Ken R.
Yelp
I've been going to Dot's for many years, mostly to/from the Islesboro ferry and have always thought it was a good place to stop, until now. This review is from my visit last month, so some new policies may have changed, or better yet, abolished all together. I couldn't say, I haven't been back since.
Okay, Melissa wasn't the warmest person in the world, but compared to the "new" Dot's, I can forgive any personality issues she may have had.
Strangely, now all baked goods were behind glass. This wouldn't be a problem if the meager morning staff were efficient and bagged your baked goods seconds after choosing them, but at Dot's this is not the case. Everyone here seems to be shocked that customers are here for service. Seriously, if you now place baked goods behind glass, you should have people eager to serve you. The old "self serve" method worked quite well, you only needed someone to ring up your purchase, now you need someone for both, and the staff is either unaware or unwilling to provide much help, under a system they created.
The "grab and go" sandwiches were gone too. There was plate of sandwiches, unmarked, on a counter. When I asked what they were, the staff seemed sadly confused, they had to look at the sides and sort of guessed at their contents. It seems they've found a way to make choosing items difficult and in my case, very frustrating. What was wrong with the chalk board with ingredients and corresponding numbers attached to each sandwich? We're not splitting atoms here, just let the customer reach in the refrigerated case and pull out the item they want...why complete things?
About the food; it's great when you finally get your order. The sandwiches are the same as the "old" Dot's. The baked goods are fresh and homemade, as well as the breakfast sandwiches, but beware, it will take a long time to get someone to place it in the panini grill and longer to have it heated. When I was there some poor soul was waiting for quite sometime, only to have the server forget about him and his sandwich and sadly it burned. The server took it off the grill and gave the poor guy a burned sandwich, I assume he was so exasperated at this point, he just left with a carbonized breakfast sandwich in hand, most likely to miss that hour's ferry. We were treated to hazy smoke filling the air, making your all too lengthy stay here just a notch above uncomfortable.
In the end, its best attribute is its proximity to the ferry, which is why the cafe was set up the way it previously was. The new owners do not seem to have a grasp to this concept, if it takes ten or more minutes to wait for someone to stick a muffin in a bag, there's no reason to waste valuable ferry line time standing around for that muffin! Perhaps the new owners will get it right in time, but having to wait and wait and wait for someone to notice you, let alone muster the energy to ask "can I help you" far outweighs any delicious food you're nearly begging for.
