The Pearl

This place has a great feel! Great views and beautiful atmosphere. Food is very good. Owner is really nice. Left my sunglasses there and they had stored them for me. Let me in to get them when they were closed. You will like this restaurant.

All I can say at the moment is awful!
First restaurant we visited on a recent vacation there?
Not a good thing I can say about it.
Big disappointment!

I really don’t even want to give this place one star, it was so bad. Almost all positive reviews of this restaurant are from a previous chef and menu. And know going in that all of the information provided by Unilocal is outdated, too. Website, phone number, and menu are all wrong.
Anyway, we were worried when we arrived. The place is huge and it was empty except for a few tables all the way at the end by the windows. A long empty bar.
The waitress was young and unhelpful. She couldn’t even answer basic questions about the menu, like is your lobster roll served hot or cold, with mayo or without? She had to check.
But we stayed for the lovely view and oysters. Who could mess that up? Well, this place did. We watched the shucker stand there opening oysters without a glove, constantly eating and putting his hands in his mouth while also beginning our order. Same thing with the guy working the grill.
Disgusted, we left without eating. No worries, as we hadn’t even been given water yet.

Nothing special except the view. Staff was not super friendly and the wine selection was limited to house for glass.

Our party of four had 9 PM reservation at the Oyster Bar at the Pearl, new restaurant that is literally within the grounds of the Lobster Festival.
We arrived and the restaurant was virtually empty, which is shocking given that the Lobster Festival is the biggest tourist weekend Rockland will see all year.
We couldn’t find a hostess, but eventually someone sat us on the back patio at a dirty table. I had to ask the waitress to wipe it down before she attempted to put down our napkins and silverware. There was no one else out there.
We ordered our drinks and they came in plastic cups, even the wine. Can you believe it? Wine came in plastic Dixie cups — it was outrageous. We had to ask the waitress to bring us real wine glasses.
When it came time to order, she informed us that they had not turned on their wood fire oven and therefore half of the small menu was not available.
I ordered the lobster po’boy ($ 22). It was essentially a large lobster roll, with a decent amount of claw meat tossed in mayo, but the bread was soggy. I was supposed to get potato salad, but that never arrived. The BBQ shrimp sandwich was made with canned shrimp, and thepork chop was small and dry.
At 10pm, the owner came over to let us know they were closing and we should finish. This was shocking — why schedule a 9pm reservation, only to try to kick us out at 10pm, mid-​meal?! We finished our food and left without dessert. On the way out, we attempted to give the owner some feedback about our poor experience and that dissolved in to obscenities. She stated that there was no reservation in the book and accused us of lying about making it. I read that it is new ownership — they will learn very quickly this is not the way to do business.

Great location for those attending Lobster Fest. The Lobster and roasted Corn Chowder was a different recipe than I expected — not exactly a white, cream base — seemed a little more creole style. I really don’t know how else to describe it except to say that it was excellent.

This restaurant was super unique. Not sure what the mixed ratings on Unilocal are all about… but we got a mix of tapas and a delicious entrée salad. Everything was delicious and the Cajun twist was excellent with the great drinks.

I was happier eating here than I was the day of the birth of my first son.
Great food ¹⁰⁄₁₀ heck ya and great service and atmosphere and scenery and whatnot :))

Opened July 2015 as The Oyster Bar at the Pearl. New Orleans style restaurant at a familiar location in Rockland. The pork chop entrée was superb, topped w/​tasty chutney. This was accompanied by cornbread and cole slaw.
The pecan and caramel bread pudding that was outstanding!

This is an email I wrote to their manager after my bad experience there. I have yet to receive a response:
Hello,
My name is _​_​_​_​_​_​_​and I attempted to dine at the bar at The Pearl Seafood restaurant on Saturday August 2^nd around 9:30pm. We had such a frustrating experience I feel the need to share with the management.
My boyfriend and I grabbed the last two seats free seats at the bar. I realize that the bar was full but we were flat out ignored for a good 15 minutes. During this 15 minutes, each of the three men behind the bar were standing in front of us at different times, each looked right at us and each said nothing. We were never greeted or acknowledged. The guests next to us were eating what looked like delicious food and were getting a lot of attention from one bartender. The guests across the bar and next to us were also getting a lot of attention from the bartender and the barback. When I finally made contact with one of the bartenders, I had to ask for menus and ask if we could order drinks. He tossed menus at us and took our drink order. Still no smile or hello.
They were out of ginger ale, which is fine. I then asked if I could have ginger beer with my whiskey (the guests next to us was drinking a can of it, and I saw one of the bartenders with a couple of cans in his hand earlier) I was told that I couldn’t and that it wasn’t available.
We had our drinks and sat for another 20 – 25 minutes with menus in front of us. No one came to take our order and at this point the bar had emptied out. The bartender and barback were mostly talking to each other and the few others sitting at the bar but they never spoke to us. We decided to just leave at that point, since we felt so unwelcome and were very hungry. I was trying to make eye contact with someone so we could pay our bill and a server from the floor noticed and came behind the bar to help. She was very sweet, professional and got our check and processed payment promptly. We left feeling very disappointed since the menu looked so great. We were in Rockland for the rest of the week and craved oysters numerous times but just couldn’t bring ourselves to go back to The Pearl.
I’ve been managing bars and restaurants and working behind bars for over 15 years. I am always understanding of slow service, food dragging and just plain being in the weeds. I know how many things can go wrong in a restaurant on any given night that can affect a guest’s experience so I am a very patient, understanding and low-​maintenance diner. I certainly don’t expect service to ever be over the top but what I do expect is basic manners from service staff. That is what I, as a manager, expect my bar staff to always have no matter what. I’m reaching out to you since as a fellow manager, I would certainly want to know if my bar staff treated guests the way we were treated at Pearl. A simple «hi, I’ll be right with you» while dropping menus goes a very, very long way.
Thank you for taking the time to read this.

