Coveside Restaurant & Marina

65 Reviews
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98 Coveside Road
South Bristol, ME 04568
43° 50' 51.5'', -69° 33' 21.47''
2076448282
VHF Ch. 9
$2.50/ft
covesiderestaurant.com
Christmas Cove
Coveside Restaurant & Marina
Coveside Restaurant & Marina
Coveside Restaurant & Marina
Coveside Restaurant & Marina
Coveside Restaurant & Marina
Coveside Restaurant & Marina
Coveside Restaurant & Marina
Coveside Restaurant & Marina
Coveside Restaurant & Marina
Coveside Restaurant & Marina

Awards


Boaters Choice 2020Boaters Choice 2021Boaters Choice Elite Fleet 2022Boaters Choice 2023

About


Coveside Restaurant will be closing for the season on SEPTEMBER 3, 2023. Moorings/dock space will be available until SEPTEMBER 20, 2023

Christmas Cove, located between Boothbay and Pemaquid Point in the picturesque village of South Bristol, was named for Captain John Smith when he anchored here, December, 1614. Coveside Restaurant & Marina offers a gorgeous setting, along with dock and mooring space in the safety of Christmas Cove. Enjoy a delicious meal on the deck overlooking the sailboats, or in our spacious dining room offering a spectacular view from every seat in the house. The Burgee Bar is a sailor's delight with ragged colorful burgees brought in from all over the world, hanging from the rafters.

If you have the opportunity, the Sunday Dockside Parties from 2-5 pm are a favorite event for locals and travelers alike! Dockside parties are known for their fantastic live music and atmosphere.

NO WATER OR ELECTRICAL HOOKUP AVAILABLE

Berth Capacity


Slips:6
Moorings:2
Linear Docks:90 Feet

Approach


Mean Low Water Dock Depth:9.0 Feet

Services & Amenities

Last Updated: Jul 11, 2023

Dockage:Yes
Moorings:Yes
Dinghy Dock:Yes
Wi-Fi:Yes
Restrooms:Yes
Showers:Yes
Trash:Yes
Boat Ramp:Yes
Groceries:Within 5 Miles
Alcohol:Yes
Restaurants:Yes
Pet Friendly:Yes
Max. Vessel LOA:60.0 Feet
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Verified

Our first time in Christmas Cove - our stay at a mooring was wonderful! Friendly staff, immaculate restrooms, delicious food (seafood chowder, tuna tacos). Saturday night music “32 North” fun, and a great Dark & Stormy - now a favorite stop!

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Verified

Great location. Thanks for letting us stay at your dock in your beautiful harbor. Also thanks for giving us access to your head and showers. We left you a gift in the bar!

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Verified

Always a great stop. We have been coming for years.

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Verified

Most welcoming and gracious and responsive. Tight mooring but worth it bc Christmas Covebis simply beautiful. Thank you Coveside for an amazing season end party! We will be back so save CS1 for when we come!

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Verified

Great place to spend a night! Fun music, good food

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Verified

Pleasant time. Great lunch at the restaurant.

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Verified

Great protected location. There was a holdover on the mooring which we were assigned so they put us on their dock for no upcharge. Sunday afternoon they had a band at the restaurant which was great. Evenings are peaceful and quiet. Will come again!

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Verified

Fantastic Marina & Restaurant! Not only a beautiful location, but also the best hospitality! A special call out to Linette who does it ALL with a smile!

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Verified

Great harbor! Staff very helpful.

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Verified

Lovely small harbor. Great mussels at the restaurant.

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Verified

Beautiful harbor, fantastic dinner and great music! Win win! Thank you!

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Verified

Great spot! Quaint, quiet, friendly people.

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Verified

Lovely and peaceful!

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Verified

The cove is peaceful and great views. Although when we showed up at 7pm the restaurant told us that they would not be serving food anymore despite being open until 11pm. The facilities that next day were not clean but at least available. The internet on the mooring was spotty which made it difficult to plan the next day of travel. Also the dock was rotten and I fell through due to a new board being screwed into a very rotten board, poor fix.

Marina Response:
Thank you for your review. Just to clarify, it is posted on the Dockwa site that we highly recommend reservations, as we are a very busy place. Did you have reservations and not get seated? The restaurant is only open until 9:00, with last seating at 8:45 pm, only if we can accommodate. The bar only, is what is open until 11:00 on Friday & Saturday. We are very conscientious about our cleaning, but once in awhile when we have had an overly busy bar night, we don’t expect our bartender to clean the place at 2:00 am, we have people come in for the morning shift to clean. The mooring internet, unbeknownst to us was having issues. As soon as we found out, it was corrected. We had a couple of power outages that caused an issue, and we are in a remote location where phone service & internet are frequently spotty and unfortunately we cannot easily change this due to the available carriers in the area. As for the dock, this is the first time hearing of anyone falling through it, we will check into it and let the building owner know. We are sorry you didn’t enjoy our beautiful Cove that our guests so fondly & frequently enjoy, tell their friends, and return to time and time again.
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Verified

Snug harbor. Restaurant fantastic. Food!

