Drydock Inn & Cafe, 357 Main Street, Southwest Harbor, Maine 04679, 207.244.5842
Lobster Roll Grade: A+
Additional Standouts: Best lobster roll on the island; Maine blue mussels in lime cream sauce; Baked brie in blueberry sauce; Russian cream in blueberry sauce.
Welcome to Mount Desert Island
The kids and I arrived in Southwest Harbor after a lengthy travel day of delays at the airport, pouring down thunderstorms and flooding highways during the 3 hour drive to Mount Desert Island, and finally finding our lodging at the Harbor View Motel and Cottages on an island we’ve never been to before in the dark.
Even though I was stuffed, this roll was so heavenly that I couldn’t stop eating it!!! The lobster meat was phenomenally flavorful and tender.
We had planned to have dinner while watching the sunset down the street at The Upper Deck, but we arrived just as they had seated their last table for the night. The only other option was Cafe Drydock and Inn, within walking distance of our hotel. (Don’t worry, we returned to Upper Deck for that spectacular sunset dinner later in the week).
Thank goodness for travel delays and disasters! Honestly, though Drydock had been recommended to me on our Bar Harbor travel FB group, it hadn’t really made my “must try” list before this exact moment. Maine had just begun to open up to out of state travelers, and it wasn’t clear to me based on their website and FB page if they were fully up and running again. Also, I had it in my head that the best lobster rolls must come from lobster shacks, not sit-down restaurants.
Boy was I wrong! I’m not going to beat around the bush. This was our favorite lobster roll on the whole island after eating 14 of them! We even went back two more times just to be sure that it was indeed the best of the best lobster roll.
I feel like we were forced by the travel gods into going here and I totally thanked my lucky stars for this little nudge from the universe, otherwise we would never have discovered the best lobster roll in Maine!
The Restaurant
I was totally unsure they were even still serving as I entered, and I was prepared to beg because we hadn’t eaten since 10am. I opened the door and was immediately greeted to their awesome 80s soundtrack playing Bananarama’s “Venus” – the first song I ever sang at karaoke with my bestie on Long Beach Island in NJ – and I knew everything that had happened today was meant to be. The host smiled warmly at me and waived me in. She quickly brought me a blueberry ale and apple juice for the kids, and I relaxed into my seat.
Vacation was back on!
Welcome to Drydock Cafe & Inn
A local blueberry ale invites you in to Drydock
My kids think I need to get one of these signs
Since my husband Eric wasn’t joining us on vacation until later in the week, the kids helped me with the initial evaluation. But like I said, we loved Drydock so much that we returned two additional times during the trip so that Eric could weigh in also. And I wanted to be sure that my initial evaluation wasn’t biased because of my exhaustion factor that first night.
It was late in the summer of the pandemic, and Maine had just changed its travel requirements to allow out of state tourists back, so the menu was limited. The waitress handed it to us on a paper sheet and let us know that it would change slightly each night based on availability of ingredients.
We started with the baked brie wrapped in a pastry crust, covered in Maine blueberry sauce. It was heavenly and the kids gobbled it up!
Though the first few sips of my local blueberry ale were refreshing, after the initial shock of the tedious travel day wore off, I decided I didn’t really care for it because it didn’t have any identifiable blueberry flavor to it. I switched to the unfiltered hard cider from New England’s Downeast Cider, which was perfectly delightful. I’ve had Downeast in cans back at home but never from the tap like this, and I may never be able to go back to non-draft again.
The star of our meal was actually the Maine blue mussels in a lime, white wine, and chive cream sauce. First off, the plate was huge. My five year old had one bite, declared that he loved mussels, and ate half the dish himself but there was still plenty for me to enjoy too. I could have poured the sauce in a cup and drank it as a soup, but I refrained from being so crass and simply dipped my dinner rolls in it instead.
Kids meal nachos with tomatoes and cheese
The kids shared a kids meal nachos with cheese and tomatoes but after the brie, they were pretty satisfied already and weren’t as interested in the nachos as when they first ordered it. So most of it became a next-morning sunrise snack before breakfast.
We also later ordered a Russian creme with blueberry sauce for dessert that came back to our room with us. This turned out to be our favorite dessert of our entire trip, and we also ordered it several more times. Though I had planned to only evaluate slices of blueberry pies on this trip, the deliciousness of this unique dish opened my eyes to expanding my blueberry tasting beyond just pie.
Baked brie in warm blueberry sauce
Maine blue mussels in a lime cream sauce
Happy kiddo declares he loves mussels
The Roll
Because the brie and mussels were so satisfying, and it was late, I took our lobster roll to go also. My nine year old, Leif, was falling asleep at the table after one bite of his nachos.
Back at the motel, I put the kids to bed and took the roll out on the massive, private deck attached to our room overlooking the twinkling stars glistening in the gentle waves of Southwest Harbor. I thought I would eat a few bites now to evaluate it while it was still fresh, and then save the rest for Eric to try once he arrived on the island a few days later.
I was sure there was certainly no room left in my stomach to eat the whole thing after all those delicious mussels.
Nope, wrong again! Even though I was stuffed, this roll was so heavenly that I couldn’t stop eating it!!! The lobster meat was phenomenally flavorful and tender. There was just the right amount of mayo sauce and it had a slightly sweet spice to it that accented the lobster meat perfectly. In fact, I squeezed the lemon that came on the side of the dish onto it after the first few bites and decided immediately that the lemon actually detracted from the taste of the lobster lightly tossed in the mayo.
The inside of the roll was buttered adding to the gentle sweet flavor of the whole roll. If I have to find some fault in this perfect dish for fairness sake to all the other reviews, I could say that the outside of the toasted roll was slightly dry. But that’s definitely splitting hairs.
Drydock’s winning lobster roll with a side of pasta salad
I went to bed with my belly full and ready for a great trip. It was the perfect start to an epic 2 week adventure of eating, drinking, and exploring the very best that Maine’s upper coast has to offer. The bar was set high for the best lobster roll and we had a lot more “rolling” to go, but we were up for the challenge!
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