John Henry's was a popular spot in Chambersburg for many years. You could count on getting very fresh seafood, and a few Italian staples as well. Several years ago they followed other establishments in leaving the "Burg" and finding a new home in the suburbs. This new home was formerly the Italian American club, it was slightly updated and easily expanded the square footage by 10 times or more. Most of this new space is devoted to catering and banquets.
A gift certificate brought me here for my second visit( the first one was not impressive and I had no desire to return) I brought 3 others with me, 2 of whom I thought would appreciate the cuisine more than I would. By the end of the meal we all left pretty happy, and this experience exceeded the first.
Your meal begins with good bread and seasoned oil, I ordered 2 apps for the table to share. First out was a very good burrata salad, it contained a mound of lightly dressed arugula with a few red onion slices, a ball of burrata that had a balsamic reduction on it, and slices of a very healthy bright red tomato. To see such a nice specimen of the fruit in dead winter had me feeling confident about upcoming courses. This was a great salad to share, but probably more fitting for 2 people($13) Next up was an app called Joe's meatball($15) This dish was so big most of us just gasped when we saw it arrive. Not really spherical, more of a dome, but also weighing in at a minimum of 18 oz. the dome of very good and not too firm meat was drenched in a perfect bolognese, this version containing large carrot chunks, bite sized chunks of stew type beef and many peas. It also featured 2 large dollops of ricotta and 2 slices of grilled bread. Even the 2 meatball snobs in our group( yes, I'm one of them) declared it Nona worthy. Try as we might, we were not going to finish this, almost half came home for a future lunch.
The entrees were where the meal took a slight downturn for me. My striped bass special of the evening arrived slightly different than described by Alex. Had I known it would contain olives and capers I probably wouldn't have selected it. But the grilled fish was very good, and the seafood risotto was decent. Trish's shrimp parm looked really good, but the piece I tasted was over salted. She didn't think so though. Our other 2 dining companions seemed to enjoy their pasta dishes, I tasted the shrimp scampi pasta, not garlicky enough for my taste.
There were a few service issues. Once our meals were served Alex seemed to disappear. I would have ordered another vino, and a few of us needed our water refilled. After clearing plates and boxing up the other diners leftovers, we had to wait quite some time to see him again. Lastly, and this may not concern many younger readers, our server continuously referred to us as "guys". This does not really bother me, but it DOES really annoy an older female guest we had with us. I know of other people who also find this inappropriate, and in my experience, restaurants with superior service do not address their patrons in such a way.
By the time we were leaving, the room we were in and the bar were pretty full. And private rooms were also becoming occupied. I wondered how food and service would be affected with higher volume. So would I return? Without a gift certificate probably not. If I did I would get that meatball as my entree. For less picky locals this might be a better fit than it was for me. 3.75 how you guys doin Yelps read more