Jasper's Restaurant in Ellsworth, Maine

Jasper's Restaurant is located in right on Route 1 & 3 in downtown Ellsworth, Maine. It is on the eastern side of the road, so taking a left into it can be difficult and taking a left out of it can be almost impossible, even without much traffic since the road in this part of Ellsworth is 2 lanes in each direction. There is plenty of free parking available between the hotel spots and the restaurant spots. The restaurant itself is not all that large, so during the busier season, you are probably going to have to wait. When we were there, only a few tables had people at them since it was November.

Jasper's reminds me of a typical New England seafood restaurant. There is something of a nautical theme and the seating is pretty basic, as are the tables. The place definitely is not fancy, but it is not run down either.

Menu

There is a good sized menu, but if you don't like seafood, it is limited if you don't want a steak. There are a couple of sandwiches, burgers and chicken dishes and the rest of the non-seafood menu is left to steaks. The rest of the menu is more expansive when it comes to seafood with a number of different lobster options, from the whole thing to a lazy man's lobster. There are also fish dishes and shellfish meals. They are available fried and baked for the most part and they do have a number of different meals that should give people what they want since there are so many different combinations available.

In general the menu has what you would expect at a restaurant like this. There are a number of appetizers along with salads and soups. Then the menu has burgers, sandwiches, steaks, seafood and several different "Italian" dishes. The dessert menu has some typical favorites along with blueberry crisp since this is Maine.

This is a tourist restaurant and hence, I thought the prices were slightly inflated. We spent about $30 a person when all was said and done for our meal.

Dinner

My spouse got the lobster and he enjoyed it. I know, not much prep goes into it besides boiling it, but at the very least, they had good live lobsters to cook. The sides that came with it were also good. I got one of the specials which was a chicken cordon bleu wrap. I thought it tasted good, but it was not anything special. I was disappointed with the fries, since it seemed that they fried them in the same oil that they used for the seafood, so the fries were infused with the seafood taste. We both split a dessert and had coffee after our meals. The coffee was good and the dessert, which was a chocolate cake like thing was tasty.

Overall, he loved his meal while I can say that I was satisfied, but neither overwhelmed nor underwhelmed.

Don't forget though to get a bottle of Bar Harbor Blueberry Ale while you're there. It's tasty.

I thought the service was great while we were there. I think there was only one waitress working and even though she had several different tables, she was attentive to our needs and our meal was well paced.

In the End

I liked Jasper's even though I was slightly disappointed with my meal on this visit, but I have been there in the past and enjoyed what I ate more. I also loved the Blueberry Ale and more importantly, my husband loved the lobster that he had so I think it was money well spent.

I would go back to Jasper's if I was in the area again and looking to eat.