Schooner Landing — Restaurant in Damariscotta

UPDATE: July 2023 - same wait staff problem—there is no wait staff and that makes the whole dining experience terrible. Not much point in tipping for service if you have to wait in line to order food and drinks, carry your drinks to your table, and bus your own table.

Late July 2021 - this review addresses Schooner’s transition to the “no waitstaff” concept. Ordering food at the outdoor bar from the 2-3 bartenders is horrendous, often taking 45mins or more to place a food order and then waiting another 15-40 for it to arrive at your table. The first come/first serve seat yourself concept without table bussing/cleaning service until you track someone down to do it is another major drawback—their website does state they are continuing “counter service” (a.k.a anti-service since no one was actually waiting tables), this is the only place we ran across doing it this way. Food is good. Lobster prices are certainly “gouging” and most lobsters are smaller than typical. We got live lobsters from a guy we know at $7 per pound two days after getting a 1.25lb (generous) lobster dinner at Schooner’s for $27, so that must be some expensive potato salad and coleslaw. At least the double lobster roll is still two lobsters—all meat is accounted for if your deconstruct it, but it’s easily $14 higher than other years. Updated pics will be labeled 2021 dinner.

Best lobster roll in coastal Maine! Make it a double—two whole lobsters, tails, backstraps, claws, knuckles and all! No Bull. On the water. Good beer right where they pull Damariscotta oysters out. Been going here for years. Highly recommend...

Atmosphere made me feel unwelcome.

This restaurant was recommended to me by a local, after we talked about how much I enjoy oysters and sampling local beers. And honestly, the location is amazing, and stunningly beautiful.

But a man and his guest were seated next to me at the bar, and he would not stop talking aggressively about his politics. To the point that I overheard multiple lies about my own city where I live, and which I love. I'm here on vacation trying to relax, and here goes Fox Propoganda and it won't turn off.

I got up and moved to a seat further away, but this man's voice carried the entire length of the bar, to the point that his vitriol was inescapable. I ended up asking for my food to go so that I could eat in my hotel room and actually enjoy the meal.

The staff is friendly, the food is good. But this experience is the first time in my entire trip that I've felt unwelcome in an establishment. The atmosphere was so unpleasant that I didn't stay. At no point did anyone ask the man to lower his voice so that other patrons wouldn't have to be bothered by his purposefully loud opinions.

I had intended to stay and have at least two beers, maybe chat up another local like I've felt perfectly at ease to do in different establishments throughout my time visiting Maine (it's how I got this recommendation in the first place, after all). But in the end, I left disappointed with...

This place is awful. I wish I could give less than 1 star. Only good thing about it is the view. We waited for 45 minutes for our food and finally asked a server to check on it. He comes back and we see him walking around but he never updates us. We ask him again. It’s clear he completely forgot to ask and says he’ll ask the kitchen. He comes back and says we’re second in line to get our food - by this point we’re getting bitten by mosquitoes so we ask for it to go. Another 15 minutes go by and no sign of the server. Finally he comes out the food. Barely an apology and he gives us the bag. We get to our inn to eat and the food is absolutely some of the worst we’ve had in our lives. My seafood slider trio was disgusting, I couldn’t even finish it. Even the pickle seemed old. The lettuce on the sliders was old and rotten. The seafood had no flavor, the lobster seemed frozen and chopped. That’s not acceptable while being in Maine and looking to eat seafood. This place is so, so overpriced, service is bad and food is even worse. Sad this was our last dinner on our trip to Maine - thankfully every other dinner was great. I’m honestly unsure how people how eat the food here. Just go for drinks to look out over the water, but leave before the mosquitoes come out. We wasted time...