J R Maxwell

Was excited that prime rib was the special on Sunday, and ordered it with 2 sides and asked for the rarest cut. Received a ½ inch thick cut which was «grilled» to medium well. Was disappointed to learn it was a left over cut from the previous day and it was re-​heated on a grill, more like a steak and not the conventional prime rib presentation. Mary was super gracious and returned it to the kitchen, I was not charged. I thought it important to communicate in the future that it not be sold as prime rib, if it were a grilled left over served as steak.

Love this place. Very close to where I was working for the few weeks I was in bath and had lunch there every single day. Staff was very friendly and food is very good. Their French onion soup is amazing! If you are here, you must try it. I know I will be going back whenever I am in town.

This place is pretty cool. Bar area restaurant area and a downstairs area with pool table. Beer could be colder not much on tap but if your stuck in bath Maine. This is a must. The food was on point!

Great atmosphere and loved the Fish and Chips!

Best prime rib around! Amazing staff (Jenny is the best) !!! Have been eating here for as long as I can remember and never had a disappointing meal! The entire staff is like family everyone is always so sweet!!!

This place is awesome. Came here for dinner by myself and sat at this cool Maine feel bar. Greeted by a friendly Bartender Carrie. Great fresh side green salad with homemade creamy dill dressing– delicious. Clam chowder is award winning. Broiled haddock fantastic. Best seafood I have had in a long time. A great local low key place. I will be back!

Went in expecting the same generic fried seafood options as every other mid-​priced southern Maine vactionland diner/​bar/​café and was pleasantly surprised by how good the food was. Easily the best of the five or so lobster rolls I ordered at different area restaurants on this particular trip. Bun was perfectly toasted, lobster meat was plentiful and tasted fresh and salty and not like a fridge interior. Front of house folks were really nice. Look forward to returning.

I have been to JR Maxwell’s at least a dozen times over the past few years. Although I have never had a bad meal, the portion of fried clams on this last visit was a joke.
According to their menu, you will be served a «generous portion». My small 5X8 plate for $ 20 had about 8 clams on it. Okay… maybe the clams are a little pricey right now. I am not aware of the market value, but don’t put a «generous portion» unless you mean it. If fact, do what most restaurants do and serve the same amount every time so people know what to expect and have a price that indicates «market value».
Everyone else’s seafood dishes looked to have good portions. It was just the fried clam dish that was skimpy. Good thing for the free bread!

Visited for our 21^st anniversary, love the vintage naval theme expected in a steak & seafood restaurant just down theme street from Bath Iron Works shipyard. Even though it was a busy Friday night around 6 when we arrived, we were seated within 3 minutes. Very friendly and courteous wait staff, clean floors, tables, and restroom. I enjoyed the prime rib with rice pilaf and side of fresh horseradish, my wife loved the fried mixed seafood platter. Topped off the evening with a classic vanilla Crème Brule.

Wow surprised by the negative reviews. I have been going here since the mid 90’s and it has always been great. So good I came back tonight. Haddock superb, fried clams excellent. Had carry out from bar. Bartender friendly and attentive. Overall great.

We had prime rib, pepper steak and chicken marsala. All were delicious! The waitress was so friendly and even brought us a sample of a soup we asked about. Service was attentive and the food was some of the best we have ever eaten.

Nothing fancy – consistently reliable fresh fish. I onlly get fried haddock, shrimp & scallops but they are always plentiful and delicious. For fine dining go elsewhere.

At least the beer and mashed potatoes were good. The rest of the meal (haddock stuffed with crab) was tasteless and forgettable. Friendly staff but don’t go for the food.

