The Middletown Press featured Lenny & Joe's Fish Tale in a front page story on June 22, 2009. The story was about Lenny & Joe's hot buttered lobster roll being named to a list of "50 Foods to Eat Before you Die" in Connecticut Magazine.

Jennifer Sprague from the Middletown Press decided to try the lobster roll for herself and she wrote, "the hot buttered lobster roll was exactly as it should be: full of hot chunks of lobster meat and melted butter, served on a split-top roll with a side of coleslaw."

She also spoke with other customers also waiting to dine. 'the crowd could not agree on their favorite dish. Some said lobster, others said fried clams or chowder, but they all agreed it's worth the wait."
"You know it's good when youy have to wait an hour," said Steve Howe.
Dana Pelletier gives the lobster a 9 out of 10. "I've been coming here since I was a kid," she said. "....Everyone comes here."

In the May 2009 edition of Saveur Magazine, Lenny & Joe's Ct's Culinary diversity was celebrated. Our Lobster Roll was named as 1 of the 5 Featured CT Sanwiches. They wrote:

"Think Connecticut is one big suburb? Think again: its diverse immigrant communities, fertile farms, and vibrant university towns full of forward-thinking chefs add up to as rich a culinary landscape as that of many states three times its size.

1. A Connecticut-style hot lobster roll is sublimely simple: lobster meat, lots of butter, and a split-top hot dog bun. Try the one served at Lenny and Joe's Fish Tale in Westbrook."

Lenny & Joe's Fish Tale won a nice honor in the May 2009
New Haven Advocate Best of Edition.

We were selected 2nd in the Best Seafood Category!

Thank you to the Advocate readers who selected us.

The Fish Tale won a number of accolades in the 2008 Best of the Shoreline in the Shoreline Newspapers.

We were winners in the following categories: Best Seafood Restaurant, Best Chowder, Best Hotdog or Hotdog Stand and Best Place to Dine Outdoors.

Thank you to the readers who selected us.

In the Spring of 2007 we
learned that we will be in
"The New England Clam Shack
Cookbook" by
Brook Dojny.

A number of Lenny & Joe's
Fish Tale recipes
will be included!

In the June 2007 edition of
Coastal Living
Lenny & Joe's was named
one of the top 25
Best Seafood Places
in the Entire United States!

"....Lenny & Joe's delivers on its deceptively simple promise of "generous portions of the freshest seafood at very reasonable prices." We especially like the fried shrimp and the lobster roll. The clear broth clam chowder, a regional specialty often found in CT and RI, is also worth sampling."

"Lenny & Joe's kitchens, which turn out New England
seafood classics, all good, some great....I beeline for the
scallops: stunningly sweet with just the right flesh-to-crunch
ratio. Another winner is the fish and chips, made with scrod.

....the chowder is a Rhode Island-style (brothy, not creamy),
and it tastes like a marina in the very best sense.

...the kitchen also deep-fries soft-shell crabs, in season,
to great effect. The tartar sauce here is not an afterthought,
but made fresh with heaps of chopped dill pickles.

....their hot buttered lobster roll has won awards, which
is not surprising!"

“Our Fried Clams Were Picked as the Dish to Represent
CT in the 50 Great Plates of America”

This was done in honor of the arrival of 2000
by the National Edition of
USA Today Newspaper

Faith's Table • Food Adventures with Faith Middletown
Northeast Magazine- 2000

Highlights from Summer on a Roll:

"For a hot roll filled with lots of buttert lobster, I go to Lenny & Joe's in Madison & Westbrook."

"Picking up the phone during a busy supper hour, Joe told me he loads every
roll with a quarter pound of real lobster meat, and he uses real butter
to toast those Freihoffer's rolls."

Highlights of 2002 Edition

......Lenny & Joe's remain casual eat-places.....the quality
of the food is impeccable, and the quantities are awesome.

the whole-bellied fried calms are big and succulent with
golden crusts. We also love the fried shrimp & scallops,
even simple fried fish.......the undecided customer will be happy
ordering a variety platter with some of everything. It is a gargantuan
meal....the other necessary item would be an order of fried onions;
Lenny & Joe's onion rings are wicked good!

Lenny & Joe's is one of the few reliable places for a hot lobster roll...
.nothing but chunks and shreds of lobster meat heaped into a long roll.
This is pure bliss...in seaon, the kitchen also offers a softshell crab roll
that is almost as luscious.

Highlights of 1992 Edition

both are feed-the-familky eating barns and are choice places
to eat maximum amounts of top-quality shoreline food at minimum prices...there aren't many kitchens that know how to fry fish as well
as Lenny & Joe's.

.....clams are sheathed in a fragile, tender crust that tastes great.
The whole-bellied ones are behemoths-big, weighty clods of luscious, nectareously tender clam encased in their breading....whatever size
you order, you get more then you expect......onion rings are well worth
it-big crunchy hoops with a real onion sweetness ....

....we have eaten superb hunks of char-broiled, smoky flavored
swordfish Steak and satisfying casseroles of broiled shrimp with
garlic and a swell baked stuffed shrimp!

.....and then there is the lobster roll....presented in a long, butter-grilled split wiener roll, it is loaded with pieces of lobster meat....

2002 Zagat Included:

"Fleets of fans "come as they are, right
from the Beach" to these seafooders
for "fast", "cheap" and "simply prepared
fresh fish" that includes "the sweetest
clams in the world";

......both are kid-friendly.....

1999 Zagat Included:

"These "eat-with-your-fingers" seafooders
have been reeling in patrons for almost
three decades with "fast, fresh, fried
fish that's the standard" on the shoreline.

......regulars love the fried clams and chips"

The Best of Daytripping concluded:

friends who have traveled the world
think that the best seafood is close to
home at Lenny & Joe's. They're partial to
the Fish Tale, especially the fried platter
of clams, shrimp, scallops and scrod!

....the clam roll is a bargain, overflowing
with clams and accompanied by
coleslaw.

Interstate Gourmet wrote:

....there is a place that goes out of it's
way to do things differently. Every day of
the year the Fish Tale prints a different menu to
"reflect weather, market conditions, and fishing luck."

...if you prefer your fish fried, you'll find the surface soft and
flaky, not clothed in a coat of greasy snadpaper! The secret is
in the batter. Instead of preparing and stacking a hundred filets
each morning, at Lenny & Joe's each one is battered to order.
It takes a little longer, but we could certainly taste the difference."