We were invited out to dinner at Willy World last night...an idea that sounded great to us on a Sunday night with nothing in the fridge. However, when we got there, we found it was closed! When is this happenin' Northport nightspot open????

We kept going into Belfast, especially after Greg suggested we turn around and have dinner at Hellen's kitchen at the Mobil Station! We decided to try Dockside, a Belfast restaurant in which we have never had the pleasure of dining. Dockside has a new deck on the back the dining rooms that looks out over the public dock and parts of the bay.

We have never been here, mostly because it is so inconspicuous that we forget that its there. The menu is standard fare of "sandwiche's" (that's how its spelled on the menu), fried seafood, and salads. There is also a full bar, but the drinks come in wimpy whiskey sour glasses. I dunno if I would want to eat here in the winter as it seems a bit cramped inside with highbacked booths in mauve and oak surrounding a tiny bar in the center of the space. The layout produces small alley-like passageways between seating areas, bar, and kitchen.

We sat outside and ordered drinks with an appetizer of coconut and macademia nut encrusted shrimp and hand-battered onion rings. The rings were lightly battered and had an nice sweet taste and from what I was told the shrimp, which looked great (lightly broiled with very golden crust) were very good, having a light coconut taste that didn't overwhelm the shrimp. The plate came with six shrimp too, a lot for one order.

Dinner was fried haddock and fries for Greg, which he said was very good (he didn't make his normal mm mMM M! noise while eating, so I figure it wasn't the best fried haddock he's had) I had chicken salad on a croissant grilled with American cheese with sweet potato fries. I had to send the meal back because they used swiss cheese instead of American (which I had asked our server to switch out) My croissant was good but tiny, about two bites worth and my fries were limp and tasteless. I was most impressed with the lobster roll that our host ordered. It was literally spilling over with huge hunks of lobster for $11.50, a great deal. Our host had to order a side a mayo because the lobster salad had only a hint of mayo in it, exactly how it should be served here in Maine.

All in all, a much better meal than I thought we would get at the Dockside. My one regret for the owners is that they didn't make the deck about twice or three times as big as it was because it was very small, only one table deep.

Service: B+
Atmosphere: B-
Food: B

Enjoy,
Seth