Fisherman's Catch Bar & Restaurant — Restaurant in Ontario

Arrived excited based on a strong local review, but left greatly disappointed. We selected this restaurant on the basis of a very strong review from a Port Dover local who told us that this was the place to go for a true Port Dover experience and that the perch and the spinach salad were exceptional.

We came excited to enjoy both, but as we arrived, the heavens opened up into a fantastic storm and we thought we should slow our meal down a touch because we still had quite a bit of time to kill before the play we were scheduled to see.

So we thought we'd start with an appetizer first, which we normally don't do because our appetites generally don't warrant it. It was hard to find an appetizer that wasn't deep fried, so we selected the one thing that looked like a safe bet, the spinach dip. Spoiler alert, they managed to deep fry the chips. A tasty snack perhaps, but definitely not the modestly healthier option we were hoping for.

Then we ordered our dinner meal and we split the spinach salad that came so highly recommended and one of us ordered the perch dinner and the other the seafood linguine.

Unfortunately, while we waited for our dinner course, the restaurant provided only modest shelter from the storm as my husband sat with the roof leaking on him and the staff unable to find us another place to be seated. There was nothing to be done about it apparently, but we were a little shocked that there was no offer of any kind of compensation for our soggy situation.

Finally, our dinner course arrived and to our great disappointment the perch was deep fried and though the linguine was appetizing to look at, on further examination, the bottom of the plate was bathing in a pool of thick yellowish grease about a centimeter thick. And ironically, we hadn't even seen the famous spinach salad, because both of our dinners apparently come with the salad bar which we declined to opt for in favor of the spinach salad, so they forgot to deliver the salad to us until after dinner had been served. Unfortunately, the spinach salad was also heavily dressed, greasy and not quite as special as we had been told.

But because we knew we were destined for the play, staying an a small town where there might not be many options for food late evening and were staying in a bed and breakfast, we ate what we could of everything because we knew it'd be morning until we had a chance to eat again.

I don't generally leave poor reviews for places. I think there's a lot of ugliness out there. But our experience at this restaurant was so poor I felt it was important to tell others our story so they can go informed. The very sad truth is, I wish we hadn't eaten anything at all. We were both up all night with upset stomachs which lasted well into the next day.

It is quite possible that our experience was an usually bad one. It is clear from this packed restaurant that it has a strong local following. Bad things happen under extraordinary circumstances all the time and due to the weather, this restaurant was absolutely crushed with customers. But the lack of interest in helping to properly address our wet location and our dissatisfaction with our dinners and service ensure that we will not be back ourselves. You decide...

Staff was friendly but .... My friend and I ordered the perch platter to share. Come with salad bar and we opted for the additional fries. Salad bar was limited. It was ok. If you like salad bars, you will be disappointed. Suppose to come with 16oz plate, they gave us only 8oz but that's fine as the salad bar was not good. The fries came and it wasn't even hot. I was hungry so I just ate them. Then the 8 piece perch came ... it was terrible. It wasn't hot and it was soggy inside. That was old fried fish that just sat somewhere. We only ate 2.5 pieces and called it quits. Told the server I'm sorry but it is horrible. She did offer to bring another plate but we know it's best not too return food to the kitchen so we kindly declined the offer. We worked in the food industry one upon a time, we were not going to take that chance. Instead of offering to charge only the 4 piece dinner sound we only got 8 Oz payee and agree only 2.5 perch they had the nerve to charge full price. I'm hungry and not going to argue in that state so we just paid. ( no tip though) then headed to Tim Hortons for food. Decided to call to speak with the manager about the incident but I guess manager not around and no voice mail forwarding. So as we discussed the issue the lady was making it seem as if it's our fault for not taking the new plate offer. She just would not understand the concept of not taking food from a kitchen after complaining. Risky! At the end she just said we were just trying to fight her and she hung up the phone. Very unprofessional. Needless to say we will never eat at any of the 3 places owned by...

Decided to try this place because of the high reviews online. Went on a weekend, place wasn't too busy, but servers didn't seem to be very responsive, was waiting around a bit to be greeted and seated. Atmosphere was also so so, although decor theme and artwork were alright.

We had the perch dinner plate, perch tacos with sweet potato fries, and baby calamari. Only things that were decent were the mashed potatoes and sweet potato fries.

Baby calamari portions and individual rings were small (yes, I know it said baby calamari on the menu, but still, the width of the pieces were so thin, not just the size of the rings) - reminded me of the type of frozen bag of calamari you get at the supermarket and not the fresh calamari one would expect at a restaurant. Was disappointed with this starter.

Onto the mains... The perch batter was slightly soggy (& a bit too oily), not at all crispy and light as the typical fish & chips one expects. This unfortunately made for an overall just so-so fish & chips meal and experience. (Also, one of us had a bit of an upset stomach a couple hours after, possibly from the over-oily batter, not...