Fairgrounds Hotel

after seeing great reviews on fb and Unilocal we finally stopped in. we went in on a tuesday at 530, it wasnt busy at all, the atmosphere was clean and very cool. The waitress i believe her name was Lisa? she was very nice and friendly. I have been seeing photos of the food so my antisipation was so ready to eat the lobster roll. I got the crab bisque soup which was very good and the lobster roll was delicious. Very nice clumps of lobster and the butter was real not the crappy imitation. Got 2 sides one coleslaw and other mac/​cheese both very good. My boyfriend does not eat seafood so he got the steak and also really enjoyed it. We will definatley be back i have plans to go thru the entire menu :)

This was our first visit. After seeing their ad in the Morning Call snd reading several great reviews on Unilocal we decided to give it a try. Our server Alex was excellent, very personable and made a couple great suggestions! The food was good and fairly priced. Unfortunately our experience ended on a sour note. I forgot the $ 5 coupon from the newspaper and attempted to use the coupon from Unilocal.It seemed to be exactly the same offer requiring that you spend $ 30 or more (we spent double that) in order to receive the five dollars off. Our server looked at it and said just a minute please so someone could verify it. The host came to the table, looked at my phone and said okay thank you! A few minutes later a woman (who was also serving the table in front of us?) came over and said «We don’t honor Unilocal coupons!» I said someone had just seen it and verified it? She says «yeah he didn’t have the heart to tell you»…what?!! I ask who she is, «I’m the manager!» She tells us yeah Unilocal does that on their own and we have no way of getting that money back! I thought a coupon was a comp, a promo to bring business in?!! I tried to repeat again that he already said okay? She said «if you would just listen to me!»…I said she was rude and not to speak to me like that. All over $ 5 off?! No thank you! She walked away and proceeded to talk about me to the host within range of other guests! Shame on you! Not a very good way for ‘a manager’ to handle something.

Good food and value. Had a tuna dinner with added crack cake. Came with salad and veggie. Wife had salmon dinner, I had two martinis and she had one. $ 65 total– great value, food was good and service friendly attentive!

Let me start by saying that my husband and I are frequent visitors to the Fairgrounds Hotel. The food is always good and a great value and the staff is extremely pleasant. However, last evening when we went in, the bar was full, all of the tables in the bar area were full as well as the dining room. The bartender, Robin, remained very composed as she took the drink orders from the entire restaurant by herself as well as trying to wait on the tables in the bar area… not to mention drink orders from the Pines Theater next door! I realize that the bar was cut in half but on a busy Saturday evening you still need two bartenders to service the entire restaurant. Not to mention that management needs to better inventory their liquor supply as the bartender ran out of a high end bottle of vodka & then a high end bottle of gin… unacceptable! I give much credit to Robin as she was outstanding in the way she handled the situation.
Normally I would give five stars but last nights visit did not warrant it.

Nice place, food OK, I had a good time.

I had written off the Fairgrounds Hotel after a mediocre experience in Feb 2013, but after seeing the excellent reviews of late, decided to give it another try. I was looking for a moderately priced place which took reservations for some New Englanders who were passing through town and the Fairgrounds seemed to fit the bill. We loved it! I had the lobster roll with salad and fresh asparagus for $ 12.95. My guests had the Maryland crab cake, same price, with lobster bisque and two glasses of house wine. Total bill (including an on-​line $ 10 coupon) was under $ 40. The food was delicious and the server was friendly and attentive. I could have done without her tattoos and her use of the term «yous” – both made for a less classy experience, but she was entertaining! Will definitely go back. I am craving another lobster roll already.

Awesome chow!
Wife and I met another couple on a Saturday night at 630pm.
Other couple had been there before so they had foresight to reserve a table,
as it was packed when we arrived.
I had a combo platter which included a 10 oz steak and homemade crabcake,
delicious. It also came with 2 sides and soup or salad.
I had cheddar mashed potatoes and, I forget the name of it, but it was a tomato, cored out and baked with cheese in it, delicious, i also had the new england clam chowdah.
we visit the new england states a bunch, and the chowdah was as good as from up there. plenty of big crab chunks and taters.
overall food was excellent, our server was great.
we’ll be going back.
Cheers!

