The Frog & Turtle

My boyfriend and I visit the Frog and Turtle often and we love it!  We live in Westbrook and love the fact that there is a really great restaurant just a short drive from our home.

The Frog & Turtle serves up delicious food within a range of prices.  All their food is made to order and we've never had a bad meal there.  While their entrees are always fantastic, our favorite dish is actually the green leaf salad with red onion, bacon, a hardboiled egg, and a light garlicky dressing - I can never get enough of it.  They have a great selection of food from flatbreads to fish tacos, duck to a NY strip steak.  They Cajun mussels are also a must-have!  While the food can be a tad bit pricy depending upon what you order (a salad, flatbread, steak, crème brulee and three drinks came to $90), it's one of those places that you should definitely try out.  

The Frog & Turtle also has live music - if you can go on a night when the Tone Kings are playing, you'll be very happy!  It's always good to make reservations at least a couple of days ahead of time.  My only knock-down to a four-star is that they usually don't sit you at your reservation time.  We try to make reservations for 8:00pm each time we go so that we can enjoy the music, but it seems as though they have a little bit of trouble moving their guests through tables.  This past weekend we didn't get seated until close to 8:30pm.  The food is worth it, though!

Enjoy!

Little caveat - I've never sat in the dining room, only every at the bar (except of the couches).

Another little caveat - I'm a mug club member.

Okay, now onto the seemingly biased review. I go to this place about one a week for a few after work beverages with some friends, and sometimes just by myself to get out of the house. The bartender Jesse is top-notch - there isn't anyone of his class or ability in Westbrook and quite possibly in Portland. He makes a basil and gin based cocktail called the Soothsayer that's amazing.

The bar sits about 12 people and he serves food and drinks to them as well as drinks for the usually packed dining room - and still we get our drinks in a quick fashion.

Food is fantastic, but it is a gastro pub so be prepared for some unique tastes - this isn't your mom and pop's standard betty crocker shit they're cooking. I enjoy unique and interesting tastes, so the food is pretty good. The prices don't bother me, but I guess living in Boston for quite a while their prices are really not much higher than a sports pub.

Long story short, if you like to sit and socialize at a bar rather than the dining room(because I've never sat at a table), this is a great place. A bit pricey, but the drinks and the bartender are top-notch.

For a $90 dinner, I had hoped for better food...service was great!! I got the pinapple mojito drink special for $10. I couldn't taste a drop of booze. So then I asked for Jameson on the rocks because at that point, you know exactly what you are getting...although my friend I went to dinner with got the strawberry lemonade special with gin and her drink tasted quite strong...wtf! I got the chicken entree which was delicious! I wish the asparagus it had come with hadnt been cut into microscopic pieces and then drowned in the chicken sauce...which made it really difficult to get on my fork and into my face. It also came with little tiny pasta peices which I HOPE were homemade...for the $21 it cost. The reason why I am rating this place so low is because:

1. The drinks were not strong/inconsistent and way pricey for what it was.
2. The food took a long time to get to our table.
3. There was an incredibly loud band playing the night we went, which is fine, unless you are paying for a $90 dinner and have to shout at the people across the table from you.

Because of the band, and the "pub" menu and the "dinner" menu...it just seems like the Frog and Turtle really cant make up its mind as to whether it wants to be a Pub or a fine dining restaurant....so please for the love of god pick which one you want to be!!