Freedom Cafe & Pub

We ate here late on a Monday night. Not very busy, those present were locals. Nothing too special. Burgers and fries. We ate on the back porch, which overlooks a lake. Server was friendly and efficient.

I was not going to write a review. I left a private message on FB and was hoping they would respond there. I know the message was read and I got no response so I feel I must leave a review. My husband and I went there for the first time on Friday. We live down the road in Casco and decided to change it up a bit. I had the Lobster Carbonarra — which claims to have the meat of a 1lb lobster. There is absolutely no way there was meat from a 1lb lobster in that dish. My husband ordered the Prime Rib — medium rare. It came out medium to medium well. At no point did the server ask us how everything was — probably because she knew both of our meals were horrible. There was a lady at the next table who ordered the same exact meal as I did and she immediately sent it back — Good for her!

Nice atmosphere. Fish and chips for friend, haddock sandwich for me. Not bad, not great. Good drinks, good prices. Better than Rick’s Café.

The mussels appetizer was beyond delicious and what made me rate this place above average. I’ve never had such meaty mussels before and their garlic/​basil sauce was a perfect compliment to it.
The rest of our meal was good. I had the lobster roll and my husband had the Navajo fish taco. I’d definitely recommend the Navajo fish taco as a meal, the lobster roll had a bit too much mayo for me. The navajo bread was crispy and went well with the fish (haddock?).
The barn/​outdoorsy theme of the restaurant is cute. The staff is pretty friendly. I’ve noticed that almost all the places we ate in Naples had slower service than what we were used to and this restaurant was no different. However, since we were looking to take our time anyway, it was never an issue.
We would definitely come back again for the mussels, though the meals weren’t anything to write home about.

The food here is usually good but the last two times we’ve been for dinner it’s been ⁵⁰⁄₅₀ (half have been good, half not so good) The portions of the fish «specials» were small for an appetizer and it is sold as an entrée. Lobster stew was so overly salty it was inedible and was sent back, the replacement was fair so this will be avoided in the future. We’ll keep Freedom on the list but stay with the known winners on the menu. Also have to add the staff is great and very attentive/​friendly making a very welcoming atmosphere.

Hate to write a review like this but felt it was a must. The service and management is blatantly incompetent. Takes forever to get a drink, a crudite or a bowl of soup. Other tables order after us, get their food before us, and pay the check and leave and we sit there like idiots. Food is a solid three stars but it’s annoying from beginning to end. A new owner or new manager would help

One of the worst experiences I’ve ever had at a restaurant. We never even ended up eating after spending more than two hours there, WITH a well-​planned reservation! My family made a reservation for a large group (nine adults, four children ages 3 and under) early on a Sunday evening, explaining well in advance we would need to be in and out of there quickly due to the little ones. We were clear that this was a necessity. They told us they could accommodate us, no problem.
When we arrived, we noticed the place was busy, and we were seated around the same time as two other large parties. From the get go, things were shaky. They ran out of water cups, and initially gave us one small carafe of water for all of us that barely filled three cups. When ordering (not before), we learned that four or five things we tried to order weren’t available anymore. Some drink orders came, some didn’t. My husband asked if they had plastic ware for our daughter. They were out. It was clearly busy, so we chalked it up to it being the end of a holiday weekend.
About 15 – 20 minutes AFTER we ordered, the waitress told us the chef wanted us to know that because it was so busy, our order was going to take a while. Why didn’t they tell us BEFORE we ordered? Well, we were there, we were settled, so we’d wait a little longer.
Some of us ordered the clam chowder and were served that about 45 — 60 minutes after arriving. It was salty, but as we were hungry, we finished them quickly. With no kids meals in sight, the little ones kept busy munching on whatever snacks we’d brought for them. Some of our party had to take to ordering drinks from the bar ourselves.
About another 50 minutes later, the waitress came to tell us that whoever ordered the lobster stew for their meal would need to order something else, because the stove that cooks it broke! What!!! We ordered a lobster carbonara instead, and the waitress asked if that was on the menu! By then, we realized that she didn’t really know the menu. Or much of anythin for that matter, as she came back to let us know that, actually, only burgers, steak, and salad could be ordered at that point! But our other food would still able to be served?
Things were just not making sense and nothing was clearly being communicated to us, so we asked for a manager. He apologized of course but had very little to say about how they could remedy the situation. Nor could he tell us when our food was going to come, other than that it would be at least another 15 minutes. This was already 2 HOURS after we arrived, and the kids were very hungry and restless (not to mention the adults!) One of the big tables sat at about the same time as us had eaten and were getting ready to leave, and the other was being served their food. We were also hearing rumblings that there was a fight in the kitchen with a chef that was about to quit and then a fire in the kitchen, too. With the manager offering us absolutely no guarantees of when we could eat or even trying to make it up to us, we decided to leave. They were clearly having some pretty bad management and staffing issues, and because of their inability to handle all of the tables they decided to seat or communicate with their customers or one another, we suffered. They made no attempt to rectify the situation with us.
Thank goodness for Rick’s across the way. We walked over there, explained our situation and the manager immediately had us seated, got the kids fed quickly, and us shortly thereafter. Unfortunately, what we’d hoped would be an early night for a family dinner ended up being anything but and we won’t be stopping by Freedom Café again.

