Marblehead Chowder House

We’ve been there a number of times over the past several months. The food is consistent, and the service is always very good. We’ve never been disappointed there. The seafood is fresh and prepared to perfection, the soups and chowders can’t be beat. The atmosphere is comfortable and friendly. It’s a real favorite of ours.

Great food and superb service.
Took my husband there for a birthday celebration.
He ordered a NY strip which was done exactly as he ordered.
I had the linguini with shrimps. They were delicious.
We finished our meals with a mouth watering cheese cake served with fresh fruits.
The service was excellent.
This was our first time at Marblehead and we liked it so much that I have made reservations to return with friends.

I ordered the fillet mignon cooked medium rare lobster tail, crab Pierogies and crab cake. This was easily the worst meal I’ve had in years. The lobster was WAY over cooked, rubbery and completely tasteless. The steak was cooked brown all the way through and not seasoned at all. I am pretty sure the Pierogies were Mrs. T three cheese with some tasteless crab meat half cooked onions and butter. I asked for a new steak and it came out just about completely raw (and I like medium rare).
The manager came over and I told him I am that the food was horrible. He offered to remove the meal from the bill. (Which was the only ok part of the evening). He asked if I wanted anything else and I said ‘yes another drink’. He then proceeded to ask me how many drinks I had. ‘How many is that 5^th or 6^th?’ Seriously? It was my second of the night over two hours!!! Seriously horrible food, horrible service. (Waitress was excellent and apologized 50 times for the food and the manager…
The food is bland, tasteless and way over cooked. Anyone who thinks the food was good has no clue what a good meal is!

Great friendly service. The place was packed didn’t have reservations, no problem, they seated us without any wait. Our server was very pleasant and attentive to our every need, you would have thought we were the only ones there. Food was fantastic. I started off with the crab meat and pierogi appetizer. I always order that it’s a must have. I followed that up with the filet mignon, small pot of baked beans, and a baked potato. It was so tender you could cut it with a fork. I was so full I had to take some home.

I would have enjoyed an emphasis on Chowder as I feel there was a lack there of. That being said, I tried the Lobster Bisque and well… butter anyone? I love the taste of butter, I’m PA Dutch in the flesh, yet the consistency was like gloppy waves of the sea, therefore I highly suggest to dive straight for the fish options here. I appreciated the environment and most importantly how the desert menu is presented with a salt water taffy filled candy jar which is fun for the kids and brings that salt water taffy feel, rounding out the experience. Chowder house will fill your mouth with the breath of the sea, just order the prime dishes.

Enjoyed Easter dinner @ Marblehead. Food was excellent, great service. Will definitely return.

The food is decent, the seafood is relatively fresh. Their salads are good. I ordered a baked potato as a side and it wasn’t cooked so it was hard. I could look past that but the service is TERRIBLE. Incredibly slow, we waited 10 minutes after eating for our waitress to come over to ask about dessert, we were going to order some but the service was so bad that we worried about how long it would take for her to come back after with our check. Based on the service we more than likely will not be back.

We have dined here often. But last night was not so hot. We ordered the king crab bites for an appetizer and it was very rubbery, like it was microwaved. Salads were good. We each, my husband and I, ordered a gratin style dish. His was Lobster on the ritz but it was mainly filled with shrimp. I ordered Crab gratin which was tasty but portion was small and I feel both dishes were missing something. Just very underwhelmed with this dining experience tonight. For these dishes and 2 drinks (we had a coupon for the appetizer) the bill was still $ 77.

I thoroughly enjoyed my first time at Marblehead. I agree with some of the other reviews about the décor but we went with a group of six and there were no complaints.
I have a shell fish allergy but chose to tag along for a birthday celebration for my boyfriend. I tried the almond crusted tilapia with asparagus and substituted the citrus rice for wild rice. It was a great size portion for $ 15. Tasted amazing I loved it so much. I also didn’t die which makes me trusts the handling of the plates and avoiding contamination of the other shelled fish being served that night.
The service was excellent. They took a group photo of us and printed it and gave us a nice paper frame to go with it. (not sure if that was only because we were celebrating a birthday)
Either was I loved it. I would love to go back and check for consistency.

