The Custom House Rotisserie

On a trip to Salem, I needed to grab a late lunch and decided on this establishment for a (mostly) healthy and quick bite. The overall experience was fine — friendly staff and somewhat efficient service. The food itself was okay — not bad, but nothing to write home about. All in all, it was a good experience.
Verdict:
3.5÷5. Not bad.

Was in Salem for the craziness of Halloween 2015. We ate lunch here and even in all the mayhem, they were quick with our food which was delicious!

Wow, glad we stayed around to eat at this place. It is small inside, mostly outside seating, but great food and awesome customer service! I had the copped sirloin with mashed potatoes and baked beans and it was delicious! I would highly recommend this place!

I don’t know if the previous reviews were manufactured by the owners, but this place was terrible from beginning to end. We let the smell lure us in but we found out soon it was deceitful. The cashier was extremely rude and unhelpful. After waiting for awhile the food finally arrived. What is advertised as sirloin is just a plain hamburger with nasty mash potatoes, canned corn, and jiffy box cornbread. The buffalo chicken macaroni and cheese came in a plastic bucket container and it’s contents were a waist of ingredients, tasteless and gross. Please don’t waste your money like we have!

I ate here recently, I would rate this place just OK. The food was just average. It tasted fine, It just was boring and was just thrown together plopped in a foam take out box.
This place had several problems going wrong.
1. Not Wheelchair Accessible.
2. They did not restock their takeout menu’s. They did have a menu posted on the wall outside near the front door. The thing is. If your in a Wheelchair as I am, you can not read the outside menu cause you can’t get close enough to read it. I had to look up their menu on my cellphone to see what I wanted.
3. Food ordering Issues. I decided to order a #2 Combo plate included 1 piece of rotisserie chicken breast, plus your choice of 2 sides & cornbread. I asked for mac and cheese and stuffing as sides.
My son went in to place the order. He comes out after a couple of minutes and the cook said «I could not get mac and cheese with my meal» «not a side item» well it was listed under sides and there was no note that I couldn’t get mac and cheese. So I went with mashed potatoes. I was put off by that.
My son ordered pork sliders. His was to come with corn and some local mom and pop bag of potato chips. When we opened our food boxes he was given a bag of lay’s chips. not what was described on the menu. Like I said the food was just thrown together, It didn’t seem like they gave a crap.
4. Slow Service. We ordered pretty standard food. The food should have been already prepared. All they had to do was put it together in a take out box. The place was empty no other customers. 2 Customers were sitting at their outside seating area. One customer was already served. And the other customer was just sitting there eating food from another place just using their table.
We waited 25 — 30 minutes for our food. the 2 guys that were working there just talked & talked & talked. nothing seemed to be getting done. probably cause they had no customers.
Portions were small, food tasted OK. My chicken was very dry, the food did seem homemade the cranberry sauce that came with my meal was about a tablespoon full, Cornbread was soft & mushy it came in tin foil. I opened it. it was just crumbled.
The highlight was my Wife ordered their «Thanksgiving Sandwich» Incredible. It was massive and yummy.
The bottom line: I would not eat here again. two many issues. Go elsewhere.

Did not seem clean, was not ready to serve lunch at noon, and brought food out lukewarm. Unimpressed.

Actually, should be ½ star. This place has gone way downhill from my previous visits. Started at Five and now ½. All I can say is don’t go there. I have to say Boston Market is now better than this dive. The food is awful. Undercooked and tasteless or loaded with salt. Used to be known for its great tasting gravy. Yuck. Rancid tasting. Canned gravy is better. Enough of this place. I’m outta here. Ba bye.

DELICIOUS FOOD!!! I had the ground sirloin, the best cornbread, perfectly cooked, fresh green beans and homemade cranberry sauce. The owner was friendly and very attentive. My friends had the homemade chicken pot pie and they couldn’t stop raving about it! Highly recommend this place!!!

I ordered the garlic and herb rotisserie chicken with green beans. I have had better rotisserie chickens from grocery store chains. The skin was not even well browned, and the chicken was dry and chewy.
The green beans were alright, but everything needed more seasoning and a healthy dose of salt.
Inside the restaurant the girl preparing food for other other customers was picking up spilled French fries that fell on the prep table and placing them in the baskets. Not a huge deal, but there seemed to be just way to much touching of everything without gloves in preparing those entrees.
The kitchen just looked gross too, floor was dirty, prep tables strewn with prep items. I’m not a germaphobe by any means, but it did give me a feeling of uneasiness.

Great place for comfort food. Hot, large portions, great prices, and best of all tasty. Turkey was moist, I suspect Yukon gold potatoes for the mash were well done. The sweet corn bread was a pleasant treat. Very small eating space but the weather was beautiful so we ate on the patio

Great Chicken. I like the Corn Bread/​Cake too (they put white cake mix in the corn bread). I will definitely be back here — so many things I want to try! I didn’t love the sweet potato — rather bland. Could have used more cinnamon or something. Otherwise, great meal.

