mountains, the Carrabassett Valley area offers the summer visitor a wealth of attractions, from panoramic hikes to kayaking and nearby whitewater rafting.

The Coplin Dinner House was the absolute best restaurant I encountered on my travels through Maine, because they know the meaning behind serving real, authentic, healthy and wholesome food, and the flavors come screaming out with each and every bite. Where most of Maine focuses on lobster, lobster rolls, and other seafood, typically steamed or deep fried, the Coplin Dinner House has pushed the bar far and away above all the rest. Sure, there are other fine restaurants around Maine, but if you are coming for a visit on your vacation, I beg that you do not miss this stop in beautiful Carrabassett Valley. I promise you won’t be disappointed!

The Coplin Dinner House has a lovely farm next door to their restaurant which supplies many of their iconic and ever-changing meals; and you can even wander around and visit their happy pigs and other livestock. The restaurant itself is a converted farmhouse that has been given a classy touch with homey feel that made my newly wed wife Leah and I feel at home; as did the owner Heidi and her staff of sweethearts. Our table had a view of Sugarloaf and beside our table were fresh flowers and succulents. We started our memorable evening with one of the in-house Tigerlily Pub’s cocktails, which eased the day’s tension wonderfully before we started into quite the feast. Leah had a tequila, berry, and thyme cocktail and I had their spin on a bourbon old-fashioned that was delectable.

We started with fresh bread and an appetizer of poster bisque, which was our first time having it fresh, and it was so creamy. For entrees, Leah and I passed Chargrilled Filet Mignon, Salmon, and their Seafood Bake back and forth, and it was an explosion of perfect flavors. There was no need for salt or pepper as every dish was immaculately made and compiled aesthetically for optimal effect. The filet mignon was tender and absolutely bursting with flavor, over a bed of fresh mashed potatoes, gravy and with a side of fresh greens. The salmon came with a vinaigrette with mushrooms, spinach and green bean and carrots as a side. Both were exceedingly delectable, however, it was the Seafood Bake that stole the show. The bake had a baked potato shell with a sort of cheesy chowder-like seafood soup inside, with scallops, haddock, and lobster. For desert, we shared a berry crumble with a cinnamon bourbon ice cream that blew my mind, and taste buds.

Our entire experience was over the top amazing and will forever live in our memories as a highlight from our honeymoon in Maine. I had the pleasure of speaking further with Heidi throughout the night and found that her passion for growing and serving the best of the best in authentic cuisine stems from her understanding of nature and our place in the world; and without getting too political, I will say that meeting her and seeing her operation gave me hope...

Very disappointed in our $220 experience! We recently dined at the Coplin Dinner House for our 11year anniversary, and thought it would be a great experience based on all the positive reviews. What we got was anything but the service and food quality expected. I wanted to have a nice romantic dinner with my husband, and explained the occasion when I placed our reservation, and asked for a nice table. When we arrived we were sat 1 table away from the kitchen entrance, and directly next to the bar, so literally the most high traffic area of the restaurant. It was sad as we walked past several nice quiet empty tables to where we were seated. My husband ordered the Lazy Lobster which was missing claw meat, but had plenty of cartilage pieces. The salad without anchovies was literally just 2 pieces of lettuce and grated cheese. Our server was awful and completely ignorant of anything on the menu and unwilling to even so much as ask for a substitution. I asked for a menu drink that included lemon chello and she brought me a shot of the liquor straight up, and the Sangria was gross. My duck was good, but tasted and looked precooked and then deep-fried to revive and recrisp the skin. The creme brulee, which is highly recommended, was cold in the center and the topping so thick it was like hard candy. Not an experience I would ever pay 220 dollars for again. We could have spent $50 at Applebee's and got a better meal, table, and server. I had such high hopes, the restaurant owners have such a great story, but it should consistently be an exceptional experience at those prices in rural Maine. C'mon guys, you could have done better for our anniversary, especially with over a week's notice! We didn't even get so much as a "Happy Anniversary", and what made it worse was they were serving a...

Left More to Be Desired-

There’s a few things I think could be done better to improve experience and atmosphere. I understand we are far from the ocean and from major distributors, so it’s hard to get amazing ingredients but our food lacked flavor that a $50 entree should have. We got the lamb and it was unevenly cooked (I asked for MR, in some places it was completely cooked through and tough.) the crust was over garlicky and the dish lacked any sort of sauce. The Coplin Salad was very small and really simple, the presentation could be much better.

Another thing that really eerked me out was the paper napkins. I am not a cloth napkin snob, but if we’re paying upwards for $150 per person (with drinks) then we should get cloth napkins.

We were a party of 6 and they just put a bunch of small tables together, which made it really crammed and uneven. (Even though we made our reservation a long time ago.) The atmosphere made it very hard to hear others (even tho it wasn’t very loud) and our service was really slow. (About 2hours 30 min.) I don’t necessarily blame our waitress as she was really nice, but if the kitchen can’t handle a certain amount of people, then you should scale back your capacity.

All in all, I would not come back and would not recommended. I come from the service industry and have worked in fine dining, this was very expensive for little benefit. A lot to...