Maybe 3.5. Ordered lord of the rings appetizer and they were devoured by the family. The mussel appetizer was plentiful and delicious but the menu was incorrect and to the point where it loses a whole Star. The menu says homemade garlic butter but it's NOT butter. It's oil based margarine confirmed by the waitress. No thank you. Fresh seafood should be eaten with REAL butter. The burger patties were real and delicious. The scallops were local and yummy read more

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We came with a bus tour from a cruise ship. They prepared a buffet for us, and it was good. They had four different breads for three different cold cuts and two cheeses & lettuce. They had potato and chicken salads & tomato bisque and seafood chowder. Hot tea or coffee was available, and pitchers of cold water were at each table. Apple crisp was dessert. The service was efficient and friendly. The food was good, but not memorable or unique. The decor was homey & welcoming. The shirts were funny: "If we could hire better staff we would." Family joke? It was a pleasant lunch. read more

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We were on our second day doing the full Cabot Trail loop and were famished at around 6 pm. Not a whole lot to choose from on the East side of the loop at this time as early in the season that we were there. My wife found Coastal on Google and we gave it a try. First of all, I'll mention the beer list - quite comprehensive. I had a Garrison and my wife had another local beer (can't remember what it was). Beer was reasonably priced for the area and the type of beer it was. As to the food, I had the fisherman's platter, which contained fried clams, haddock, shrimp, and scallops, followed by a large helping of fresh cut fries. The shrimp was outstanding, with a mild beer batter coating the medium sized prawns. The haddock was good, with a beer batter, but just a bit overcooked. The star of the show were the sea scallops (likely from Digby). They were lightly breaded and fried, with virtually no oily flavor. The scallops themselves were incredibly fresh, with a nice firmness and sweet flavor. The fries were excellent as well, made even better by the malt vinegar and homemade tartar sauce that was available. My wife had the scallops entree and thoroughly enjoyed them as I did. My son had the ringer burger, which was a bit smaller than expected, but was still very good. Overall, a nice experience with friendly and attentive service. I'd recommend Coastal over some of the more touristy places in Ingonish, Pleasant Bay, or other towns high up on the Cabot Trail. read more

Nice food and friendly staff. This place is great for a road trip. We order a jack sparrow sea food plate is great, a little pricey

Totally lives up to "You gotta eat here" I had a delicious burger (topped with fried dill pickles and stuffed jalapeños with house cut fries and a side of local Digby scallops. OMG they were sooo juicy and amazing! My friends enjoyed their meals. Good background music (Nirvana, other rock/grunge) and excellent service. Will definitely eat here again! read more

The Ringer was delicious. Chowder was okay but a little under salted. Muscles weren't in a broth but there was a butter dipping sauce on the side. Shrimp linguini was ok. Nothing exciting. But overall a solid place. Lots of options. Place was busy at dinner time during the summer. read more

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Food was excellent. I had the Ringer and the wife had the Chicken Alfredo. Both were great. The service was fantastic in spite of what their shirts may tell you. I would highly recommend. read more

Only game in town open when we were there and the food as well as the service were good.

four of us enjoyed our meal here, my sister and I split the chicken focaccia and some fries, and the redcoat beer was delicious! The staff was wonderful and friendly! read more

I'd say my review is more a 3.5. Stopped by this place for the lobster and as we heard it was featured on tv. Honestly the lobster was not the best - it was too tough and even talked to random people the next day who said the same thing. It's not cheap too so you'd hope for it to be better cooked. The chowder was good but a bit thick, it came with a sweet bun that complimented it well. The waffle fries and sauce were probably the best thing. My friend got the crab dip and it was bad, basically all mayo. All the workers were really nice and attentive but unfortunately the food could be better. read more

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First of all I really enjoyed the food I got the hamburger and it was very flavourful. Service was amazing they offered a drink on the house just because a bug got in someone's drink. This was an awesome restaurant. If I had one thing to add it would be some seasoning salt on the tables other than that YOU GOTTA EAT HERE! read more

Not a place to grab one of their specialty burgers, unless you have over an hour to kill while waiting for your burger. The burger was OK.

