Chowder House — Restaurant in Town of New Hartford

This was our first time visting Jim's Chowder House. Upon entering the dark unwelcoming vestibule we were met with ramdom items cluttered all over and a dilapidated fish tank with only two very sad looking fish. Some people would have turned tail at this point. We proceed to the "hostess station" where we waited 10min without any acknowledgement from the staff, despite being in their line of sight. Finally we were seated and without a word, the lone server left us with no concern for our drinks, highchair or menus. The entire interaction was awkward, uncomfortable and that's before you get to the dated atmosphere. It is clear the waitress, whom never gave us her name, had little to no traing in the hospitality industry nor did she care. Additionally the manager/owner sat at the bar eating while his staff struggled to tend to customers needs. There is a top down failure to maintain/create standard operating procedures to enhance work flow and customer experience. His nonchalant attitude was contagious amongst his staff. Poor leadership breed poor followership.

As we looked over the disorganized menu i noticed it had not been professionally designed. The limited selection would be problematic for members of a diner party that didn't eat sea food as it offered little options otherwise.

We order fried calamari as an appetizer. It had a unique flavor ( heavy Cumin / wing sauce) not a traditional flavor pairings. I order grilled salmon, which was underwhelming. Salmon was slightly over cook , sweet potato was basic (no effort) and steamed mixes vegetables were clumsy and too large. My wife order white clamb sauce over pasta. The presentation was sloppy. It was apparent the overdone lemon sour taste was to cover the canned clamb flaver. The sauce was soupy and thin (1in deep on the plate) My son ordered a shrimp kids plate. Again sloppy presentation, not a balanced plate. Included no vegetable or fruit options. Finally my brother ordered a fish sandwich, which amounted to a soggy breaded filet and a small portion or fries (literally 12 fries!!!) 1 slice of tomato and 1 piece of Roman. That's not a $15 sandwich! Low end service, dated atmosphere, and underwhelming food quality and presentation does not deserve a repeat visit. This business need to hire a professional restaurateur to consult on needed changes, or they WONT be around for long. You lost my patronage, will never...

This was our 2nd time here first was before covid, we’re not exactly local & have to say we were totally disappointed ☹️arrived in time for lunch but the waitress took forever to take our order & we wanted soup & sandwich thats offered for lunch asked if we could still have it cx it was only 3 mins late & waitress said ☹️No, the computer changes over????🤥🧐 this older women made us wait & wait, the gentlemen seated us & gave us menu’s, she made us wait & wait some more, so by the time she recouped & got her $h-t together we lost out, so we ordered 2 soups to go & to be courteous a bowl of soup that we split. Soup was good but she couldn't even be bothered given us appetizer in midterm, like s little bread!! Sorry but this whole experience was not acceptable, thankfully I’m not a restaurant critic!! & I was so hoping to bring all our visitors friends &...

What could I say... The Chowder House has a great Chowder! The New England Clam Chowder is excellent, full of clams and potatoes, and flavor, with the perfect consistency! (So good they sell it Togo) Nicely decorated dining area, even a divider here and there makes it private and cozy too! Our server ( Ellie) was pleasant and attentive. Shrimp, haddock, scallops was delish, just the right amount of heat over angel hair pasta with chopped long hots made this dish very tasty! The Maple Thyme Salmon, was extra "special"... cooked perfect, a nice size piece of fish and moist, done just right. The accompanying roasted veggies also grilled nicely and presented well as did the potato/sweet potatoes mixed mashed did and was a pleasant surprise too. We both received the "clean...