Not sure why this place is listed twice on Unilocal, but…
We went there on 6÷10÷15, and sat on the deck to enjoy the lovely evening. The deck was overwhelmed by the smells coming from their dumpster which is placed on the under side of the deck. The baked haddock was dry and overlooked. The rice it came with this very dry and inedible. The sirloin tips which were supposed to be medium/​rare were extremely overlooked and tough. We would have left or at least sent our food back, but because we were with friends from out of town, we chose not to tarnish our time with them. I am a Mainer, now a snow-​bird, and have enjoyed this place in the past. But I have seen it go down hill for awhile now and this is the last straw for us!

Nice staff, awful food. We waited over an hour for our food and the place was dead. It has a nice view but they need to work on their cuisine big time.

Decent spot, 1 star only because the website said they would be open until 9pm, drove 40 minutes only to find them closed at 530pm. If you’re going to publish hours you should probably stick to them.

I went to The Freedom Café this past Saturday night with my parents and brother. We’re from Massachusetts and were visiting for the weekend. Unfortunately, a lot of places on the causeway are tourists traps. The view from the deck was amazing, but the food and service was not good.
This place has the most vegetarian options on the causeway and I loved that. I got the portobello sandwich and my family got burgers. It took about forty minutes for our food and the place was dead. The deck was full, but no one was inside eating and there were two people sitting at the bar.
The food was barely warm and seemed to have been sitting out for a while. It wasn’t bad, but not hot and there was almost no spinach on my sandwich. The mushroom was good, the feta was good, but the caramelized onions were weird and the spinach was nonexistent, not good for a vegetarian dish.
I went here once during the Blues Festival and had a lot of fun. The inside bar area is amazing and the deck is great. Very touristy and I would say the lack of basic training the waitstaff exhibited Saturday that it can be considered a tourist trap. I know it’s late in the season, but it’s peak foliage season and the weather this past weekend was perfect. They should have had a barback and an actual cook on. Our waitress told the table right next to us that the bartender was cooking the food, hence the wait. Will probably only go back here for drinks.

Great menu selections. Classic New England atmosphere in the pub section. Nice outdoor deck in better weather. Had a good fish md chips dinner. Keegan the waiter was very attentive to our table and went out of his way to make sure everything was to our liking. (The beer-​battered onion rings were great!)