Excellent food! We had a party of 5 and everyone was please with their order. It was busy, so we sat outside, service was great! Prices were reasonable. I will definitely be back! read more

We were recommended at the Cape Breton visitor centre that we try the Famous Ringer Burger at the Coastal Restaurant & Pub. It's a burger topped with onion rings and a special sauce so naturally we had to have it! It was quite delicious and worthy of the hype it received. It comes with a mountain of fries and be warned, you need to be hungry to finish your plate! We also had the fish and chips which was tender in the middle and oh so crispy on the outside. Definitely good pub food and would recommend to any hungry person out there! You'll be happy with your food (possibly feel overly stuffed and sorry for it later though) and the service is great too! A 4.5 would be more accurate of a rating and the reason I didn't give it a 5 stars is based on the atmosphere in the restaurant. Most walls are bear and although the food is pub food the feel definitely isn't. The walls are mostly bare and there is no feeling of this being a pub or having a bar. read more

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We came here as a last minute change of plans and loved it. Huge portions and everything was delicious. Exceptionally friendly wait staff to boot! read more

Dropped in for a lunch in-between a tour of the Cabot trail. The buffet lunch was included with the price of our tour (159$ US per person). For the price we paid, we were expecting a better quality lunch (I'm not sure who arranged what kind of food we would eat). Arrived to a buffet of make-it-yourself cold cut sandwiches, soup, mussels and apple strudel. Some of the cold cut meat (roast beef), turkey salad and egg salad tasted really off. Not sure if it went bad or that's just how they make it. Clam chowder and turkey veggie soup was pretty good! read more

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Of course we had to visit Coastal to try the famous Ringer burger. Service was excellent and food was great too. Lots of reviews ringer was best burger they'd ever had. Not sure I would agree but worth a try at least once read more

Coastal Restaurant & Pub - Fish Burger and waffle fries. - Pubs Near Me - Ingonish, Nova Scotia

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TERRIBLE TERRIBLE TERRIBLE! After spending a full week touring NS, this was the worst meal we had by far! I ordered fish and chips which arrived so overcooked and saturated in oil. I complained to the server as soon as the plate was put on the table, to which the server replied that's the way they always serve them. Considering we are on the NS coastline, you'd think they'd purchase and supply fresh fish, not some fish in batter bought that comes in your typical catering pack that they serve up in most bar's. My wife's meal of scallops was equally bad and once again, most likely out of a catering pack straight out of the freezer. Clearly this restaurant does not have chefs, just people who take catering pack food out of the freezer and throw them into a deep fat fryer. Avoid this so called restaurant at all costs! read more

The Thai wonton nachos are superb. Friendly people and great vibes!!. Would totally come back for this alone!

Delish! Our group ordered lobster Sammie's, digby scallops, and mussels - excellent meal! Great friendly service! Very popular place! Did not order the Ringer burger which they are known for, but it was the most popular order looking around! read more

4.5 if I could be more specific. Ordered; crab dip, mussels & tried my friends seafood pasta. The pasta was to die for. Huge portion so worth the $30 - I would suggest sharing this dish! Had it with the Alfredo sauce not marina. Lots of big chunks of lobster & full of seafood! Crab dip was amazing; a little on the too sweet side though so it was really nicely paired with the mussels. Mussels were generic as they were with melted butter rather than a wine or cream sauce. They were a great size, huge portion and cooked very well. I was very happy with them. Before coming, a friend said the food was fine but service is slow. I think the food was beyond just fine - very flavourful! Service was slow at the beginning but it was very busy in there with a crowd of rowdy baseball winners - so they definitely had their hands full before taking orders! Staff was nice and polite, apologized for the slower service (on taking orders - food came out in a timely matter!). May have had to ask for our waters a second time but it's easy to just ask rather than complain :) WILL be back when visiting again! read more

Coastal Restaurant & Pub - Crab dip, mussels, seafood pasta - Pubs Near Me - Ingonish, Nova Scotia

I am a repeat visitor from the states (New York) to the Cabot Trail. First time I stopped at "Coastal" had the Lobster sandwich with chowdah. Pros: Good service. Not too crowded and not loud. Attmosphere was 3 of 5 - No views but not necessary. Cons: None If you're on the Cabot Trail and nearby Ingonish you should stop in if your even slightly hungry. You won't be disappointed. Enjoy and have a great read more

While Gord and I were driving around the Cabot Trail on Saturday, we stopped for lunch at the Coastal Waters Restaurant & Pub in Ingonish. Inside it looks like a family-style restaurant which was in contrast to the biker info on the sign outside. I liked it. There was a band setting up while we were there. Gord ordered fish and chips. He said they were good. I ordered the Coastal Ringer burger and fries. It was a good burger! It will be featured on "The Best Thing I Ever Ate" in the spring. Both came with a ton of fries. Our servers took good care of us and were very friendly. read more