I visited in late October of 2014, the notorious busy/​Halloween season in Salem, MA.
EVERYONE on the East coast KNOWS this is Salem’s BUSY season. Its no surprise. It happens EVERY October. You better be ready. Period.
I went in specifically for the Thanksgiving sandwich about noon.
Nothing was ready. NOTHING. They said come back in an hour when the meat was cooked. WHAT WHAT? They had already been open an hour!
WHY… in the middle of the BUSIEST time of the year, do you NOT have it together an HOUR after you’ve OPENED your doors??? This is not good business.
GET YOUR EMPLOYEES IN EARLIER, GET YOUR PRE-​WORK DONE, GET YOUR MEAT COOKED, AND BE READY FOR CUSTOMERS! This is not a drill!
They also need more than 2 two-​person tables. Perhaps some outside seating?
I’ll be visiting again in late October 2015, Custom House Rotisserie. You better impress me. I have faith in you. I am expecting to write a glowing review for you in November 2015. Get it together!

This place has signs all over about the Thanksgiving Sand-​witch — and I love these sandwiches.
So I stopped in on the last day of my year of living in Salem. It was a weekend. Place is a small mostly to-​go sandwich stop.
Staff was really friendly and nice.
I ordered the sandwich, which came out quickly. Cam with a drink and bag of chips.
The sand-​witch was big, had the ingredient promised, and made me happy. Overall, it was a solid sandwich. Relatively bland flavor-​wise (I added pepper and some hot sauce to spice it up and add some flavor) but not surprisingly for this kind of place.

Can’t believe they won’t deliver to peabody marriot unless I pay $ 50 to order for myself. I find it crazy. I’m 15 mins!!! and the dinner is only$ 25. They should take there delivery service. Out of Unilocal period. Loosing a good customer.

No complaints — the cornbread is by far the best I’ve ever had, tastes like cake. The pot pie is very good here. I personally don’t love the cranberry sauce its a bit too bitter for me. Otherwise Highly recommend this place, it’s down a little side street wish they had actual parking lot and were easier to get to. Would go here over Boston market in a heart beat, it’s basically homemade over the highly processed food at Boston market.

We stopped by here because we thought it was «the best sandwich ever». It ended up being mediocre at best. Quite a disappointment. $ 10 was way too much for the thanksgiving sandwich. There was too much bread and it was quite bland. We believe all the reviews were written by friends and family.

Truly a wonderful meal!!!
The food is wonderful. We had a range of items from the menu, and all were exceptional.
Chicken dinner with mash potato and carrots was perfectly prepared and a wonderful balance of flavors — love the gravy
Lemon chicken sandwich was great.
Burger was well great as well.
Looking forward to going back … soon!

Delicious! I have been pestering my husband to come eat here and we finally came. It was a gorgeous day so we ate outside. The inside is on the small side. We got a whole chicken with 2 large sides and it also came with complimentary gravy, cranberry sauce, and cornbread. The chicken was juicy and moist and made for great leftovers. The amount of food was enough for four people (or in our case my husband and I ate it for lunch and dinner). The gravy was just amazing. Drooling just thinking about it. We got green beans and macaroni and cheese. Both were yummy but the cheese kinda had an American cheese taste (which I didn’t mind but I think I would have liked a sharp cheddar mac n cheese). The cornbread was sweet and fluffy.
The place is a little hard to find. It is tucked away and it is across from the Salem Wax museum and the Salem witch museum. Definitely worth searching for though!

Tiny spot in a haunted Salem alley that exceeds expectations. Food is fresh, primarily homemade and very tasty. Owner is personable and welcoming. Stopped in with my son on a weekday afternoon after finding this little gem on Unilocal.I had a the rotisserie chicken dinner which came with a light poultry gravy, a very good biscuit-​like cornbread and a great tart cranberry sauce, along with two sides of my choosing — I went with the baked beans (worthy) and green beans (don’t bother). My son had a great chicken sandwich, stuffed with moist white meat. Like a lot of places in Salem, this has a young college-​town vibe — the extremely limited seating is along a bench opposite where you order and the meals are served in throwaway containers, so don’t expect a high brow experience. But if you’re interested in reasonably priced, homemade turkey and chicken offerings, this is your place.

Thank you Unilocal.
This is an establishment we could have missed out on and it’s practically in our back yard. The location is odd. It’s tucked back at the end of a touristy walkway. You can’t see it from derby street if you are driving. The rotisserie chickens have always been phenomenal and reliable. The meals are like boston market times 100. So fresh and warm and comforting. If you are really hungry, this is the place to go!

Passed by this place during Salem Halloween craziness — they had a really cute booth advertising their «Thanksgiving Turkey» and had all of their staff dressed as turkeys or chicken. Very cute.
By the time we got there though, they had already run out of Turkey — apparently they went through more than a dozen turkeys on Halloween weekend, and it was only 6pm. We settled for a chicken thanksgiving sandwich, which was just as good. The sandwiches are pretty huge — they use two large bread rolls side by side instead of just one, stacked high with stuffing and meat so it’s quite a sizable meal.
They have a fun selection of Thanksgiving sizes — including Apple stuffing and cranberry sauce. Their mac and cheese is only available in a large size, but when we got it, it tasted exactly like it was made with Velveta.