CONNECTICUT MAGAZINE: APRIL 2008
Readers' Choice Restaurant Awards 2008

Abbott’s Lobster voted Best Seafood Outdoor Dining by Connecticut Magazine's 2008 Reader's Choice!

ROADFOOD: FEBRUARY 2008
By Michael Stern | The Roadside Editor
February 21, 2008

Reviewers Write up

Abbott’s is a long-running lobster picnic. Hugely crowded on nice summer evenings, it specializes in warm-weather shore dinners. Start with bracing, steel-gray chowder, then littlenecks on the half shell and/or steamers or mussels by the bucket with broth and butter for dipping. If you arrive with a big appetite, you will need to eat many hors d’oeuvre because the lobsters, cooked to order, can take a while. They are beauties, available whatever size you need, up to ten pounds!; but if you don’t have the energy to crack, pick, suck, and pluck your way through a whole one, this is a grand place to have a hot lobster roll – nothing but hunks of pink sweet meat bathed in butter, sandwiched inside a warm bun. (Cold lobster salad rolls are also available, as are hot and cold crab rolls.)

Abbott’s is one of the prettiest places in Connecticut to dine al fresco. Seating is at bare wooden tables, either in the open or under tents. Some civilized sorts actually bring their own tablecloths as well as their own wine. The air is filled with the salty smack of shore breezes, and background music is provided by gulls screeching in the sky (but kept away from the tables by invisible netting).

Abbott's generally opens early in May, but at first only on weekends. It is open every day through Labor day, then weekends-only again in October.

Click here to read the full review

HARTFORD COURANT: FEBRUARY 2008
By MARYELLEN FILLO | The Hartford Courant
February 21, 2008

Connecticut Has Three Of "The Best Sandwiches In America"

Seems Connecticut can more than hold its own when it comes to serving up a good sandwich. The fried cod fish at Cove Fish Market in Stonington, the Hot Lobster Roll at Abbott's Lobster In the Rough in Noank and the Grilled Lobster and Cheese sandwich at Restaurant Bricco in West Hartford were all featured in an article headlined "The Best Sandwiches in America" in the March issue of Esquire.

"Wash it down with a glass of prosecco. You'll feel like you're celebrating," the author writes of the Bricco sandwich.

"When a fish starts its morning in the ocean and ends up in a deep-fryer that afternoon, the result is reliably tasty," the articles says in describing the Cove Fish Market's winning sandwich.

ESQUIRE: MARCH 2008
The Best Sandwiches in America

Hot Lobster
Roll Abbot’s Lobster in the Rough, Noank, Connecticut The best way to get to Abbott’s is by boat -- float in, tie up, and order the classic, made with a quarter pound of meat, melted butter, and not a drop of mayo. Get a table out on the dock. (117 Pearl Street; 860-536-7719)

Excerpted from


The Great Lobster Shack Tour
by Robb Walsh

Abbott's Lobster in the Rough, the final lobster shack on my itinerary, is located in Noank, Connecticut, which takes a magnifying glass to find on the map. But it's actually right across the water from Mystic Seaport, the area's biggest tourist attraction. It's 5:30 on a Saturday afternoon when I arrive, yet the parking lot is already full and there's a long line out front. Out back, there must be eighty or ninety picnic tables spread out over a grassy lawn that looks out on a gorgeous bay dotted with tiny islands. I am meeting my brother and his family here, so I claim an empty table and wait.

As soon as they show, up, we get in line. Since Abbott's specializes in giant lobsters, I decide to go all out and order a three-pounder with all the trimmings, "I'll share with the kids," I tell my brother. As we wait for our order, I take a look around. Abbott's is a BYOB restaurant and we've brought a six-pack, but I'm jealous of the folks next to us who are icing down a bottle of champagne in a silver wine bucket. Other diners have even brought linen tablecloths. The lobstermen probably wouldn't approve of such frippery, but evidently the folks down here in Connecticut aren't as shy about living it up.

When our number is called, I go get the appetizers. The clam chowder is outstanding, and the steamers are hot and tender. Finally, the lobster is ready, and it turns out to be the size of a sea monster. The claws are as big as my hands, and the tail is as thick as my wrist. The kids eat next to nothing, so I finish the tail and claws by myself, then discover that each leg also has a huge piece of meat inside.

As I crack another leg open, a restored whaling boat cruises by a few hundred yards away. The youngsters are intrigued and run down to the water to see, They don't want any more lobster, and neither do I, actually. But I'm still a bit sad that this is the last stop on my tour. Eating lobster on a paper plate seemed unusual to me a week ago, but as I sit here at my picnic table, finishing off a beer and watching the magnificent old ship head out to sea, I'm beginning to wonder if I'll ever really enjoy lobster in a fancy restaurant again.

"If you don't mind waiting at peak summer meal times Abbott's Lobster in the Rough just might be the best place on the seaboard for lobster. With picnic tables spread out on a lawn overlooking Noank Harbor, the air perfumed by the sweet smell of pink lobster meat plucked in big pieces from its shell, it can be summer paradise,"

-- Jane and Michael Stern, USA Today