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Went here for a bit of lunch when we were traveling up the western edge of Cape Breton. We had just gotten through the National Park gate and a bit of a tour through the Keltic lodge and were feeling peckish. Not famished, but we could certainly put something down until supper, so we weren't looking for anything deeply involved. The outside of the Coastal Restaurant is kind of nondescript and unassuming, but since there were vehicles out front we gave it a shot. Inside it is also relatively plain, but it is clean and there were no offending odors. We both ordered a simple burger with cheese, and out came a pair of burgers that I would certainly go back for! The burger patties are home made, and taste wonderful. The buns compliment the rest of the burger quite well. The fries were good as well, though not outstanding... but they were not really the star of the plate... the burger was! If you are passing by and need a bite to eat, you certainly can't go wrong in picking this location to sate your hunger. read more

Coastal Restaurant & Pub - Front entrance - Pubs Near Me - Ingonish, Nova Scotia

Excellent dinner coming off a long day of trail hiking. Food was timely and tasty during the peak dinner time. Staff was polite and very quick. It was record heat for the day and they worked tirelessly to get the food out. My burger with bacon jam.was spot on, and hubby loves his scallops. Take a chance for a local.oub and eatery. read more

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Had a great time! Huge portions of delicious pub food. We had the famous ringer burger and the special inferno burger. Both pilled high with so much yum! The Inferno burger had mozza sticks, cheese, bacon and a in-house made spicy sauce. I can feel my arteries slowing down from all it's cheesy goodness. The staff were great too and you could tell they care about what they are doing! read more

Coastal Restaurant & Pub - Pubs Near Me - Ingonish, Nova Scotia

The food was pretty good but the service was just terrible. Our short haired blonde waitress seemed to be concerned about every local in the restaurant and could give a flying crap about tourists. No quality check, no upsell not even a bill delivered to the table. All the food was delivered to us cold. It was disappointing because I don't think there very many options in this town for any alternatives. The wait time for the food was crazy long, even just to get the house special crabdip was 15 mins for delivery to the table. The upside was the chowder, the fisherman's catch soup thing was good, it came with a generous portion of seafood, including a half lobster, unfortunately it was cold. The lobster club was good but nothing special also served cold and served with frozen onion rings. The ok food was over shadowed by the crap service. read more

Coastal Restaurant & Pub - Pubs Near Me - Ingonish, Nova Scotia

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Spent 2 days in Ingonish and checked this place out one night. Quite decent food overall but the service was horrible, waitress never came by even once after we got our food and it took forever to arrive Bucket of mussels for $10 was an insane deal, loved it although I am unsure of their origin Chicken sandwich was excellent , burger was decent but overcooked. Poutine was terrible, had bagged shredded cheese and the gravy had skin on it 3 stars sounds right read more

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Worst lunch ever. On a HAL excursion, Taste of Cabot Trail, we stopped here for a "buffet" Lunch. The offerings were roast beef and cheese for sandwiches, I don't eat red meat, egg salad and turkey salad. The turkey salad was inedible. I had great hopes for they much lauded "Seafood" Chowder made with all seafood and no filler, i.e. Potato! While it looked good it was a little tough and pretty tasteless! The only good thing was Alexander Keith's Ale on tap. The berry crispy and coffee were OK! Not sure if the food was awful because we were a group, but I'd recommend any other stop! read more

There were very few eating places as I cruised the east coast of cape Breton heights. So it's either the Seagull or the Coastal. Considering the massive farm land and the coastal location, the food offered was not tasting well enough. Ringer burger was frozen meat pattie with oily onion rings ... I ordered the fish and chips and had to leave the fries on plate. I noticed the other tables were doing the same. But there are no other food options. read more

We stopped here on the advise of a mutual friend. The Ringer burger was Ok but nothing out of the ordinary. The seafood chowder was creamy and delicious. read more

Great stop for lunch or dinner. We stopped in for dinner after seeing that the Seagull was closed for the season, glad we ate here instead! We ordered a lobster dinner which included a medium sized lobster, mashed potatoes, veggies, and their seafood chowder with home made biscuits. The lobster, chowder, and biscuits were amazing!!! Especially for $29.99. We also shared a snow crab foccacia sandwich with sweet potato fries-the snow crab was cooked perfectly and sweet potato fries were soft but crispy on the outside ($26). You really do gotta eat here like the Food Network says! read more

