Johnson Seafood and Steak -New Durham

[upthesaukee]

Johnson Seafood and Steak will be opening on Monday, June 27th. As luck would have it, I have meetings to go to just before the supper hour and my wife will be working til 5:30 or so in Alton, so we plan to take a short run down to New Durham (Rte 11 at the flashing light, formerly known as New Durham Railway Station and years ago Dot's Lunch). I'll report back after what will be a great meal, I'm sure.

[Pepper]

Hooray! It certainly sounds as if these folks have put a tremendous amount of work into the building and property. We wish them the very best in their second location! I hope all the members here will help them get off to a great start. :D

[upthesaukee]

My wife and I went to the restaurant (Rte 11 at the flashing light in New Durham) to find a mobbed parking lot. We were able to get seated right away (about 5:45PM). Inside is really nice. Light toned knotty pine booth areas, with suspended track lighting. Large windows. We started off with Onion Nuggets, which are like onion rings, but the small rings and solid pieces of onions. Great!

Wife had a hamburger cooked medium with fries (could have had baked potato) and cole slaw (very tasty). She says the hamburger was very good.

I had Sirloin Tips with fries and they were outstanding. Also cooked medium, and yes they were.

Had a brand new waitress (first night for the place being open, her first night). Things were a little slow, but her service was excellent. They have a beer and wine license, but we opted for unsweetened iced tea with lemon. Appetizer came out after a short wait and the meal followed again after a short wait. Our waitress came by a couple of times to make sure everything was ok before the meal came out, and thanked us for our patience. Checked in with us during the meal nicely, and got me a refill on the tea quickly.

Wife had frozen pudding ice cream in a dish (waitress suggested a "kiddie" cup if wife was pretty full....good thing!). I had Death by Chocolate (out of this world for you chocolate lovers (got a small...silly me!!!!! 3-4 scoops!!!!).

All in all, first night, a little slow but that is to be expected and is not meant to be a criticism. Service was excellent, only surpassed by the food. We have seen a few comments about the food at their Northwood location, and I'm sure this location equals it. My recommendation: a must place for a good family restaurant. Reasonably priced.

here's the takeout menu:

http://www.winnipesaukee.com/photopost/data/15040/104Johnson_Seafood_Steak_menu.jpg

[mcdude]

YUM! :liplick: :liplick: I like the idea of a small vs. large dinner option. Can't wait to check the place out! Thanks for posting the menu UTS!

CLICK HERE for Take-Out Menu (http://mysite.verizon.net/vze3nm2c/johnsonssteakandseafood/)

[upthesaukee]

Hi Mcdude...I can't remember seeing large vs small portions on the regular dinner menu for eating in. What I posted is the takeout menu. Just a clarification there.


A couple across the way from us had fish and chips (big portions) and fried clams (big portions).

Can't wait to go back.

[pmj]

:liplick: :liplick: We dined at Johnsons tonight and the service , food and prices were excellent. The ribs were tender and fell off the bones. I had the lobster pie and there was the meat of an entire lobster in my casserole dish. We went back later for ice cream and the sizes of the ice cream dishes and sundaes were the biggest I have ever seen . BIG THUMBS UP

pmj

[Wannabe]

We went to Johnson's in New Durham this past week. I had the baked haddock and my mother had the fried clam strips. We both agreed my haddock was soggy from sitting in the dish of butter and was nothing special. On the ride home we both started to feel sick, and once we got home we were both sick for the next 3 hours from the food. We will not be going back to Johnson's. The atmosphere was very noisy and for that long of a wait and end up sick for the rest of the night? No fun. :mad:

[Fishin Fool]

