The Fireside Restaurant — Restaurant in Egg Harbor

We greated by who we shortly found out was the owner Lauren. Very charming lady. When I noticed the Menu definitely had a Nawlins, LA flair to it, I ask if she wqs from there. She said no but her Husband (The Executive Chef) was. The Food was outstanding however the service was lacking at best. Our Soup was delivered pretty quickly and was delicious, but our entrées followed very soon, before I could eat even half my soup. I order the Shrimp Jambalaya and my wife had the Grilled Shrimp and Cheese Grits. Like I said both were excellent! An Expeditor brought our main dishes to us and we didn't see our waitress for a good 15 minutes. When she (Cheryl) finally broke away from a party of 10, she visited our table to ask if we'd like more drinks. My wife ordered another Wisconsin Old Fashion and I told Cheryl I'd wait a few minutes as I had only drank half of mine at this point. A good 20 minutes or more past when the Waitress bothered to stop by, at which point I as for another Old Fashion. Meanwhile we finished our meal while we watched her basically hover over her party of 10 that obviously arrived much before us so shouldn't have needed that much attention half way through our meal. My wife tried flagging her down as she passed within 4 feet of our table. She just kept walking. I was able to summon the owner and have her cancel my drink. She returned with it on the house. That's not the fix I was looking for. At this point we were well past wanting to leave. This place is highly recommended by others. The owner never apologized for the poor service. Just tried to throw her money at it and ignored the real issue. One more thing. They charge $7 for bread service. My wife and I are keeping our carb intake down as much as possible. I understand there can be a tremendous amount of waste when restaurants just bring a bread basket without asking and sometimes it goes to waste. Their prices are already high enough that if the simply ask if patrons would like some bread with their meal. They don't even have crackers for your soup. This all happened on a Saturday and while they got pretty busy as our meal went on, at no point was there a wait at the door. I think this place is poorly managed. Our server wasn't like a young person. She was middle aged and should know how to give good efficient service. She was focused only on her largest table I guess because of a guaranteed large tip. Consequently, we left a smaller rip than we normally would have even for average service. This place in my opinion only has what I call the McDonald's Syndrome. They don't care because if you don't by their food someone else will. Sad way to run an otherwise...

TL;DR. of this review – all 5 dishes I tried while dining here were incredible, and you can tell the chef really cares about the ingredients he puts into his New Orleans inspired cuisine.

My wife, 2 kids, and I were staying at the Parkside Inn, and after reading a few reviews, thought we’d try the Fireside out since it was right next door and other reviews were great. I didn’t realize, however, that I was in for one of the best meals of my life. I usually always end up finishing my wife’s and kids’ meals, and man am I glad I did.

I started with the Bayou Gator appetizer, which was amazing, especially the aioli sauce that is on the plate to accompany it. Even the kids enjoyed it! Main courses came next. My wife ordered the prime rib, which was seasoned and cooked to absolute perfection. If you’re a bleu cheese lover like I am, ask for a side of the Maytag bleu cheese cream that normally comes with the tenderloin meal, as it was homemade and to die for, and almost made me wish I had ordered that for myself. That is, until I tried my Andouille Mac. The cheese sauce is noticeably made with time and care, and was a delicious blend of cheese. The true star in this dish though was the andouille. I’ve had a lot of sausage, even dabbing in making some myself, and I’ve never had any this good. I asked where I could get some of my own, and the reply from chef is that this was to remain a secret, as he gets it from a vendor still down in “Nawlins”. Understandable, because I wouldn’t want anyone in the area to duplicate this amazing dish either.

Lastly, even the kid’s dishes were incredible (I think I read somewhere that the owner’s own kids designed the kids menu, probably why it was so awesome). The “kids” sized portion of chicken and waffles was big enough to feed me. Waffles were fluffy and chicken delicious, and the bourbon maple syrup (I assume gotten locally with the amount of syrup in Door Country) was amazing. Finally, the grilled cheese hotdog, which is served with the dog butterflied/open-faced in the sandwich, and cooked almost like a panini. This wasn’t a cheap hotdog, or bread, or cheese - even this simple kids dish was exquisite.

Almost forgot about the homemade focaccia bread, served with vinegar and Door County made sundried tomato olive oil and delivered at the beginning of the meal, was...

I have only ever left one review in my life, but I have to say that my fiancé and I were really disappointed in our experience here. We sat for 10 minutes as tables were bussed around us, and we were considering leaving when the hostess asked us if we had been helped. She was blunt with the person who would be our server and told them we had been waiting a while. Once our server did come over, they were overly sweet and said that they would make up for the lack of service. The mussels were AMAZING and by far the best part of our meal. Our server did kindly take some pictures of us as we were celebrating our 6 year anniversary.

My fiancé had steak that was completely raw on one side. When he brought it up to our server they asked if he wanted the kitchen to cook it to completion or if we wanted to take it home. As someone who has been a server and bartender, I would not dare ask a paying customer if they wanted to take raw food home to cook. I would either bring them new food or ask my manager to comp their meal or a drink. They did neither.

It felt as though our server was only working for a tip. Had they even offered us a discount on a drink, we would have left a 20% tip on the TOTAL bill. But instead we were left with a sour taste in our mouths. Maybe we were here on an off night, and the server’s were tapped out (busy holiday weekend). If you like mussels, definitely check this place out. If you’re looking for a good dining experience from start to finish, you might leave...