I love stopping here if I'm heading that way for a day ride. The best fried clams ever that's my go to with a drink and all i can eat. Always busy,summer is super busy with outside picnic tables and a great big tent to beat the sun off . Inside seating is small and limited but decent enough for a great clam stop. Love it!
Food: It's all about the oil. They change oil regularly, making the frying light and crisp, as it should be.
Service: It's a self-serve counter.
Atmosphere: It's clean and neat with good parking, and exactly what you'd expect for the decor and style of a traditional New England fried food clam spot.
Parking: More spots than you can quickly count in a big gravel lot.
Kid-friendliness: Kids are welcome with both indoor and outdoor seating.
Atmosphere: 4
Food: 4
Service: 3
Recommended dishes: Clam Box
Mike Carkonen
Nothing to be said ,that hasn’t been said before!
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Paul Bennett
If you blindfolded me and told me I was eating fried clams and homemade onion rings, I would be mildly shocked. We both were looking for flavor in both.
Fried clams, like the now world-famous lobster roll, are ubiquitous along the New England coastline, especially in the late Spring and Summer months. But just as most connoisseurs will tell you the best lobster roll they ever had was in Maine, the best fried clams are in Massachusetts - specifically in the North Shore towns of Ipswich and Essex. Like all great regional specialties, the fried clam has warring factions that each maintain their favorite spot is the one and only place to get them. Woodman's, which lays claim to inventing the fried clam a century ago, has its advocates. But despite excellent onion rings, the breading on their clams is too aggressive. Superb clams can occasionally be found elsewhere in Essex at J.T. Farnham’s and Essex Seafood. But the most consistent and best fried clams in Massachusetts – and therefore the world – are at the Clam Box.
The first thing everyone notices when they arrive at the Clam Box a few miles outside of charming Ipswich center is that the building looks like a big clam box. Fitted with mismatched region-typical grey shingles, the serving area’s outside walls extend beyond its ceiling and flare out to hang over the perimeter. Sadly, there are no giant clams sticking out of the top of the box, but the effect is unmistakable and delightfully novel. The second, and much more important, thing you’ll notice is the line that stretches out the door and into the parking lot at peak meal times throughout the Summer. Do not be detracted: it moves fast and if anything is too short considering what awaits inside. The menu at the Clam Box is focused on traditional New England fare, with a variety of fried seafood served a la carte as boxes or as plates that come with fries, onion rings, and/or housemade coleslaw. There are minor concessions like hamburgers and hot dogs to the seafood averse who have been dragged to the Clam Box by their wiser dining companions. Yes, they have lobster rolls, and yes, they are excellent. Don’t lose focus, though. You are here for the whole belly clams, and you will want as many of them as you and your wallet can take.
The clams at the Clam Box are lightly coated in a corn/flour blend and double fried – once to remove excess breading and immediately moved to a second cleaner oil dip. It yields a delicate and yet crisp product that is clean while still retaining its seawater origin. The first bite of a New England fried clam at the Clam Box will have a surprising and delightful sweetness not present in mediocre fried clams shamefully overpriced elsewhere in the country. They barely hold together as you bite into them and give way to an overwhelming sense of coastline and a gentle breeze. If you are hardcore and they have them, you can order big bellies, but the ratio of crust to clam is ideal in the regular size. Similarly, you can eat these with tartar sauce, but this is a preference, not a requirement. The clams are perfect as is.
“Ipswich clams” aren’t always from Ipswich these days; the supply has been depleted by both industry and environmental changes. Occasionally there is a year where the price spikes uncontrollably due to disease. This is part of the nature of depending on the ocean for some of life’s greatest pleasures. The soft shell clam that is masterfully transformed into Massachusetts’s single greatest homegrown food item at the Clam Box and other local restaurants is as delicate in the ecosystem as it is on the tongue. The Clam Box presents these treasures as humbly and unassumingly as any world class restaurant could, but it is clear that we are privileged to have the clams and their holy shrine constructed in their image in equal measures.
As always, great.
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Recommended dishes: Clams and Scallops
I love stopping here if I'm heading that way for a day ride. The best fried clams ever that's my go to with a drink and all i can eat. Always busy,summer is super busy with outside picnic tables and a great big tent to beat the sun off . Inside seating is small and limited but decent enough for a great clam stop. Love it!
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Excellent fried fish
Kid-friendliness: Certainly
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Love this place!
The Clam Box Lager was great!
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Recommended dishes: Clam Strippum, Seafood Platter, Fried Clams Box, Clam Chowder, Whole Belly Clams, Clams and Scallops, Seafood, Tartar Sauce, Fried Scallops, Clam Box
Food: It's all about the oil. They change oil regularly, making the frying light and crisp, as it should be.
