Charlene's Family Restaurant

We bookmarked this restaurant before our family trip to Cape Breton, and I had the best chowder of my life here. I loved the cozy atmosphere, with a small lamp on each table, and the spacious layout that kept conversations from other tables from being disruptive. It perfectly matched my vision of a quaint, family-owned restaurant on the East Coast, and I’ll definitely be coming back.

We stopped here on our way to Baddeck. There was a line and we had to wait - sign of good food. We had the east coast breakfast and upgraded the cup of chowder to the bowl. It was all delicious with LOTS of fish.

In all honesty this was on of the best food places for our short Nova Scotia trip. It’s a very nice stop on a long road trip and it’s extremely clean inside which was nice. Only downside for food was that the fish and chips were a bit soggy. The food was so good we decided to call and order seconds ahead of time on our way back to Halifax but the servers seemed to have gotten frustrated with us because of bad service and simply ended our call with “we don’t do takeout” which is the only reason I took a star off for the service. (We had bad service on the road and when we first mentioned ordering a seafood pasta they answered “one seafood pasta correct?” And we confirmed on the phone but after they repeatedly told us “please give me a moment” they told us “sorry we don’t do takeout” and ended the call)

Despite what many others have said about the seafood chowder here, my experience was quite underwhelming. It was filled with seafood (including lobster) which was very welcoming, but the chowder itself was a bit too watery. The bread served with the chowder was not very tasty either. We also ordered a plate of fried scallops which were good, although I think deep frying scallops is not necessarily the best way to cook them as they can get overcooked. Nothing against the dish itself though. Service was great, although they seemed to be a bit understaffed and had trouble handling a long line of waiting customers. Overall there are not many options for restaurants in the Wycocomagh area, so I still think this is a restaurant worth stopping by.

My love and I were coming off the Cabot Trail heading to our next destination- and we were having trouble finding an open restaurant for breakfast on a Monday morning. Found Charlene’s- and so happy we did. The chowder was delicious and seafood packed. And the fish cake was-spectacular. Service was great and fast. This was a better stop than I could have imagined.

Took a quick pit stop at Charlene's on our way back to Halifax and ordered the veggie pesto penne pasta for lunch. While the pasta was good and filling, the pesto flavour was overpowered by the cheese sauce. If you like pesto, I would recommend asking for more pesto in the pasta. Their chocolate milk is really nice too! Overall, the place and service was pretty good!

First time here since they moved to the new location. It seemed as if the wait staff was still learning and were a bit elusive. However we found the food to be very good. The Scallops were moist and tender and the open chicken sandwich was excellent. We would definitely recommend both. Just may want to be sure that you’re not arriving hungry, it took us almost 45 minutes to get our food. The desert bar looked very good but we were too full to try anything.

Came here after finishing the Cabot Trail and reading the reviews for the chowder, so we had to try it! We were on a bit of a time crunch, and there was a long wait for the food, which was off-putting for my husband but the second he had a taste of that chowder, nothing else mattered! It was well worth the wait and the price! A lot of meat and the flavour was incredible, highly recommend!!