In a word..Amazing!! Food, staff, decor.. So creative, and…read moredelicious! Westbrooks little gem!! Try the tuna tartare on a crispy rice cake

Hands down the new best restaurant on the shoreline. Creative menu that updates seasonally,…read moreabsolutely delicious food, cosy ambiance with great music taste that's not played too loud, and very attentive friendly service. I've been several times since they opened and almost always get the salmon. What I love is that it's not always the same dish, it changes but always heavenly. The last time it had pumpernickel breadcrumbs yum! I had the faux foi gras(yay no tortured ducks) and it was not only beautiful but delicious. Then I recently tried the tofu appetizer which was equally delightful.. hope it stays on the menu a while, I love tofu done well. I've also had glazed carrots with hummus, trout, and brussel sprouts.. all top notch. Great wine selection and well made mixed drinks. Definitely my new favorite spot. You'll need a reservation for a table most days and get there early for bar seating.

Place hit the spot!…read more Needed a wellness meal and I came across Donahue's during my travels of the coast. Could have eaten a bowl of the chowder, so good. Blacked Swordfish and asparagus were delicious, could have substituted another vegetable for the rice and would have been just as happy. Carrot cake was good. Dense which is how I like it, icing made it too sweet. Cream cheese filling, yummm. Will certainly be back.

Service was great. Really loved the French Onion Soup and Triple Decker Turkey Club was delicious…read more Ambiance was well suited for a pub.

Started with the Beet Salad which we started. It contained goat cheese, baby arugula, candied…read morewalnuts and apples. With a thick balsamic dressing. It was very good. The main entree was Chicken Cristin. I ordered it over pappardelle. It had two pieces of white chicken meat in a sherry wine sauce. It was covered with spinach, mozzarella, artichoke hearts and roasted peppers. It was delicious. For dessert I ordered the Gelato. The said 3 scoops of gelato, however it was 3 small spoonfuls. Order 3 different flavors. Except for the espresso, they all tasted the same. Not worth the money. The meal was very good, disappointed in the dessert I ordered. Service was good and they had off street parking. Would have given it 5 stars except for my dessert .

Whoever said this place never disappoints should have been at my table today. I've come here many…read moretimes but the last 2-3 times it has been lacking....and I always get the same thing..Bistro Salmon. Today, small, thin piece and the sauce was missing the usual honey sweetness and overly mustardy. Squash barely cooked and a few pieces of asparagus that looked more like string beans. Basically not much on the plate for $33. The service was also bad. The waitress was absent from visiting our table in the beginning , middle and end of our meal, had to ask her for water, she never asked us how our meal was and was, didn't clear our plates etc. it was poor all the way around this trip. Maybe chef was on vacation with the usual servers!!

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 lobster roll, the meat was perfection, the bun unique and hearty, nice views of the harbor,…read moresturdy seating. Wish there was the option of fries but I get it more money on ventilation etc. they offer bagged chips, lobster bisque (which I wish we got to dip in) the tables are also a bit gross on some (due to weather and birds) but since it's outside this is inevitable. You're here for the lobster and water and you get it. Pure summer vibes.

Superior food,ultimately fresh, delicious. Atmosphere is…read moremellow yet by the sea, very relaxing. Service is excellent !

The service was painfully slow the night we went. They were packed. It was crowded. The ambiance…read moreis loud CT shoreline crowded. I'd be willing to be they do a good business because of the location. It is a nice location. The food is typical nothing interesting sysco national food supply crap is the general vibe. Maybe the fish is fresh but everything else was just normal expensive swill. I'll not bother to return this year (2026) unless they pick up their game and do better. One FINAL nail in the coffin, is they don't take reservations for larger parties and they don't have a call-ahead seating list. The choice not to take some kind of reservation is just... well inconsiderate and stupid but shows their willingness to feed the herd as fast as possible (slow service not withstanding) .

Dining at The Essex is a must if you want a special experience. We chose to sit at the counter, and…read moreI must say, that watching Chef Colt (owner as well), team work with such precision and teamwork was impressive and enjoyable. He and our waiter, Ryan, made it feel personal, welcoming, and first-class from start to finish." We had the Scallop and Shrimp Bisque, Duck Confit Dumplings, Wafu Bolognese, Beef Wellington and Ribeye Steak. This is a dining experience where you don't need to review each course! Each one was excellent. We topped it off with an amazing piece of cheesecake. Visit The Essex because it will feel like a performance as much as a dining experience. We will be back....... Congratulations on your ratings and reviews.

