so it's been over 2 years and 2 bad floodings later and I finally made it back to the Guilford Mooring.  I thought the prices were very reasonable, the service good and the portions very big.  This is a big improvement from the menu after hurricane Irene, which I am told, went too upscale and pricey.  I was satisfied today  (and I can walk to it).  had the shrimp tacos appetizer and it was very spicy and good.  Chopped salad was giant, very good.
Review Source:Almost a year and a half later I returned to finally try the food here today. Â My sister and her family were visiting from out of town and we had a craving for oysters. Â Initially, we started out across the street but it was too crowded so we came here instead.
We chose to sit indoors to get a break from the sweltering heat and it was a wise move as we got a table right away (there probably would have been availability outdoors too, didn't look very busy). Â We ordered a dozen oysters to share. Â Generally, they were ok, but some were gritty, one had a little baby crab running around on it, and the accoutrements were lacking. Â We had to ask for cocktail sauce. Â No mignonette.
The rest of the food was actually pretty good. Â I ordered the broiled haddock and it was fresh and prepared very well. Â My sister and her husband, both excellent cooks and serious eaters, enjoyed their fish and chips and salad. Â Boyfriend ordered a burger with sweet potato fries. Â No complaints there either. Â Our waiter was friendly and competent and the atmosphere was casual but nice. Â I'd come again, maybe, but not for oysters.
I keep trying to like this place, but it falls flat every time. Â Back again last weekend, and once again had a disappointing experience. Â Points for consistency as they do seem to maintain unwavering mediocrity.
We started at the bar with a warm, skunked beer. Â It was too hot inside, so we moved out to the patio and were swarmed by black flies. Â Back inside. Â Our server was reasonable about it, commenting that no one can stand it outdoors because of the flies. Â Information that would have been useful earlier.
Service is hit or miss. Â Food is positively forgettable. Â I've never had a terrible meal here, but unfortunately I've never had a good one either. Â They seem to draw a decent crowd, so I guess some people like it. Â It's a great spot -- too bad they can't get it together.
I would call this a near death experience for us. Â I don't have one positive thing to say about this place. Â "Can we sit outside?" - the main reason we decided to try this place. Â "No, we don't have tables outside." Â Two tables were empty on the deck the whole time we were there. Â It took over 10 minutes for our very frazzled but unapologetic server to take our drink order. Â The drinks never came. Â I went to the bar and saw them sitting there, sweating, after waiting a very reasonable time for them to arrive. Â The bartender was great (there's the positive!) and repoured them, but then our server brought them to the wrong table. Â Ding! Â When our dinners finally came out, his order was wrong, the salad never came, and our server didn't have the maturity or sense to apologize. Â For anything. Â She barely even made eye contact with us. Â Food was fine, but not worth the aggravation and attitude. Â When the bill came, I expected the beers to be comp'd (any decent restaurant would have done this) but nope. Â
The evening was redeemed when we went across the street to the Stone House and had great friendly service at the bar. Â We won't be going back to the Mooring in this lifetime.
They spent a lot of money to get this place back up and running after Hurricane Irene, you would think that they would spend some money and get a good chef in the kitchen. Went for drinks and nachos. Asked for no onions on the nachos. They came with onions and the second layer of cheese wasn't even melted. Â Food is a lot more expensive now too. Â Save your time and money. Not worth the price.
Review Source:very slow service or they're just understaffed. Â friendly enough...but not enough to overcome the attack of horse flies and low tide stench that comes with outdoor dining here. Â came at 6pm, entrees arrived after 7pm. Â (and we ordered everything upon the servers first visit to the table, which was long.) appetizers came before the first round of drinks (?!?) Â 3 adults, 2 toddlers. Â $120 with tip. Â way overpriced for clam shack caliber chow. Â won't be back.
Review Source:first time back since the renovation this Friday pm. Arrived at 8:30pm - place was empty. Some people at the bar, but for a Friday pm in the summer, the crowd was meager at best.
menu offerings are basically the same, but as other mentioned, prices have increased. the daily specials were all priced north of $25.00. also, the quality of food is disappointing.
so, the renovation looks nice and the beer was cold. but, the mooring's food offerings at these prices are pathetic and unrealistic. not to mention you feel like you're being taken advantage of. it became apparent why the place was empty.
burger and a beer, maybe. a beer and live music - ok. but full blown dinner @ $50.00 a person (dinner and drinks), don't do it. certainly, the stone house is a much better option at these prices.
bummer to see the direction the mooring has gone.
