Belle Isle Seafood — Restaurant in Winthrop

Once again, fell victim to an establishment with a bunch of FAKE 5 star google reviews. I was really hoping for an authentic, good, non-chain seafood place with delicious fresh seafood and a great atmosphere (as many reviews described) but was sadly disappointed 😔.

On a weekend trip to Boston with my family, we decided that we would go here for our seafood experience - but alas I am here to warn my other fellow gastro-explorers DON'T GO HERE FOR THAT! Here is a breakdown of what was ordered by a family of 4 and all of the issues with it.....

Lobster roll - It was indeed a lobster roll in form and appearance but absolutely vapid beyond that. Cold lobster mixed with what seemed to be just mayo and no seasonings whatsoever on a way too small untoasted hot dog buns. I ate it because I was starving but not worth anywhere near the price charged. I grew up in MA with family in Maine and NH so I know what a good lobster roll is - and it's not even a close resemblance to what I was served.

Fried shrimp dinner and fried calamari dinner (my kids 12 and 15 ordered these)- I understand that were no where near the gulf of Mexico so obviously not expecting fresh shrimp or calamari, but you could at least try to make it good. On both plates, the onion rings and french fries were greasier than any I've seen in recent memory. To make it worse, you would think that they are operating a kitchen that lacks even basic seasonings like salt and pepper and the predominant notes of everything on the plate was - grease. Not appetizing and my kids ate virtually nothing and I don't blame them.

Baked Scalloped Dinner (Wife) - This was probably the most disrespectful dish of all. The way you can take beautiful fresh scallops and do them dirty like this is reprehensible. They were sandy, meaning lack of diligent prep and soaking/rinsing but even worse - it was as if they were just thrown on a baking sheet raw dog, no seasonings whatsoever, and put in a torture oven only to emerge and have some fake butter thrown on them and dusted with unseasoned bread crumbs. My wife ate about a 1/3 of them before finally tapping out.

The service (or lack thereof) I could write an entire other essay on but I think other reviewers have covered that in detail so I'll keep it short and sweet - our waitress was not attentive at all and we were finished eating for a solid 20 minutes before my wife had to finally track her down to request our check so we could finally leave this nightmare. (that extra 20 minutes caused us to miss a train also btw)

Moral of the story - if you are a glutton for punishment and enjoy being disappointed and leaving hungry, by all means go here. If you are looking for anything but that, this is not your place. It's really sad because it's a fantastic location that has so much potential but clearly has terrible management/ownership pushing it in the wrong direction.

This has become an almost common theme - google, do a better job with allowing these reviews which only lead others to disappointment and a thinner wallet.

TO THE OWNER SPECIFICALLY - Take the criticism here and in many other reviews to turn this place around. This could be a great spot and I would love to see it flourish but it will never happen with the product your kitchen is currently pushing out.What you are doing here is not impressing any patron who actually has taste buds and rather just never getting any...

