Cape Sea Grille

Was in Harwich from June 9 – 12. My meal here, the lobster dish, was by far the best meal of my vacation. Asparagus tender, not stringy, potatoes cooked but not mushy, and lobster seasoned just right with a beautiful presentation.

I came here with some friends including one who has lived on the cape his whole life, and even he hadn’t heard of this place ! It really is a hidden gem. It’s fancy, the kind of place that gives you lemon slices with your water on request and cleans the crumbs off the table between courses. The wine list is very extensive, and the food was extremely fresh. I got the sea scallops as an entrée and the oysters, clams, mussels, and shrimp as an appetiser. Extremely impressed with both, especially the oysters. I mean what do you expect on the cape? But still ! My friends got the crab special, the calamari special, and the pasta dish with lobster, shrimp, and scallops. I asked on friend how her pasta dish was, and she said «I approve» (that’s her highest level of praise). We also had a corner table with a nice outside view. We would definitely come back.

Great spot… awesome place for date night. My wife and I went in the offseason (Fall) and had a fantastic experience.
We tried a 3 for $ 30 type special. the portions were smaller but plenty of food for sure. Everything we tried was delicious! Wine selection was great and our waiter was a master in terms of his menu knowledge… their training program pays off for sure! The atmosphere is tops as well.
Highly recommended!

Lovely. Perfect food. Excellent wine list. Superb service.
Love a place that knows how to execute food across all courses.
The prix fix menu is out of this world for taste to value.

Ambience is stuffy. Left there hungry, Lobster dish tasted of alkali .
Swordfish was rubbery. Long wait for server to even approach us.
Very pricey. Not worth the trip.

After calling twice to remind them that we were on our one year anniversary (we had our rehearsal dinner at the restaurant one year prior) we had hoped to make it a special night, unfortunately it was one big disappointment.
First, we were shown to a slanted table by the window with a cold draft just underneath it. We ordered some wine which unfortunately came in a dirty glass, which was gross. We ordered one of the salads with pork belly and pear which was ok. The bread was warm, but slightly stale, and they crust was chewy instead of crisp, like it had been sitting out on the counter for a while. Our meals were fair at best. I got the meat special, which was ok, but the potatoes were undercooked and the horseradish sauce just melted into the rice creating this weird soupy mixture. My wife got the scallops, which were done well, but small and only 5 tiny ones, and the accompanying pasta was tasteless and ill conceived. For $ 150 for the two of us, we were very underwhelmed both in the quantity and quality of the food. Service was fair, relatively inattentive and aloof. The quickest part was when he got our credit card to ring up our bill!
The worst part was that nothing was done to make the night special for us even after I had called twice to remind them. No glasses of wine on the house, no dessert, not even a «happy anniversary». After mentioning all of this on our way out to the hostess and manager «Jennifer» she just shrugged saying «that’s so unlike us»
This restaurant was a big disappointment and we will not be going back, nor recommending it to any of our friends or relatives.

Never had a bad meal here! The Chef is the owner and does a great job making unique and delicious food!

Just finished dinner, found this place on Unilocal.And Unilocal does it again! Great meal. Nice atmosphere — maybe a tad loud for a «fine dining» experience but not a big deal to me. Staff were all terrific.
There were three of us. We had the Soy/​Orange ½ Chicken, Sea Scallops, and a Filet with Scallops special. All VERY good. Good wine list as well.
It’s expensive but was worth it.

This is our go to restaurant when we’re in the area. I’ve eaten here three times this summer already. It’s a husband-​and-​wife team that on the Business. The husband runs the kitchen and is the executive chef and his wife runs the front of the house. We absolutely love coming here! Our favorite waitress is Bridget! They have a fabulous menu and everything is fresh and perfect!

