How to Find the Best Seats at Reel Pizza Cinerama
Most people walk into Reel Pizza Cinerama in Bar Harbor, Maine, and just sit wherever there is an empty booth. It works fine if you do not care about the experience. The "Cinerama" part of the name is not decorative. It refers to the curved projection wall that runs along one side of the dining room. If you understand how it works, you can avoid a genuinely annoying situation and end up with a decent meal while actually watching whatever is on screen. The curved screen is roughly forty feet wide. It sits at the front of the room, elevated about two feet above the bar counter level. The problem is that the center third of the screen is fine, but the far left and far right edges suffer from noticeable distortion. The image stretches and flattens out. I learned this the hard way during a Patriots game last October when I sat at table six, which is roughly aligned with the right edge of the projection. I could barely make out the clock readout. The pass completion percentages were just smears. I had to ask to be moved to table twelve, which is closer to the center axis, and even then the resolution drops off the further out you go from the middle lane. Here is what actually matters when you pick a spot. Table positions one through four are right up against the screen wall. The view is huge but you are looking slightly upward and the sound comes from speakers mounted near the top of the frame. Audio gets uneven. The bass is heavy on the left side and thin on the right. Tables five through nine sit in the middle zone and they are generally the sweet spot. You get a direct line of sight without the angle distortion. Tables ten through fourteen are further back but still centered. The tradeoff is that the image is smaller from that distance and you lose some detail on fast motion scenes. The late-night movies run at a lower frame rate than the sports broadcasts, so motion blur is more noticeable from the back rows anyway.
The bar area is its own category. The stools face the screen but the bar itself blocks the bottom twenty percent of the image because the screen is mounted above head height when you are seated there. You see the top half of the action clearly. It is fine for a drink and a slice while you chat, but do not bother going there if you actually want to follow the game or the movie. Also the bar menu is separate from the main pizza menu and the prices are about fifteen percent higher. Nobody seems to fix that markup.
How the Food Actually Holds Up
Reel Pizza is not trying to be a high-end restaurant. The crust is decent, the sauce is standard tomato with a hint of oregano that tastes like it comes from a container, and the cheese is a mozzarella blend that melts properly. The thin crust is the better option if you are sharing multiple pies because it stays crispy longer. The hand-tossed version gets soggy if it sits under the heat lamp for more than four minutes, which happens when the place is busy on game nights. I have noticed that the pepperoni cups consistently and predictably. The cups form right every time and they hold a small pool of oil that you need to drain off before eating or you get an oily bite every single time. It is such a consistent pattern I assume it is intentional or the supplier is doing something very specific with the fat content. Just ask for the pepperoni to be patted or let it sit on the box lid for thirty seconds before you pick it up. The wings are a mixed bag. They are tossed in whatever sauce you request, but the sauce distribution is uneven. Half the wings in the batch will be properly coated and the other half will taste like plain fried chicken with a hint of seasoning. I usually just mix them around on the plate myself and it fixes the issue. The garlic parmesan flavor is the only one that coats evenly, probably because the powder suspension behaves differently than the liquid sauces.
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What Nobody Tells You About Visiting
The online ordering system is not connected to the kitchen in real time. You can place an order on the website and get an immediate confirmation, but the kitchen queue does not actually update until someone at the counter manually enters the order. This means your estimated pickup time is usually wrong by eight to twelve minutes. If you order ahead for a specific time, show up at that exact minute, and the place is busy, your pizza will not be ready. I typically call them fifteen minutes after the confirmed order time rather than showing up at the dot. It saves a frustrating wait at the counter. Weekend nights between May and September are where this place peaks. Bar Harbor gets extremely crowded during the cruise ship season and Reel Pizza sits about three blocks from the downtown pier area. Expect a twenty to forty minute wait on a Friday or Saturday from seven to nine PM. If you can eat at six or push it past ten, the wait drops to ten minutes or less. The lunch crowd between eleven and one is also manageable most days. Parking is another thing to consider. The small lot behind the building holds maybe six cars and it fills up fast. Street parking on Dock Street is legal but the meters run from eight AM to eight PM and they are enforced. There is a public lot two blocks east on Cornish Street that is free after six PM and on Sundays. I always use that lot if I am coming in for a late dinner.
Alternatives If This Does Not Fit Your Needs
If you want better pizza in Bar Harbor without the screen distraction, there are a couple of other options. The Maine State Pier area has a couple of spots with more focused food programs. If you just want a solid slice and do not care about the viewing experience, you might be happier somewhere quieter. But if you want to watch something on a big curved screen while you eat, Reel Pizza Cinerama is the only place in town that offers that setup. It is not perfect, but it is also not replicable elsewhere in the area. Just pick the right table and go in knowing what you are getting into.
