The Helm

The Helm’s annual opening is a rite of passage for the summer in Midcoast Maine! it’s opening signals that the season has come! We often celebrate by getting the fried seafood platter to go! We have been going there for 20 years, and it is still great. Just what you would expect for a roadside place in Maine will you can going to need, order at the window, or get take out. I suggest keep it simple with their seafood, chowders and great salad bar.

Wife and I have eaten here several times since 2000. The ambiance and service is excellent. The food is pretty good, salad bar is excellent. Since we are vegetarians, we wish they would have a few more robust items for vegans and vegetarians. I suggest they offer soy and almond milk, both to drink and for cereal and coffee. They could have fried tofu, Boca Vegan Burgers (which mimic the texture of meat burgers, only with soy and plant based materials), soy meatballs in their spaghetti. Trader Joe’s sells such items and could possibly be a supplier to this fine restaurant. In closing, the Helm has good management, great location, excellent service and a good menu. There are always some ways to improve, as the years go by.

Good place to get takeout. Quick and easy. Not the place to get a lobster roll. Did not like how little lobster meat was given for the price and how it was cut into cubes. So if you want a good Maine lobster roll go elsewhere. The fried clams were decent.

Stopped in after church on Sunday and was pleasantly surprised. The service was excellent and the fried shrimp was very tasty. My husband had the baked Parmesan haddock and loved it. But the best part was the desserts– a huge selection and the raspberry and chocolate peanut butter pie rocked!

We should have known by the dated décor and the general age of the customers in the restaurant to turn around and leave. We were given dirty bread plates and dirty utensils. Prices were way too high for what they were serving (and the menu was very dated as well). We all ordered one of the specials– fish and chips– which were not a) beer battered or b) made from fresh fish. We were within spitting distance of the coast and the fish was frozen? Drive by this place and go somewhere else in Camden or Rockland instead.

I remember going to the Helm with my parents when I was a kid thirty years ago. Apparently, it was a formula that worked because they haven’t changed a thing since then. I don’t mean that as a good thing. In fact, I think the menu was exactly the same.
I see other reviewers rave about the salad bar. It was just ok. It was a nice salad, but not full of so many options as to be remarkable.
The menu was full of standards that were considered fine dining decades ago. I got the Parissienne pork chops, which were cooked to the right temp, but very bland. The cream sauce tasted like it had been warming in a tray, not cooked to order and in fact the cream was broken. My mom got the French stew and she reported it as pretty bland too. My wife’s clam chowder was overdosed with tarragon, which I take to be a nod to the French theme, but way overdone. Couldn’t taste the clams! She got the baked scallops in wine which were not overcooked and were a decent portion size, but nothing to write home about.
At the end of the meal we refused the rolling dessert cart (like I said, back to the 80s!) and took our leave. From all appearances they’re living off their elderly clientele who are happy nothing’s changed and the takeout window, not to mention their prime Route 1 location. It’s a shame because there’s so many better options in Camden and the area these days.

This is local Maine. Large portions, the same staff, the same dishes and fare, and the prices are, well mostly the same from year to year. All your ususal Maine seafood offerings, fried this and that, roast beef, pork chops with seasoning, and some evening specials. Nothing frou frou and nothing frilly. Great salad bar. Most dishes come with two sides (or one side and saladbar). A generous place, reasonably priced, and very relaxing and casual. You just can’t go wrong here.
P. S. Unilocal the Helm is on U.S. 1, no in downtown Rockport.

I visit my parents in Rockland about once a year and this place is a family favorite. The salad bar is fresh, clean and has a good variety. Menu offerings please health conscious eaters as well as lovers of deep fried seafood in our family. Last night I had the lemon pepper salmon and enjoyed it a lot.
The Unilocal map has this restaurant in the wrong location, so make sure of the address before heading out. As another reviewer noted, it is on route one.

If you’re up for good seafood, this place will probably not let you down. It comes fresh, and cooked perfectly. It has been about 2 years since I’ve been here. But for the many years that I have gone, their consistency in good meals never changed, so I would expect to get the same quality meals if I were to go anytime soon.

It never ceases to amaze me the crowd they regularly draw. I believe it is more a «Bug-​zapper» phenomenon than anything I can explain based upon my experience. The restaurant is right on route one and the sight of cars in the lot draws more in as if moths to the light. If you are looking for «Grandma» style food with sticky table top and chairs in a dark, dank dining room then have at it.
LCC

This is an old school roadside restaurant w/​no glitz and no pretension, but one of the best salad bars I’ve seen this side of Brenneke’s in Poipu. There’s a huge variety of fresh and marinated vegetables as well as pasta salads and a purple mashed potato salad that was alive w/​garlic. The salad bar comes w/​dinner if you choose. We’d heard their fried chicken was good so I wanted to try it. Alan settled on a haddock stuffed w/​crab, I think. Our waitress was sweet, young, exhausted and spunky. She was clueless about wine, brought me a Reisling instead of the Zinfandel I ordered and then insisted on comping me one or both because of her mistake, «defying» my request that she charge us for the more expensive one. She was a sweetie. Dinners come w/​a choice of potatoes, choice of vegetables or salad bar. One of the vegetables was fiddleheads, which we’ve been seeing advertised, so we jumped at that. Then she advised us that we could have a salad bar instead of potatoes, so we were set. Alan also ordered onion rings. I think my entire dinner was less than we paid for lunch at the King’s Arms and it was so much fresher and better. The chicken was perfectly cooked and there was no residual old oil taste. The fiddleheads were a little smaller and not as well prepared as when we had them last. The onion rings were good.
Update ⁵⁄₂₇₀₈: We broke one of our rules and returned here for dinner. We try not to go the same place two successive days but we didn’t want a huge dinner after the ruebens for lunch and the other place we were considering had a chicken and ribs special that would have been just too much. Besides, we wanted another turn at the salad bar. Alan had a lobster roll, which was about the same size as the one at the Lobster Pound. I had an order of mussels, which was enormous! I couldn’t believe it when she brought out the bowl. They were steamed in wine and onions and herbs and the broth, particularly the onions, was yummy. Happily Alan helped me finish them. I couldn’t have done it alone. The cost was $ 12 or $ 13! An amazing value! I ordered fiddleheads again and they were better: larger, crisper w/​less residual oil/​butter.