Came here for the first time and all i could say is WOW. can’t believe we didn’t come here sooner. The food is so delicious. Seafood is so fresh it just melts in your mouth. The prices are extremely reasonable for food and alcohol. The staff were very friendly. Truely neat place to visit seeing how it was a old hotel. We will continue to go there. .especially for the seafood. .YUMMM.

This place is AWESOME!!! The food is ALWAYS DELICIOUS, the staff is ALWAYS friendly and the prices are GREAT!!! I can NOT say enough good things about this place. If you haven’t visited this place, HURRY!!!

Reasonable prices. Good food. The lobster roll and ahi tuna are awesome. Bartenders rock! If they have the sweet potato bisque it is a must have!

When this place reopened six or so months ago I had dinner and it was… Eh, so-​so. I gave it another try a few weeks ago and something has changed! It has improved!
Had the Manhattan Clam Chowder; nice large and abundant chunks of clam, large potato chunks and other vegetables. The chowder was nicely flavored and the vegetables were not mushy suggesting that it was fresh-​made soup.
I enjoyed a broiled lobster tail which was great in terms of size and how it was prepared.
Prices are competitive with area restaurants and they offer an early fare until 5pm.

Went here for a lunch on Saturday afternoon with the family. The place was empty and I was kind of worried. Service was great, but I’m assuming it’s because my party was the only one in the dining room. Prices were very reasonable. Portions were on par with mostplace. Quality was ok. Everyone ordered something a little different and there weren’t any complaints, nor was there much raving about anything spectacular. So overall, I would say this place is just meh. The only complaint I do have is that they were out of a ton of food on a Saturday afternoon so a few people in my party had to quickly decide on alternatives to not keep everyone else waiting.

I had food from here once, served to me by hosts who got takeout. It was passable, not exciting, but ok.
Nonetheless, the Fairgrounds Hotel offers very good pricing on seafood, so recently I called in to place a takeout order for lobster and clams. The employee taking the call was beyond rude. I have worked in the restaurant business, and am not unsympathetic to busy times, but there are better ways to handle such times than to shrilly state in an exasperated tone «Ma’am, we just got a wedding party here, and I don’t have time to do that now.» It was said as though I should have known better than to call then. I was so floored by the response, I could not even answer. She then added «If you want to hold a while, I can get someone for you.» I said that would be fine, thank you.
Hold I did. My call was not placed on hold, but the phone put down. I could hear the bridal party being escorted to their table, all the hubbub, and finally quiet again. By that time less than 10 minutes had passed. I could hear the lady who’d answered the phone then talking at length with another employee. Thinking perhaps I had been forgotten, while holding, I actually called on my other phone and got a busy signal, so I couldn’t make myself known to them. I held for over 15 minutes before hanging up. When I called 3 minutes later I could not get through, so my hunch is that the phone was still sitting there, and I would have still been holding.
I know people have bad days, and I know places get busy, but it is not cool to get snappy with someone calling at a rough time for you, and it is definitely not cool to leave them on hold forever. Make me believe you want my business. It would have gone a long way for this establishment to have said «I’ll be glad to help you once we get this large party seated. May I have your name and number and call you right back?» and either do it, or delegate the call to someone. As it stands, I felt most unwelcome, and the thought of calling again? Uh-​uh.

This place has hot bartenders! I was in the Casablance room – the upstairs bar – to see a guitar duo play. What a fun, cozy, little place. Lots of seats for an «upstairs» room. The upstairs bar does not have taps, so its liquor, wine, or a few common bottled beers; but you can always go downstairs to the full bar. It was raining when I was here so I didn’t get to check out the deck, but definitely would be a plus on a warm night. The bartenders were social, friendly, and on point. The drinks were cheap, and strong! The décor is certainly Casablanca-​ish, and the old-​fashioned ceiling fan is one of those 12 foot axle-​style fans which you just have to see to believe! Certainly gives you the speakeasy feel.