When we are traveling to a place you haven’t been before, trying out restaurants in the area is one of the most fun thing for us to do. Out of all the places we found, this place took first place by wooing our hearts (and stomach). We liked it so much that we dined here twice during our stay in Lincoln. They had a nice big sign, easy to see from the main road, with some antique-looking farm equipment on the side.
The restaurant is pretty big, with a house with barn (?) attached to it. On the house side, they seem to have outdoor patio seating on the second floor, although I am not sure if they are in use. I assume it is, on a nice weather days.
The barn (?) side had lots of firewood ready, and I could see a nice sized chimney on the roof from the outside. It must be super cozy on the cold months. They first opened its door in 1985, we could certainly see history with this building.
They come with a nice, large parking lot. This photo was taken before the restaurant opened for the day. Once it is open for business, it gets packed!
When we entered from the main entrance up front, there was a nice little vestibule. It must be very necessary during the cold months, this will prevent heat from escaping from the inside of the building, keeping everyone warm.
When we entered through the second door, there was a hostess station right there, and a cozy waiting area. I liked the signs they had at the hostess station, which said “Running Children will Wash Dishes.” Awesome! The inside was very warm, welcoming and homey.
They had staircase leading up to the second floor dining area. They have dining area on the first floor as well, mainly to the left of the hostess station, inside the “house” side of the building. The right side of the hostess station, or “barn” side, is a bar and lounge.
On our first visit, they took us to a table upstairs. They do NOT take reservation, so they will seat you wherever there is an empty table. At the top of the stairs, they had a cute little green wooden bench, and next to it was their bathroom,
The upstairs was separated into a few dining rooms/areas, and each room had its special name. We were taken to the dining area on the barn side, which was kind of like horse shoe shaped.
They had tables of different sizes and shapes, and the interior was heavy with wood. It was very cozy and homey. Even though it was a nice big space, it still felt like we were inside someone’s home.
A home from century ago, that is. The old wood ceiling, floor, and antique-looking decorations on the walls really set the mood. And those who loves old advertisements and pictures, they sell them right here! It is fun to look at all the beautiful or funny ads from the 60s and 70s…
In the middle of the horse shoe is their lounge section downstairs, called “Bar ‘n Grill” with a huge fieldstone fireplace. The fireplace is really massive and quite impressive. I am sure it does a great job at keeping this large space warm during the winter. They have a bar across the wall from the fireplace, and it was packed as well.
Across from the fireplace lounge is another comfy seating area. The ceiling does not go all the way to the roof on this side, making it a bit more cozy. They have a good amount of couches, and these lounge areas also have parlor games for the customers to enjoy. How fun!
But the coolest thing this room has, is a cheese & cracker section! You can walk over their after you put in your order and get some fresh cheese, crackers, and some dips. They had regular cheese dip and spicy kind in pink, and I really liked the spicy one. I think it was horseradish cheese dip. There was a huge blog of cheese on the cutting board if you want to get some cheese as well. They have small plates and napkins right there so that you don’t have to carry your plates to go get them. And they refill the crackers often, so everyone can enjoy it. And yes, they are complimentary! Sweet!
Once we got our cheese and crackers, we headed back to the second floor to our table. They brought out some complimentary breads, and they looked really good. They provide dinner rolls and small pieces of pound cakes. The pound cakes are baked daily with different flavor, which I thought was awesome. This night, it was poppy seed pound cake and it was delicious! Sweet, moist, and amazing… The dinner rolls were super fluffy!
They serve American fare such as prime rib, homemade baked macaroni and cheese, and crab cakes. They also had very tasty sounding drink menu as well, so we decided to get some cocktails. We ordered White Chocolate Raspberry ($9) and The Perfect Peach ($7).
