Helen's Restaurant of Ellsworth — Restaurant in Ellsworth

Sigh Another mixed review. I've been on quite a streak of these. Let's start with the bad first:

Warning! When you order the seafood combination plates and shrimp is one of your choices, you will be getting tiny and unflavorful popcorn shrimp--not regular sized. The menu does NOT make this clear. There is an actual menu item called "popcorn shrimp" which has the identical item. On the seafood selection platter, it just says "shrimp." Shame on me for not asking I suppose, but I expect that on a $22 platter, I'm getting jumbo or at least regular sized shrimp similar to the full sized ones used on the coconut shrimp plate. Not only that, as I mentioned, the popcorn shrimp wasn't good. Uninspired batter and they were so small that you couldn't taste shrimp. Just little drops of grease. Also, we order a chardonnay and a cabernet, and both were not good. But, the wine prices were really really reasonable, sooo I guess we had that one coming. Side salad was all iceberg if you're into that (I'm not). Also, food took quite a while.

Ok, now the good stuff. Fried haddock was off the chain. Perfectly fried and really flavorful (despite boring batter). Scallops were really good. (Get them sauteed, not fried). Popcorn CHICKEN was awesome. (Again, stay away from popcorn shrimp). Great mashed potatoes. My wife had the Coconut Shrimp. I tried some and it was excellent. The server was really nice and helpful. I think the staff was great in general.

Biggest disappointment was that the menu needed some transparency. With a $22 seafood plate and popcorn shrimp they definitely had a good profit margin...

If I was a local, this would be one of my regular restaurants. This is a great classic diner with the comfort foods you are used to as well as a large selection of fresh seafood. My wife had the crabmeat stew, which she enjoyed. It had large chunks of crabmeat in a flavorful and rich, buttery cream based broth. Be warned, if you are expecting a thick chowder like experience, this is not what the stew is, and the menu makes that clear. She also had coconut shrimp, which were crisp and flavorful, and the portion was generous.

I had the seafood platter. It was fried, but I believe there was a broiled option. It had a generous portion of haddock, clams, shrimp, and scallops. All of them were delicious. Even though they were fried they were not heavy and the seafood appeared to be fresh and battered in house. The batter was not heavily seasoned, but the food still very good.

We each had a side salad and fries for our sides. The salad was a simple but good, containing iceberg, tomatoes, cucumbers, and cheese. The fries tasted like fresh cut fries, but they were crispy, not limp as sometimes fresh cut fries can be.

Sadly they were out of blueberry pie - maybe another time! - but we did get the hummingbird cake, which is absolutely delicious and a must try, as well as coconut cream pie, which again was very delicious. As was the theme with the meal, the desert portions were also very generous.

Overall, don't overlook this place if you are looking for a good meal with a...

The food was delicious. Service: 1 star only because their chicken sandwiches and fish n chips come with chips—however tonight they “ran out” of chips. Only option was to choose another side but I had to pay for the substitution! What? Okay fine; server said it was minimal. Then I got my bill. Ummm I paid full price for a smaller potion of the side I was required to order because they had no more chips. The sandwiches were twice as much as listed price because of the sides. Don’t think that was good business! Regretfully, I dared to tell the young lady who was at the counter that I didn’t think this was quite fair. I was extremely kind and respectful. (I promise I wasn’t a Karen) I really thought she would agree and call it an error or give me a discount. Nope. Nothing. In fact, she kind of made me feel stupid for even mentioning it. I expected she at least would call the manager to appease my complaint! But she didn’t. Unfortunately our server didn’t get the hefty 20% tip we would’ve gladly and usually pay.

Sorry for the 1 star because food was great but the service was not. Disappointed. Definitely not returning although we planned on it since we did enjoy the food and are staying close to the restaurant. But I refuse to support bad business. My bill was over $100 for a party of 4 for 2 chicken sandwiches and chips (although no chips) a lobster roll ($44) and fish and chips (with no chips), and three full price small...