Sunday is probably among the busiest times to search for a nice eatery in old town Concord, MA. It seems the options were limited for a town so vested in tourist traffic. We didn't want the formality of the Concord Inn down the street, opting instead for the Main St. Market and Cafe. It apparently really was an old style grocery/market back 50 years ago. It was informal, busy and noisy with lots of people coming and going. Service was slow but our lunch picks were worth the wait. My friend had a turkey wrap that included the stuffing and cranberry sauce; she called it "Thanksgiving all rolled up!" I had a crab cakes panini which was tasty and filling. Surprisingly, this little place had a nice bar service to it. The bloody mary had a nifty bit of horseradish and kick to it. While we were too full to enjoy dessert, we will definitely be back just to sample some of the gorgeous looking treats displayed there.

A brief visit to Concord lead us to this small cafe in the downtown area. It was the only place that didn't have a wait to sit down for lunch and now I know why. It's expensive, has slow service and only average food.

In more detail: The slow service was offered by a just barely polite girl. We ordered Bloody Mary's and they were watered-down and bland. Then, I ordered a watermelon salad with blueberries and feta cheese, opting also to add some sauteed shrimp. The original price of the salad was $11 dollars and the extra shrimp cost $6.50. For that price, I expected a gigantic meal of a salad. Not so - when it was brought out, I was appalled by how small it was. The plate was literally a salad plate. Also, they gave me exactly 6 shrimp, which if you do the math, comes to over a dollar a shrimp and they definitely weren't the jumbo kind.

My husband got a turkey and cranberry sauce wrap with fries that cost about 9 dollars, while my teeny tiny salad cost $17.50! I wanted to talk to the manager and ask, "REALLY? What in this salad constitutes that high of a price tag?", but my husband wanted to just get the heck out of there.

I didn't blame him.

We were on a three-week long roadtrip that took us all over New England from Boston, to Niagara Falls to Vermont and New Hampshire and this place was the worst of the 21 dinners we ate.

So much business makes for slow service but it wasn't terrible service and the food was quite good. The clam chowder was excellent.

For a town relatively close to a national park, the Minute Man Trail, Concord offers relatively few dining options at lunch time. We found the Main Street Market to be too crowded so we went around the corner to the burrito place which is literally a closet. They have decent burritos, queseadlillas and presumbably pizzas and ice cream here. (We had burrito and quesadillas). The service was a little slow but that was b/c the women in front of us ordered two burritos EACH. They were a little quiet about it, yeah, I guess so. One of those suckers about shut down my daughter for the day.

They have a nice garden in the back and this is a perfectly acceptable choice for lunch. If you had the time, I'd probably try to go a supermarket and grab sandwiches and picnic in the park, which is really quite pretty and offers a lot of shade and terrific history.

We took a gamble on this little restaurant and we were glad we did. It has atmosphere and character and the food and the service were great. There is a nice selection of interesting sandwiches on good bread and a few good beers on tap. If we are in Concord again, we will return for lunch.