Coastal Restaurant & Pub - Pubs Near Me - Ingonish, Nova Scotia

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Twice in less than 24 hours. First was dinner, then lunch. The restaurant hours are a tad confusing, as one sign said they closed at 7pm, and one 7:30pm, but we got in and they fed us, so I can't complain too much. Service is super friendly, but when they're busy, it might take a while to flag someone down. The prices aren't super cheap, but they're very reasonable for the amount of food you get, and the quality of food you get. They're known for their ringer burger, featured on You Gotta Eat Here. We tried that at lunch. The ringer sauce (their homemade BBQ sauce), is quite strong. We felt it overpowered the burger itself. Their current burger special, the 150 burger, is much better. It's one of the best burgers I've ever eaten. It's juicy and meaty and has bacon AND bacon jam on it. Canadian, eh? We got the mussels ($9?) because I really like mussels and because at that price point, I'm always curious to see what I get. This one was very legit. Large portion. Very fresh. Best mussels of our trip. This was towards the tail end of our east coast trip. We'd had fish and chips at a number of places, but the fish and chips here were the best. Super thick pieces of haddock in what looks like a thick batter but isn't a thick batter. It was incredibly juicy on the inside and the batter was crisp. It also held up very well when we nuked our leftovers the next morning. Their steak dinner, at $16.99 for an 8 ounce striploin, is very reasonably priced. The steak could have been salted a tad more, but that's personal preference. It came with veggies and a potato side, daily soup, or roasted veggie quinoa (salad, sweet potato fries, onion rings, etc., available as upgrades). A couple of us got the quinoa. I've never seen any place put so much quinoa on a plate as a side before. My brother checked Instagram before ordering (he does that sometimes), and saw their lobster ravioli. It had been a previous daily special. They did not have it the day we went, but they said they could make him a lobster tortellini with sun-dried tomato sauce for $20.99. He ordered it. The portion was HUGE and the dish came rimmed with more mussels! The portion of lobster was alright, but there can never be too much lobster, can there? The sauce was actually sun-dried tomatoes in alfredo sauce. It was a very rich, very filling dish. My brother finished between a third and a half of it and we took the rest back to our motel for breakfast. Honorable mentions go to their spinach salad, their club sandwich, and their roasted tomato and pepper soup. Vacation over, so I'm probably going to lose my duchess title here, but it was great while it lasted. read more

I love this place. We were driving on our way back from the Cabot Trail and saw a sign on the side of the street with the 'Food Network' and 'You Gotta Eat Here' logo on it. Pulled over immediately and grabbed an early lunch. My god, their Seafood chowder was amazing. Their signature 'Coastal Ringer' burger was amazeballs. Juicy, messy and flavourful. It also came with their hamburger soup. Driving the next 4.5 hours back to Halifax lethargic and full wasn't fun but it was well worth it. read more

I had the lobster club sandwich and my husband had the ringer burger and both were great! The waiter was very nice and apologized for the food being a bit slow. (New cook getting used to the menu I think) read more

Coastal Restaurant & Pub - Lobster club with a side Caesar salad. - Pubs Near Me - Ingonish, Nova Scotia

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We had a fabulous seafood lunch at Coastal with a waiter named Daniel (cutest smile ever) taking very good care of us. Our mussels were piled high on a platter and we had a delicious Caesar salad and a lobster BLT on focaccia bread. The garlic butter for dipping the mussels was great and the Black Angus IPA was just right. All in all a wonderful lunch! read more

This was a great find for us. The food was fantastic especially the chicken sandwich, and the lobster sandwich. But what was really amazing was the special cinnamon dessert. It was to die for with a hot cinnamon roll, cool vanilla ice cream and a butterscotch drizzle. And the price was very reasonable. The service wa also great with a waitress who was friendly, helpful and fun. The four of us agreed that this was the best meal of our 10 day stay in Nova Scotia and also the cheapest. We're back again tonight for another meal. read more

Coastal Restaurant & Pub - Pubs Near Me - Ingonish, Nova Scotia

Not a place to go if you are in a rush. From the time we sat down to the time we ate it was close to 1 hour. The place was packed and hardly anyone was eating. My wife pointed out oh they got food then 5 or 10 mins later oh look here comes more food and so on like that until it was our turn. It seems to me the kitchen works on one table then the next table then next table etc... In places I worked we would put out as many tables as we could if we could time it a few tables may get food at once. Anyway the server was nice and nobody in the place seemed to care about the food coming out the way it did. We had a relaxing time and were on vacation so it really did not matter. The food was good. I had the fish cakes and beans. My wife had the ringer burger. The food right down to the fries appear to be made in house. The chow chow that came with the fish cakes was from a jar but I expected that and the fish cakes could have used more fish. They were mostly made of mashed potato and I would have liked to see chunks of potato and more fish but I can always cook at home of course to get what I want. The place overall is great considering what choices are in the area. Not much to pick from if you are looking to eat out. read more

Good food, great beer. I only wish they had more lobster options on the menu, but they do cover your pub food favourites!

They do not allow dogs (10 lbs and 15lbs) in the restaurant, they do not serve outside on their deck, nor do they have takeout. I mean we could've just eaten outside but no. If you have pets on your trip or vacation you can forget this place. I would not call this a "family restaurant". Our pets are our family. read more