We always get an amazingly tasty meal. Never disappointed!!! Food was delicious, hot great service. The hot crab dip was awesome!!!

Underwhelming. Atmosphere was nice, server was excellent and menu was interesting. But the good was just ehhh…
Nothing exciting, bland flavor. For that price we won’t be back when there are so many better seafood options locally.

Just saw that Marblehead has been rated #1 restaurant in Easton — well deserved rating for a dining institution!

1. Buttery
2. Boring
3. Bland
When coming to Marblehead those are the three things (more or less rules) to keep in mind because that’s the backbone of the restaurant’s food.
There’s one thing I want to note right off the top. Diane M. made a comment that she couldn’t understand why the reviews were so bad and then made a reference about her grandfather being a regular. That my friends is exactly what I’m talking about. It’s like food at a hospital or at a senior living facility. Safe. Easy. Bare Bones. No Frills. Buttered and/​or salted to the hilt. If you’ve ever been to The Crab Trap in Somers Point New Jersey you know what I mean. That place is more or less a cousin to Marblehead.
Upon entering I took a good look at the dining room and noticed that the old lady and myself out of maybe sixty people were two of the maybe five without white hair on our heads. That again tells you something about the place.
I will also get out of the way that the service was top notch the entire time. Yes, the whole specials board being placed on an empty chair thing at your table is a bit odd but that’s been their thing here forever so whatever.
The old lady got the french onion soup and I started with the seafood chowder. Flavor wise she said the FO was fine but out off all the places I’ve seen her get FO over the years I can’t think of a place where there was such a small quantity of cheese on top of the crock. As for the seafood chowder, the name is a misnomer as (at least to me) to imply that a soup is a chowder usually implies that the broth be thick. This broth had the consistency of water and holy crap was it sallllllty. Yuck!
Entrees were Chicken Chesapeake and Surf & Turf.
The steak on the Surf & Turf was requested medium and came out more or less fully well done grey with only a microscopic fleck or two of pink. The lobster tail was as expected and more than enough butter was brought to the table. One noteworthy negative to that meal would be the asparagus which according to the menu are sautéed but in reality they were limp & soggy more like they had been boiled. The chicken dish was alright with the one exception being the citrus rice which had the flavor profile of a napkin, i.e. it tasted like absolute nothing.
We opted against any dessert partially because we were full but also because nothing on that menu really jumped out at us and based on what had already been served we doubted that anything was likely going to justify the price.
In the LV there are only so many dedicated places to get seafood and if you’re going to knock out Red Lobster this place is the next best thing in terms of not a great choice but a «safe choice».

Our first time here and I was very pleased with everything. Service was excellent and food delicious. Clams Casino and crab cakes were very good. Menu could use a few more choices for the non-​seafood lovers. We will definitely return.

I haven’t been here in years, and it was fantastic! I really need to put this on my rotating restaurant list. The service was great, everything came out fast and tasted fresh. They have a very diverse menu with great specials. I love the atmosphere. My only complaint is we were seated in the back near the little window that the kitchen must be on the other side of and we could hear all the chatter among the staff in the kitchen while we dined, and when we pulled out of the parking lot 3 servers were standing there smoking. A little tacky, in my opinion…