The Cape Sea Grille could be great. It strives to be on par with Ocean House in Dennis, but falls short. Here are some things to keep in mind:
1) The décor is confusing. The original dining space is very nice, but the latest addition in the past few years looks like a hospital/​assisted living dining room. The woodwork is dated and the booths are a very off-​putting foamy green.
2) The menu uses the Papyrus font. Why an aspiring fine dining establishment uses a font that an 8^th grader would cut and paste onto a poster board is beyond me.
3) Making a reservation doesn’t make much of a difference. They don’t seem to understand how to turn tables. Here is a suggestion: don’t offer 7 PM and 8 PM reservations, especially on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday nights. Keep everything on the :30 to account for walk-​ins, since people are more likely to come in at 7 or 8 without reservations. Having worked in a Michelin star restaurant, I can tell you this changes everything.
4) The menu. Oh god, the menu. If this were 1995, I could see how it would be considered fine dining; however, the battling flavors in heavy sauces (chipotle bearnaise? WHY?), over-​complicated and unappealing combinations (caramelized onion mashed potatoes?), and strange presentation are the stuff of nightmares. There is no hero to any of the entrees, just plates of WTH. I am genuinely concerned for the people who gave this place 4 and 5 stars.
5) The prices are outrageous given the quality. There is actually no reason for this to be a $$$ joint.
Servers are nice and genuinely work hard. It’s too bad they have to sell something only appealing to the Cape’s heavily elderly and taste bud-​less population.

Eat here!!! Amazing, well prepared food. Knowledgeable staff and the ambiance is very «old new england house» style, that makes it feel like we are at someone we know’s mother’s house. The chef is fantastic. I will definitely go back, and there is no way I will skip the braised ribs. Yum, yum, yum. Ok, it was in September that we ate at Cape Sea Grille, but now it’s snowing so I am catching up on this Unilocal review. I know they are closed for the season right now, but I will dream of a nice warm fire and the dinner there on this cold Nor’ester night.

Great meal! Great service. Every dish came out perfect from the appetizers we shared as a table to my scallop and shrimp pasta dish to my husbands fillet. Great wine list too!

We like to joke that the reason we always get a summer rental in Harwich Port is because of the Cape Sea Grille — but we’re only half joking!
Simply put, the cape sea grille is culinary perfection on the cape. The center cut fillet with potato pancake is indescribably delicious — but we’ve truly never had any dish here were didn’t enjoy beyond belief.
This summer we rolled the dice and (against my better judgment) brought our 2 year old with us for dinner midweek. Not only was the staff incredibly kind and accommodating, cape sea grille’s fresh pasta has totally ruined her for anything that comes out of a box. Who can blame her?!
I would recommend planning a nice, long walk after dining here because you will not be able to put your fork down. Somehow the law of decreasing marginal utility does not apply here and each bite tastes as good — if not better — than the last.

Every part of our dinner was superior… the Mixed Grill entrée is just delicious as was the swordfish and the lobster pasta. Service was very slow and the noise level was very high… possibly b/​c one person was speaking loudly everyone else found they had to raise their voices to be heard. Will go back but not till the fall mid week!

I am OBSESSED with this place! Probably one of the best restaurants I’ve ever been to. In terms of food, ambiance and service, everything here is top notch. The building looks like it was once an old colonial home so the restaurant is sort of broken off into smaller rooms for a more intimate setting.
If you are seated before 5:45PM, you can take advantage of their prix fix menu, which is a salad or soup and dessert for only the price of your entrée. Who can say no to FREE food! They have a really robust menu and also daily specials. On my last trip there, I got the braised short ribs special and OH MY GOD; it was heaven. Didn’t even need a knife to eat it, it was so tender. It came with a little veggie potpie/​puffed pastry and spinach on the side which were both equally delicious, bursting with flavor. I’ve also had the filet mignon here and it’s always cooked perfectly.
Nothing bugs me more at a restaurant than when my water glass is empty and I need to track down a server to get it refilled. Here, it was like the servers were able to read my mind! With only a few sips left in the glass, they always managed to appear to fill me up. That aside, just exceptional service all around.
It’s difficult to find a fancy restaurant on the Cape that doesn’t have a ton of kids running around so this is a lovely addition to the restaurant scene.

Reading the crazy ‘u suk’ reviews of this place is fairly entertaining in itself. I can see why business owners have a love/​hate relationship with Unilocal.
But anyway, on to my review.
Went here this summer when I was working in Hyannis, it was suggested by an ex gf. She thinks OG is haute cuisine so I made sure to check the reviews before I committed myself.
Had the mussel app, lobster shrimp scallop pasta and the crème brulee dessert. The seafood was great as one would expect, the pasta and sauce were decent and so was the dessert.
It is expensive (may I suggest the prix fix menu for the budget minded) but in line for it’s location and usual clientele.
Solid and worth repeating.
And to the reviewer who negatively said the place isn’t kid friendly — what gave you that idea? Was it the mostly older clientele, the quiet laid back semi refined ambiance of the place, the delicate furniture, the lack of crayons? Yeah, this place isn’t kid friendly, thank jebits.