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Verified

We had a great time at Coveside once again! The staff were very helpful and the dinner was very good Great harbor!

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Verified

Always a great experience. Loretta is what makes this all possible. Thank you once again for watching over us. Too Elusive

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Verified

Love this place! Stayed nag again tonight and hopefully the next! Coveside for dinner tonight!

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Verified

A perfect stay. A note to cruisers, best to play it safe and call ahead for a dinner reservation. This year Coveside once again has a very talented crew in the kitchen, take the "specials" very seriously if they have any when you visit. The live music can also be a nice surprise, the schedule is on the website, as is the restaurant hours. My favorite marina, by far.

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Verified

The moorings are well kept and the harbor is small and beautiful. The Cove Side restaurant and lively bar were a surprise and treat !

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Verified

Nice and quiet, staff was very accommodating.

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Verified

Beautiful spot, fun restaurant, great shower’

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Verified

Lovely harbor, very professional mooring service

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Verified

Beautiful little cove with moorings a restaurant and no other amenities Don’t take mooring #5 as unused mooring #8 will interfere with your stern. WiFi is weak and disconnects from you. Suggest strong using Al if possible.

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Verified

Very cool area...Maine chill at its best!

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Verified

Nice snug harbor, good prompt service.

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Verified

Marina was empty. No electric. No boats. No staff.

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Verified

Always a pleasure …………

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Verified

Great food good bands

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Verified

Loved: mooring, launch service, food at Coveside restaurant and walking.

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Verified

Mooring service and Wi-Fi was great…. Add sweet potatoes fries and please improve lobster roll… thank you

Marina Response:
Thank you for your review. We appreciate your suggestions. Let us know what we need to do to improve the lobster roll.
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Verified

It was peaceful... enjoyed hearing the live band playing on shore from the comforts of my boat. Was sad I hadn't got to try theCoveside restaurant out, as it is closed on Mondays. I'm leaving early Tuesday morning.

Marina Response:
Thank you for your review! Come back and see us again when we are open!
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Verified

Such a lovely spot! Nice dinner at the cove side restaurant. Enjoyed walking the dog around the area. Many lovely gardens

Marina Response:
Thank you for your review! So happy you were able to enjoy the area
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Verified

Another great stop at Coveside! Cavemen fantastic as usual. Food was delicious. Bartender is the best!!

Marina Response:
Thank you for your review! We think Denis is pretty special too! Come see us again
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Verified

Love this harbor. It’s so quiet and peaceful. We were unaware that we needed reservations for the Coveside Restaurant. So next time, I will definitely make reservations. The marina let us know ahead of time what our mooring assignment was, so we picked it up and settled in really easily. We will definitely be back! Thank you so much!

Marina Response:
Thank you for your review! Definitely give us a call for reservations when you come back, we look forward to your future visit!
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Verified

This is a beautiful harbor. Unfortunately, the last two times we have had dinner at the associated restaurant, the service has been poor (over an hour wait after placing our dinner order). It is apparently severely and chronically understaffed. While I may stay here again, I will plan on enjoying dinner on my boat instead of going ashore.

Marina Response:
Thank you for your review. While we are constantly working on improving our ticket times, we are far busier than ever this season, and as with many seasonal restaurants, staffing with no housing available is very tough for a short 4 month season. Our amazing Coveside team works very hard to make everyone's experience enjoyable under the conditions. We apologize that we did not meet your expectations.
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Verified

not much there at Coveside. Mooring OK. beautiful harbor

Marina Response:
Thank you for visiting Coveside Restaurant & Marina in Christmas Cove. Would you be willing to let us know what was missing at Coveside? We are closed for the 4th of July holiday to allow our hardworking team members time with their families. We strive to make Coveside a fun place for all to visit.
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Verified

Easy to contact, great mooring location. The food and entertainment at Cove side was outstanding! Six stars….

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Verified

Very helpful directions

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Verified

Sept 4, 2022 same review!!! Went by boat, stayed overnight. Gorgeous weekend! Coveside Restaurant has good food and are very gracious hosts! The band Cavemen was the evening entertainment and they rocked! Always a good time at Coveside in Christmas Cove, South Bristol!!

