Nan’s Kitchen is famous for their fried chicken sandwich. It’s so good that they have expanded from their market in Stow and now have a location in Westford. We had a gift card so we went to get a chicken sandwich and decided to try their clam chowder while we were there.
cup $4.50 bowl $9 quart $18
Clams
Nan’s chowder has a good amount of clams. They use three different types of clams, resulting in some bigger pieces but some differences in texture.
Cream and Consistency
The chowder is a little thin but has a pleasant creaminess to it.
Potatoes
The potatoes are nicely sized but unremarkable.
Garnish
They provide the standard Westminster Oyster Crackers, both with your chowder and in a large tub in the dining room. Have as many crackers as you want.
Everything Else
Among their listed ingredients are celery, thyme, cayenne and garlic. Strangely, they don’t put onions in their chowder. They also use thick slab bacon which overpowers everything else.
Not Chowder
Nan’s has a great chicken sandwich. It’s famous and for a good reason. To make it even better, their spicy chicken is actually spicy.
The Verdict
We didn’t agree on the ranking for this chowder. We were split between two and three stars. Either way it wasn’t a favorite. Despite using three types of clams, the chowder was overwhelmingly flavored by bacon. It was also thinner than we would like. The recipe was nonconventional and we weren’t impressed. In the end we might have rounded up to three stars, but when you have to wait forty-five minutes for a cup of chowder, it isn’t one we can recommend.
Nan’s Kitchen
multiple locations including:
160 MA-110
Westford, MA
Concord Culinary Lyceum 
Ah, the quest for the perfect clam chowder continues! I’m a purist, I do not like bacon in clam chowder. I want to taste clam all the way, and I don’t like thick and gloppy! The three types of clams sounds like they at least had a good start.
I don’t mind a little. Legal’s uses salt pork and I think they make good chowder, but when it tastes like bacon soup, I don’t want it! Row 34 and Nan’s just go way too heavy on the bacon.