Amazing food with well timed service in a lively environment that also allowed us to hear each…read moreother.

Really friendly staff at the bar. Seems like a lot of regulars hang out here... wonderful to catch…read morea sports event at any of the tvs. Enjoyed a great burger and noticed the food other ordered all looked very good.

It's great neighborhood pub. Real sense of community. Food was adequate and service was genuinely…read moresincere.

We'd heard from friends that Shipwright's Daughter in Mystic was a must-try. Wow, were they right…read more From the warm greeting at the door to the beautiful decor, the experience started strong. We were seated at a lovely table for two overlooking Main Street - watching people stroll by from that elevated perch behind glass felt almost cinematic. The real star of the show was the food, which is ultimately what you're there for, and it delivered. The menu offers plenty of options without being overwhelming. I started with the Crispy Pig's Head as an appetizer - a bold choice that turned out to be outstanding. For my entrée, the bucatini with seacoast mushrooms, sherry, parmesan, mushroom cream, and fine herbs was perfectly cooked, and carried a subtle but deeply flavorful sauce. And the housemade sourdough with poblano honey butter? Absolutely outstanding. To be fair, our server took a little time to warm up but found their footing and gave us everything we needed. Parking in Mystic on a busy weekend night can also be a challenge and expensive. Neither is reason enough to skip this one. Ship Wright's Daughter is exactly the kind of restaurant Mystic deserves. Don't wait for a special occasion -- just go.

I really didn't want to write this review, but potential patrons should know what they can expect…read morewhen working with the event staff at Shipwright's Daughter - if they plan to have a private dining experience and event there. My husband and I got married last December. We decided we would hold off on celebrating with our family and invite everyone out from California to join us for a weekend full of activities in Connecticut and a special dinner at Shipwright's Daughter during Memorial Day weekend. We contacted the restaurant's events team to work out high level details starting in late January - to book a private room and hold a date and time. From the get go, the communication we received from the event staff was dismal to say the least. Not only did the events manager misquote the estimate for the room reservation, she came back and asked for a much higher price (up charging by an additional 30% of the original minimum fee) two months after we confirmed and discussed the date. She then explained it was due to the holiday weekend. Our date had never changed from the moment we inquired, so we would have appreciated knowing this upfront. Over the course of several months (and an absurd number of emails and a few calls), we tried to solidify the menu and wine selection and made multiple attempts before hearing back from the team. It was about two weeks before the big event when we were able to confirm a menu. It was about four days before the event that we heard back from the beverage director, but by then, my husband and I had already decided we would bring our own wine bottles, not wanting to leave it to chance with this team. I won't go into further details about the frustration we felt regarding their system for communications (they use an internal system that doesn't make it easy for guests to know who is copied on emails and who sees what). That is something I hope they will work out. When the big day came, I walked into the room and noticed there were a number of chairs missing, so I counted the chairs. They had an incorrect number of chairs for adults and not enough high chairs for the toddlers. We had requested a specific number of these chairs (weeks prior and mentioned it multiple times in writing), and I thought it was safe to assume that this was a basic checklist item for events set up. I was dumbfounded in the moment. I couldn't help but wonder what else they were going to miss or mess up that evening. It was disappointing to have our family members wait while the staff scrambled to pull other chairs into the room. From the time it took to take everyone's order from the set menu, the time between courses being served, and the attentiveness for pouring water and wine - all of it was a miss. The level of hospitality that we expected from a restaurant so recognized for its incredible food and approach to sustainable sourcing was completely overshadowed by the lack of attention and care by its staff - since day one of planning this event. Even a few of our family members commented on this during the dinner. At the end of the day, we felt like an obligation rather than welcomed guests, and that is mainly why I'm leaving this review. We had been patrons of Shipwright's a couple of times prior to this event, which is why we chose this establishment - to represent the best that Connecticut has to offer, when it comes to a dining experience we could vouch for. We no longer feel that we can recommend this restaurant. If you care about hospitality, I would recommend looking elsewhere.