It doesn’t get any better than Moody’s for fast, cheap and good food. That must be why Moody’s Diner is on everyone’s favorite roadside diner list. If you are heading through Midcoast Maine, and you don’t stop, other travelers may question your sanity.
MOODY’S DINER
US Route 1
Waldoboro, Maine
207-832-7785
Official web site
You only have to look as far as your placemat to get the Moody story. We read it while waiting (and not waiting long) for a quick hamburger and a reuben on the way home to New Hampshire from Downeast Maine. The diner, the palcemat says, was an after thought. The Moody family first opened with three roadside cabins in 1927. They had no running water, no heat and rented for a dollar a night. When the enterprise brought in $600 the first summer, the business expanded.
The diner, originally run by PB and Bertha Moody and still in the family, followed in 1930 as a way to attract visitor’s to the growing village of cabins. Today the expended diner holds 108 people, which is just perfect unless you happen to be one of those waiting in line outside.
We usually just cruise on by during peak tourist season, but we stopped twice in the last two days. Despite a healthy line at 8 am on a Sunday morning, we got seats quickly at the counter. It’s best to stick to the basics in order to really appreciate the quality of this food. Visitors can still get a single egg for 79 cents. The eggs are so fresh and fluffy that they taste like those at no other breakfast spot we know. The pancakes too. One has to wonder why the Moody’s can make breakfast taste so good, or contrastingly, why so few other places – even at twice the price – cannot. Start with the McMoody breakfast sandwich. It has the same ingredients as the chain store sandwich, but is from an entirely different world.
On the way home the following day we immediately got a seat again, had our sandwiches, and were back on the highway in 20 minutes. Total cost for two was $12. Certainly you will want to sample the specials. Whatever is on the board for the day – get it – if you are passing by for dinner.
The service is inevitably friendly. The waitresses have that uncanny and increasingly rare diner radar. The minute you want one, she is there. They still offer, of course, those incredible deserts and homemade pastries popular for 75 years. Besides the often painfully long line, we have not a bad word to say. Which is why you most likely already know Moody’s well.
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