18 Central Oyster Bar & Grill

My family & I had a great time at 18 central! The service was amazing as was the atmosphere was cozy. For food two of us ordered the hanger steak & when it’s cooked properly it’s a great choice. However both of us had issues with temperature. For seafood options my table loved the Sweet Lucy Oysters & enjoyed the scallops as well. The best dish however was the Duck which was cooked & flavored perfectly. Other things to note include reasonable wine prices, seasonal cocktails, and beautiful views of Rockport Harbor.

We had reservations at 7:30pm on a Sunday night in mid May. We were seated at our chosen bar seats right away. Our server Jessica was really busy, but took very good care of us and was very bubbly. We started with the drinks Small Craft Advisory and Kilnwooder. Both were excellent. For dinner we shared the Finnan & Fingerlings salad and the mussels. The salad was fresh, but we were a little disappointed that we only had three little potato slivers. Also, the croutons were so large that they were hard to eat. The flavors were on point though. The mussels were terrible. They were so mushy that they disintegrated in our mouths. We couldn't eat them. Jessica happily removed them from our bill. The star of the night was the special: Fiddleheads in garlic and butter. Wow, it was one of the best dishes we ate on our trip. For dessert we had the Bread Pudding. It was excellent. I would recommend this place if you are in the area.

We dined here with our son and daughter in law. What a fabulous time. The service is quick and fun, atmosphere quaint and relaxing and the food was amazing. We had burgers, scallops, a couple bottles of wine, muscles, poutine and collards. We highly recommend all but the collards, they lacked seasoning and tasted odd. I can’t judge by one dish so overall the restaurants amazing. We’ll definitely make this a regular dining option.

We were really happy to get a last minute reservation and wow were we lucky! Friendly staff, loved our waitress Jessica and the food was amazing. We had a dozen oyster which were fabulous, the duck special and the halibut. Thank you for such a wonderful evening!

We had reservations for a party of three. After we got past the line we were directed to the back patio for drinks and a fantastic view before being seated inside. We had barely sipped on our drinks when our table was ready. Service was attentive and honest about time it took to prepare some dishes. So dont go here for a quick meal. Plan for some time to relax and enjoy. The craft cocktails are delicious. Appetizers and entrees are well presented and tasted great. Definitely recommend making reservations. I believe even the bar seats are booked in advance. I'll definitely be going back! Urban Cowgill August 2023

Best oysters I have ever had and quality cocktails. Our mains were very decent as well, I really liked how they showcased chantrelles, morels, and other mushrooms in each dish. The bed of creamed corn my scallops were served on was absolutely fantastic, and all of their breads hit the spot! It was pricey though, $4 oysters and entrees around $40 but you get what you pay for in terms of quality and service. Was happy to see the drinks weren’t crazy expensive.

Beautiful location overlooking the harbor. We sat on the outside deck on a perfect evening and enjoyed the view. Drinks and our starter salad were served quickly, but our dinner entrees took over 45 minutes to arrive at table. My halibut portion was large but overly salted - so much so that it didn’t taste anything like fish, just salt. As our server was clearing the dishes we mentioned that the halibut was way too salty and asked her to pass the information along on to the chef. She immediately came back with our check without asking if we’d like dessert or coffee or after dinner drinks. I don’t know if she needed to rush us out because we’d been there longer than 90 minutes, but I felt like that wasn’t on us, that was because the food took so long to arrive. I’m not at all complaining about the server, she was kind and attentive if maybe a bit inexperienced ‍♀️ The place was highly recommended to us, but the whole experience was a bit off. I will definitely give it another try if we are ever back in this part of coastal Maine, but maybe request easy, easy, easy on the salt.

Very cute restaurant w/ great vibe. We had a bit of a disappointing experience, and left feeling they seem a little caught-up with themselves and have forgotten about the customer. Hostess was totally indifferent when we checked-in; no greeting, ‘welcome to 18 Central…’ nothing. Server was very sweet, but we had a problem with one of our orders, and it felt like we were a bother, as opposed to, ‘let me make this right’. My wife ordered a burger Medium. I came out at least red, maybe close to raw in the middle. She was a trooper and said don’t say anything. I asked the server to look at it and see if it could be microwaved to not disrupt everything. There was some banter between she and the cook staff, that felt like they were not happy we sent it back. It came back out again in a few minutes, and this time it was solid pink. She picked around it, but really couldn’t eat it and we weren’t going to send it back again. When the meal was over, the check was literally dumped on our table, with not even a ‘thank you for coming’. Nothing. I was not happy. I wrote a note to the restaurant explaining what happened, and that I thought they were wrong to charge us for a burger that was done so improperly. Haven’t heard back from them. Cute restaurant that feels like they need to tone-down the arrogance a bit, and get back to serving customers well! J.W.