Service: It's a self-serve counter.
Atmosphere: It's clean and neat with good parking, and exactly what you'd expect for the decor and style of a traditional New England fried food clam spot.
Parking: More spots than you can quickly count in a big gravel lot.
Kid-friendliness: Kids are welcome with both indoor and outdoor seating.
Atmosphere: 4
Food: 4
Service: 3
Recommended dishes: Clam Box
Nothing to be said ,that hasn’t been said before!
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
If you blindfolded me and told me I was eating fried clams and homemade onion rings, I would be mildly shocked. We both were looking for flavor in both.
Atmosphere: 4
Food: 2
Service: 4
It is worth the trip twice a year from Vermont ?
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Not as good as Andelman says.
Atmosphere: 3
Food: 3
Service: 4
Fresh not too greasy but pricey
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 4
Service: 4
Restaurantji Recommends
Its reputation precedes it
Atmosphere: 4
Food: 5
Service: 4
Fried clams, like the now world-famous lobster roll, are ubiquitous along the New England coastline, especially in the late Spring and Summer months. But just as most connoisseurs will tell you the best lobster roll they ever had was in Maine, the best fried clams are in Massachusetts - specifically in the North Shore towns of Ipswich and Essex. Like all great regional specialties, the fried clam has warring factions that each maintain their favorite spot is the one and only place to get them. Woodman's, which lays claim to inventing the fried clam a century ago, has its advocates. But despite excellent onion rings, the breading on their clams is too aggressive. Superb clams can occasionally be found elsewhere in Essex at J.T. Farnham’s and Essex Seafood. But the most consistent and best fried clams in Massachusetts – and therefore the world – are at the Clam Box.
The first thing everyone notices when they arrive at the Clam Box a few miles outside of charming Ipswich center is that the building looks like a big clam box. Fitted with mismatched region-typical grey shingles, the serving area’s outside walls extend beyond its ceiling and flare out to hang over the perimeter. Sadly, there are no giant clams sticking out of the top of the box, but the effect is unmistakable and delightfully novel. The second, and much more important, thing you’ll notice is the line that stretches out the door and into the parking lot at peak meal times throughout the Summer. Do not be detracted: it moves fast and if anything is too short considering what awaits inside. The menu at the Clam Box is focused on traditional New England fare, with a variety of fried seafood served a la carte as boxes or as plates that come with fries, onion rings, and/or housemade coleslaw. There are minor concessions like hamburgers and hot dogs to the seafood averse who have been dragged to the Clam Box by their wiser dining companions. Yes, they have lobster rolls, and yes, they are excellent. Don’t lose focus, though. You are here for the whole belly clams, and you will want as many of them as you and your wallet can take.
The clams at the Clam Box are lightly coated in a corn/flour blend and double fried – once to remove excess breading and immediately moved to a second cleaner oil dip. It yields a delicate and yet crisp product that is clean while still retaining its seawater origin. The first bite of a New England fried clam at the Clam Box will have a surprising and delightful sweetness not present in mediocre fried clams shamefully overpriced elsewhere in the country. They barely hold together as you bite into them and give way to an overwhelming sense of coastline and a gentle breeze. If you are hardcore and they have them, you can order big bellies, but the ratio of crust to clam is ideal in the regular size. Similarly, you can eat these with tartar sauce, but this is a preference, not a requirement. The clams are perfect as is.
“Ipswich clams” aren’t always from Ipswich these days; the supply has been depleted by both industry and environmental changes. Occasionally there is a year where the price spikes uncontrollably due to disease. This is part of the nature of depending on the ocean for some of life’s greatest pleasures. The soft shell clam that is masterfully transformed into Massachusetts’s single greatest homegrown food item at the Clam Box and other local restaurants is as delicate in the ecosystem as it is on the tongue. The Clam Box presents these treasures as humbly and unassumingly as any world class restaurant could, but it is clear that we are privileged to have the clams and their holy shrine constructed in their image in equal measures.
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Recommended dishes: Lobster Roll, Clam Chowder, Whole Belly Clams, Cole Slaw, French Fries
Been going there for over twenty five years and never once had a bad meal. The Clam Box is TOP SHELF . MIKE FORTI, EAST
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
The food was really good.
They changed the oil around 230, so it might be a little wait but worth it.
Food: 5
This is a favorite of ours, food is fabulous, clean and friendly service, Buy at the window wait for your number, could use an update.
Atmosphere: 3
Food: 5
Service: 3
Recommended dishes: Clam Chowder, Fried Shrimp, Seafood
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