One of my favorite spots!! A must go when you're in town. The French onion soup is a fav, and some of the best seafood I've ever had. Do NOT skip out on the homemade desserts! A really fun vibe with great food, and a lovely staff. read more

What a great find. Traveling North in Maine the food choices on Route 1 are limited to fast food and fair quick ordering seafood. Get off Route 1 in Bath and take in the charms of "downtown "Bath. JR Maxwell is warm and inviting. Staff are pros. Food is excellent. You will not be disappointed. read more

My family has frequented this restaurant for generations. However, anyplace that answers the phone talking about "fake news" is probably guilty of doing horrible things to the food. My grandmother will have to go else where for her crab cakes. read more

We were there for lunch recently. I had a Ruben and my wife had a burger. Both were good. The serving was large. I could have easily split the sandwich along with a cup of soup. My wife enjoyed her burger. The food came hot and the service was prompt and friendly. Lots of refills on the ice tea. I can't say we sampled the entire menu but what we had will bring us back for more. read more

I love this restaurant!! It's a go-to spot for me and I always take my family and out of town friends here. The vibe is very welcoming and cozy and the staff is wonderful. The food is delicious! The Walnut Salmon, French onion soup, and cheese sticks are some of my favorites. read more

What a shame! I really like the casual, pub-style, atmosphere of this place, but THE FOOD IS REALLY BAD. They think that a sauce is powdered, all-purpose, gravy mix, with wine or cheese mixed in. No lie! We've eaten there, several times, because our friends like the burgers, and kept hoping it would get better (really wanted it to). But, after the last time, we'll NEVER go there again. I got the chicken marsalla, and it was awful. The chicken was barely edible (gristle) and the sauce was nasty (coagulated on the plate into a paste). No. I didn't bother to send it back because I really should've known not to order anything but sandwiches and burgers in there. And, the waitress didn't even ask why I didn't eat anything (which was strange, but also funny because she probably knew the answer!). My husband got the chicken cordon bleue, and the ham was inedible. Also, if you ask for something special (like, just a plain piece of haddock - no bacon and blue cheese - *yuck!* a horrible idea!), it comes out that way anyway, and they won't exchange it. They also have an Amaretto haddock that one of our friends got the last time (even though it sounds gross - amaretto and fish? Really? *gross!*), and guess what? Yep! It was disgusting! They really need to hire a REAL chef, and in the meantime, stick to the basics, like broiled fish with butter/crumbs, and burgers/sandwiches. Don't try to invent things because you don't know what you're doing. (immediately remove the blue cheese and Amaretto from the kitchen!) Lastly, they do not stock Coors Light upstairs (for some reason - seems like a popular brand) and every time we go, they give us excuses, because they're too lazy to go to the downstairs bar to get some. (They never remember that we've been there before..) The last time, the waitress said that the cooler was broken downstairs and the Coors Light became warm. After dinner, we went down, and guess what? Yep! We asked, and there was nothing wrong with the cooler, and we all got our Coors Lights, frosty cold. I think that's really rude. We saw the waitress down there later too, and she wouldn't make eye contact. read more

Maxwells never disappoints. Dine in or take out is available. Staff is always friendly and Friday night prime rib is the best I've ever had. Great downtown Bath location to walk to shops or ice cream. read more

I tried many many many New England Clam Chowders in Maine and this was the best one by far. I actually brought home a few bowls that's how good it was! The fried seafood platter was absolutely delicious as well. I would give this place a try if your in the neighborhood! read more

Came in on a quiet Monday afternoon for a late lunch. Excellent clam chowder and the Captain's salad far exceeded my expectations - crisp fresh veggies topped with a hefty portion of fresh and excellent lobster, crab, and shrimp, with homemade dill dressing. Top notch and tasty. read more

Had lunch recently and we ordered a reuben sandwich and a crab roll. Both horrible. The $16 crab roll was watery and loaded with mayo. No seasoning at all. The reuben was bland and clearly was prepackaged corned beef. Bread was soggy too. We sat at the bar when a large group came in and literally took over. No social distancing and those that were standing wore no face masks. Clam chowder was really good though. Won't go back read more

Clean place. Nice staff. Excellent food!!! Just had the lamb rack..... terrific!!! Within one hour I was gone... perfect place to eat read more

J R Maxwell - American Near Me - Bath, Maine

French onion soup is very good. Prime Rib was around 12 oz and tasty. Very good service. The atmosphere is half of it. I would come back. read more

After a disappointing experience at another local spot, it was a much welcomed change to have been greeted and seated right away! The food was solid and our server Molly was attentive - refilling water consistently and checking in. Definitely a spot I'd recommend! read more

Food was ok, we both had lobster. We ordered a dirty martini and a Manhattan and we waited over 40 min for our drinks and they tasted terrible. Our waitress was very nice but very slow. It was not a good experience. read more

As always we had a great meal at Maxwills after Bath's 3rd Friday Art Walk. Best seafood and steaks around. Wait staff is amazing.

