The Old Mine Crab House Bar & Grill — Restaurant in Farmington

BEWARE THE CREDIT PROCESSING FEE!

If you like paying premium prices for prepackaged food you can get at the supermarket, then this is the place for you!

*The owners reply warrants an update, so Ill expand upon my experience. * I came in and ordered the grilled gator with mussels, crab, sausage, and a side of grilled veggies and a salad. First, everything was extremely salty. They salted/garnished EVERYTHING in the same ‘cajun’ seasoning. Yes, everything. They even salted a precooked sausage, the shell to the crab after it came out of the boil and the shells of the mussels. The grilled alligator (which is a very delicate meat) was over seasoned with salt and had a sauce that was reminiscent of a Heinz 57 sauce that completely washed the flavor of the gator out and made it the saltiest of everything. Additionally, the gator was sauteed not grilled. The salad contents were prepackaged and served with a packet of dressing on the side like you would get at a supermarket salad bar. The veggies were clearly frozen precut and not grilled but sauteed as well. The mussels came out with several broke in half shells, and seasoned after cooking, not while cooking. Mussel shells don’t break easy during cooking and is indicative of frozen precooked mussels that tend to have their shells break during the vacuum sealing process. The crab was standard snow crab, and the owner is correct 95% of snow crab that is harvested is precooked and flash frozen dock side in AL. However, I still don’t understand why they would place the crab in a seasoned boil and then after the fact, cover it with a salty seasoning blend. It jus makes your fingertips full of salt and that is not the first sharp flavor you want on your tongue when eating delicate seafood. The sausage was an average premade sausage. Pretty standard, but they put salt right on top. Enough to see visible salt crystals everywhere. When I voiced my complaint about the over salting the server seemed confused and then told me it is a cajun seasoning blend. To witch I responded that it has salt in it and pointed to the salt crystals piled on top of an already premade salty sausage. The server, then said the kitchen could only remake my food with NO SEASONING because they apparently only use a prebought cajon seasoning form the store and that is the only thing they have. If not, they would have been able to make the same recipe, but only less salt. I decided to take my bland meal remake, and this time is came out very slowing and one plate at a time. Each dish was cold by the time the next came out (the mussels were cold the second time from the start). To address the owner, yes, you absolutely can get everything you served me the supermarkets. Even in your rural area. Finally, do be aware of the processing fee as I witnessed an older gentleman that was speaking to an employee. He was paying for a large bill in cash and being charged a credit card fee and was voicing...

Second time trying this place. First time wasn’t a great experience but thought maybe it was just an off night. Both times we had poor service and food was only okay. On our most recent experience we walked in and staff were sitting around the bar on their phones. One young lady was actually sitting on the counter in the back of the bar on her phone. They looked annoyed someone had to get up. Our waitress was pleasant but she rarely came around. Weird because the place wasn’t busy AT ALL. It was actually oddly quiet. Now we know why. Had to ask for plates for the appetizer we ordered up at the bar, had to ask for silverware once the plates came. No one checked in on us even once during the meal. It was super weird. Food was only so so. Lots of cutting corners to save money. Menu informs guests they only get two refills….uh okay….but sounds tacky. Charged 18% gratuity for a regular size family with kids (not that I’m against paying good tips to well deserved wait staff!) and added 3.75% for card processing fees. I would imagine your wait staff might work harder if they knew their bottom line counted on it more. But these are just the prices of doing business…all businesses deal with it. Incorporate it appropriately in your prices and then don’t be stash. Please don’t respond with something on the lines of why we didn’t ask for a manager. If there were a manager there I guarantee they know what’s going on….or at least they should. We saw no one walking around managing anything. Take the reviews more serious. These people aren’t lying. We experienced it...

Only had one bad experience there with one waitress not wanting to get off her phone and come service our table. She seemed too busy servicing her social media or whatever she was so indulged in on her phone and eating at the bar she couldn't be bothered to even bring us straws for our drinks or give us our check at the end of our visit. I could be more understanding if the place was so slammed with customers, and she was seeing more than just us. We were the only table at the time she was waiting until another couple came in after we had already ordered. So, there is no excuse for the delay in our service. When we waiting for our bill and she never came back to our table to get us refills on our drinks or drop off the bill we ended up going up tot he bar to get our bill so we could pay and leave. She walked past us two times, not even acknowledging we were standing there waiting for the bill. When we asked for the bill on her trip back into the back, she got a snotty attitude with my mom telling her she was too busy to get to us. She was never apologetic about it once for her slack in service or her attitude. I had visited there a couple of days later, and the same waitress was there and still the same attitude as before. So this doesn't seem like she just had one bad day. This seems to be how she is.

The food is always excellent, and the owner is a super nice guy. Favorite foods we like are crab platters, cheeseburgers, chicken, philly, and cajun chicken wingsAll the other waitresses are awesome and so sweet. Never had an issue other than the snotty waitress...