MILFORD — Walk into 7 Seas Restaurant & Pub at 16 New Haven Ave. and you can go one of two ways. To the right is the bar, long and dark and usually busy. To the left is a small dining room with checkered tablecloths and old family pictures on the walls. Either way, somebody is probably eating a hot buttered lobster roll. The Smith family has run the place since 1965, which makes it the oldest restaurant in downtown Milford. Sixty-one years in, a summer night can still mean a 20-minute wait for a table.
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The family was in the restaurant business before it was on New Haven Avenue. According to the restaurant’s own history, Richard Smith grew up in it: the Smiths owned The Pilgrim Restaurant at Fort Trumbull Beach. In 1964 his uncle bought out his father, and Smith’s mother and father bought the downtown restaurant that would become 7 Seas.
Smith went into the Navy in 1966. Everywhere he went, he later said, there seemed to be a restaurant called the Seven Seas, so that’s what he named the family’s place. He took it over shortly after he got out in 1969. “It was kind of destiny,” he told the New Haven Register when the restaurant turned 50 in 2015.
The building has a longer history than the restaurant. It sits on the bend where New Haven Avenue feeds into Daniel Street, and it started out as a garage. In the 1940s it became a restaurant called Worlick’s, in the 1950s it was Ganches, and in the early ’60s it was Duanes, according to the 7 Seas history.
Paychecks, card games and a ‘Cheers’ crowd
Smith has told some good stories about the early days. When Milford still had a lot of factories, he told the Register, the line ran out the door every Friday as workers waited to cash their paychecks, a drink in one hand and a roast beef sandwich in the other. Back then women weren’t allowed to sit at the bar. Some regulars had their own stools. “When we started there was more of a Cheers atmosphere,” he said.
There’s a reason, he said, that the beer taps are on the left side of the bar instead of the middle: so the men playing cards could watch the high school girls walk down the street. And when Connecticut banned smoking in restaurants, the dining room took off, because families who had stayed away started coming in.
Over the years the booths came out for tables and a big shuffleboard table went away. Otherwise, Smith said in 2015, he had no plans to modernize. “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” He also said, “It’s always been fun. It’s a different show every day.”
Paul Newman, John Legend and ESPN’s Dan Patrick have all eaten there, according to the restaurant. Connecticut Magazine named it Best Neighborhood Restaurant three years running, in 2011, 2012 and 2013.
Four generations, still in the family
It’s still a family operation. In 2015, the Register reported, Smith was semi-retired but still came in early every morning to do the books and the ordering, and his son Ricky was running the day-to-day business. Another son, Brent, explained the house lobster roll to the Connecticut Post back in 2010.
In April 2025, when 7 Seas turned 60, Patch reported that the family was in its fourth generation running the place, and then-Mayor Anthony Giannattasio presented owner Richard Smith with a city proclamation. He called 7 Seas “a landmark” and “a vital part of our community,” pointing to its support for local events, charities and sports teams.
That lines up with what Priscilla Lynn, then the head of the Downtown Milford Business Association, told the Register in 2015. She said Smith was a major backer of community causes like the Capt’n Kidd Treasure Hunt and Pirates Day, and was known as the guy who “never says no” when there’s a need. (A recent customer photo shows a giant inflatable pirate standing on the roof.)
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What to order
The menu is a classic pub-and-seafood board: appetizers, burgers, sandwiches, fried seafood platters, and dinner entrees that start at 5 p.m. Seafood platters come with fries and coleslaw. Prices below are from the menu posted on the 7 Seas website, which is labeled 2024, so call ahead if price matters.
The hot buttered lobster roll (market price)
This is the one. Milford has a real claim to the hot lobster roll: John Mariani’s “Encyclopedia of American Food and Drink” says it “may well have originated” at Perry’s, a Milford restaurant where owner Harry Perry made one for a regular customer in the 1920s. When the Connecticut Post looked into that history in 2010, Richard Smith said he credited Perry with the idea, too. The 7 Seas version is sauteed lobster meat on a toasted, buttery roll, with drawn butter on the side, sold single or double at market price.
