Harbor House

Reviews 4

A

A Private User

I was highly disappointed when we visited Harbor House on January 21, 2012. Before we drove over an hour to get there, we checked the business hours on their website. According to the website, they opened at 1:00 pm that day (Saturday). It was about 2:30 pm when we arrived and the doors were locked. I called the phone number listed on their website and questioned why they were not yet opened, the woman who answered very rudely told me "We open at 3:00 pm on Saturday! 1:00 pm on Sunday!" I told her the website said differently and she again said "No! 3:00 on Saturday! 1:00 on Sunday!" Since it was only half an hour, and thats where we really had our hearts set on eating, we decided we would wait. Unfortunately, since we had our 12 week old baby with us, in his car seat, we werent able to sit still in the parking lot and wait for half an hour for them to open. After driving around downtown Detroit for 25 minutes, we finally came back and were seated immediately. | Our server made her way to our table in a reasonable time frame, our drinks arrived reasonably quickly, but it was all downhill from there. Firstly, not only were the business hours online incorrect, but so were the prices. We knew we werent going to find anything inexpensive there; as it is a "nice" seafood restaurant, but the prices online are all 10-15% less than the actual prices. Secondly, they offer an "All-You-Can-Eat" menu that includes an appetizer, which was never brought to us. Third, our soups and salad took almost 20 minutes to make their way to our table, so we asked the server to bring extra bread, which she did bring, but to another table. We had to ask her three more times before she finally brought it to us. Our entrees finally arrived roughly 45 minutes after we ordered. Call me impatient, but there was no reason the food shouldve taken that long to make it to our table. | The food itself was not bad at all. My only complaint about the food itself is that my boyfriend ordered the jambalaya and it was served to him cold. While Im sure they make it in large batches and heat it up as needed, there is never any reason why cold food should be served. Especially when everything else on his plate was absolutely warm enough. | Im not sure if our server was just new and unfamiliar with the menu, or if there was legitimately something wrong with her, but she acted as though she had no idea what we were talking about when we ordered. She had to look at the menu and see where our orders were located on the menu. When she brought our drinks, she almost spilled them on my mother. When she brought or food, the tray almost fell of the stand she brought. | This, by the way, was NOT a very busy day at all. While there was a Red Wings game and the Auto Show going on downtown, only 5-10 tables were actually occupied while we were there. I could only imagine how terrible the service would have been if the place was busy. Needless to say, we will not be returning.

RA

Raja-Nee Irvin

Great atmosphere and band was nice. (Once they finally got there). Suppose to arrive and play at 10:00pm but didnt start playing till 10:50. And they wanted us to pay a $5.00 cover for a band that wasnt even playing at the time we arrived, let alone were even all there. This will be my first experience and my last. The doors were locked, waited 10 min just to have someone come out so we can go in. Waiter took 35 min to appear at the table, the bartender had to greet us, and it took him another 25 min to come back and take our order. Ceaser salad had been overly drenched in dressing, when we got a replacement salad she just scraped off the salad we had, rinsed it, and then put it back on the plate. Forgot to put in the crab cakes as an appetizer, shrimp scampi was cold and the sauce was separated, like it had been sitting out for a while. Perch is not suppose to have bones in it, bit into a bone. Very slow on refills, crab cakes came out finally after I ate my entire course meal, took a piece of one, burnt on the outside, but very moist and infirm on the inside, like he rushed to make them, but they still came out late. Food (I feel) is extremely pricey for no reason. If you really just wanna be here for the live music, go to Bakers Keyboard Lounge, offers more food for the price, and their bands are pretty nice. And if youre planning on spending this much money go to Fishbones which is around the corner. Mind you it was less than 10 people including us while we dined here. Service should have not been that horrible, and Im a server myself.

A

A Private User

I went to this restaurant on January 2, 2011. It was my mothers birthday and I took her and my brothers to the lions game then dinner. Granted it was busy because of the game, but I work in the food service industry and the service was inexcusable. We had three people come to our table and ask if anyone had helped us before anyone did. After sitting there for 20 minutes someone finally came and helped us. Our entrees came out in a decent amount of time and were acceptable; unfortunately our appetizer still didnt come out. I asked the server about it and she said it was almost done. After discussing it with my family we decided it was better to cancel it. The manager walked by and we stopped him to let him know that we wanted to cancel our appetizer since we were all basically done with our entrees and were no longer hungry. He said he would just give it to us free of charge and walked into the kitchen. A second later our server came out and said, "Oh, so I hear you canceled your appetizer." This annoyed us even more because of the miscommunication. We were told we were getting something for free when in fact we got nothing at all. Then it took forever to get our bill. This was the worst service I have ever received in a restaurant, even taking into account that a football game had just gotten out. Good restaurants know how to prepare for such events, especially when they deal with them on a regular basis.

AL

Alicia Karacson

Had to wait 10 minutes for a booth to be cleaned when it was not very busy. Asked for a frozen Margarita and was told it would be runny unless I ordered a strawberry Margarita or had it in the rocks. I opted for neither because I didnt want strawberry and it was a hot night and I was preferring a frozen drink. I asked for a long island and got the worst drink I have ever been served. Asked for it to be remade and the waitress told me the bartender was asking what was wrong with it, what needed to be different? Im not a bartender I just know it tasted awful...instead of remaking the drink she put it in a bigger glass and added some more to it. It was drinkable at that point but definitely not good. I would think if you charge 8.00 for a drink the staff would know how to make it. The bill was given to us and we paid before noticing the Margarita was still on it. We asked to have it taken off and the waitress told us she would give us cash for it. She disappeared for 15 minutes and then came back with a new receipt that had been rung. For an establishment that charges 70.00 for dinner for 2 I expected much more. We have been here many times and each time the service gets worse. The food is good but not worth the aggravation any longer. We probably wont be back and I advise you to save your money and go elsewhere that trains their staff a bit better.