White Chocolate Raspberry is one of their Martinis, and is made with raspberry vodka, white crème de cacao, and splash cream. It was indicated on the menu that it “tastes like a dream!” This one also one of the popular drinks here, according to our waitress. When she brought the drink to the table, she poured it out from the shaker, and asked if I wanted to keep shaker at the table, and I of course said yes. So I got to keep the ice with more goodies left in shaker. It was nice and smooth, not overly sweet. Super strong and nice Chocolate flavor, I really liked it. As it was really strong, it was good to add watered-down leftover from the shaker into the glass as I drank it.
The Perfect Peach is one of their staff’s creation from another Common Man restaurant location in Ashland (they have several locations). It is made with peach whiskey, fresh squeezed lemon and a splash of unsweetened iced tea. This was also super strong, and had great peach aroma. It did not have much sweetness to it, other than from the peach whiskey. The combination of peach and iced tea was really nice, great drink to relax you from a busy day.
For appetizers, we ordered Rock Crab Cake ($8.99) and Lobster Corn Chowder ($7.99). Rock Crab Cake is cooked pan-fried and finished with roasted pepper-onion salad and lemon basil aioli. It was a good size, about the same as hamburger patty, but more round than flat.
It was very meaty, crab meat galore. Super juicy and pretty amazing. They say it is their “famous” crab cake, and I can see this would be one of their top selling item. The veggies that came with it were super fresh veggie. The peppers had subtle sweetness to it and onions were nicely flavored.
Lobster Corn Chowder came with a little cornbread and oyster crackers. It was bigger than small bowl, but not too big. I say medium size? The chowder was filled almost to the rim, with beautiful golden color.
It had a generous amount of lobster meat, and very creamy and comforting. It had nice sweetness from the corn, deep, rich flavor and just the right amount of seasoning. It was better than I expected it to be, which is always a plus.
For main course, we ordered Pulled Pork Mac ($15.99) and Baked Stuffed Sole ($21.99). Pulled Pork Mac is their classic Mac & Cheese with pulled pork and caramelized onions. It came with a side of veggies of the day. On this day, it was green beans and carrots, they were cooked nicely, fresh and tasty.
The mac and cheese was super comforting with generous amount of pulled pork. It was packed with flavor, cheesy and very satisfying. I liked that it came in a cast iron, and even though it looked kind of small, it was certainly filling. The bread crumb on the top added extra texture of crunchy, crispness.
Baked Stuffed Sole was their special of the day. They have great specials, so make sure to check them out before you order! The sole is stuffed with scallop crab mousse, then oven baked with lobster cream sauce. Doesn’t that sound just amazing? It also came with the veggie of the day, and a choice of rice pilaf, potato or side salad. We went with rice pilaf.
The rice pilaf was really amazing, I loved it! It was earthy and delicious, addicting and super flavorful. I know it is just a side dish, but it certainly deserved to be in the spot light.
And the sole…it was super amazing! Buttery, flaky, melt in your mouth. It was packed with flavor, every bite was heavenly. Soft, juicy, and simply delicious. I was afraid the filling would be somehow really bad, like being too tough, too mushy, or the overwhelmingly strong taste that it fights against the fish. But it was nothing like that at all, it had great texture, nice amount of seasoning, and although it had great flavor, it complimented the sole perfectly.
Since we were having such amazing meal, we decided to go for the dessert. They had such amazing sounding dessert menu, so it was not easy to decide on which one… We went with one of their most popular desserts, Mud Pie ($5.99). It has a graham cracker packed with Common Man made coffee and chocolate ice cream. Finished with hot fudge and freshly whipped cream. It is their version of Mud Pie, and it does not have “cake” part, just crust and ice cream, which was just fine for us! And it was HUGE!!! It came with crazy amount of whipped cream, and very nice coffee flavor of the ice cream. It was super awesome, we absolutely LOVED it!
While we were enjoying the Mud Pie, our lovely waitress came with a basket full of white chocolate, and gave us some for free. So, dinner at this restaurant comes with complimentary cheese & crackers, complimentary bread, and complimentary white chocolates! Oh my! She gave us a generous amount of it, and it was fantastic!
When we were finishing our desserts, our waitress brought our bill in a book! It was a book titled “Don’t Judge a Girl by Her Cover” which was pretty fun (and so true). She told us to put down whatever we wanted on the book.