My family of four went to Johnson's for dinner Sunday July the 3d. We started out with appetizers of onion rings and clam chowder, the onion rings were very good but not the best I've had (Martins drive in has those honors) and the chowder was very good also. We placed our orders and enjoyed the appetizers with some conversation. We lost track of how much time had passed as one of the managers approached us very apologetically. He apologized about the length of time it had taken for our food to come out and said that dinner was on the house. We were a bit taken back because we had not complained or even really noticed how long it had taken. About ten minutes later another manager came to our table to reinforce what the first manager had told us and to apologize again. A few moments later our waitress stopped by to apologize and we told her it was okay, not to worry, it was not her fault. She immediately confessed that it was her fault, she had forgotten to place our order in the kitchen. She said she was new and felt very badly about the mix up. When our meals arrived they were very good. I had the fried clams, my wife and mom had the broiled haddock and scallops and my brother had the captains platter and everything was very good. We enjoyed our meals very much and were amazed at the lengths the restaurant and it's staff went through to satisfy their customers. We tried to determine what the tab would have been and made sure we found our waitress and tipped her properly for her honesty and candor. We will be going back again soon! Thank you Johnson's for looking out for your customers. I hope you don't have to give away to many meals in the future.

[upthesaukee]

Wannabe---Sorry you had a bad experience. We have eaten there three times, only had to wait once to get in (about a half hour) and our food was very good, large portions and flavorful at a reasonable price. Certainly is not fast food, but the pace was good (no long waits between any of the courses) and as "fishin fool" related, our servers have always been attentive and pleasant.


I hope you will try them again, and if you are not satisfied, certainly say something before leaving.

Notice: this is not a paid endorsement! :)

[RLW]

Wannabe---Sorry you had a bad experience. We have eaten there three times, only had to wait once to get in (about a half hour) and our food was very good, large portions and flavorful at a reasonable price. Certainly is not fast food, but the pace was good (no long waits between any of the courses) and as "fishin fool" related, our servers have always been attentive and pleasant.


I hope you will try them again, and if you are not satisfied, certainly say something before leaving.

Notice: this is not a paid endorsement! :)

Well said, I go along with your words all the way. Everyone has a not so good day. :liplick:

[KBoater]

I went to lunch at Johnsons last week and had an excellent Haddock dinner.
The ice cream dish(small) was about a quart. I took some home and refroze it. It still tasted good. I'll go back again.

[PROPELLER]

The whole family went to dinner 7/13 while on vacation last week. I have nothing negative to say. It was great. The food, the service, everything.

[Cheffy]

Wannabe, (and for all the other diners out there... :) ), A common misconception about getting ill from food.....Most foodborne illness takes 12-24 hours to set in. I know first hand from 2 experiences where it was nearly a day and a half before symptoms set in, and once was hospitalized for it. Both cases were confirmed by other dinners, and lab work. It is extremely rare to get sick from food in just a few hours, usually those feelings of nausia are related to over-eating/mixing rich, spicey, dairy foods ect. Many people even have slight food alergies that they don't even know about, that can bring on a nausious state. And not to mention, some people just don't cook with the amount of butter,garlic, onions ect at home, so when they go out, they get a little woosy from too much of a good thing that they are not used to. I'm certainly not discrediting you about being sick, only that it might have been brought on by something else. In most cases, to get sick that quick from a food borne illness, or food bacteria, the food would have to be so rancid that you wouldn't be able to stand putting it in your mouth. I only know this as I have taken the Serve Safe Course 3 times in the last 12 years, and always scored highly, infact last time I scored high enough to become a certified instructor. A good suggestion to anyone that thinks they may have gotten a food borne illness it to head to the doctors and let them do some lab work. They can identify weather or not it is from food, and also pinpoint what type of food...beef, pork, shellfish, seafood ect... This can be handy in figuring out where you actually got sick from, and then make a phone call to notify them so that the rest of us diners don't get sick off the same thing. Its also a safe thing to do for yourself, Hepatitis is on the rise these days as well as many other funky things, the State is now inforcing a strict handwashing and glove protocol for all food service employees, gloves must be worn when handling any raw food that will not be cooked to it's safe temperature, ie lettuce, cold lobster salad, ice cream ect......basically, if it's not going to be cooked hot enough to kill off bacteria before it hits your plate, they should have been wearing gloves.

Well, I hope you and your mother are feeling better now, getting sick is certainly no fun. And good luck to Johnson Steak and Seafood, sounds like your on the right path with your customers. Restaurant work is a hard life, it's good to prosper.