I want to like Guilford Mooring. I love the location and the menu, but the food just isn't good. Both the clams & mussels are gritty to the point of being inedible. If you add grilled shrimp to any entree salad, they're charred to black and unseasoned. I don't know if it was always like this, because I just don't remember, but the dining room is too loud to carry on a normal conversation with your dinner companions. Other than the absolutely amazing honey butter bread, there's no reason to eat here. You can get better (and far less expensive) seafood anywhere along the shoreline.
Review Source:Our party of 3 arrived at 8:00 and there was a 45 minute wait. We went to the bar area, it took 20 minutes for the bartender to even acknowledge us. The glass of wine I ordered was literally 1/4 of the way full. I wanted to ask if it was just the bottom of the bottle and they were just too busy to open another but I took my short-changed drink and left the bar area to wait with the other hungry patrons. When seated the table had no napkins, water glasses or eating utensils. Our appetizers came, the waiter put them down and left and we had to flag down someone else to ask for forks and napkins. The fried calamari was nothin but greasy grizzle as they left it in the fryolater too long. The entree's were grossly overpriced. $29 for a broiled seafood platter which was drowned in butter (4 shrimp, 4 scallops, 1 piece of flounder cut in half). It was suppose to have come with a salad although the salad never arrived. My husband ordered a beer, the waiter brought it over and put the bottle on the table (no glass was ever offered). When you're out for a nice dinner you don;t want to drink beer from a bottle. Throughout our stay we noticed (from the time we got there until the time we left) there were 4 tables in the dining room that were never utilized although people were lined up waiting to be seated. At 9 pm they had live entertainment in the dining room and the band was SOOO loud that we could even hear ourselves talk. We had to compete with the speakers and amplifiers that were blasting Jimmy Buffet songs. That should really be saved for after 10 pm when most diners are done with their meals. It should be set up in the bar area not in the dining area. This place is very poorly run and the food quality was also poor. I would never go to this restaurant again. Not worth the 40 minute drive from my house....not worth the trip from anywhere!
Review Source:Pedestrian food, especially for the price, was slightly redeemed by a nice atmosphere and the promise of a great summer spot.
My gut reaction was to toss the Guilford Mooring into the glut of overpriced restaurants on the Connecticut shoreline that gouge prices on clam shack food. The lobster roll was poorly executed, consisting of mostly scraps, barely filling a flavorless, butterless roll for $17.
The saving grace was the really nice, wide open bar area, the prospect of nice indoor/outdoor room to move in the warm weather in the marina and good live music. Â
I think it's fair to say that I didn't catch this place in its best light, but it would be a stretch to call this place much more than a good watering hole that happens to serve food.
Really I wanted to rate it One Star... However, we ate there the first day it opened post-Irene (my mistake). Mooring's appeared over-staffed, it seemed as if our waiter was the only busy one, and trying his hardest to do everything to make our experience pleasant.  My problem is this,  I can't look over the price increases and extremely average food, pint of beer is really a 12 oz beer for the same $$, my  house salad was served on what appeared to be a saucer, my sister had same salad served to her on a nice salad plate, my niece somewhere in between,  food server delivered 3 macaroni and cheese orders to our table and abruptly took mine back to kitchen, he literally sprinted back to kitchen I had to wait for waiter to swing by to tell him  what had happened.....argh.... love the location, hopefully, they can refine their menu and service so diners can be loyal repeat customers at their establishment.  For right now anyway, I'll continue to walk across the road to the Stonehouse for a true pint with great food and service. Â
Must say this; Mooring's did an amazing job cleaning up the place, it has a nice contemporary refined interior now. Â Nice work!
HORRIBLE is one word to describe the food. Â Went last night after patiently waiting for them to reopen following Irene. Â They should have stayed closed. Â The menu prices have been raised and the quality of the food lowered. Â Shame on them for making this mistake. Â Ordered the onion soup and the onions were chopped up so small it was like eating a pile of smashed onions. Â Had the fish and chips for dinner - menu said it was their take on the classic, well, their take was of a supermarket frozen food isle quality. Â A few strips of cod and some fries, for $19.99, very sad. Â Can't say I'll return anytime soon.
Review Source:The new Mooring is horrible. The bar has been relocated to an area with no view. Who thought up this idea? Â Here is a waterfront restaurant with a bar that you would have to turn around to see the water.Great planning! Â Menu prices have been raised substantially. Portions have been shrunken. My wife ordered a fish sandwich for lunch last Thursday.A huge stale roll with a tiny filet of sole.No lettuce or tomatoes.Very unappealing. I ordered the belly clam roll. High priced and very few clams. A gentleman who appeared to be a manager was hanging around the bar area talking on his cell..Not one word of welcome or any kind of recognition to customers on third day of opening. As a Guilford resident, we won't be back. Hard to believe,we waited all time for the Mooring to re-open. You folks have really missed the boat.