Very friendly service. Carrie took good care of us. My wife and I both enjoyed our hamburgers. The salad was very fresh. The potato salad was ok but very bland. My wife got the homemade chips with her burger and they were very delicious. Would eat here again. read more

We ordered fried whole clams, fried scallops along with baked beans, French fries and potato salad! Each item was flavorful and well prepared! Definitely recommend! read more

I would highly recommend JR Maxwell's when in Bath. And I would also recommend getting a reservation as we had no issues being seated with one and the place filled up in no time with people standing in line. I don't think there was an open table and the restaurant is quite large. Service was a little slow but staff were friendly and attentive. Our server was training someone and I would guess that that also slowed things down a bit. In post pandemic times, give them some grace. Seafood is their specialty along with steak and we were not disappointed with our choices. I had the seafood platter which consisted of all fried seafood- shrimp, scallops, clams and haddock. Holy wow it was delicious, tender and so plentiful with two large pieces of fish and at least four pieces each of the others. I had broccoli on the side and a side salad. They brought out a small loaf of white bread to go with. My husband had a club sandwich, onion soup, salad and a side of baked beans. The food was definitely homemade- the beans and soup could have come from someone's kitchen- they were outstanding. We each had drinks and split a piece of key lime pie (also very good) and our bulk was less than $80 with lunch set for the next day. Well worth the money! read more

My hubby and I live in Bath, and eat out maybe twice a week. However, we've finally given up on Maxwell's. The food is bland and lackluster, which could be somewhat forgivable if the service was great. It is not. In fact, the night we brought some out-of-town guests who are African-American, the host and our server were downright hostile. read more

This place was good in the 80's...when you didn't have other options in the area. However, now with the abundance of restaurants serving fresh quality local ingredients, one meal here with frozen items, microwaved sides, and wilty limp salads just doesn't cut it. I am forced to dine here periodically because my parent's like it. I can't remember the last dish I liked. And the interior matches the drab tired menu. Yuck. read more

I was interested in checking out this restaurant since the reviews were so good. We went on a Monday night figuring it probably won't be all that busy. We walked into the restaurant and was not greeted with a hello. The wait person walked us to our table still not talking, threw our menus on the table and poured water in the glasses. Still she did not speak a word. We sat there and looked at the menu, about 5 minutes later the wait person brought bread over put it down on the table and still uttered nothing to us as she walked away. She did not even ask us if we wanted to order a drink or anything. I was so upset that my husband and I walked out. So, how was the food you say. Not sure, we didn't get past the pour customer service. read more

3 stars for this restaurant is very deceiving...this is a very good restaurant. Limp salad? The captain salad is full of fresh seafood and bright greens...You can get a small for $10 or a large for $16 and the large was overflowing with seafood, 3 lobster claws, maine shrimp and crab. I had the clam chowder and it was outstanding...$5 for an overflowing bowl...Then I had the Fettuccine Alfredo with Maine Shrimp..$10 and a big plate. The coleslaw was also excellent. read more

Our favorite place for celebrations great and small! Best prime rib anywhere. Fried seafood has the loveliest beer batter. Staff (shout out to Jenny) is wonderful. When we want to splurge a little, this is our go to place. Happy fortieth anniversary to Bath's gem. read more

Skip it. Everything was overly fried and just not good. The interior was dingy and dark.

Service was good but lobster and fish were over cooked, overpriced, and rather bland.

While on business in Bath, I've had the opportunity to eat at Maxwell's a few times. The results have been decidedly mixed. The chowder is great. The chicken fingers, halibut and the clams were all good too. Sometimes the service has been good. Other times, the service was awful. It took 2 hours for a simple lunch with 5 people one day. Another night it was 20 minutes before we even got drinks. And while some of the food has been quite good, other things have been pretty bland or worse. The chicken cordon bleu was pretty meh. A teriyaki steak was flavorless. But last night took the cake. Two of us got the filet and it was so bad that both of us sent it back (I haven't sent a steak back to the kitchen in 40 years). It was disgusting - the meat was literally rotten. So the service is mixed...and stay far away from their steaks. read more

A good place to come for seafood year round in Maine. They have a pretty cool little bar in the bottom of the restaurant. The whole restaurant is made of wood planks and feels very maritime. Great service and pretty decent food as well!! read more

The restaurant was fairly busy for a Tuesday evening, so the service was a bit slow. We found the food to be good with a few exceptions. The Seafood Broil was more like a seafood casserole, with lots of butter and rich sweet stuffing -- not what I expected -- and the Burgundy Steak was not well trimmed. But this won,t keep us from returning. read more