While looking at the menu on the outside of the resturant, I was told by 2 different people that it was the best place in town. The potato and chive soup was outstanding. The buffalo bites almost stop me from eating anything else. When I was done with the meal, I should have done that. They were perfectly cooked and had the right amount of hot sauce of them.
The menu prices were on the high end. Nothing worth getting was under $ 17. I got the beer batter fried shrimp and I was disappointed because it seemed like it was fried in dirty oil (Time to change the oil!)
The exciting part of the meal was finding scallops mixed in with the shrimp. Not sure if that was a good thing or a bad thing. JR Maxwell’s loss I guess.

First of all, I will not write a bad review unless it is totally aweful… and this place was aweful!!!
Two of us arrived during the NFC playoffs which the server was more interested in then waiting on his customers. I guess that’s is what it is since he was a football fan.
We ordered salads to start, They were limp and very cold as they were made a day or two before and sat in the refrigerator until served. I ordered the Baked Stuffed Haddock with a vegetable side dish, Sweet Snap Peas. The Haddock entrée was so full of buttered bread crumbs that you had to «fish» through them to get to the smallest piece haddock. I left half of the dish of buttered crumbs. It was not edible. The side was Snap Peas set in a small bowl completely dripping with butter. It could not be eaten.
My friend ordered the Steak Special with a Baked Potato. The Steak was cooked to order but both the Steak and the Baked Potato came to the table luke warm at best. It was if the Entrée had set prior to coming out probably to serve both dinners ant the same time.
The waiter never came back to the table to ask if our meals were to our liking. The game was more important!
If I were to come back to Bath, J R Maxwell will not be on the list of eateries we will be going to. «You have to get a terrible meal in order to appreciate a good one» This one was terrible.

Very cozy place, food was ok not amazing but ok, soup was fantastic! I must say this place is a little confused though, it’s got the fancy atmosphere but then has big screen TVs with football on. So… Kinda confused.

We were there for lunch recently. I had a Ruben and my wife had a burger. Both were good. The serving was large. I could have easily split the sandwich along with a cup of soup. My wife enjoyed her burger. The food came hot and the service was prompt and friendly. Lots of refills on the ice tea.
I can’t say we sampled the entire menu but what we had will bring us back for more.

Dill dressing!
* Drops Mic *

Came to dinner with my boyfriend and his parents the afternoon after Christmas; we braved the ice storm and blizzard for it! The restaurant was so cute and cozy, I wanted to just sit around in it all day. I had the seafood broiler, which was so unique and delicious. I only made it through half, but the honey stuffing was so surprising and a good compliment for the seafood. Of course to me the quality was over the top (not too much pulled-​out-​of-​the-​ocean seafood in NYC or Ohio lol), but the family loved the place. I nibbled off my bf’s pile of fried seafood, which everything was spot on.

The wife was demanding a «date night,» whatever that is, so I took the opportunity to actually sit down at Maxwell’s for a real dinner. My love of this place was reaffirmed.
First the very few downs: temps outside were hovering around 0, and we were seated in front of the large front window. While picturesque, it was also pretty frickin cold during dinner. I’m okay with wearing my fleece while eating, but wives like to be seen in their going out attire, so you might draw some conclusions about how that went. The other issue, also wife-​oriented, was that the breading on her haddock was too thick, overshadowing the prize underneath. Simple enough, she just scraped off most of it and dug in. Just ticky-​tack stuff.
Maxwell’s clam chowder continues to destroy every other iteration I have ever had, and I am a dedicated, life-​long fan of clam chowder. My shrimp was perfectly crisp on the outside, tender on the inside, and had that indescribable smell that seems only to be had in a Maine seafood restaurant. The rice pilaf was clearly fresh, homemade, and perfectly seasoned. Great meal.
The surprise of the night gets its own paragraph. I had never before had Maxwell’s tartar sauce. Tartar sauce is something I’ve been eating all my life, and not with particular delight, because it’s mayo-​based. Starts out pretty good, then makes you feel gross. Or so I thought. Maxwell’s sauce appears to be sour cream based. Blew my mind. Changed my life forever. One more reason why Maxwell’s is a uniquely fine restaurant in a fine little town.