Cooks Lobster House on Bailey Island, Maine is an excellent lobster shack to visit if you are looking for a side of ambiance with your lobster dinner. Located on the tip of Bailey Island in the town of Harpswell, Cooks is surrounded on three sides by water and the shack itself is as rustic as its surroundings. You can dine alfresco on their ocean-side deck overlooking Casco Bay or inside in their nautical dining room. Cooks is as classic as it comes – they were even once featured in a Visa commercial about lobster.
So what about the lobster? Cook’s Lobster House offer a varied seafood menu – from lobster dip, bacon-wrapped scallops and fish cakes to oysters and little neck clams. They serve lobster stew, shore dinners, twin lobster dinners, baked stuffed lobster, lobster newburg, lobster casserole, sauteed lobster and lobster rolls. The rolls come with meat from a one pound lobster, a teaspoon of mayo and a pinch of salt and pepper and are served in a grilled split-top bun with a leaf of lettuce. The AAA once voted them the best lobster roll in Maine.
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Cook's Lobster House's lobster rolls are the best and the location can't be beat.
The problem with Cook's is price. We used to take visitors there all the time, every year, because the place is nice, the scenery pretty and the food good. But it's gotten more and more expensive over the years– Usually lobster in a restaurant is "market price." Well, that means that when the market price is down, the price on the menu should fall. But no. We skip Cook's now in favor of other joints or else cook at home. With lobsters last year at $5 to $5,50 a pound, and this year under $4, we eat a whole lot better for a whole lot less– and we take the company down to Giant Steps for the view.