[Cheffy]

I know in my last post I stated that in order to get sick from food within a few hours that it would have to be so rancid that you wouldn't want to put it in your mouth........there are however several bacterial infections that are tastless, and oderless. SO don't let the nose always be your guide. If you saw a food service worker with an open wound.......I'd only use my nose to guide me to a new place to eat lol. :laugh:

[SIKSUKR]

I'm not sure what you were taught at food safe Cheffy but most food borne illness people commanly refer to as "food poisoning" are staph based.If you read the link I supplied you will see that a staph borne food illness becomes apparent in 4-6 hours.It has always been my belief that this is the case. A little background on myself,I used to be part of a family owned meat manufacturing plant here in NE.I used to purchase millions of pounds of meat per year,made all of the formulations for numerous sausages,frankfurts,hams and any other meat product you could think of.Along with that responsibility was the testing for food borne illnesses in house and working with the USDA for regular testing of everything we produced.I disagree with your statement that it is extremly rare to get sick from food in a few hours.I beleive it is more comman to get what most people think of food poisening in the first few hours than not.Having said that,you are correct that most serious food borne illnesses come after a 12-24 period.You should also be applauded for your commitment to food service hygeine.I would be happy to eat in your establishment anytime. SShttp://aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu/extension/poison.html

[HeadingSouth]

We went to Johnson's in New Durham this past week. I had the baked haddock and my mother had the fried clam strips. We both agreed my haddock was soggy from sitting in the dish of butter and was nothing special. On the ride home we both started to feel sick, and once we got home we were both sick for the next 3 hours from the food. We will not be going back to Johnson's. The atmosphere was very noisy and for that long of a wait and end up sick for the rest of the night? No fun. :mad:

I know this post is from last year but I just wanted to point out that two "experts" here have mentioned that it takes AT LEAST several hours for any type of food poisoning to set in and cause symptoms. That said, it's clear that Wannabe's illness could not have been caused by the food they ate because they felt sick "on the way home", unless they hung around in the parking lot for several hours and then drove home, which is unlikely. Also, Wannabe and Wannabe's mother BOTH got sick, so it's unlikely that both the clams & haddock caused the illness.
It's very likely that they overindulged in the rich food (as mentioned earlier) and/or had already injested some form of stomach virus on the prior day and it became symptomatic just coincidentally as they were finishing their meals at Johnson's.

I should add that I have eaten at both of the other two Johnson locations on several occasions and have been highly impressed each time.

[Winni]

I have to say, I find Johnson's pretty heavy on the fried stuff, but their ice cream is to die for. I realize they are charging "medium" prices for a "small" and "small" prices for a "kiddie" size, so they've got a marketing thing going, but the ice cream is still really good!

I don't eat meat, so every time I go there I eat the "lazy lobster". They really put a lot of lobster into that dish, though it is a bit pricey. It's not bad, though. I just say, "Stay clear of the fried stuff!!! It's really heavy." Just that in itself has made me sick in the past and I don't think it was any virus or bacteria, just generally my system not being used to it.

Could that have been the problem?

[Newbiesaukee]

Staphylococcal food "poisoning" is caused by a toxin produced by the staph germ. The toxin or poison usually causes symptoms within three hours after ingestion. It is not caused by the growth of the staph germs in the victim and therefore does not require an incubation period in the body as one usually thinks of in an infection. Staph food poisoning is not an infection. It is perfectly possible to get it from both the haddock and the clams if the culprit is the butter or some other ingredient common to both meals. I agree that food "poisoning" is frequently overdiagnosed, but the situation described could have been staph food poisoning. With a large dose of toxin, three hours is not at all out of the ordinary. I have no idea the cause of the symptoms above, but it is helpful for people to understand that an almost immediate onset can occur where staph is concerned.

[KBoater]

I do not eat fried food anywhere if I can get something else. Several times I have gone to Johnson’s and I ordered the “BAKED” haddock. It is to die for. Try it instead of the fried. Scrod and haddock are somethings that is hard to find in Florida so they are my summer fish of choice.

[codeman671]

We stopped at Johnson's on the way up Thursday night for ice cream. My small cone was enough to feed 3 people. My 6 year old who always can wipe out any chocolate ice cream put in front of her was left with plenty of extra (she had the kiddie size). My wife's brownie sundae was a meal in itself too. I have only eaten there once (we usually do not stop because the parking lot is always mobbed) and our meal was decent.