Mo’s

I hate writing reviews for restaurants i didn’t actually eat at, but i wasn’t about to wait around.
Took forever just to get seated (and no, they weren’t overly busy). Once we got seated, we were ignored. Don’t usually walk out of too many places but this was one of them.

Best seafood I have had in a long time. The last time I was here was in 2011, before I moved back to California. The fish and chips, chicken strips, and clam chowder bread bowl are among my favorites. Great service, great atmosphere, and great location in Old Town Florence.

Tourist trap. Greasy bar food that was bland at best. You are paying for location on river (and my guess is name and long time established name). One star for good service

Kitchen was beyond slow & chowder had way to many potatoes. Lacks flavor… bland. Upside is they put a decent amount of shrimp in the bread bowl (Slumgullion), and our waitress tried to take care of us after we finally asked about our food. Wasn’t my idea to eat there, and next time it’s suggested, we will not agree to try it again.

Our first time down there, while visiting family was last October. Late review, sorry.
The place was busy, the staff seemed rushed. The chowder is bland but okay. The other dishes between the four of us were decent. My inlaws love the place, so we are just happy to spend family time there. It’s casual, busy (so if you’re introverted and shy… maybe take out).
There’s a tiny gift shop in there, which was fun to circle.

Great Clam Chowder and Halibut And Chips. The Crab Melt is a crab salad, not just Lump Crab, so tried the Shrimp Melt which was tasty. Onion Rings were crisp, home made and a great appetizer. Shrimp Melody is a great little plate of tasty bites that I really have not seen many other places. The Scallops dinner as great too. Loved this place. Not sure why all the bad reviews. I found it exceptionally clean, a beautiful view, great prompt service and a great value for the money. We really enjoyed it

Gross clam chowder. That is all I had here. But the view is probably the best view I have ever experienced at any restaurant ever. I would go back over and over just for the view.

So disappointed in this Mo’s. The service was far below average and the food tasted like it had been sitting out all day. We even had to flag our waiter down just to get a refill. We love Mo’s as a company, but we will not be going to this location again.
Also, just a tip, don’t use the penny smasher. It smashes it incorrectly and is a waste of 50 cents.

Good view of the tidal inlet, bridge, and sunset. Clean and fast service. chowder was ok, but under seasoned. Also enjoyed steamer clams, and shrimp artichoke dip with garlic bread. Good place for families.

Great family restaurant, nice riverfront views, reasonable prices, and good portion sizes.
Family size soup was good for at least 6 bowls but keep in mind almost all the sandwiches and entrees come with a choice of chowder, bay shrimp salad (s), French fries, etc. so we had soup and salad in lieu of fries.
Can’t go wrong with the Blackened Fish Tacos, Fish and Chips, or the Oyster burger. We’ll definitely come back!

If I could vote no stars I would… been up since 3am returning their chowder to the sea…

This was one of my first dates with my husband, so it will always have special and fond memories. In fact, my husband still has a t-​shirt from that trip.
The food isn’t spectacular. They’re mediocre at best. But it’s edible. I’ve heard the rumor (which based on taste, makes sense) that they take Campbell’s potato soup and add clams to it. I don’t know if this is true or not, but I’ve heard this from several locals.
The service is good. I’ve never had a problem with that. The view of the ocean is what makes this place fantastic. There are huge picture windows going around the restaurant. So you can watch boats coming and going, seals and other aquatic wildlife. That view is what makes eating here tolerable.
It’s not somewhere we go often, as I think there are other seafood restaurants in town that are much better.

What a neat place! With views of the water, comfortable seating, decent food and good service, what else could we ask for? Our table over looked the water so we watched boats docking and people coming in for lunch.
I’m nuts about fish tacos, so of course, I couldn’t resist. They were tasty with good portions of grilled fish. My hubby has a grilled oyster burger which he enjoyed and our friend had a big bowl of their chowder and polished that off.
Florence is an old little town, lots of touristy shops walking distance from the restaurant that are worth checking out.

Mo’s Florence in Old Town (1436 Bay Street, Florence, OR). I was so disappointed. Beautiful restaurant (remodeled two years ago), literally on-​the-​water, outstanding views of the Siuslaw River, fast and attentive service, and mediocre food. Two and one-​half stars.

Mo’s is a staple in a lot of my childhood memories. My family made frequent trips to the coast and we ALWAYS stopped at Mo’s for some chowder and occasionally some fried shrimp. I hadn’t been in quite a while since I spent some time in Virginia but my husband and I just moved back to Oregon. We made a trip to Florence and I was so excited to go eat at Mo’s because, well, it’s Mo’s! It unfortunately did not live up to my memories. I wanted to love it but I just didn’t. Lots of sand pieces in my chowder, fries came out cold, and I expected my shrimp salad sandwich to be on a toasted bun but it was just a regular old bun. Kind of boring.
I did still enjoy the fried shrimp though and the staff still as friendly as I remember. This place definitely isn’t bad but it’s not anything spectacular. I would recommend it as a casual place to get a cheap bowl of chowder after a day on the beach. I will return to this Mo’s because I live so close to Florence now and it’s still Mo’s after all. I just won’t keep my hopes as high this time.

What an adorable place, beautiful view and good decent food. Stopped here after the Sea Lion caves for lunch. Got a nice window seat and watched the boaters go by. Everyone that worked there were friendly and nice, I felt very much at home. From the greeter, to the server and even the bus boys, everyone was friendly and focused on their job.
If you have the time, take a walk around the old town, very quaint and enjoyable.