We had planned to visit The Pearl for a week now. Our warm Sunday drive down route 1 in Maine ended with us at the pier in Rockland. We were there a little before they opened at 5, they sat us in the raw bar for drinks. The drinks were great and quick. The hosteas brought us to our deck table and seats. Unmatched beauty. Service was quick. Food was amazing… all of it. They had freshly made lemmon pepper egg noodles and they allowed me to switch my fettichini for that for my clam dish. So fresh! We started with the onion rings and lobster cocktail… HIGHLY recommend! Hubby had NY strip, perfect. And finally
Donuts! All A+ review!!! Michelle was cooking tonight… not a surprise it was perfect! Service was quick and super nice and knowledgable.

Nice place right on the water and in the middle of the lobster festival… and they ran out of lobster!!! I understand it was very busy, but to run out of lobster in the middle of a lobster festival in Maine… I was very unhappy. They ran out of the twin lobsters, not the other sizes.
So, my husband and I had the clam chowder (award winning). I personally do not like dill, so I thought it was not good. My husband loves dill so he liked it a lot. Summary: do not order if you do not like dill because it was flavored with a ton of dill. The lobster roll was very good (bread was perfect). My husband had the raw clams and oysters which he said were good.
Honestly, it’s Maine. I am sure there are better seafood restaurants somewhere in town.

I’d share pictures of our food but it didn’t last long.
We had a dozen oysters during happy hour ($ 1 ea). 1 lobster roll and they split their berries n ice cream order for my 2 young girls.
Oysters– they were ok, a great deal for a buck each. Some were really good and sweet.
Ice Cream — best vanilla ice cream I’ve ever had on east coast. Berries were fresh too.
Lobster Roll — served on a brioche roll and in my opinion, the best we’ve had since we landed on the east coast 5 days ago. We’ve been eating lobster rolls from Cape Cod all the way up through Kennebunk Port to this place in Rockland. The meat is fresh and and sweet. We had the benefit of comparing this roll to other served during the Lobster Festival and this roll easily beats what is offered just outside the front door.
Anthony — the co-​owner, took the time to talk to us about the history of the bay and all the work that the Army Corp engineers did back in the day to make Rockland, the calm water bay that it is today.
Michelle — the chef, has been in many national food competitions and her cooking shows it. She is a real treat to talk to. Very passionate about food and its source.
All in all, the Pearl is just that — a Pearl — a gem in the middle of Rockland on the pier.

Amazing!!! Great view, space & vibe! Clam Chowder is a must try! Stuffies! Chef Michele has the freshest oysters & her lobster roll is amaze. I come and feast here every summer!

Remarkable view. Impeccable food. Friendly service. Would be here daily if I wasn’t two hours away.

I felt like I went thru the drive through at dunkin donuts. My scallops arrived right after my drink. I was so excited for scallops but they had so my salt on them and that was without the prosciutto not to mention they were under cooked with a slight warm center :(The topper to this review is that the server had a 8 year old trainee that was clearly part of the future staff. With the blues festival going on and all the tables drinking on the deck (where we were) very in appropriate. What are these owners/​parents thinking. I’m from Maine and have 4 children and never would I subject them to this. Shameful

I wanted to give this more stars, but they were out of what I originally wanted (although the waitress did give me fair warning and instead of running back and forth, took an alternate order for me) and what I did get (the cioppino) was very salty and the shrimp and lobster in it were over cooked and tough. Our server was great and the ambiance was nice, however, and the bar area looked comfortable.

We gave The Pearl a try when some family was in town. Now operated by Chef Michele Ragussis of Food Network (
)
It was great! Pemaquid Oysters, Crab Marscapone dip, Buffalo Shrimp, steamed Mussels with a residual broth that was a great bread-​dipper all on its own.
Nice view, right on the water, easy parking, a special greeting from Michele — all added to the value for a a great spontaneous visit.

I really wanted to like this place. I have been twice to be sure I have it a fair shot, but it is just not good. The service the first time was great, but not when we visited Thursday. Our server was clearly not interested in serving. My lobster was incredibly tough and the sides were dreadfully over cooked. My husband’s food was equally bad. I wish I could add this to my list of Rockland favorites but I am afraid I just can’t go back with so many better choices.