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    Shanks Waterfront Dining

    3.2 (237 reviews)
    Closed 4:00 pm - 9:00 PM
    Updated a few days ago

    Shanks Waterfront Dining New American Restaurant Photos

    SHANKS WATERFRONT DINING ATMOSPHERE

    What's the vibe?
    Moderate noise
    Casual
    Outdoor seating
    Good for kids

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    Recommended Reviews - Shanks Waterfront Dining

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    Rachel S.

    First off very nice view right on the water. Nice large tent/shaded area for seating. As well as seating in the back. This was possibly my 2nd time ever eating lobster but they give a fair amount and it was nice and tender. I got the lobster nachos and while the lobster seemed good I think the nacho part of it could've been better. I think instead of chopped up avocado it would've been better as a guacamole, the mango salsa was really just chopped up mango with cilantro, could benefit adding some red onion and making it more like a salsa. Also think it should've had some sort of sauce to drizzle on the nachos to make it come together better. The cheese was stuck together shredded cheese partly melted partly not. I think melted butter is an interested side to pour on nachos. They do have corn hole off to the side. Also plus is u can BYOB. I did enjoy their sweet tea free refills. Oh and the market nacho price was $36

    Shanks Combo-Gluten Free
    Alicia N.

    It's feeling a lot like Summer !! Beautiful weather, Seafood, great view! It's perfect! Shanks had a wide variety of choices on the menu to Pick from! Many of the items were able to be made Gluten Free. Just check before they have GF buns. When I went they had GF buns and GF wraps. Service was great . They had menu staff working there , all helpful. We ordered the Shanks Combo and I split it with my dad. It def was big enough for 2. The menu had burgers, sandwiches, salads, apps and more!

    Fried calamari
    Phoebe R.

    Order downstairs at the boat and then sit upstairs for the view and everything music or downstairs at the covered picnic tables with room for kids and dogs. I wish I'd balanced the fried portion of our meal with a salad. I wasn't expecting the lobster nachos to be served on fried tortilla chips.

    Overlooking the harbor from the upper outdoor patio
    Evleen G.

    We came in after stumbling across an Instagram video of different food on the menu. The lobster nachos stuck out in the video and they looked absolutely delicious. Also the setting and cooking and serving food out of a boat seemed really cool. We went for Saturday evening dinner. The service was great. Everyone was polite, friendly and respectful. The food was so good. I got the lobster nachos and there was so much lobster on top so you definitely get your money's worth. All of the food was cooked perfectly. You could tell it was fresh and of good quality. We will definitely be coming back to try other items! The elote corn was delicious too. Make sure you bring a cooler since it's a BYOB

    Fish sandwich and house made chips
    robin a.

    Ordering is fantastic- great customer service! Sitting outside at the picnic tables near the water the was great. Our wait was about 45 minutes, but we were warned about the wait time. We had a fish sandwich with house made chips and fish tacos. Absolutely tasteless. The chips were old and over fried/ burnt. The fish sandwich had a great piece of fish on it. No lettuce or anything else on it. The taco was beautiful, but the mango salsa on top had no flavor. So disappointing.

    you order from a ship tacked onto a building!!
    Dan R.

    "Wooden ships on the water, very free and easy Easy, you know the way it's supposed to be" (Crosby, Stills, Nash) When you place your order at Shanks, you'll probably notice that you're ordering on a ship. You're not tripping, the owners bought a boat, a decommissioned 42-foot lobster boat, transported it from New Haven to Clinton, built out a commercial kitchen, tacked it onto a building and made Shanks a very cool restaurant experience for your dining pleasure. They have three dining rooms -outdoors under a tent, outdoors on a roof patio, and indoors in a dining room. We ordered from two smiling high school age young men that were very professional. We each went for a small lobster roll with chips. Lobster rolls are offered in three sizes - $29 for 4 ounces, $37 for 6 ounces, and $48 for 8 ounces. As the first young man was ringing us up, the seconds one jumped to make our beverages. In fact, the thing that stood out to us was the staff as a whole - a big group of smiling courteous young men and women with great personalities. I saw one young lady bring over a bowl of water for a customer's dog on her own, and thought that was pretty awesome. She also checked in on us during our lunch and that's always a plus in my book. After we ordered, we took a seat under the tent and placed a small wooden buoy on our table -a signal for the server to bring our order, and when that order came out we were very happy with what appeared to be a heaping mound of 100% claw meat on our sandwiches. The rolls are served hot with melted butter "Connecticut Style" as opposed to cold with mayo "Massachusetts Style". They were served with a lemon wedge, container of melted butter, and a big portion of homemade potato chips. There's a side table by the tent with a ketchup dispenser, and "to go" boxes for any leftovers, that's something I rarely see. We certainly didn't have any left over lobster, but we did take home a good amount of chips for tomorrow, There are so many lobster and seafood shacks on the CT shore and we've been to half a dozen of them. But, I don't think any of them gave us a better overall consumer experience than Shanks did. Well done!

    Clams and lobster grilled cheese
    Allie K.

    Update: Shanks now has dedicated GF Fryers, making GF fried seafood much safer! They said the fries are also all put in the GF fryer.

    Heather W.

