Dunstan Tap And Table — Restaurant in Scarborough

4pm Sunday in January. Walk in the door, party of 4. Hostess says 35 minute wait. No room at the bar, but there is a space down on the far end of the bar where we can wait with drinks from the bar. Fair enough, we will make the best of it. (From observation where we were while we were waiting, it looked like there were plenty of tables either opening up, or already empty, but it could simply be a staffing issue, so we wait a bit.

Bartender was awesome, had our drinks in a flash, and had great attitude!

4:45pm I check with the hostess, to see if she needs our names, or anything, checking the table status.( She never asked for anything when we first showed up, and we were the only people she sent to that area). She asks how many, and tells me it's a 35 minute wait.

I got snappy, telling her I don't think so, and her co-worker leans in to tell her we have already been waiting on the other side of the bar ( where she told us to wait) for 45 minutes.

Now there us a table available ( that has been empty for the past 20 minutes). The waitress seems mad at our presence at first, but comes around, and overall was attentive, and took decent care of us.

The food was good, not great, with one exception; the goat cheese and brussel sprout pizza had at best, 2-3 tiny pieces of brussel sprouts, but there was a ton of goat cheese, where are the sprouts? The salad, fish and chips, and burger were all decent and adequately cooked.

The atmosphere has a weird vibe that doesn't know if it wants to be a sports bar or a finer dining experience. ( obviously opinion)

Not a bad dining out, but with four drinks, a pizza, a burger, fish & chips, and a salad, for $170 with tip, I don't know if this experience would be a worth a frequent...

I'll start by saying the food was fantastic here. We are a family of four, with a three year old and a 16 month old. We came here for lunch around noon, our last meal out on vacation. We (like many families with young kids) are self conscious when we go out to eat with them. Especially the 16 month old.. born a week into the pandemic and y'know, learning about the world and existing around people. But, we were happy to see they seemed family friendly as they're a tap and table (kids menu, wiki sticks to play with, casual atmosphere). The kids stayed in their seats the entire time and it wasn't too busy. Unfortunately, during the last part of our lunch.. our 16 month old was happy-yelling which we know is not ideal. We hurried our eating and were actually having our food cleared when a manager (or waitress? owner? not sure) felt the need to come over to let us know that she "needed to share with us" that other diners were complaining about our family and the noise. We couldn't have been more mortified. We were unsure of the need for that, as we were on our way out to begin with. Additionally, if you have a children's menu and serve children, you should expect some level of noise. The manager/waitress eventually apologized to us and offered to buy us our meal (what? why embarrass us to begin with? we declined). When I shared this experience with a group of our friends with kids, they were shocked that instead, something wasn't said to the other patrons who were complaining about us. Those people should have been talked to. Not us.

Point being: if you are a family with young children looking to eat out, I would advise against...

Unfortunately I am unable to write a positive review. Restaurants in Maine providing patio service during COVID are usually very good about socially distanced tables, masked employees, and allowing people to dine with their dogs. Dustan’s employees were masked and very friendly - no issues there. Their policies for guests, however, leave much to be desired. When I arrived, a large group of 14 unmasked guests around a fire pit were blocking the primary patio entry. My 8 pound dog, who is literally allowed at every restaurant in Maine, except Dustan, was kicked out upon navigation of the previous, unmasked crowd. All without being asked if he was a service dog, without being provided an alternate exit route. There are no photos because it would be rude to shame the unmasked groups of people on the patio. Luckily I could tie my dog up on the other side of the fence barricading the patio. I did not enjoy my overcooked impossible burger that included the mushrooms and onions asked to omit. I didn’t feel comfortable sending it back after my admittedly rude reaction the to large crowd upon entry, and being asked to remove my dog, before being asked if he was a service dog, or being provided a different exit after expressing concern about the group of unmasked people. I should have just left when they kicked my dog out.

Bottom line: friendly service, masked employees, great beer selection, bad food, dog unfriendly, large groups of unmasked people blocking primary entrance/exit

I do...