When we opened up the book, we found out what she meant. The past patrons have put down a little note and/or drawing on it, mostly a date of visit or thank you note to the restaurant/servers. I of course put down a little note of thanks on the book as well. What a fun way to bring a bill to the customers.
As I mentioned, we enjoyed our dinner at Common Man so much that we went back for lunch on another day. This time, we were taken to their first floor dining room. It is on the “house” side of the restaurant, and was a nice big size. Lots of table seating and very homey.
It had nice big windows, bringing in lots of natural lights. The decor was very old-fashion, warm and cozy. Again, it was like visiting someone’s home for a nice hot meal.
We got the fluffy dinner rolls and pound cakes again, a bit less than the dinner portion. The pound cake for this day was apple cinnamon. Yes, it was really yummy, with great flavor of cinnamon and relaxing sweetness from apple. I love how they offer different pound cakes every day!
We ordered Crab-Crusted Haddock ($23.99/$16.99) and Nantucket Pie ($24.99). The Crab-Crusted Haddock normally comes with lemon butter baked haddock crusted with their award-winning crab cake and served with roasted red pepper-basil cream ($23.99). If you are not that hungry and want a smaller portion, they have option for that. Since I didn’t want to over-stuff myself, I went with the smaller portion, simply baked with lemon butter sauce and Ritz crumbs ($16.99).
It comes with the veggie of the day and choice of side. Sine I loved their rice pilaf so much, I chose pilaf again. The veggie was butternut squash, very fresh with minimum seasoning. The pilaf was as good as I remembered, super flavorful and delicious!
The haddock was juicy, flaky, perfectly cooked. Generous portion and had great flavor. Another great thing about this place is that the food comes on hot plates, which I really appreciate! A beautiful hot food can be ruined by serving it on a very cold plate…
Nantucket Pie comes with shrimp, scallops, haddock and Maine lobster meat baked with lobster cream sauce and our seasoned Ritz crumbs ($24.99). It also came with veggie of the day and a choice of side. Of course, we got the pilaf with this one as well.
It was packed with plump seafood, generous amount, really. Loved each piece, soaked in the sauce, juicy and super flavorful. The sauce was really tasty, after all the seafood was gone, we dipped the bread in the sauce to finish it off. Yum!
We enjoyed their dessert the last visit, we decided to try another one. We were there during the July 4th weekend, so they had a special dessert for the day. We decided to go with that. It was Blueberry and Strawberry Shortcake ($5.99), also referred to as Red, White and Blue cake. It is made with fresh strawberries and blueberries, served over a warm biscuit and homemade whipped cream. It was pretty darn good, better than I thought it would be. The biscuit was fluffy and comforting, the berries were super fresh, ripe and sweet. Generous amount of whipped cream. It was heavenly, prefect dessert for celebration!
We did get some of their white chocolate chunks again, much smaller portion this time… I am sure it varies between lunch and dinner, and also each servers will give out different amount. It was still awesome and much appreciated.
This time, our bill came in a book titled “A Connie Blair Mystery.” I again put down my notes of appreciation in the book as other customers have done so. What a nice way to leave a record of your pleasant visit.
Their bathroom is another cheerful spot to get some readings. The walls are painted with quotes from books. It was heavy with wood everywhere, creating kind of wood cabin in a mountain of sort. The cozy-ness of the interior is carried into the bathroom.
They had quotes from the book everywhere, which was very interesting. It certainly makes you want to read some good books!
Both of our visits were pleasant, we left full and satisfied. The waitresses, Aria and Jennifer were really nice and friendly, made us feel welcomed. The manager made her rounds on both days, making sure all the customers are happy and well taken care of. With warm service, delicious food, welcoming and relaxing atmosphere and so much more, this restaurant has become our favorite spot in Lincoln NH. I am sure we will go back for more on our next visit!
The Common Man – 10 Pollard Rd, Lincoln, NH 03251