“It’s pretty simple, really,” Brent Smith told the Post. “You just put the chunks of lobster meat on the toasted bun. The key is to use plenty of butter, and to use the freshest lobster you can get.”
Bringing a friend? Plenty of tables order two.
Fish & chips ($21.95)
The menu calls it “the all time favorite here”: tender, sweet breaded cod with fries and coleslaw. The city’s 2025 anniversary tribute named the fish and chips right alongside the lobster rolls as the reason people come from all over the state. If you’d rather have it on a roll, the fried fish sandwich is $14.95.
Fried clam strips ($24.95)
Breaded and fried to order, with fries and slaw. The fried scallops ($25.95) and fried shrimp ($23.95, “an outrageous amount of shrimp,” per the menu) are on the same board.
Can’t decide? The seafood combination ($29.95)
The menu’s answer to “Can’t make up your mind?” is a little of everything from the fried seafood list on one big platter.
Also worth knowing about
- 7 Seas chowder, $5.95 small or $8.95 large, and a lobster bisque for $8.95.
- Stuffed clams, casino style with Parmesan, bacon, peppers and garlic, four for $17.95.
- Wings in Buffalo, honey mustard, garlic Parmesan, mango habanero or BBQ, $10.95 for seven.
- Shrimp Seven Seas, a dinner entree of shrimp sauteed with fresh tomatoes in garlic butter sauce over linguine, $24.95.
- Burgers ground in house, from the $13.95 Original to the $16.95 mushroom bacon cheeseburger.
- Peachtree Chicken, a house favorite sauteed with peaches and walnuts and glazed with peach schnapps, $23.95.
What people say
7 Seas holds a 4.4-star rating on Google from about 900 reviews. The lobster roll gets the most attention, but the word that keeps showing up is portions.
The lobster roll was buttery and the lobster meat was sweet and plentiful. Definitely delicious.
Roz, Google review
Roz was visiting Milford and said 7 Seas “was the place everyone recommended for a Lobster Roll.” She ordered the double to go about half an hour before closing, and her only tip: ask for silverware and napkins if you get it to go.
Sharon, who has both dined in and taken out, said “the fried seafood platter is always amazing,” but added that it’s “better when its dined in and you get it fresh and hot.”
Scott and his wife came for dinner one night in July after reading online reviews. Street parking was tough, he wrote, and there was a 20-minute wait, but “it was a very accurate estimation. They were busy. More patrons than seats. A sign of a good establishment.” He thought the butter on the lobster roll “was perfect” but wasn’t sold on the claw meat, and said the food came out “noticeably fast.”
Another recent diner summed it up in one line: “They give you big portions!” Their table had fried shrimp, fish and chips, Shrimp Seven Seas and the lobster roll, and “all of the food was delicious.”
That matches what Bob Fiore, a regular, told the Register back in 2015: “They offer many choices, good sized portions, very fresh and you never leave hungry.”
Good to know before you go
- The kitchen closes before the bar. Food is served until 9 p.m. Sunday through Thursday and 9:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday. The pub stays open until 1 a.m. most nights and 2 a.m. on Friday and Saturday, according to the restaurant.
- Dinner entrees like the swordfish, broiled scrod and rib eye are served after 5 p.m.
- Parking is on the street and in downtown lots, and it fills up on busy nights.
- Takeout: call (203) 877-7327. The number is also printed as (203) 877-SEAS.
- Sides upgrade: sweet potato fries or onion rings are $3 more on sandwiches and platters.
If you’re working your way through Milford’s old-school seafood spots, Stonebridge Restaurant is just around the corner on Daniel Street.
7 SEAS RESTAURANT & PUB AT A GLANCE
Where: 16 New Haven Ave., downtown Milford
Phone: (203) 877-7327
Kitchen: Sun.–Thu. 11 a.m.–9 p.m.; Fri.–Sat. 11 a.m.–9:30 p.m.
Bar: Open until 1 a.m. (2 a.m. Fri.–Sat.)
Since: 1965, run by the Smith family
Known for: Hot buttered lobster roll, fish and chips, fried seafood platters
Online: 7seasmilford.com
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