Causeway Restaurant — Restaurant in Gloucester

The Causeway Restaurant at 78 Essex Ave in Gloucester, MA has been a favorite of my parents for many years. They particularly love the fish chowder, so I always get them some to go and it’s wonderful! 👍.

The hubs & I hadn’t been in ages, and were happy, as always, to see things haven’t changed and it’s still a really good place to go and get a bite. I love that they automatically bring you bread when you sit down. Not many restaurants do that anymore. When you’re starving from a day of sea glass hunting, it’s awesome to sit and be able to nibble straight away. Yay!

I got the Baked Stuffed Lobster 🦞 and it was very good. The lobster was a small soft shell, but the meat was cooked well and sweet. What I loved most was that the body and tail were chockablock full of delicious and tender, melt in your mouth shrimp and scallops. I didn’t even need to chew the scallops LOL, I could just mush them with my tongue. Mmmm. It had a light amount of crumb stuffing that had nice flavor. The slaw was mayonnaisey but good enough and the asparagus was plentiful and steamed well. As a special of the day at $42, I think this is a GREAT buy! My hubs really liked his steak tips and dug right in. He loves mayo so was really stoked by the slaw. And the potato was yum too.

The Causeway is easy to get to, outside the rush of town. Has decent parking (see below), the prices are pretty good, the servings are substantial, the servers are attentive and the food is tasty. The fried scallop plate and chic parm that were delivered to the table next to us looked amazing and the portions were HUGE!

I’d say you gotta give it a try!

My only critique, and I know this is purely my problem to over sensitivity to odors and likely won’t affect others, is that the cleaning solution used in the restaurant is very strong smelling and made my nose burn a little. I know it means that the restaurant is clean, and I appreciate that so much, but it was a very powerful smell (to me) and I was having a little trouble. Thankfully the window was open and the breeze was helping. It won’t stop me from going back and it shouldn’t...

The Causeway is the standard for what all restaurants should be!

The level of service, the quality of the food, the atmosphere and the prices are second to none! We took 20 people here for a special occasion. I contacted them ahead about a reservation - they never do reservations but said they would for our party. We arrived to complete chaos - par for the course at this spot. There were people lined up and the wait was almost 2 hours for lunch. As promised they got our table seated all together with only a 15 min wait! I was already impressed - the day only got better as the waitress took orders, served food, brought drinks, cleaned plates and didn’t miss a beat! She was operating at another level - helping make our special occasion even better! The menu is extensive and overwhelming - there was also a large daily special menu. We had a large party and the tiny kitchen and small staff were able to bring out everyone’s food at the same time and all piping hot and fresh. The seafood chowder was incredible. The best I have ever had - piled full of fish and full of flavor. I ordered the prime rib and a pair of lobsters off the specials menu for my meal. I was served two full fresh lobsters and what I think was an entire prime rib. The portion was gigantic. The meat was cooked a bit more than I would have liked but the taste was great. The lobsters and drawn butter were delicious! Others in our party got fried clams, seafood bake, and steamed clams. The stand out items however were the mussels (the sauce is incredible and i wanted to drink it with a straw!) and the seafood marinara. Hands down one of the best entrees I have ever tasted at a seafood restaurant. The portion was giant, the presentation was beautiful and the flavors were like perfection in your mouth!

I cannot remark any more on what a fantastic restaurant The Causeway has become. It is a staple of the northeast. A benchmark for the roadside seafood stop!

Thanks to the staff and ownership for making our visit...

Look at the atmosphere was your typical fast hardcore seafood restaurant. People are there for one thing to eat. The fish chowder and the clam chowder of some of the best I've had in the past 5 years. The prices are a tad high but the quality is out of this world as is the cooking. The seafood is crispy without that greasy feel that you get at some of the chain seafood restaurants along the coast. The staff is extremely fast and courteous. How did the combo of fried clams and fried oysters in were excellent. Some places if you could even get the oysters they tend to be rather dry these are nice and succulent. Fried clams at fairly small bellies. Which I'm okay with. I did see a couple people ordered the big stuff lobster you know it's funny I didn't even consider that. I'll tell you the next time that we're down in that area I definitely will try the baked stuffed lobster, because if the fried seafood is any indication the baked stuffed lobster will probably be out of this world. Now the thing is it can be pretty easy to drive right by this place if you're not careful there's an ice cream shop that shares the same building. The other thing is be real careful where you park because if you park in the parking spaces at a reserve for the ice cream place they will have your car towed and they will not waste time doing it. If you park around the back side of the building over where the seafood restaurant is you should have adequate parking along with fairly decent parking in the front as well. Why the ice cream shop seems to have the majority of parking is beyond me. They were going to get seafood at...