When someone says they had a great meal at a gas station, you might raise an eyebrow, but when several folks on social media can’t stop gushing about “the restaurant at the gas station,” you have to try it out. Atmosphere: 18/20 Menu: 18/20 Food: 16/20 Service: 15/20 Value: 18/20 Total: 85/100 Dad and I wanted to beat the weekend dinner crowd so we visited Town Cabin Pub in Candia in the afternoon. Because the Town Cabin is part of the Candia First Stoppe Country Store complex that includes a country store, a gas station and a Dunkin’, it’s hard to tell who’s there to fuel up their car or themselves.
We made our way through the crowded store, passed the butcher’s counter and arrived at the hostess stand. Almost immediately I sensed they were short staffed as we got a few harried looks from servers who were hustling and didn’t have time to seat us. One of them eventually freed up and sat us at a table close to the bar.
The restaurant space is wide open with a high wood-paneled ceiling, so even with the restaurant half full it sounded crowded. There was a lot of action at the bar with the TVs showing college football to a sizeable group of patrons. The pub features 28 seats, and more than half were filled.
Our seat location also added to the volume. It was hard to hear our server when she was standing right over us. It was a day in which the summer heat had seemingly transitioned overnight into cooler fall air, so I decided I wanted to start with something hot, .
