Blue Marlin — Restaurant in Columbia

I visited the blue marlin for the first time and visit restaurants on the weekends by myself because my boyfriend is over seas right now. I don’t mind going out alone and see it as my weekly treat. I have several favorite restaurants that I have checked out, but this isn’t one of them. I always pay attention to how I am treated as a single guest at restaurants and tip very high when I am treated well, sometimes up to $20 or more, but have noticed that some restaurants treat single guests differently. My food took a really long time to arrive, and I noticed that the two couples on either side of me got their food much quicker than I did, even though I had been there quite a bit longer and got the same things as they did. I know some dishes take longer to make, but since some of them got the same dishes, I can’t make sense of it. The waitress also paid way more attention to the couples on either side of me, checking with them frequently to ask how their food was and what they needed. I, however, did not receive the same treatment, even though I was very nice to the waitress since I had arrived. I wasn’t asked how my food was until I had pretty much finished my meal. It took a long time for me to get a to-go container compared to one of the couples beside me. If I would have been treated with the same courtesy of the couples around me, I would have tipped very well, but with my experience as it was, I tipped the minimum amount.

The food was good except the she crab soup was pretty spicy, which I think should be mentioned on the menu or told to diners before they order it, as it was different from other she crab soups I’ve had.

The atmosphere was lacking- no music being played, just loud noise.

When I am treated with kindness, I frequent restaurants, mostly once a week. However, I will not visit here again.

I recommend that people drive across the bridge on Gervais and go to The Black Rooster instead. Now THAT is an awesome and respectful restaurant. They have a way better atmosphere (sky bar above the regular dining room with a great view of the city and always play nice music. They also have TVs) and have always treated me amazingly. I go there every weekend pretty much and they all know me by name, say hello to me when I come in, and start prepping my favorite beverage right away. All the waiters and waitresses are so kind, fair, and go above and beyond. The blue marlin seems prejudice towards single guests. It’s a shame because I would have tipped very well if the experience was different and more egalitarian. Sometimes I tip well anyway but it was too much here and I felt the need to share...

I visited this restaurant with my husband for our Valentine's date night. (night before V-Day) I got the firecracker flounder, my husband ordered the ribeye. We also ordered a cocktail that we shared. After ordering we received bread and butter. While eating bread, my husband pulls out a long blonde strand of hair. (Our server had blonde, bob length hair) I told my husband to keep the hair to show our server but he flicked it off his hand in disgust. When we told our server, her reply was "OH NO! LET ME GET YOU SOME MORE!" hurrying off from the table, when she returned with a new knife, bread, and more butter she says "How about another drink?" We said sure, to us this sounded like she offered us a drink to rectify hair being inside of the food. We went on fine until my husband pulls out ANOTHER smaller piece of hair out of the new butter, smh. At his point we should have just asked for a manager because I now was highly turned off. Hair in two sets of food is totally unacceptable. Upon receiving our bill we saw the two drink charges and politely explained that we assumed she was offering us the drink as a "pardon" on their end of the hair. Her response was "THAT"S AGAINST THE LAW" very dramatically. So I politely asked if we could receive discount for the hair being in our food. She left and came back taking off $12. We are not a couple that is without funds or decorum, hence why we did not ask for management as we should have. I felt she lacked accountability, remorse, and her serve was less than genuine. As a professional, a business owner myself, and a lover of fine experiences, there was much missed here. I am a service person. I don't care how good your food is if the service is not up to standard, I will not recommend nor return. Blue Marlin, your ambience is great, food, delicious but I can't recommend this to my network due to the hair (twice) and the servers low remorse to us as patrons. As a social media influencer/ content creator I love sharing the good things for others to experience but this, not...

We stopped by Blue Marlin for some food on Saturday early evening, like 5pm. The place is huge, with plenty of seating. The service was good and the food was good.

Food: We ordered the appetizer sampler with green tomatoes, firecracker shrimp, crab cakes, and pimento cheese. It was all pretty good and tasty. My feedback would be to plate the fried things separately. Or sauced separately. The sauce, heat, juices from the tomatoes and oil from pimento cheese soaks into the batter and you get soggy breaded food instead of crispy and fried. I also ordered the shrimp and grits. It was OK to me. I wanted to taste the grits and the shrimp, but the sausage kind of stole the show a bit for me. I know it's their staple and I'm not a huge shrimp and grits connoisseur so take that with a grain of salt.

I ordered the market catch (red snapper) with peach chutney with sides of potato fingerings and vegetables and it was pretty good. The vegetables were perfectly cooked (not too raw but not mush). The red snapper was cooked a little too much so the meat was tough and kind of chewy. But everything was flavored really well.

Service: The service was great, everyone we interacted with was friendly and professional. She came back often enough to check on us.

Atmosphere: The place is pretty nice, it's pretty cozy but people aren't elbow to elbow. Outside was raining, but it looked really nice too.

Overall, we liked the food, the service, and the atmosphere. I'd probably be back if in the...