Review Source:Worst restaurant I have been to in my entire life! Â I left this place wondering if I was on candid camera!? I took my family here for mother's day. We made a reservation for 6 people at 3:00PM and were seating at 3:30PM. Our drink order wasn't taken until about 3:45. The wine was discolored and clearly gone bad. Appetizers took forever to come to the table. Food came out cold, undercooked, incorrectly, and at separate times. When asked to speak with a manager, things got way worse! He came over with a beer in hand. He was rude, accusatory, and making excuses for the horrible service. He blamed this on being "understaffed" and trying "to push food out just to get it out there", all while yelling and causing quite a scene in his OWN restaurant. Then proceeded to put the blame on us and say, "You know what, you shouldn't have come on mother's day then!" How about...don't open on mother's day if you can't handle it? The owners needs to revisit their staff's attitudes and improve its customer service and food quality. Needless to say, we only left a tip then went across the street to Stone House!! Don't waste you time or money!!
Review Source:I purchased a half price gift certificate from the radio for this restaurant so we could give it a try. Needless to say we were less than impressed. We sat outside next to the fence (on the other side of the dumpster) there were flies all over the place and we were sitting next to a table of 4 that talked so loud it was ridiculous. I don't remember what we ate or drank, so that should tell you it wasn't very good. It was on the water - fine - but because of the rest of it being not very exciting we don't quite remember.
Review Source:I really enjoy the Guilford Mooring. Yes, there's better seafood out there, and sure, the food is not comparable to the (much-more-expensive) Stone House across the street, but it's fun, the food is tasty, and the people that work there have always been very nice in my experience. I always enjoy going there.
Review Source:I'm only bothering to write a review on this spot for 2 reasons: you can sit outside and look @ the water & all the seafood is totally fresh- nothing frozen. Oh and well they serve Gossling"s Rum & make stiff cocktails. The bar is occupied by trashy patrons. The staff is annoyingly "attentive" as they are OVER staffed. The corn chowder was very good, whole belly clams -good, and the clams w/garlic, wine, and fresh herbs were excellent.
Review Source:This is the best place in town to catch up with old friends and grab a beer. Â It's located near the train station, they have live music, the food is good (especially their lobster mac and cheese!), and they give away free food sometimes! Â I don't know any other restaurants/bars that serve their customers free potatoes, french toast and sausages at midnight! Â Please let me know if you do. Â The one problem I have with this place (very minor) is that some times they crank up the volume of the band so high that you can't hear your friend next to you tell you that you have food on your nose. Â I'm still a huge fan though!
Review Source:When there is music playing
the sound overwhelms the dining area - even when you purposefully sit as far from bar area as you can find in the dining room
I've tried to make dinner and discussion work there 4 times since the bar scene first lifted its volume about a year ago
each time since
the palate tingles but the ears ring
karaoke
rock
whatever
I have fine hearing and am not otherwise overly sensitive
the bar scene is fine
but when you treats out of town guests to what you beleive will be a nice dinner
you get the dinner
but not the conversation
seems the Mooring has shifted to become a bar scene not restaurant scene
next time I will seek a different restaurant after calling ahead and finding music on the menu
but when there is no music, I will be back
oh such great steamers!!
We went the other night for our anniversary - asked to be seated outside where we waited for 10 minutes with not one staff coming over to take drink orders or bring water. During that time, we were treated to 2 drunk women shrieking about their friend who despite numerous liposuctions has been unable to stay thin.
At this point, we decided to try inside and see if we'd have better luck. The hostess told us she was going to get a table for us. Waited approximately another 10 minutes and she hadn't returned. We also noticed that no one who was seated had any food and everyone looked miserable.
So we left.
I have visited this restaurant over the years and have never had a bad experience. Â The food and the service has always been terrific.
The dining is casual. Â If you're looking for a more upscale and pricier place then maybe try The Stone House restaurant across the street. Â They're both nice restaurants. Â The way I view them is like this.....The Guilford Mooring is where you take your whole family on a Sunday afternoon. Â The Stone House is where you take your date on a Friday night.
I like going to the Guilford Mooring for lunch. Â During the afternoon when the sun is out, there's wonderful views of the town docks. Â The whole restaurant appears light and airy with its many windows. Â The Stone House has lots of windows too, but their view is not as nice as the Guilford Mooring's view because they are across the street.
After dining you can stroll around the Guilford docks. Â There's always people fishing or launching boats during the summer time. Â This whole area is especially nice for showing out-of-town people who wish to see the Connecticut shoreline.
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