Clambakes of Massachusetts

I was very happy with my experience using Clambakes of Massachusetts for one of my parties. They were very prompt, their work was well-​timed and executed, and everyone enjoyed the food thoroughly. The experience of having them set up, cook, and serve all the food on-​site was excellent, leaving me so much time to enjoy my party and guests. I would definitely recommend them and would use them again in the future.

I cannot thank Kevin, and his staff from Clambakesofma. enough!
This meal was for our daughters wedding in Hampton Beach NH.
Right from my initial contact with Kevin I felt reassured that he was going to make this a hassle free, fantastic meal. I was always able to speak immediately or very soon afterwards with Kevin about anything of concern, or menu changes. I was always impressed by the genuine care and understanding he put into his business.
Now about the food! We were just under 50 people of every age group and taste. We had so much variety that even the few non-​seafood lovers still had raves about everything. Ribs, beef kabobs, bbq chicken breasts, fresh salad with blueberries and cherry tomatoes, corn, baked beans. etc…
For the rest of us seafood lovers it was to live for! Fresh steamed Maine lobsters with plenty of drawn butter, nice cherrystone clams, shrimp kabobs and of course the Chowda ! some of the best I’ve ever had. Its been a week since we left and still people are talking about that clam chowder! Those pork ribs were seasoned and cooked to perfection. Wow I wish I had that rub mixture. Watermelon and Italian cookies rounded off the perfect New England clambake experience!
The presentation and service was top notch. Lobsters served out of a wooden boat looked fantastic. Our severs were fast and punctual for us at our requested start time. They had plenty of bibs and dinnerware, wet wipes etc.
As you can tell I thoroughly enjoyed the entire experience. So did my family and guests. I had very high expectations and the were meet. I wouldn’t have the least bit of hesitation to recommend Clambakes of MA. to anyone.
A Huge Thank You Kevin for making great memories for us always, Neal.
P. S. Kevin sent me a post party email to follow up with and thank me for the party.
Yet another example of the fine business he runs..

I used Clambakes of Mass for an 80^th birthday party. They showed up early, were great to work with and very accommodating for any requests and timeline for serving food.
The presentation was great and the food was delicious! Food was cooked to perfection, people loved the chicken and steaks too! Kevin’s team did a great job and were very professional and friendly. The set up was nice with the lobsters in a large boat. I didn’t have to worry about having anything, folks, knives, crackers… everything was there including bids and little wipes!
I plan to use them again!!!

We had our 45^th Class Reunion this past weekend and tried something different with an outdoor BBQ and casual rather than a formal night. I contacted Clambakes of MA and exchanged emails with Kevin who was ever so helpful and courteous. I was basically able to put it all in his hands once I told him what we were looking for, he was great !! On Saturday the crew arrived and set up quickly and got the cooking going. They were extremely attentive and courteous also. The food was raved about by everyone who attended. I couldn’t have asked for a more perfect outcome to our great day ! Thank you all for making it enjoyable for everyone. Many people asked them questions and took business cards, I would definitely recommend Clambakes of MA for any occassion of this type.

Regrettable and forgettable, starting with the misleading name.
«ClambakeS of Massachusetts»? Clearly the name should just be «Clambake», because this had to be their first event. Ever. (I should also note that some people in our group thought a better name was «Clambaked».)
Anyway, this was all very unfortunate given the special occasion of my Mom’s big number birthday. We actually had high hopes for our lobster-​bake, and in fact, their communication was relatively decent leading up to the event.
On the morning of the event, however, the set-​up crew showed up late (30-​minutes?) and blamed it on the traffic. The thing about that is, our house is only 5.3 miles from their location… and none of our 30 guests complained of traffic.
When they did show up, they forgot the table clothes, but otherwise set things up reasonably well.
When it came time to show up with the food an hour or so later, it was the same deal. They showed up about 30-​minutes late and again blamed it on the traffic.
I mean, if it really was the traffic the first time you have a bunch of options for the second time including leaving earlier or just taking an alternate route, right? For that matter, they could have just about walked to our house in little over an hour, so we were not buying their story in the slightest. Especially twice in as many hours.
After that, things devolved. Their first miscue was to to have us serve ourselves on fairly flimsy plastic plates. As the lobsters were bigger than the plates, it was actually a bit awkward to get the plate back to one’s seat without it folding in half and spilling everything.
Then, finally ready to dive in, we looked around for the usual lobster-​attack gear, only to find metal claw crackers (ok that’s standard-fare)…and plastic utensils! No metal picks (essential), let alone lobster-​scissors (optional, but highly desired, especially for an elderly crowd). Just a plastic fork and knife! Hello? Have you ever even had lobster before?
Anyway, unlike the more elderly people in the room, I am in decent shape and so I wasn’t going to let anything stand between me and a good lobster. I cracked open my first claw. Ok, cool. Second claw… SNAP…the claw-​cracker actually broke in two in my hands! (A science guy at the table said the claw-​crackers were made from cheap metal.) Sigh… really?
When we finally got to the point of having something in our hands that we could eat, we noticed that the butter they wanted us to use was (literally) sitting in slightly over-​sized plastic thimble into which you could barely fit your thumb, let alone a lobster tail.
There were plenty of other «details» missed: No bowl for your shells (so until one of the guests brought a plastic tin over you had to leave the watery shell mess on your plate while you tried to eat the rest of your food). No lobster bibs. It just seemed like every way we turned we were dealing with amateur hour.
We also had comments across the board about the chicken being substantially over-​cooked (however most people seemed to like the steak, and there were very good comments on the mushrooms).
At the end of the day, the only reason I am not giving them a 1-​star instead of a 2-​star is that the staff were genuinely nice and the lobster (once you finally got to it) and steak were actually reasonably tasty.
Still, we will never use these people again and we recommend you look elsewhere as well. Let them learn on someone else’s dime.

We had a fantastic experience with Kevin and his team from Clambakes of Massachusetts. We had them cater our engagement party this weekend, and the food, service and communication leading up to the event and on the day itself was impeccable. Kevin and his team arrived two hours early, set up a beautiful display featuring checkered tablecloths with nautical decorations, and got to work preparing a beautiful meal. The lobster, clams, steak, and chicken were perfectly cooked and delicious. The fact that their packages include salad, baked beans, corn, potatoes, watermelon, and cookies meant that we weren’t scrambling around to make sides.
I had done quite a bit of research on different clambake caterers before selecting Clambakes of MA and most of the other groups charged much more and/​or had higher minimums for the guest count. Kevin’s team provided extremely high value at a very reasonable price point. We got so many compliments on the food, and Kevin’s team made sure we could relax and enjoy the party as much as our guests. I’d recommend their team in a heartbeat!