At first, this place did not seem like anything special and like it wouldn't be that good, but I was very wrong. The food here was INCREDIBLE!!! We had the crab cake appetizer, which didn't look toooo appetizing but once we tasted it, it was so so good! My husband had the Seafood Medley pasta and I had the Lobster Roll. His seafood medley pasta looked so delicious and tasted great as well. He finished all of it and loved it so much! My lobster roll was so delicious!! I was so excited to try a Maine lobster roll and it surely didn't disappoint. It has 1/3lb of lobster meat and was so filling and delicious. I had one bite left and couldn't finish it even though I wanted to so badly! Even though the food was great, I was a little disappointed with how slow the service was, we waited close to if not more than an hour for our entrees. I was also very upset that there was a customer eating in the dining room with a dog. And no, it was not a service dog, as it was not wearing a vest. That is extremely unsanitary and should not be allowed. read more

The food is three star. Decent and solid fare. The clam chowder is deserving of a fourth star. Best I have had in and around Bath, ME.

Awesome food and great atmosphere. Friendly staff. Had the broiled Haddock done perfectly ! Hubby had Lobster done perfectly.

We very much enjoyed our visit to this establishment. We sat at the bar where there was plenty of seating. But it was Sunday at 5pm but they don't take rezzies for the bar. We ordered the mussels. Loved them. We also ordered the seafood broil. They added nutmeg which detracted from the otherwise yummy goodness. They have another cute cozy bar downstairs with more seating. read more

Came to dinner with my boyfriend and his parents the afternoon after Christmas; we braved the ice storm and blizzard for it! The restaurant was so cute and cozy, I wanted to just sit around in it all day. I had the seafood broiler, which was so unique and delicious. I only made it through half, but the honey stuffing was so surprising and a good compliment for the seafood. Of course to me the quality was over the top (not too much pulled-out-of-the-ocean seafood in NYC or Ohio lol), but the family loved the place. I nibbled off my bf's pile of fried seafood, which everything was spot on. read more

Reasonable service and food for a summer weekday lunch. Not overly memorable in either a positive or negative sense.

This place is pretty cool. Bar area restaurant area and a downstairs area with pool table. Beer could be colder not much on tap but if your stuck in bath Maine. This is a must. The food was on point! read more

Clam chowder was wonderful, one of the best around. The lobsters in our lobster dinners seemed undersized for the price, but they were fresh and flavorful. The martini was generous. The setting was pretty boring. read more

First of all, I will not write a bad review unless it is totally aweful...and this place was aweful!!! Two of us arrived during the NFC playoffs which the server was more interested in then waiting on his customers. I guess that's is what it is since he was a football fan. We ordered salads to start, They were limp and very cold as they were made a day or two before and sat in the refrigerator until served. I ordered the Baked Stuffed Haddock with a vegetable side dish, Sweet Snap Peas. The Haddock entree was so full of buttered bread crumbs that you had to "fish" through them to get to the smallest piece haddock. I left half of the dish of buttered crumbs. It was not edible. The side was Snap Peas set in a small bowl completely dripping with butter. It could not be eaten. My friend ordered the Steak Special with a Baked Potato. The Steak was cooked to order but both the Steak and the Baked Potato came to the table luke warm at best. It was if the Entree had set prior to coming out probably to serve both dinners ant the same time. The waiter never came back to the table to ask if our meals were to our liking. The game was more important! If I were to come back to Bath, J R Maxwell will not be on the list of eateries we will be going to. "You have to get a terrible meal in order to appreciate a good one" This one was terrible. read more

I've always heard great things about this restaurant, but unfortunately that was not my experience. We ordered the "famous" cheese sticks from the recommendation of our waitress. They came out very quickly and hot, but they were truly awful.. they tasted like a greasy grilled cheese with this strange liquid cheese inside. I know it's cheddar instead of mozzarella but the taste was so off. They came with a strange sweet dipping sauce which didn't help at all, I couldn't bring myself to eat them. I ordered fried scallops with fries and a salad. The salad was the best part. My boyfriend ordered fish & chips and the best part of his was the slaw. The food was so incredibly greasy it was a struggle to eat it and we both felt sick after. Our waitress was super nice, and if we hadn't had a gift card I might have said a little more than I did. The atmosphere was very dark and uninviting as well. I absolutely would never go back and I wouldn't recommend this place to anyone. read more

Very cozy place, food was ok not amazing but ok, soup was fantastic! I must say this place is a little confused though, it's got the fancy atmosphere but then has big screen TVs with football on. So.... Kinda confused. read more

Went there for a family members wedding dinner earlier this year. Upstairs was great, the service, food drinks etc. Downstairs was a different story, very busy, and what seemed like good atmosphere, but the bartender was incredibly rude, got angry at at uncle for ordering multiple drinks for our group, especially when he requested mixed drinks and shots, yelled at customers, and pushed people out to close early on a Friday night. Went back the next night with the wedding party and found a very different experience. read more