White Barn Inn Restaurant, about 20 miles outside of Portland, Maine, offers New England cuisine year-round.    The Inn is around 45 years old and has a fine dining as well as a casual restaurant.  We chose the fine dining portion for our stay and were able to sample the 3 types of menus they offer.   The menus are presented in a re-modeled barn building, whereas the casual dining is in a more modern room.  The front of the 2-story room has a small bar with seats for about 6 (they can be reserved to eat from the casual restaurant’s menu) and a grand piano with an actual pianist playing every night.  The second story of the barn is filled with boxes, fake animals and other decorative items and in the back of the room is a large window that showcases lighted colorful blooming plants.  The double clothed tables are draped to the floor with a beige cloth that is topped with a shorter white one.  Service is 5-star and friendly, if you want interaction.  We started with the lobster tasting where portion control was spot on and the food was very good.  I would easily recommend this place when in the area and it’s even better when you can stay right there and walk to and from dinner.

Set-up

 

Food

We started at the bar with a fantastic martini and live piano music.

 

The amuse bouche was a lobster and cheese gougere.  It was tender and fine.

 

Two kinds of breads were offered, sourdough and brioche with salted and charred shallot butters.  The brioche roll was quite light and not buttery while the sourdough was more doughy.  Neither had crisp crusts.

 

A small cup of lobster bisque was next.  You could see the chunks of lobster in the smooth rich broth.  There was an amazing depth of flavor in this small container – rich and delightful.

 

Brown Butter lobster was cooked with brown butter and white soy and served on a tapioca cracker.  The lobster was tender and great with perfect seasonings but the cracker was a bit stale and chewy.  Otherwise this was a great couple bites.

 

Lobster Carpaccio was surrounded by avocado, yuzu and pickled radish.  This was drier lobster meat but still with lovely flavor.   The texture of the meat was quite different but it was tasty.

 

A Caviar lobster roll was topped with Siberian caviar.  The housemade brioche bun was toasted with butter and had excellent flavor – very different from the house brioche rolls.  The delicious lobster salad in the roll was mayo based and great with the saltiness of the caviar.  This was delicious.

 

Maine Lobster ala Chitarra was made with Aleppo Maine uni butter, lobster, and cured egg yolk grated on top.   The nicely cooked pasta was well sauced and mixed with lobster chunks.  On the side was the tail meat with a light juicy flavor that was enhanced with by the saucy pasta.  Another winner.

 

Kennebunk lobster tail was sliced and served with spring onion, potato, asparagus and mint oil.  This one needed just a pinch of salt and then it was another winner.  The lovely texture and flavor of the local lobster was matched nicely by the tender potatoes and onions.

 

Lobster surf and turf was a lobster tail on braised short rib and potato purée.  The potatoes were creamy and smooth and the sauce was rich but the beef was dry.  But this tasting was all about the lobster and it was great with the rich beef sauce.

 

Strawberry champagne was a champagne mousse, strawberry compote and basil sponge cake.  The strawberry compote in the cake was fun with traditional flavors in this portion.  The fresh strawberries mixed with lobster chunks was a bit strange.  I’m not sure I  liked the combination but I appreciated trying to include lobster in all portions.

 

Last treats were a box of bonbons and included a lime and mint with dark chocolate (green), mango vanilla in white chocolate (yellow) and chocolate with a liquefied fruit interior.  The mango was my favorite.

 

A box with a couple sugar cookies was a treat to go.  They were buttery, crispy and sugary good.