    Looks like a great assortment of food! Soggy lobster rolls due to expediter delivering it sloshing the butter cup to spill all over the bottom of recycled paper plates. Butter cup congealed and HUGE amount of salt stuck on bottom. Chips browned to the point of burning; a couple actually undone and chewy. "Service" practically non-existent but they charge you a s3 pp BYOB fee Because everything was so haphazardly basic, feeling price gouged re the lobster rolls. I seriously doubt they weigh them, as we had two of the"same' which were markedly different. Music blaring upstairs. Lots of screaming children running around downstairs under the tent. There are no real bathrooms here either. You order at a counter after walking through gravel walkway, less smooth than the driveway next to it

    Upstairs dining
    Monica B.

    Service was fast and friendly! We love the ambiance here and stop every summer. We enjoyed watching the boats while trying new items on the menu. This was our first time trying to crab Rangoon and we thought it's a nice addition .The Shank Combo was also good. Fried scallops ,shrimp, fish, and clams with French fries, coleslaw, cocktail sauce and tartare sauce. Big enough for both of us to share! I just wished they improved the lemonade recipe but I love that they have local sodas and of course BYOB!!

    Lobster roll

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    10 months ago

    Place is absolute garbage. Cold food, long wait and when i posted a bad review on Facebook they blocked me..do not waste your money here

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    Ask the Community - Shanks Waterfront Dining

    Lobster Landing - lobster roll with a view

    Lobster Landing

    4.3(670 reviews)
    0.1 mi
    $$$

    We ended up coming to Lobster Landing twice during our trip -- once on the way to Mystic and again…read moreon the way back -- which probably says everything you need to know. It's definitely a little more expensive than some of the other lobster spots we tried, but I honestly liked the food here the most. The lobster meat is lightly seasoned with what tasted like butter and lemon, and it all worked perfectly together without overpowering the lobster. The bun was incredibly soft and loaded with so much meat that it was practically falling apart in the middle. We got the half-pound lobster roll both times and would absolutely order it again, but it is $60. The clam chowder was also excellent. It's creamy without being too thick, and you can really taste all the ingredients. The hot dogs seem to be really popular -- almost everyone was ordering a lobster roll and a hot dog combo. My son loved them so much he had two the first visit! The outdoor seating and water views make it such a relaxing place to sit and eat, and there's also a market on-site where you can buy lobster and shellfish. Definitely one of our favorite stops and somewhere we'd happily return to.

    Great stop off of the highway for lunch! The views were picturesque while waiting in line. The line…read moresnaked down the sidewalk on Labor Day, but moved quickly. After ordering, our food was bagged and ready to go in no time. The lobster roll was very meaty and buttery-- probably one of the best I had on my weekend trip through CT/RI/MA. The surprisingly tasty item was the sausage and peppers sandwich. For a place known for lobster, this sausage sandwich was very flavorful and loaded with peppers and

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    Lobster Landing
    Lobster Landing
    Lobster Landing - Overcast in Connecticut - 4/19/2026

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    Overcast in Connecticut - 4/19/2026

    The Clam Castle

    The Clam Castle

    4.0(376 reviews)
    1.3 mi
    $$

    Very good from the creamy cole slaw to the crunchy french fries to the stuffed 6oz lobster…read morerolls/claws Definitely will go back Solid choice

    This is our second attempt to come here, we finally made it. Our first attempt, the line was out…read morethe door, and every outdoor table was taken on a hot summer day. This time around, there was ample seating outside, but it was way too hot to sit outside, so we settled for inside, which was pretty comfortable. Menu offered your typical seafood variety of fried foods, as well as some soups, and hotdog. No Fox and park over here, unfortunately, and that was an absolute buzz kill! Regardless, we stayed hopeful since we've heard some great things about this place. Ordered the flag cramp strips with tater tots, 6 ounce lobster roll and an order of clam fritters. I was really excited to try the clam fritters as I had never had them ever. The weight was manageable, we waited maybe about 15 to 20 minutes for our food. They bought it over to our table, and the initial site, the lobster roll was a nice copious amount of lobster on a rather beefy hotdog roll. The fright clams were also a nice amount, but they did not look fried enough, there was no golden aura to them as typical clams look, and this look concerning. The clam fritters consisted of six balls of clam fritters, and they looked beautifully, golden, a color that's so lacked on the clams. Now let's talk about the food and flavor... The lobster roll was pretty solid. My one source of contention here is the amount of bread on the roll, a little too doughy compared to what I am used to. But the lobster itself was nice, flavorful, and sweet and not overkill with butter. The clam strips were got awful! No crispiness to them, no flavor, they were actually soggy, and even the tater tots, which are generally delicious, there was no flavor to the tater tots as they needed a little more cooking time to them. The clam fritters were surprisingly good, it wasn't just fluff of filling, they were actually clams in there, and the breading definitely had clam juice flavor to it. This is a hike for us, and I don't think it's worth it for us given other places like the mottos in New Haven, which is always consistently good. We tried once and we're good... And if we're in the area sadly we won't be back unless I come with some lobster, loving friends to try that. 2 foot lobster roll for $190! We saw that, and that was quite the sight!!!

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    The Clam Castle - Clam castle and Taco Pacifica have joined together. Check them out

    Clam castle and Taco Pacifica have joined together. Check them out

    The Clam Castle
    The Clam Castle - Rhode Island clam chowder--excellent

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    Rhode Island clam chowder--excellent

    Shanks Waterfront Dining - newamerican - Updated May 2026

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