18 Central Oyster Bar & Grill

We have dined at 18 Central many times over the years. The restaurant is warm and inviting, located at Rockport Harbor. Be sure to check out the amazing view from the back with the seasonal deck! The food is incredible! Our party usually gets a variety of steaks, seafood and raw bar. Chef Patrick and his team create high quality and super tasty dishes. Jessica and her team’s offer top notch hospitality. Beautiful wine list and well executed cocktails are a plus! The restaurant is open year round (with a well-deserved) break, I believe. They offer generous specials so be sure to check them out.

Friendly staff!

Atmosphere: 5

Food: 5

Service: 5

Recommended dishes: Oysters on the Half Shell Three Varieties

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.

Atmosphere: 5

Food: 4

Service: 5

Recommended dishes: Oysters on the Half Shell Three Varieties

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!

Atmosphere: 5

Food: 5

Service: 5

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.

Atmosphere: 5

Food: 3

Service: 3

Recommended dishes: Fried Green Tomatoes

I feel like if you don't have the capacity to deal with people then turning them away saves everyone's time.. We would have been happy to find another place to eat than waiting over an hour plus to get our food. Not the servers fault she was friendly and obviously over worked.
Food was alright..

Atmosphere: 4

Food: 3

Service: 2

Wonderful! Bbq chicken is delicious. Service is fabulous. Ambiance is 10/0. The owner was so kind, walking around checking on everyone all night. Everything we at was great!

Atmosphere: 5

Food: 5

Service: 5

Excellent oysters from up and down the coast - they have late-in-the-day deal on oysters - a rare chance to fill up

Atmosphere: 4

Food: 5

Service: 4

Recommended dishes: Oysters on the Half Shell Three Varieties

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.

Atmosphere: 5

Food: 3

Service: 3

Excellent experience! I love that 18 Central takes reservations and our party of 4 was bit disappointed. From the drinks to bread service to entrees everything was amazing. I can’t wait to go back for the hanger steak and frites.

Atmosphere: 5

Food: 5

Service: 5

Recommended dishes: Hanger Steak

Very, very nice restaurant: local oysters are top quality, very well cleaned, opened, and presented by a great oyster shucker who clearly cares; fast and friendly bartender with creative cocktails; super nice servers; you can see the owner/chef in the kitchen calmly in control of his small space; great wood grilled dishes; the halibut was perfectly cooked and amazing, served over a bright fresh corn and thin green bean combo, fresh, crisp, delicious. Scallops also perfectly cooked, as was the steak. Nicely priced wines, including some real finds like a Croatian white that pairs great with seafood,
recommended by the super Romanian/American waitress. Just a joy to eat there.

Atmosphere: 5

Food: 5

Service: 5

Recommended dishes: Oysters on the Half Shell Three Varieties, Grilled Diver Scallops, Grilled Halibut

18 Central is definitely a place to try. The food was extremely good from the appetizer of wings to the main course of Halibut for my wife and Scallops for myself. Our server (Jordan) was excellent. Attentive, helpful and cheerful. We were not rushed, and food was brought out timely. We would recommend the 18 Central for all to try.

Atmosphere: 5

Food: 5

Service: 5

Recommended dishes: Grilled Diver Scallops, Grilled Halibut

Long wait ruins a meal, and for the price- go elsewhere

Atmosphere: 2

Food: 3

Service: 1

A locally sourced ingredients, great service staff, view of precious Rockport harbor, in an old building with wooden slat walls, what a charming stop for nosh !

Atmosphere: 5

Food: 5

Service: 5

Recommended dishes: Crudo Appetizer, Grilled Diver Scallops

First time here and will be back. Everything was great. Sat at the bar, watched the food being cooked. Bartenders Emily and Elias were attentive even tho busy. Chatted with local patrons over food.

Atmosphere: 5

Food: 5

Service: 5

Recommended dishes: Fried Green Tomatoes, Strawberry Shortcake