Lenny's Indian Head Inn — Restaurant in Branford

I ordered Rhode Island clam chowder, which was only fair. The potatoes in it were good – but the clams were so tough I could not eat them. I thought someone had put chopped up rubber bands into my soup. I removed several rubbery pieces from my mouth, as they were impossible to chew let alone swallow. Instead of tender cherry stone clams, seems that they chopped up one old tough big Quahog clam instead. There were very few clams pieces in the soup – the soup was virtually all potatoes.

I decided to order the “Onion encrusted salmon” which sounded interesting, as I envisioned a layer of fresh onions or onion rings wrapped around the salmon. After all, it was going to be “encrusted.” What I received was a slightly undercooked piece of salmon with a teaspoon of brittle onion flakes. I kid you not. I doubt if the onion flakes were even cooked with the salmon. I believe a teaspoon of onion flakes were added right out of the bottle. OMG. The salmon was a generous size but had a boiled taste to it. When you are hungry you will eat anything. By the way, the price for this salmon was $28.

The salmon was served with “mixed vegetables.” I thought I would receive a medley of all different vegetables…. I was wrong. The small portion of vegetables turned out to be only zucchini and yellow squash. Nothing else. They would be better off to call it a side of “mixed squash.” Not for anything aren’t zucchini and yellow squash the cheapest possible vegetables you can buy? God forbid they should add broccoli or asparagus or peppers, etc. A larger portion would have been a nice surprise. Like the salmon, my squash mix was slightly undercooked – but some people like it that way. I understand.

When it came time for dessert, I wanted coffee with German chocolate cake. Coffee came first, followed several minutes later by the cake. I guess the waitperson was getting busy, but was it too much to expect the coffee with the cake?

The waitperson was friendly and rather likeable – but once I paid the bill and left a tip, I never saw the waitperson again. I did not receive a single “good bye” from anyone on the staff as I walked out.

I have lived in the area since 1976 and this was the first time I went to Lenny’s based upon others telling me how good it was. I don’t agree.

I know that Lenny’s is a very popular place, probably because of the location and the bar crowd… but I will stick to the Chowder Pot and the TownHouse for my dinners in the future. I wanted my first time experience at Lenny’s to be good. ...

My Go-To, Must-Do whenever in CT for many, many years. I love Lenny's and have spent mega $$ there gladly over the decades. But this time, Aug 2022... not a great experience. Service was D+ or C- at best. Had to ask 3x for our server during the meal (BTW the place was not crowded). Also she lacked personality; seemed barely interested in her job. We were sat at a "high top" table, no problem there. Except there was NO room to crack open and eat a large lobster. A very expensive $50 lobster. They could have easily moved us to any of the very-available larger tables once they saw us struggling to balance everything. Everything kept getting knocked into on the table and falling on the floor. And although good, the lobster was so big and had an EXTREMELY hard shell, yet all they gave me was one tiny nutcracker (big enough to crack a small walnut). No large, strong cracker, no tiny tools to reach in for the meat. When I asked for help (like a shell cracker befitting of the lobster size), they said they had nothing else. Really? A place KNOWN for lobster? They might have suggested they would "crack" it for me to make it a tiny bit easier to enjoy, but no. And lastly, as a very long term customer, when I asked to have just the lobster, sans any sides, thinking maybe they'd have a "a la carte" lower price, they said they could not do that. So I had to move the sides completely off our table to the ledge behind our table to have even a little room to eat. So the bottom line? Lenny's, get your act together and be the fun, great, authentic, historic, earthy, excellent, personal place you used to be. Or I guess I'll have to seek a new "Lenny's" kind of place to continue to enjoy my summers in...

Unfortunately, our recent visit to Lenny’s was disappointing for several reasons. First, and most important, the food. The fish and chips were pretty good (but I’ve had better, for less money). The whole belly clams were simply not that good. These clams were large and tough. We eat clams all the time and know they’re a little chewy, but some of these were simply inedible. We would have said something to our waiter, but after he delivered the food, we did not see him again until he brought the check. This leads to reason number two. The service was poor. Granted, it was a busy Saturday night, but If they’re overwhelmed, they need to hire more people for busy times. After waiting for 35 minutes in the bar, our waiter did not show up for more than 15 minutes after we were seated. We ordered as soon as he arrived. Then we waited another 35 minutes for our food. Our order was 2 – fish and chips and 1 – Whole Belly fried clams. That’s a LONG wait for a small, simple order of fried seafood, especially since the food was just OK. Reason three, again, we’ve been there before and understand that it was a busy Saturday night, but the place was simply dirty. The floor around and under our table had a bunch of slimy, crushed fries that were getting ground into a slippery paste. They remained there the whole time. The men’s restroom was disgusting. Not clean, bad smell, urine on the floor, overstuffed trash can. If there was more competition in the area, Lenny’s might not be able to be so mediocre and would need...