This place is definitely not worth the aggravation. For the short story: poor to fair service, depending on who you’re dealing with; horrible wait times for a place that wasn’t even full on a Friday night; we can’t really rate the food because, other than bread, we never got a chance to actually eat our food due to the service/​wait time. And to top matters off, the manager is either a coward and sent out one of his waiters/​bartenders to listen to our concerns, who didn’t look older than 22 to us, OR the staff working this night were all trying to cover their asses by not telling the manager what was going on and having another waiter/​bartender play the part.
The long story…
We came in on a Friday evening. Apparently, according to the «manager» we’ve learned that’s a bad idea. Two other small groups are waiting inside by the entrance. For a party of 4, we’re told about 15 minutes for a table, about 20 – 30 if we want to sit on the deck. We put our name in for a table and tell the girl we’ll wait at the bar. The bar was not by any means packed for a Friday night. A few seats at the bar were empty with an empty pub table and two empty dining tables. A waitress came around the bar area and called out our group’s name. We got our drinks and went to follow her and she had already grabbed the next group at the hostess area and brought them into the dining area. One of our group was trying to find out what the hell just happened and we were told by the «hostess» that we can sit at one of the two tables in the bar area. Okay. One of our group sees the waitress come back in that just gave our table to someone else and she tries to get an explanation from her and the girl tells her they’re short-​staffed and having a hard time covering both the dining area and the deck. We get a waiter to our table right away though… cool. We ask for a few more minutes to look over the menu and decide. About ten minutes later we place our orders for appetizers and dinner. Then the wait… and wait… and wait. Throughout this wait, ¾ of our group have gotten up to use the restroom and explore this fairly large and cool looking place. We have come across the several «short-​staffed» employees horsing around behind the bar, hanging out in the empty area near the restrooms, kitchen, the dining area with tables that were empty, etc. After almost an hour, we ask about our appetizers to be told they’re «on their way.» Our first drinks still on the table, we asked if we could get some bread, since we saw the other few tables in our area with it. We got that after a few minutes. Inquiries about our food got another curt «on their way out» response. Now over an hour has past and one of our group went up the bar only a few feet away to try and get a second drink (simple white wine) and a glass of water. She had to wait several minutes until the bartenders horsing around finally help her and got attitude for it. At this point, we’re calmly fuming, several tables around us have cleared, one person asked our waiter for the manager and another person went up the hostess area, at the same time, to ask them as well to have the manager come out. One person gets told the manager is Richard while the waiter sys it’s Patrick and LO AND BEHOLD our appetizers are now ready. Ok nobody wanted to touch the food since we’re concerned about if anyone might have done something not so professional to the food, since we’re obviously being difficult. Not to mention the fact that we didn’t think crab cakes are supposed to smell like hamburger. Suddenly, after several more minutes, the «manager» Patrick comes to our table. Wow, impressive that the“manager” barely looks old enough to shave and gives us attitude about how we obviously shouldn’t expect fast service on a Friday night. !!! Yeeeeeuppppopp! By the way, a few quick internet searches and we have come to find out that the REAL manager’s name is actually Darryl Murray… obviously not who we met or ever will.

If I could sum up my dining experience here in one word it would be missable.
Came in around 3:00 PM on a Sunday and were immediately flustered. We had a large party of 13 people and were shuttled towards the back by the hostess. Once we decided between indoor and outdoor seating we sat down and were told that they had a busy weekend and were out of chowder, chili, guacamole, and (wait for it) lobster and anything that had lobster in it. We are in Maine, a place synonymous with lobster and could not believe that this happened. It would be like McDonald’s running out of beef!
The table tents noted happy hour specials but we were told that we could not have them because they were only in the pub area. We politely asked since we were all situated if they could extend it to is but were quickly rebuffed by the server. She was polite to us in the way someone you know is secretly thinking the most condescending thing possible about you. While I understand they had a busy weekend and this person may be exhausted, remember this is NOT future customers fault. Perhaps one should relish in the fact that they reaped the rewards of that busy weekend by receiving tips (no pun intended but they were probably out of this condiment as well).
Our food was ordered within five minutes of the time we were seated. After that we were in it for the long haul waiting over 45 minutes for simple burgers, salads, sandwiches, and fish and chips. It stands to reason that if you are out if so many other menu offerings things should come out quicker but that was not the case. During this obscenely long wait our server did not provide us with silverware so for a few minutes after our food was finally brought to us, we had to wait for instruments to eat it with. Several of the plates were quite hot to the touch which leads me to believe they let them sit under a heat lamp while they got their ish together. Some diners who clearly ordered well after us got their food before we did, which is the icing on the cake of this dining experience.
Drink refills came sparingly. There were two occasions where the waitress was asked to provide a refill and it took over ten minutes to get one.
Pricing was a bit higher than one would normally pay but that was somewhat to be expected because of the short tourist season.
A few of us ordered burgers. We each had a difference preference on how we wanted it cooked yet they all came out exactly the same: well done. No pink coloring whatsoever for the people who ordered medium. They seemed to be the kind of form pressed burger you could buy at your local grocery store and not the type you would expect at a sit down restaurant. They were considerably smaller than the bun they were served on which was at this point to be expected. And only one ketchup and mustard for a table of 13, give me a break!
Our saving grace was that among other things our server forgot to include the obligatory 20% tip for large parties.
Some suggestions for management of this restaurant:
1. Utilize outdoor street menu boards to tell customers what you are out so that people can make an informed decision BEFORE they are seated.
2. Inform your servers that while times may be busy, you should be aware of the manner in which you address patrons of the restaurant.
3. Buy enough effing lobster. You are in a tourist area in MAINE for crying out loud.