Extremely disappointed of this place. I am always looking for great places to eat seafood. This place came up as a top choice based on Google reviews. The first bad sign of how arrogant they are is that they are "CASH ONLY". This deterred me for weeks.. Having already visited most of the known seafood places around the area I decided to give them a try. Since I was going to be there within 45 minutes of their closing time I called them and a lady said "yeah, no problem... you'll have all the time you need". I got there and waited to be seated. The place was only about 30% full. I can only recall about 5 parties seated sparcely around the place. Even though there were servers walking around me it took them about one minute to acknowledge me. They said "go ahead and seat whatever you like". So much for the sign that said "wait to be seated". I sat down and had to wait for 7 minutes or so for somebody to stop at my table to drop the menu. No question if I wanted to something to drink. No bread, no nothing. And then...just waiting. I would say I waited for some solid 15 minutes. Remember, the place is very empty. Lots of their people walking around, checking on other tables, refilling ketchup bottles, cleaning around, gathering other people's orders (I would guess phone orders). Everybody knew I was there. I know because they were avoiding eye contact. I raised my hand. Put the menus away. Change my siting posture. Anything I could think of to make them realize I was ready to order. Nothing worked. Everybody was (I think) busy or pretending to be busy. After those 15 minutes I decided to go up to the counter to place my order. I get there and they keep ignoring me. That's when I saw that some of them were busy getting other things done. After a little while a woman decides to talk to me and finally took my order. I wanted to try a warm Lobster Roll and a bowl of Clam Chowder. And then she breaks it to me "we don't do warm lobster rolls". The most famous seafood place around DOESN'T DO WARM LOBSTER ROLLS. I had to drive 1 hour to get to this place and they just don't do them. Bummer. But I move pretty quick and go with the cold one. The food shows up pretty fast. By this time I have been looking at other people's orders. Everything looks "Restaurant Quality", however, my $33-dollar Lobster Roll comes...in a wrapper... I am going to get out with a $50 bill for a one-person dinner and my food comes in a wrapper. I was very disappointed. I move on and start eating my Chowder. First spoon goes in and I am expecting the outmost deliciousness to come through...Oh My God... it's salty. This comes from someone that likes salt. But this thing is... is... is... just salty. I move on again and go for the Lobster Roll, this time I am not disappointed. It is good. Not excellent, but good. Remember that I like the warm version of it. It's not the best cold one I've had but at least is not completely off like the Clam Chowder. When the time comes to pay I asked for the bill, which comes promptly... then (again) just wait there... I should've known better and just be ready to hand the money, but given the long string of failures, I thought it was worth to review the check. After waiting for another while I decide and go pay upfront. So, in summary: Bad service, overpriced food, poor food presentation, and overall subpar food taste. Just not worth my time. Not coming back...

Belle Isle is a must every single time I fly into Boston Logan. The food is fresh, delicious and perfectly prepared. Their fisherman's platter is truly enough to feed two to three people, but don't pass on the lobster roll. Belle Isle has the best lobster roll in Boston. I've been downtown and tried some more "trendy" restaurants - they've got nothing on Belle Isle. This is honest New England seafood with no frills, great prices and plenty of free parking.

UPDATE - 07/21/23

I had read some negative reviews of Belle Isle recently and that had me worried about one of my favorite Boston restaurants. Last night I was in Boston and decided to go and see for myself. It wasn't until about 7:30 that I decided to go and so I was curious to see what service would be like on a Friday night rather close to closing time. To my surprise, the parking lot was packed and I had to drive around to find a place to park. That was a good sign. Upon entering the restaurant, I was happy to see almost every table full and most of the seats at the bar taken. This place was slammed! I got a table near the window and was greeted by my server, Donna. She was absolutely fantastic - friendly and attentive. She, like all the other servers there, were busy with multiple tables - some with as many as 6-8 people. However, she never stopped checking in with me to see if I needed anything.

I started with an order of fried clams and for my main, I ordered the tail lobster roll with onion rings. I have had both of these years ago and they were outstanding. I'm happy to say that Belle Isle is every bit as phenomenal as I remember. Their food was absolutely delicious! The fried clam strips and bellies absolutely melted in my mouth. The strips were tender, not chewy and the bellies were so juicy and tender. After that, I am thrilled to say that Belle Isle still has the best lobster roll in Massachusetts, if not New England. It's a traditional roll with the requisite toasted split top roll, topped with a layer of crisp iceberg lettuce and then topped with a 1/2 pound of succulent lobster tail tossed in just the right amount of mayonnaise. This lobster roll really is perfection. The lettuce prevents the lobster meat from making the roll soggy and it adds a delightful textural contrast with its clean, crisp crunch. The lobster meat has the perfect amount of mayonnaise that just binds everything together; there are no filler ingredients like celery, etc. This is half pound of pure lobster meat and it's delightfully succulent and sweet. Even though it is a cold roll, it's not chewy or rubbery. The onion rings were lightly breaded and delicious. I was so relieved that Belle Isle is the jewel of Winthrop as it's always been. The food and service are top notch! I'll be back the next time I...