Captain John's — Restaurant in Lowell

Tried this place out on a work visit to Boston. Great little place. Had the seafood platter, which is recommended 100% and the seafood chowder. Seafood chowder was on point, the potatoes and seafood in it came out piping hot and full of flavors; salty, savory, not too thick just right. This is a must have when visiting. The chowder was chocked full of meat; chunks of fish, oysters, scallop and hearty chunks of potatoes The seafood platter was layered with fries then crispy fried fish and then surrounded with battered fried oysters, shrimps and scallops. One plate will feed two people. Also came with a side of homemade slaw which had just the right amount of sweetness to it. Just a side note, sodas are not free refill. Might be just that I'm from the south and am accustomed to free refills. Nevertheless, this seafood joint did its job, I left there with leftovers for late night snack. Thank you for a great first impression. Service was great for the most part, just once or twice had to wait a little bit for drink refills, but it's all good. Parking is ample behind the restaurant in a big lot with paid parking through the passport...

Our impression was that this is a dive bar that sells food.

The interior doesn't seem especially pleasing or attractive. It's utilitarian. Don't expect any charming touches. The carpet probably should have been hauled out and burned years ago.

As for the food and service, the server and other staff were very pleasant. And the food was pretty good. But it took a long time to arrive, and it wasn't hot when when got it.

There's a few well-know places in eastern Massachusetts that do a good job with fried seafood. This place seems to be that sort of restaurant. In our opinion, it's not among the best of them, mostly due to the atmosphere, but it's also less expensive than those places, which is worth keeping in mind. So, if you're in the neighborhood, and you're just hungry . . .

Finally, it's worth noting that soon after we were seated, a cold breeze began to blow over our table, accompanied by the smell of cigarette smoke. Maybe people were standing outside an open door to have a smoke? We couldn't really tell. But one of us hates cigarette smoke, and it made the meal...

Cannot comment on the food..atmosphere was good because it's a local pub/restaurant We had a large party ( 12) We waited for over an hour for our food at that point I asked the waitress how much longer she stated 15 to 20 minutes more. Meanwhile we saw several couples who came in after us get served with their meals shortly after they ordered ( several time with the same dishes our party had ordered) Finally I had to go up to the counter and just ask for our drink bill. The waitress got very upset. Then proceeded to tell me they was fixing to start our order..I'm like??. Start our order...I'm sorry too late. Just Give Me the bill for our drinks please. She got a little louder and I had to tell her...Please ma'am I don't want to make a scene..just Give Me the bill for the drinks. She stated that if that's what's we were going to do..just to leave.. so we left. But on our way out...the cooking started cussing us behind our backs to the point where other customers heard and were astonished. We were from out of state just looking for some good locally...