We had a hot meal at Mo’s, and the service was ok, but in general, it was not one of the better meals we had along the Oregon Coast.
Food:
Ordered a cup of chowder to start. Chowder was hot but not a lot of clams, which is surprising given Mo’s trademark is the chowder. The best appetizer we had was a cheesy, melty, artichoke and smoked albacore appetizer. So tasty! Served with warm bread for dipping, I could have eaten four of those. «Grilled» oysters basket I ordered for my entrée were pan-​fried, and though they were billed as Yaquina Bay oysters, they seemed a bit too uniform in shape and size, like maybe they were frozen? Not sure. The flavor was ok. Wife ordered the halibut and chips, which had weird tasting batter. Kids had hot dog and hamburger, respectively, and were too distracted by all the tchotchkies in the place (each labeled with a price tag in case you want to take one home) to really focus on anything else.
Service:
Friendly server, who was very enthusiastic and handling a bunch of tables at once. All was good until the end, when the server realized he hadn’t given us the bill to pay. This is a take-​your-​bill-​to-​the-​counter-​and-​settle-​up kinda place, so that was key! Took a few extra minutes,
so if you’re in a hurry, make sure to ask for the check. All in all, decent service, with a flurry of constant action which definitely takes some coordination.
Vibe:
Tchotchkies-​everywhere-​frenetic. Each item packed into the décor is priced to move, which I thought was just… weird. An easy place to hang out, on the water with lots of energy and buzz inside. Probably a great spot for happy hour and snacks.
Family-​friendly:
Yes, definitely. My kids were pleasantly zombified by all of the action happening in this place. It was important that they be quiet while I enjoyed my Rogue Dead Guy Ale, and they were. Crayons and kids menus hit the table immediately and kids orders were taken right away. I appreciated that for sure.
Summary:
If you drive the Oregon Coast, you will see signs for Mo’s Chowder House at some point. You will be tempted to check it out, as all tourists would be. I say go ahead and take a flier on Mo’s; the dishes we chose were not the best, but that cheesy-​smoked-​fish-​and-​bread appetizer was amazing. So go for happy hour, and if you’re still happy after that hour, order some food and see how it goes.

First off, get a seat by the window, you won’t regret it! The view is great as this place is right on the water.
I got the Blackened Shrimp Skewers with Clam Chowder and Fries.
The Clam Chowder came out first, as a single appetizer/​side portion, but I was impressed with the quality. Clam chowder in general doesn’t wow me. It’s an okay thing to have every once in a while, since it’s usually quite salty and heavy. This clam chowder was palatable, but not salty; creamy, but not heavy; and had a reasonable amount of clams! Also, I liked the lil potato cubes in there. I give the Clam Chowder a ⁴⁄₅ stars.
The Shrimp Skewers came out after not too long after the Clam Chowder was gone, and I was pleasantly surprised! They were really good! The shrimp tasted fresh and the spice rub they had put on them was addictive… squeezed some extra lemon juice on top… safe to say I was a happy camper. The fries that came with were they kind that have extra breading/​batter on the outside before they’re fried, kinda the best kind of fries. Lots of outer crunch with a soft potato-​y inside. The slice of bread atop my dish seemed a bit out of place, but I wouldn’t say no to another if they offered!
The only remotely negative thing I have to say about my dish is that they put the skewers on top of the fries and the juices from the shrimp made my fries a tad soggy in some parts, so I would lobby for separation of skewers and fries! But that’s just me.
Our server was Aubrey and she was very nice, efficient, and attentive.
All in all, I’m a fan of Mo’s!

Friends told us we had to try Mo’s because it had good food so despite the reviews, we stopped on our way through Florence. It has a nice view on the river that flows through Old Town Florence. There is also a really nice guest docks for boats to tie up to (or stay) to go to town or the restaurant.
I had the weekly special– shrimp skewers, popcorn shrimp & fried shrimp that came with two sides-​I had a cup of chowder and French fries. The grilled shrimp skewers looked a bit plain looking but were really tasty. I would have them again. The popcorn shrimp had too much breading so were just ok if you ate them with lots of seafood cocktail sauce. The fried shrimp had hard crunchy coating (kind of hurt the teeth to chew) and pretty tasteless-​no matter what you put on them. It also had a huge piece of plain-​what we call air bread-​French bread but still bad. The French fries were a bit soft & flavorless too.
My husband had the Cioppino which was surprisingly excellent with lots of seafood-​shrimp & bay shrimp, clams, crab, two types of fish-​salmon & a white fish in a very nice light tomato broth. It also had tomatoes and other veggies. It came with garlic cheese bread.
The most disappointing part of our meal was the clam chowder-​which is not only what they say they’ve won awards but the restaurants namesake-Mo’s Chowder House. All the wait staff wear shirts that say Chowder Patrol. It was totally tasteless. How is that possible with clams, potatoes and even a touch of bacon? It was really hard to believe that all that could have no taste-​not bad and definitely not good but nothing! Someone said it could be that they add too much flour which can cause that. They really should do something different or change the name.
Overall, it has some weird things that are not good but the Cioppino was so good that we would go back just for that.

The drive from Roseburg to the coast was beautiful. Passed through an Elk Preserve right off the road, saw quite a few Elk, geese and a Osprey.
We ended up in Florence on the coast and stopped in to Mo’s for lunch. It’s a great location right on the Siuslaw River. Great views from all tables.
It’s a casual place and the service was good.
I had the clam chowder and a small shrimp salad. The others had a bowl of chili and clam strips. Everyone said their meal was good.
Basic food but tasty. Might try some of the fresh fish next time.
We arrived at lunch time and were seated right away. Everyone was polite and the service was good.