Restuarant Reviews: Walter & The Cottage

Friday night I drove up to Portland, Maine to visit my two roommates from college and run my longest run of the season!  My old roomies and I headed to Walter's in Old Port.  I had been to the old Walter's before, but it has since changed location and redecorated quite a bit.

When we waked in, we were greeted at the front by the hostess and asked to sit by the fire while we waited.  I thought the hostess was friendly enough.  Since reading Garlic and Sapphires by Ruth Reichl, I've been very observant of these things.  Good service really does make such a difference. Once we sat down, we looked over the menus.  

There were a lot of amazing looking options and I eventually chose the:

for a starter and the

for the main course.

Our waitress came over and we ordered our food and drinks.  She didn't write anything down which always worries me.  I am a really hard-worker and pretty good at my job (if I do say so myself) but I would NEVER go into a meeting or to my bosses office without a pen and paper.  No one is perfect and I certainly don't expect a waiter to remember everything without writing it down. The four of us each ordered two dishes plus drinks. And we're girls so obviously we adapted some of the dishes.  Well, about 20 minutes after our waitress took our order, she came over to our table with bread and sure enough, asked us to repeat our orders. This sorta annoyed me.  Is this a new thing? Waiters not writing down orders even when its a big group? 

The good thing is there was plenty for us to talk about that I wasn't too bothered by the long wait.

(Lindsay and her mom and my other college roomie Angela and me!)

 After awhile, our first dishes arrived.  

The salad was okay. The strawberries were kinda hidden.  This salad didn't nearly live up to my most favorite strawberry salad ever from Danversport Yacht Club!
Angela got an appetizer that was absolutely delicious!

This dish was sooo spicy.  I love spice but WOW.  I still liked it though and I'm sure Ange really enjoyed me eating off her plate. Next up was my main dish.

My favorite part of this dish was definitely the mini-crepes filled with crab meat!  They were awesome.  And the haddock was really fresh.  Lindsay's mom Judy tells me on her way home from work she often picks up Haddock and Lobster right off the boats.  Can't get more local then that!


All in all, this dinner was probably 2.5 out of 4 stars.  The food was good but the service wasn't the best.  But my favorite part of the entire meal was spending time with my old roomies!!!
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This morning I met my BFF Courtney for breakfast.  We have been missing each other lately so we decided to catch up over breakfast. We met at The Cottage in Wellesley.  I've heard of this place before but have never been and now I cannot wait to go back!  I didn't bring my camera and totally wish I did.  But I did steal some pics off their restaurants website.

I ordered the most fabulous omelette. 

Bacon, Guac, and Cheese?  Can you beat it?  Obviously, I skipped the sour cream since I am scared of most white condiments. This came with a scone and hashbrowns perfectly cooked. 


Courtney ordered the house granola, which I kept eating off her plate. Mmmmm.

Fresh fruit, granola over yogurt... wow!  They sell this granola in-house too and I should have picked some up to bring home. I checked out the lunch and dinner menu on my way out and really can't wait to go back. 


Oh and our service?  Fabulous.  We literally stayed in the restaurant long after we paid the bill and our waiter didn't mind at all.  I loved everything about this place- from the decor to the menu (very California meets New England).  One of the owners grew up in Cali and the other is a third generation owner of a local business in Wellesley.


If you are ever near Wellesley, MA DEFINITELY check The Cottage out! : )