Mermaid Bar & Grill

Reviews 3

A

A Private User

The wait was too long for the deck (40 minutes), so we elected to eat inside. They need some decor redo. The windows are so cheesy, you cannot see anything except outside diners hairpieces. People were asking for silverware and water, after their meals arrived. I was hoping that was a fluke. Not so. These waitresses were all tall, willowy blondes, who ran more than planned. They would make one trip for silverware and then 5 more to bring a water then a extra napkin for another diner. I ordered the calamari, the ceasar salad and the special sea bass, hubby ordered bruschetta then gumbo. We had some beer, it could have been colder, and hubby went to get me a napkin for drips. Still no water or service other than HI I am your waitress.. The appetizers came, with two measly asked for anchovies flaccidly plopped on top of the somewhat old, and dried out romaine lettuce. There was almost no dressing, and I had to ask for more, plus 2 more anchovies,and diced them myself. There was a sprinkling around the sides of the dish of store bought parmesan cheese. Cheesy. Cheap in other words. The calamari was nice. crisp outside and not like shoe soles inside. The sauce was bottled Italian marinara. Hey, these appetizers were expensive; shouldnt there be a specialty to it? I mean, wilted lettuce and tired sauce? Hubbys bruschetta was nice, some sliced pieces of italian bread with mixed fresh tomatoes, etc etc in a little side coleslaw dish. You cant screw that up, can you? While we were just starting with the appetizers, out came the entrees. I blinked and told the server we just got our appetizers. I told the girl to take it away till I had a chance to gag down my appetizers. She started to give me some lip and I told her I didnt want to hear the kitchens problems. I came there, and was dropping a hundred dollars for dinner, and I have to listen to a the woes of an overburdened kitchen? She said "well, the food will get dried out and overdone". This is just what I wanted to hear from a server. Isnt that special? I did wolf down the appetizers and the salad, and asked for the sea bass. It came out, and yes, it was left under the lights to shrivel and shrink and dry out. Actually, the piece of fish was wonderful. The outside crust was crispy and the inside fish was buttery and moist and yummy, not overwhelming in flavour and not a hidden bone in the small slice of fish. It was served with the most useless presentation I have ever had the acquaintance to make. Around the dish were raw small leaves of dried out spinach, not baby and not adult. More like teenage leaves. Not edible. Then, some unflavoured, sticky, typical supermarket coloured lengths of flat noodle type things. No sauce, no saving grace there. I mean, why? It would have been better to serve this bass on a smaller plate with a piece of parsley by its side with a slice of lemon. I felt bad having to throw out all that food. Hubby said it was for "presentation". I said it was chef with limited imagination and talent. We had dessert, which thank GOD, was nice. The girl came out with a platter of desserts to choose from, and they thankfully saved the meal. I got the Chocolate Eruption, a mousse cake with pieces of cheese cake in it. There was a key lime concoction, and two other cheesecake ideas. We usually do not have a dessert, but the meal was chintzy and we had room for a taste of the dessert selection. By the way, the beers could have been colder, and served with some nice iced glasses like their neighbors next door do at Coral Gables for less money. Hint hint. We tipped the waitress and made our way home. Hubby was sous chef at Grand Hotel at Macinaw and I had a restaurant in NY and cook now for love. Hope this helps.

MA

Matt Kosmowski

Went in for a late lunch today, Labor Day, with my wife and 4 month old son. My son was sleeping in his stroller, so we asked who we assumed was the manager manning the host stand if it was alright if we brought the stroller in even though they have "No Strollers Inside the Restaurant" signs prominently placed outside the main entrances. He didnt hesitate a second to agree that the best thing was to leave our sleeping son in the stroller and allowed it in the restaurant, which we were grateful for. As we were leaving, I was guiding the stroller through one of the tighter areas where there happened to be an employee standing partially in the aisle. I did my best to navigate around her but ended up bumping into her foot ever so slightly with the stroller, and I immediately apologized, which she acknowledged with a half hearted smile and said "no problem". Not more than two seconds after that as Im walking directly past her she says under her breathe, assuming I cant hear her-"thats why we dont allow strollers in here". It took me a minute to actually realize she actually said this, because I had an extremely hard time trying to give her the benefit of the doubt and telling myself I heard her wrong, but I didnt. I have a soft spot for anyone who works in the food service industry, since I can relate growing up in our family restaurant. However, this is probably one of the worst things you could say to a paying customer leaving your business, with a baby, while trying to give you as much room in the aisle as possible. I hate to think what she may say about customers who are not within range of hearing her, since she had the audacity to say this under her breathe with me just a foot or two away. Our experience beside this was great, everyone else that we encountered was friendly, and more than accommodating. This small, five second interaction ruined it for us though, and it took everything in me to not turn around and ask her to repeat what she said a little louder, and then make management aware of an employee who is helping them lose business, especially ours. Hopefully this will help though, and if any family out there is looking for a stroller friendly restaurant, do yourself a favor and walk past this one. There are many other great places around, youre not welcome at the Mermaid and they will make sure you know this.

CA

Caleb Pflueger

When we first got here we had trouble finding the entrance, when we got seated they tried to sit 5 of us at a 4 person table, it took us asking to have them slide 2 tables together before they finally gave us adequate seating, the atmosphere was definitely not one that was inviting, prices are pretty crazy for bar style chicken tenders you $10-$12 dollars, for basic fish and chips its $14 anything else and your up into the $18-$25 dollars. The food was alright my sisters had chicken tenders and they got 3 pieces that were decent sized, I had the fish and chips and again 3 pieces of the fish wasnt enough in my opinion to pay $14 dollars for. To top off the whole experience after I had finished my fish I went to use the salt grinder/shaker if I hadnt looked at the the top of it before using it the DEAD MOSQUITO that was on the top of it would have fallen into my fries (which btw as a French fry fanatic they were average nothing special) when told our waitress and she promptly removed the shaker from our table. Overall if I lived in Michigan I would never be coming back.