Chowdahs

We came for lunch, the service was friendly and prompt. The food was some of the best we came across while here. The prices were very reasonable, unlike most of the places we visited in town. They didnt make us feel like tourists. The bisque was excellent, and the portions were just the right amount. Take it from Ny’ers this is good eating.

Frozen fried clams in Bar Harbor Maine? I think this is all I need to say. The waiter admitted to the frozen fried clams and the frozen fried shrimp that my daughter had. This was an awful meal. If you must avoid one restaurant while in Bar Harbor, pick this one. On the other hand, I was told the lobster is fresh. Whoopee.

My dad ate at this place when visiting Bar Harbor. He didn’t realize how horrible it was going to be — he doesn’t use Unilocal yet!
He got the broiled fish, which was sitting in a casserole dish in a puddle of water/​butter — he couldn’t tell!
The peas seemed to be canned peas — terrible.
Baked potato was good.
It cost too much for a lousy meal.
He says DON’T WASTE YOUR TIME!

Don’t waste your time. There was not one good thing about the visit. Service sucked and food was out of a can or frozen box.

Awful. Food inedible. Sent it back and went elsewhere. Listen to the people on Unilocal

This place is great if you’re looking for a quick bite to eat or are on the go. They do have a take out window which I’m a huge fan of for something quick, but their dine-​in service is rough.
The food is average, limited menu, the wait staff is nice, but very slow. They seem quite disorganized. The last trip I went on, nobody had any silverware.
Good things… Blueberry Ale on tap (touristy, I know) and they make Thunder Hole Punch which is delicious!

Previous reviews are spot on, really slow service and below average food. Stay away.

I’m not even going to waste my time or yours writing a long review. You can and will do much better in town. Terrible service from a terse, inexperienced staff and incredibly bland food; I wouldn’t recommend this place to anyone. My family has been coming to Mount Desert Island for 60 years and we all agreed this was one of the worst meal experiences we’ve ever had.

The service was very nice, but that’s about it. The food just wasn’t very good — we tried different meat and seafood, and none of it worked out very well. Not worth the money.

We went on vacation with 2 kids and a large dog so our choices for restaurants was limited.
Chowdahs have indoor, outdoor and take out seating. They don’t allow dogs in either the indoor or outdoor areas so no waiter service. They have three picnic tables at the takeout area which was fine for us.
The food was good. We ordered mostly fried seafood. The service was great tho. The owner happened to be at the window and although takeout was «cash» only. He allowed us to pay with a card. Good thing as our bill was right at what we had for cash.
The table next to us was 3 adults and three children that were Europeon tourists with limited English skills. They ordered steamed lobsters for the entire table. The owner came out and gave them lessons on how to clean and breakdown the lobsters.
It was a nice touch!

We spent 3 days in Bar Harbor and Chowdahs was easily the worst meal we had. It might be the worst place I have ever eaten at. We got suckered by a too good to be true Sunset Dinner for 2 where you get a2 entrees, 2 deserts and an app for $ 22. That should have been a clue that the food wasn’t very good but how bad could it be? Extremely. The wait staff was completely clueless, mostly Eastern European kids without any knowledge of restaurant service. The hostess took our drink, a carafe of Pinot Grigo and then served us red wine.
The fried Calamari was bland but edible. The Swordfish was obviously previously frozen as it was chewy and nearly impossible to cut with a knife. It was so undercooked in the center I sent it back. It took forever for them to get it back to me. All they had to do was fire it up on the grill for a few minutes but instead gave me a new Swordfish that was also undercooked. At this point I at around the edged because I just wanted the ordeal to end. The veggie side was just peas and carrots out of a can which was inedible. My wife ordered linguini with clams that was go creamy she couldn’t take more then 3 bites. It was a gross bowl of fat.
So we are done and we just want to get out and drink away the awful tastes in our mouths somewhere else and it took almost 30 minutes after our plates were taken to finally get a check. It was 7:45 and the place was only half full on a Saturday. The rest of restaurants in Bar Harbor have a line outside the door.
Stay away. Stay far away. Horrible service and a sorry excuse for seafood, The cooks do not have any idea what they are doing. Gordon Ramsey needs to come up to Bar Harbor and kick these hacks in the butt.

Basically, the food just wasn’t all that good. We got fish and chicken and were surprised to see how plain these two dishes were when they arrived. The portions were smaller than expected and didn’t quite live up to the description on the menu. 1 star because it wasn’t a good value in terms of quality or quantity.

Chowdahs: The worst restaurant we almost ate at, twice.
The first time we almost ate there was our very first night in town. We arrived late and after checking into our awesome place, we went looking for dinner. We found this place and pulled in to see that they have an indoor dining section and a take-​out window. Sweet. Take out. There’s a high school order-​taker watching us from the window, but as we walk up, he walks away. Okay. We stand there about 30 seconds looking over the menu, waiting for him to return, when all the lights turn off around us. Pause. «I think they’re closed,» says Husband. «That was rude,» says I. We get back in our car to leave and see the same kid standing there again, watching us go. Hey, Highschool, turning the lights off on people is not the polite way to tell them you are closing. How about, «I’m sorry, but we are closing.»? Ass.
The second time was last night, around 7PM. After an unexpectedly long hike with not enough rations, we got back into town hungry as hippos and bereft of our trusty menu guide. Chowdahs was the only place I could think of for some stupid reason. We go in this time, and are seated promptly, but the place smells fishy. Literally. We get waters and a couple of rolls are brought to us. We look at the menu, and it’s basically Red Lobster: tons of fried seafood platters and EVERYTHING that involves lobster says «Market Price», from the lobster roll to the green salad, «add lobster». So lame. We decide on some entrees and then go for the rolls while we wait for our high school waitress. The rolls are cold cold cold. Gross. We deliberated for a minute, then threw down a buck and left. Screw Chowdahs.

This place was really nothing special. We came quite early (at 3 pm) and the waitress was kind of a space cadette. It took her like fifteen minutes to make my margarita, and then it sat on the bar for an additional five minutes. However, she wasn’t rude or anything. Our food was pretty good; the husband had a lobster roll (yes, they are actually served on hot dog buns) and I had the fried scallops (very sweet and good, but nothing like Woodman’s) and we split steamers. Also, I was very happy to sub in green beans for either cole slaw or potato salad because I’m not into mayo fests.
Overall, I probably wouldn’t go back if I took another trip to Bar harbor, but it wasn’t a terrible restaurant.

First, it took them 30 minutes to seat us in a ¾ empty restaraunt. Next, it took ove an hour to get our inedable food. The clam chowder was hot milk, clams, and a little parsley. Ick. The waiter upsold me. He said I should order the lobster roll rather than a leas espensive wrap on the lunch menu. The «roll» was a hot dog bun, an the labster was mostly chunks of the least desireable parts (rubbery tips of claw) and tastes so fishy, I bet it was ~4 days old. My bill was like $ 24! I could have gotten an entire lobster dinner accross the street for that!