Maine Diner - Wells, ME

Posted By Michael Stern on January 5, 2010 10:11 PM

In 1983 Bruce and Myles Henry of Drake's Island bought an old diner in Wells, and spiffed it up. They devised a menu of Yankee shoreline cooking – the kind of food we tourists crave when we hit the road north. The menu has expanded in recent years to include much landlubber fare as well as flawlessly executed comfort-food classics, but the main Maine attractions still headline.

Fried clams, for instance, are vigorously oceanic, just a wee bit oily, so fragile the crust seems to melt away as your teeth sink into them. And lobster, most especially a hot lobster roll that the menu immodestly describes as "FANTASTIC!" The menu is not exaggerating. It is what we have always thought of as a Connecticut-style roll, meaning that it is hot, as opposed to a lobster-salad roll, which is served cold, with mayonnaise. You get nothing but plump, resilient chunks of lobster meat spilling out of a grilled weiner bun with plenty of butter to pour on as desired. Once buttered, it is impossible to eat with one's hands like a sandwich, because the bun disintegrates under the weight of its filling. But you do eat it with your hands, and fingers glisten as they pick smooth strips of claw and knobby knuckle meat, and occasional shreds of butter-sopped bread. Cool lobster salad rolls also are available.

The lobster roll is glorious, but the most amazing lobster dish, and one of the best regional dishes we've eaten anywhere, anytime, is the Henry brothers' grandmother's lobster pie. Of all the good Downeast things you can eat along the coast, this casserole, elegant yet elementary, is one that mustn't be missed. Your ceramic dish contains plump sections of lobster – soft claw and chewy tail meat – drenched in butter, topped with a mixture of cracker crumbs and tomalley. It is a strange-colored dish, monstrous green and brown and pink, shockingly rich.

Overall Rating

Lobster Pie

Lobster Roll

Seafood Chowder

Blueberry pie

Baked Beans

Indian Pudding

Muffin

Corn Chowder

Chocolate Cake

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Posted By Michael Kaye on April 26, 2011 7:51 PM

Top of the line diner. One of the best I have seen.

Overall Rating

Lobster Roll

Fried Haddock

Indian Pudding

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Posted By Susan McWilliams on October 25, 2010 8:38 PM

We're not fans. Based on Roadfood's reviews we went to the Maine Diner a few days ago and the place was mobbed mid-week, mid-October 2010 late lunchtime. We waited outside with a buzzer for 15-20 minutes, noting the big Guy Fieri poster inside the door. In our experience, when "Triple D" crowns a place it's not so great, or goes downhill immediately thereafter. I had the famed "Dale Arnold" lobster roll of lobster w/melted butter only. Looked good (loaded with claw meat) when it arrived, but the lobster had obviously been frozen and was slightly fishy tasting. The bun (which, let's face it, isn't great bread anyway) had turned to library paste from all the liquid exuded -- maybe the melted ice? Bread was inedible and the lobster only barely so at $15.95. Husband's clam chowder was good, but the clams on the "Clam-O-Rama" dinner were greasy, the clam cake appeared to be all bread crumbs -- not a great dish for $20.95. Definitely not as good as Moody's Diner. We wouldn't go back. We'd had such excellent seafoof during two weeks in Maine it was a bummer to eat here on our last day.

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Posted By Andy Sandler on January 4, 2009 2:15 PM

Wow. Ahem, WOW! My wife and I went to Maine Diner in early November, mid-afternoon, so we had our pick of seating. Their signature lobster pie, was utterly fantastic, unctuous and hearty... worth the trip up from Boston just for that. The crab cakes, while very good, were more like salmon cakes in shape and consistency, so if you're expecting them to be like Maryland crab cakes, remember, this is MAINE.

Speaking of Maryland-like stuff, the she-crab soup is superbly thick and satisfying, and the hot lobster roll is just as good as its southern New England counterpart, toasted top-loader bun and all.

Somehow we managed to have enough room left after this gastric orgy to share a piece of their incredible blueberry pie. I've never before had one where the filling was so dense that it didn't run out. Not to diss other blueberry pies but this is in a class all its own. We'll always remember the Maine.

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Posted By Liz Rho on August 17, 2003 7:14 AM

We had to wait 15 minutes for breakfast on a Saturday but we didn't want to miss this Maine favorite. We were not disappointed. The service was fast, efficient and extremely friendly. The prices were reasonable and the quality of the food excellent. The portions are tremendous. Don't miss this one.

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