We live in NYC and were vacationing in Cape Cod when we decided to try this restaurant. Usually, I’m not put off by poor service if the food is good and reasonably priced, but this restaurant delivered the unfortunate triumvirate of mediocre food, high prices, and exceptionally awful service.
To begin, they were unable to seat us at our reservation time and instead asked that we wait in the bar. After 15 drink-​less minutes of waiting without so much as a glance from the busy bartenders, we went back to the hostess table and sat on the couch beside it. There we got to listen to the manager shamelessly yell at and berate her staff. Not exactly an ambiance enhancer. When the hostess finally walked over to seat us, the manager dragged her back to the podium so that together they could loudly talk shit about another customer. Were we invisible?
After our interminable wait, we were seated and ordered their signature dishes. The service from the waitstaff was slow, the food was meh, and the whole experience felt way out of sync with the pricing. All in all, it was one of the poorer dining experiences we had in the Cape.
We much preferred The Glass Onion in Falmouth which was superior in every category.

An excellent place for either a romantic dinner or a group outing. The food is exceptional, and very well prepared.
There is a 5:45 prie fixe so it is a bit crazy if you eat early (well, truth be told, it is a popular restaurant, so all times are a bit hectic). The point is, early is not quiet like many places.
I had the fried oysters to start. Meh – kinda like a po’boy, hold the bread, add avocado. The scallop taco – well that was exceptional.
The Mahi special was a bit light on the fish (i.e., a small portion), but the dish overall was well delicious. The cod was potatoes run amok. Step away from the cod.
For a nice night out, Cape Sea Grille is a great choice.

We were looking for a romantic place to grab a drink and an appetizer. Thought it would be fun to try something new and some of the reviews here looked interesting.
Started with an IPA and we shared some mussels. Nice flavor and a bit different with a Brussels sprout and pieces of potato. Overall a good time for a quick stop.

Finally got to have dinner here on a Saturday night in mid-​June. It was crowded but luckily they take reservations and you can make them online via their website.
The place is very nice inside and out and close to the water.
The crowd is skewed toward toward the older side but the night we were there there were people ranging in age from twenty-​somethings up to the nearly deceased.
Service was very good though maybe a bit rushed (I think we were in & out in an hour or so).
The food was all very good and we had no real complaints. Started with a basic salad ($ 11) that was among the better ones I’ve tried. I had the fish tacos entrée portion ($ 32) and it was good though untraditional. I would have switched out the mint with something else but it was good anyway. She had a grilled pork chop special with some kind of rice-​like substance that I’m told was all very good.
Overall this is a very professionally-​run place and they do everything right.
But I didn’t love it.
Menu selection is somewhat limited and expect to pay $ 30+ for pretty much every entrée. Everything is a la carte and sides are $ 9 each. Apps are $ 12+ and he basic salad was $ 11. You want cheese on that salad? Add another $ 4.
At these prices I expect to be blown away or at least able to say it was more than «professional with decent food».
We paid $ 135 including tip for 2 people, no apps, one salad, two entrees, and one drink each and I was still hungry when I left (she wasn’t though). I would have had dessert but the dessert menu was entirely unimpressive with a very basic limited selection (crème brûlée, ice cream apparently flown in from Boston and a couple boring cake-​type items). We went to nearby Sundae School for some decent ice-​cream instead. And I was still hungry (and I’m not a big eater).
My choice would be to go to The Port restaurant next door which is about the same $$‘s (maybe less) and has a much more interesting menu in a more cosmopolitan atmosphere.
Like The Port, the Cape Sea Grill is NOT a good place for kids. I know it’s the Cape and people just assume every restaurant welcomes your kids in their bathing suits and flip-​flops but this is one of the few restaurants where that’s just not the case.
I will probably be back here because it’s the perfect place to take your parents. Food and service are solid and the menu won’t offend anyone. As noted, they take reservations so unlike many restaurants on the Cape we won’t have to wait an hour or more for a table on a weekend on-​season. I just hope mom & dad pick up he tab.