Chapel + Main — Restaurant in Dover

Though part of the same group as Black Birch, Chapel + Main deserves to be considered on its own merits. For one, the atmosphere is much more relaxed and the space much larger. That said, the service is excellent at both locations. This time, on entering the restaurant we were welcomed back, which was a wonderful personal touch.

For appetizers we had the chicken nuggets and the sloppy fries. The nuggets amplified the best qualities of the fast food iteration, while leaving the worst aspects behind. The sloppy fries do take a bit longer to come out than the nuggets (as our server informed us they would) but they are worth the wait. The chorizo adds a smoky sweetness that goes really well with the jalapeños and the cheese.

For mains we had the Korean fried chicken, the pork cutlet, and the cumin lamb. The Korean fried chicken comes with broccoli rabe, and star fruit and kiwi pickles. The chicken itself is dark meat, which I appreciated, and came with a thin, but crisp crust, dressed with sauce and sprinkled with sesame seeds. For those expecting a really craggy, super crisp, and super spicy fried chicken, this is not that. However, it was worth eating and paired especially well with the star fruit pickles. The kiwi pickles tasted great, but the grainy texture wasn’t my favorite.

The pork cutlet was also good and was served with slaw. Personally, I would have opted for a thinner cutlet and a crisper fry, but it was still very tasty. The cumin lamb also had a great flavor, though not as deep as the Szechuan iteration I think the dish was based on. That said, the quality of the lamb was higher than most cumin lamb I’ve had at Szechuan restaurants.

For dessert we had a brownie with whipped cream that was everything one would want—warm, fudgy, with a lot of chocolate flavor.

To drink, I had a grand cru, which was very drinkable for a Belgian strong ale, and very strong. I’d say it’s easier to drink than a Golden Monkey by Victory Brewing and slightly less potent.

All in all, I would definitely recommend Chapel + Main for its great service, solid takes on familiar comfort foods, and tasty...

Disappointed. It's unfortunate because we had heard such great things about the place, but we had rather miserable experience. The only saving grace was the company we were with! Our initial drink order took almost 35 minutes to arrive at our table. Two separate requests on the status of our order were met with "the bar is very busy." We then ordered an appetizer, the pub cheese, which took over twenty minutes for a chilled Mason jar of cheese whiz and generic pretzle chips to arrive...save your money. Dinner was ordered, a second round of drinks was requested as well and guess what, the food arrived before all of our drinks did. Mixed drinks showed up before draft beer...explain that one to me. When we dug into the food we found it to be OK at best. The only bright spot was the Chicken and a Biscuit which was tasty. The deep fried braised beef was a roulade containing a variety of ingredients not listed on the menu to the dismay of the person who ordered it. The seared sea scallops portion left a lot to be desired with the advertised "crispy potato" being soggy and the kale still having rather firm ribs left in it; the carrot pure was the best part of this meal. All in all, our experience didn't meet even the most basic of expectations, let alone all the hype we've heard. Hopefully our experience was an outlier, but you can bet that we won't...

Was a good experience, until it wasn't. Update due to response/restaurant's comments: Your "can't fix your life" statement just revealed your disrespectful self. What a strange and disrespectful thing to say. I left the restaurant as it was my decision and without anything disrespectful to anyone. The couple did not offer to move, as you say; I was the only one asked, so there's the actual truth against your lie. Your 1 star review sticks. I was happy where I was and yet then felt a little too crowded after being asked to move, as I'm not into elbow-bonking strangers while trying to have dinner. Not that I owe you any explanation, I have more than one Google account and reserve different account for higher reviews. You'd be on my other account if you deserved a higher review. It's great you offer nice experiences for some folks. I was actually having a nice experience until I was asked to move. I had wished I could've simply continued to have a good experience. It was my comfort level and thus my decision to leave as a result yet I owe you zero explanation. At least you got 2 patrons who got seated maybe a few minutes earlier than they otherwise would have been, despite resulting in losing one patron in doing so, of which whom will not be returning to your restaurant, and also won't...