Just based on our experience, I’m surprised at the bad reviews for this restaurant. My grandfather is a frequent lunch diner here and wanted to come for dinner on Saturday night. We made a reservation and I’m glad we did because it was packed. The staff was very friendly and efficient, the place was clean and appropriately themed, the food hot and delicious. No complaints from our table.
Our waitress brought over the Specials chalkboard for us to peruse and took our drink order a minute or two after we sat down. She returned shortly with a hot bread basket & drinks and took our order.
We all started with soup– the Lobster Bisque $ 5.95– ⁴⁄₅ was delicious, but could have has a bit more lump lobster. The French Onion $ 5.95– ⁵⁄₅ Perfect. Plenty of cheese browned over the top and sides of the crock, great beefy/​sherry stock, and super hot. New England Seafood Chowder $ 5.25– I heard that this fish and calm chowder was delicious, but didn’t personally sample it.
I had the KEY WEST CHICKEN & SHRIMP $ 18.95– ⁴⁄₅ A chicken breast & 3 shrimp grilled with Key West seasoning. Sides are sautéed spinach with red pepper strips and white rice
infused with Meyer Lemon Olive Oil from Bethlehem local Season’s Olive Oil and Vinegar Taproom. You also get a choice of another side. I chose broccoli. The chicken, shrimp, broccoli, and spinach were all delicious. Three shrimp seemed a little skimpy, but they were were succulent and juicy. The rice was odd. Not something I would choose.
I also tried my aunt’s PATRIOT’S FISH & CHIPS $ 12.95–
Samuel Adams Boston lager
battered haddock with fries and cole slaw. The haddock pieces were giant and delightful, buttery and flaky fried goodness. The cole slaw was also really good. Creamy and not too sweet.
I didn’t try my grandfather’s cod, but the piece of fish was very large and he said it was delicious. He opted against the salmon, because it was farm raised today.
We didn’t order dessert, but the dessert menu comes in a jar filled with candy and Fralinger’s salt water taffy. Yum!

I said this last time I came here, this place is awful. Expensive too. You cannot pay me to even eat here ever again. Ranch dressing, tasteless. Pasta with clams, pasta was like it was precooked and sitting under heat lamp. Needed parm cheese for flavor, its not even freshly grated. Lobster bisque not hot, came back microwaved steaming, very buttery and tasted like they have refrigerator problems, chemical taste. Crab cake tasted fishy. Blechh blechh blechh. The fresh spinach side was good and clams were fine, not overcooked. That is abt the best I can say. Never want to come here even if you buy!

We ate at the Marblehead last night for the first time in a few years. We were very happy with our waitress (Dominique we think?) and she even got the kitchen to broil the fish for our daughter’s meal instead of fry, which was great. I had the 6oz filet mignon with crab on top which was delicious. The steak was cooked just right and I ate the entire thing. Our 2 kids were also very happy with their dinners.
That being said, my husband was not happy with his dinner. He got the Lobster Pie as his entrée. It was really small and very simple, with hardly any lobster in it. It just had potatoes and no crust on the bottom. It was in a tiny casserole dish with a small amount of crust on top. This dish would be so much better if it was actually a pie, like we thought it would be. We would not recommend this as an entrée, and it was actually pretty bland, especially for $ 19. We definitely felt this was way overpriced for what it was. He was pretty disappointed.
Overall, we had a good dinner except for my husbands meal. He will choose more wisely next time!

Living in the desert as I do, I always try to get recommendations from the locals anytime I’m near the ocean. Marblehead definitely doesn’t disappoint.
I’ve been twice since first stopping here. The baked Alaskan cod is great. Not overly fishy, and not overcooked. The crab cakes are outstanding. If I had a complaint, it would be that I haven’t had the strength of character to save room for the Chocolate Lava Cake for dessert. I may have to start with that the next time I am in Pennsylvania.
One of my pet peeves at many chain restaurants is that they bring everything out at once, or even bring appetizers and salads out after the main course. The wait staff and kitchen have been consistently good about timing so that the salads come out shortly after we finished our appetizer, and the main course arrived soon after we finished the salads. I appreciate attentive and professional service. I wish more restaurants followed this example.
They’re obviously popular with the locals. I’d recommend making your dinner reservations early in the day, or you may be eating late. It’s worth the wait if you get your reservation in late.

Excellent Seafood and service. I don’t understand the complaints. $ 30 fixed price meal was a bargain! Jumbo shrimp cocktail or lobster balls followed by 2 jumbo crab cakes or broiled/​fried seafood platter. All was excellent. Key lime pie or chocolate cake or bread pudding for dessert. Service was excellent. We will be back.