Lobster in Hutchinson

Cousins Maine Lobster

 Lobster in Hutchinson? Well, believe it or not, we saw the announcement and we were super excited. We put it on our calendars and Heidi actually got a couple hours off from work so we could have a lunch date and enjoy some lobster in Hutchinson. When we woke up on Wednesday, we were surprised to see that the weather had rolled in.

As if Maine was still in winter and delivered right to our doorstep in Kansas…the weather was cold, the weather was wet, the weather even had snow. Hard to believe it was 80 degrees just a couple of days before. As we pulled up to the Lowe’s parking lot to try the cousin’s main lobster, we saw the black truck.

As a disclaimer, I want to remind the reader of how many times I have come to these pages as a beacon of encouragement. We have been blown away since our move to Hutchinson with the openness and hospitality of local businesses and organizations. I also created this space to give honest reviews of my experiences in doing business here in town.

As we drove up to the truck, we saw traffic pulling in and braving the cold winter-like weather, and we shuffled up to the window to place our order. It smelled good enough from the distance, and people sure looked happy to pick up their food. The guy in the truck was super friendly and expeditious. We were off to a great start.

Now, I’m just gonna throw this out there as kind of a pre-warning as to why I am writing this review in the way that I am. You see. This food truck is the most expensive food truck I’ve ever been to in my life. If I’m gonna pay $24 for a sandwich, and I compare that to restaurants in town that pay for buildings and property tax and all of the things that go with running a restaurant, my expectations are gonna be set pretty high.

I’m also a little bit of a foodie with an appetite, so I’m gonna be looking at. Portion size. I’m gonna be looking at the use of spices and flavors, and I’m gonna set my bar really high – again because the pricing is demonstrable of a 4/5-star restaurant… for a sandwich. So we pull up, we see the truck, we order, and near, instantly they hand us a bag of food. Again… off to a great start.

Now we ordered two lobster rolls and what they call lobster tots, which is on the menu. Tater tots covered in lobster and pico de gallo. The lobster rolls that we had ordered, were the garlic lobster rolls, so we are expecting… you know, a lot of garlic flavor, a lot of seasoning. To be honest with you, we were expecting portions, demonstrable of the experience of paying a hundred dollars to get lunch for three people.

When they handed us the bag, I was amazed at how light the bag felt in my hands. Since winter had come upon us for one day, in the middle of the week, we decided to take our bag home with us. And as you can see in the picture, I took a picture of a full lobster roll next to a fork. I wanted to kind of show you the size of the portion that we had received.

Now these lobster rolls were $24 a piece, and then of course we have a cardboard box filled with lobster tots. Now again. I’m a little bit of a foodie, and sometimes I get a little bit critical, but if I’m going to create something with tater tots that’s gonna have anything like a sauce or some kind of runny, juicy component on top of it, typically I am going to make those tots crispy and then put the sauce.

The menu photo showed the components served to the side – not layered. But when I saw that they laid the components on top of the tots…

Well, what we received were partially cooked tots that were still soft. And then when you add the pico de gallo and the kind of the lobster sauce on top, you get a box of mushy mashed potatoes with some. Fried cruchies in it or something like that. The consistency was not very good.

Now, what I will say is the pico de gallo tasted awesome. The pico on this lobster tot portion was what saved the whole lobster tot dish.

The lobster rolls were divided up into three and each person got to have a sample. And then of course we had a cup of lobster bisque, which we split – really just to have a taste.

The lobster bisque was like a slightly seasoned warm milk-like room temperature soup, with chunks of lobster in it, but not a bisque like what I would have gotten at a restaurant on the East Coast. Now I realize that this review sounds harsh. If this food would have cost 25 or $30, I probably would’ve walked away and said, well, we tried. Then I would have dismissed the review as a non-event.

However, we ordered and tipped and spent nearly a hundred dollars on lunch for three people. And when I look at the portion size and the quality of the preparation and the presentation of the food, it falls short of what the expectations should be to be in that price range.

I know that sounds harsh and I really wanna back up people that provide services and provide products in our region, but in this instance, the price just didn’t match the outcome.

If you love lobster and you have to have some lobster, then maybe this is it for you. If you’re someone that doesn’t like seasoning, that doesn’t like robust flavors, then this would be awesome for you.

I just had my expectations set much higher, and as I said, we were super excited. We had set the time aside, we had made it into a kind of a date. We knew that it was gonna be expensive because we reviewed the menu before we went to the truck, and then what we’d received.

It Just didn’t match our expectations.

As a footnote, I would also like to say that we attempted to follow the directions on the Facebook announcement. We attempted to pre-order online. We went to the website, we downloaded the application. We attempted to find Hutchinson and kudos to them… their Facebook announcement did say that in some locations the app wouldn’t work, but true to that notice, we were unable to order online.

Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose. This one, we would strike off our list.

Kurt