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Verified

Small family run marina and restaurant. Really liked it. They took care of us and there was a band playing on the deck. Will be back!

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Verified

As always, a visit to Coveside is a treat. Great harbor and the added benefit of a great restaurant and deck to enjoy. Thank you.

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Verified

This was our second trip to Coveside this year and we were equally beyond pleased both times. We were happy to be served by Dennis (bartender) who went out of his way to make our time there very pleasant. We are amazed at the professionalism of all involved and amazed at the way the marina can manage the size and amount of boats in such a small space and keep everyone happy! We will be back :)

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Verified

Excellent experience. Mooring was in great shape. Dinghy dock was conveniently located. Restaurant was super busy, but the staff and food were top notch. Loved watching the Osprey families in the the day marker nests. We made a reservation for mooring and restaurant in advance. Good idea.

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Verified

We received our mooring assignment through a message on Dockwa ahead of time. Never talked to anyone when we arrived. Mooring relatively easy to find. Never went ashore so I’m not sure what the facilities were like. Cute little harbor

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Verified

Beautiful spot and nice restaurant

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Verified

Such a wonderful setting. Food is good.

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Very picturesque setting and a really neat burgee bar. They were very accommodating to us despite being very short staffed. Dinner took a very long time, but with a little patience we were able to enjoy the great views while our meals were being prepared. Fun spot!

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Verified

Great place. Great food. Great location.

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Verified

What a great spot, owners are super friendly. Band on Sunday night was great (2-5pm) We got dock space for 1 night and had a good meal at the restaurant. Cove is very protected.

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Verified

Always a great place to stay. Lynette is easily one of the finest hosts on the planet. One of our favorites. We’ll be back later in the season for the music and the French fries. 😊

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Verified

Are at the restaurant and loved food, drink service and atmosphere. Pretty cove also. Going back in two days to see what is happening on Sunday evening😎

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Verified

Could of stayed here forever!

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Verified

Very nice. New docks. The restaurant is still the driver but feels like a marina again. Good Wi-Fi a plus

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Dock with no water or power. Nothing there worth the money

Marina Response:
Thank you for your review. We always try to ensure that our guests are enjoying Christmas Cove as much as we do. Just to clarify, there never has been any indication on Dockwa of power or water being available on our docks.
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Verified

Great spot. Very friendly folks - both staff and visitors. Great party vibe at the restaurant. Highly recommend

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Verified

So pleased with our stay in Christmas Cove. A gorgeous spot which is also very well protected. This was put to the test when a storm front passed through overnight. We were nervous at first as the moorings are packed in pretty tightly. But no issues. Linette was very responsive and friendly when we called about our concerns. Coveside restaurant is a friendly, low-key place to grab a Dark & Stormy. Great stay, we’ll be back!

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Verified

Great spot. Friendly attentive service. Be patient as summer weekends can get pretty lively during the day but usually settle down by late afternoon. And don’t miss the Lobster BLT sandwich.

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Verified

Such a wonderful spot, and clearly popular with the locals. Our host was very responsive and made our stay as easy and fun as possible. Loved the vibe and live music on Sunday afternoon!

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Verified

We had a mooring at the entrance to the harbor. It was a beautiful place to watch the sunset. Decent food with nice service at the restaurant. The whole process was really easy as they communicated really quickly if I had any questions.

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Verified

This is a great spot but we were disappointed that no one responded to our radio calls for a mooring assignment- shouldn’t such an assignment be part of the reservation confirmation particularly when the marina was apparently unstaffed on Monday and Tuesdays. We took up a mooring out of necessity and later in the evening a boat arrived claiming that it had been assigned to his boat. We worked it out but it was awkward B

Marina Response:
Thank you for your review. We always issue a mooring assignment through the Message section on Dockwa. If you visit us in the future, but sure to check your messages for your mooring assignment prior to your arrival.
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Verified

Hard working short staffed dining room staff were pleasant and smiling. Food was good drinks were better. The harbor and site are top notch and not to be missed. Shower was hat and forceful, It would be nice to be able to get water, and electricity for boat with a slip. Hopefully as staffing allows they will have waterfront staff that works as hard as the restaurant staff.

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Verified

Great time listening to the Cavemen.

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Verified

Love the Coveside. Glad they were able to open this year. Moorings are tight but somehow it always seems to work...

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Verified

A longtime favorite, it was nice to be there again! Although we had to switch moorings to accommodate The length of our vessel, the dock was very accommodating. Yummy apps and drinks at the Coveside Restaurant!

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