Newick’s has been a sea coast mainstay since…? it’s been there forever! Newick’s is a barn of a place and it is never not empty. When we went, there was a birthday for a party of 30 people, and the rest of the place had many diners, but there wasn’t a full house.
There is no air conditioning and large, open windows that surrounded the building and fans serve to cool down the cavernous space. We had asked for a table at the corner window and was turned down, but persisted and got our seats there (the middle of the room is cooled down by an industrial sized fan…our original table was there…and I don’t know about you but, it was a hard pass for us). We appreciated being there because it was cooler with the occasional sea breeze from the windows (not ocean…estuary…) There are also picnic tables outside, but I can’t vouch for the accessibility, service or cleanliness of that area.
Our server set our plastic draped table for 5 with plastic cutlery wrapped in a napkin informed us of a possible wait (eating seafood can be a messy business!) Drinks arrived in tall paper cups and our server took our order, coming back at least twice to apologize for the wait, drink refills and bring appetizers (deep fried pickles…meh…and clam chowder…yum! ). The wait was so long (at least 1 hour) that I started eating some emergency almonds I had tucked away in my bag.
Finally the food arrived! The servings were generous: the fish and chips included home prepped French fries and 2 portions of breaded fish with a small cup of coleslaw, and the order of lobster salad in a bun also included potato of choice….in this case, a baked potato. I had a one pound lobster with coleslaw and a baked potato. Lobster and clams are priced according to the daily market price so be sure to ask your server. Lobster shells vary in hardness according to the season, so it being July, the shell was soft and easy to open. The lobster was absolutely mouth watering! The baked potato was not bad, albeit a victim of having sat around for a while. To finish, a lava cake and lemon cake for dining in and 2 strawberry shortcakes to go were ordered. The lava cake got a mouth full of yumminess and a thumbs up. Upon arriving home, it was discovered that the strawberry shortcake was not assembled, with cream and strawberries packed in small, plastic cups and the shortcake was a flaky bun of some kind, so that was disappointing. Overall however, the meal was enjoyed by all.
Newick’s is a humble restaurant and the food is simple, yet it is tasty and satisfying fare, although, the baked potato and pickle fries weren’t the best. The server did her best to accommodate us and brought extra condiments and drinks upon request.
I’d say…and I’m just guessing from our wait time, that Newick’s suffers from what seems to be an industry-wide problem…not enough staff…or at least, not enough kitchen staff…or experienced kitchen staff. We have been to this restaurant many times before and have seen way more diners but had at least 1/2 the wait time. As a result, you get baked potatoes that have been wrapped up in foil for a long time (I’m guessing a large number of these are pre-prepped). The freshest of the food…especially the lobster is never disappointing.
Pre-covid, there was a killer gift shop at the front of the restaurant that has since been closed and replaced with an ice cream parlour along with self-serve candy. The gift shop in the other hand had so many interesting local crafts and gifts for sale as well as t-shirts…much of it stuff that was better than anything offered in Portsmouth! This part of the restaurant has been under development for the last two years and now It’s a huge space occupied by not much…except empty space…it’s very unappealing and nobody was there. Lacking in atmosphere, there were no seats and there were half-empty shelves of candy in jars. I can’t see how this has made an improvement and I think it was a mistake to put this in…it would have been better to wait it out and carry on as usual. I mean, who wants to get ice cream and candy from a lobster house?
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