First, when we walked in 3 hours before 4^th of July fireworks, we were told it would cost $ 10 to sit on the deck for the fireworks. We weren’t planning on watching the fireworks so we we’re disappointed that we couldn’t sit on the deck. The drinks came fairly quickly but once we ordered, didn’t see our server for the 40 minutes it took for the food to arrive. 30 minutes in, we asked for some bread for the kids but they didn’t have any. The fries were decent but the rest of the food was just sustenance. The Black & Blue Burger just tasted like Bleu Cheese and was well done even though I ordered it medium. The Crab Cake Sandwich had little taste but reminded us more of Tuna than Crab. My son ordered the Basic Burger and enjoyed it even though it was over cooked. We didn’t stick around for dessert.

Mixed feelings about Freedom Café. The high points are the outside deck overlooking Long Lake and the unique inside bar in the main room which is really quite cool. The food has improved over the years and is now pretty good. The service is usually good but can be spotty. Sometimes hard to get in when things get busy in the summertime.

I had never been to the Freedom Café & Pub. Went in for lunch on a Wednesday. The place was a lot bigger than I thought from the outside and was very nice looking. We sat out on the deck– it was a beautiful sunny 70 degree day, lovely view of Long Lake– very enjoyable. I ordered the pan seared haddock which came with veggies and basmati rice. I was very happy with the meal and would order again. Waiter was a bit on the slow side, but it was so nice out, I hardly minded. I wonder how busy it would be there in the middle of summer, which I probably wouldn’t enjoy, lol. The prices are high, but then again all the restaurants right on the causwway are. I would visit again on a nice day.

Had a lovely meal. Chicken Marsala was wonderful. Tasty creamy sauce with mushrooms. My husband had a perfectly cooked rib eye with flavorful mashed red potatoes. Outstanding service! Food was red hot. Even with a 100 person wedding going on downstairs, a full deck and back dining room and a table of 9 next to us, our waiter timed everything perfectly. I was most impressed. No idea how they could pull that off on a sat night after the Brewfest. Well done!
Ps: it’s hysterical that people who come to Maine and eat outdoors lakeside complain about bugs! Who’s your complaint for –God?

Ehh — for dinner
Great for brunch/​lunch — Lobbie roll had too much bread — calamari was good with some unique undertones
Can’t beat sitting out back either. Great view. My pops gets the chicken parm all the time for dinner so that’s gotta be dees.
Daryl the owner is great and Dana Barrows is the man. Very friendly staff here

I’ll preface this by saying it was a very busy night in the middle of summer so you expect slightly less than perfect service but it was really super lame.
We were told there would be a wait of 45 minutes and encouraged to go to the bar. Bar was packed with no room. Ignored by bartender for maybe 5 minutes. Finally served. Wine is atrocious — open for too long/​cheap and crap.
We gave up and left. Went to Rick’s across the street for some average food with excellent service and an amazing view.