The Anchor — Restaurant in Madisonville

Came to the anchor to enjoy a drink with my husband while our son played on the playground. The playground is excellent, my son absolutely loved it but I was slightly nervous as the fence by the river was not the best and I knew my son would absolutely be able to climb it if he wanted to. Otherwise, we loved the playground. It's fenced in and gave us the opportunity to enjoy ourselves while our rambunctious little man played. We ordered the boudin egg rolls, hummus, and a tenders plate. The boudin egg rolls were excellent, super crispy, and meaty. My son's tender plate was perfect. Big giant juicy tenders, crispy fries, and everything was seasoned perfectly. The hummus was, unfortunately, underwhelming. Although the pita bread was excellent, the hummus itself was watery and lacked any kind of depth of flavor. I was also kind of disappointed with the vegetables that came with the plate as carrots and cucumber don't really scream Mediterranean. However, I will concede that as someone who grew up on hummus and is of Mediterranean heritage, I am particularly critical. The food did take nearly half an hour to come out, which I found excessive as we were the only people in the restaurant. Our server, on the other hand, was excellent she was fast to get to us, made great recommendations, and even lent us some bug spray when the mosquitos descended. Yes, I said descended. Here's my thing, though, apparently, around 7:30pm during the warmer months, patrons are swarmed by mosquitos. And a mean swarmed, I stood up and shook a whole hive of them off of me; It was intense. So my question is, why not just close at 7:30 pm? The restaurant empties out by then anyway. Or if you're gonna stay open, why not get some citronella candles or something to repel the bugs? That was really my only big issue. The bugs basically ruined my night, as we showed up around 7:10 pm, and by 7:45ish(right after our food came out or we would have left earlier), the bugs had run us off. We didn't even get a chance to really eat; we just packed everything to go. We're definitely going to try to go back again, but maybe in...

Hi Jen here from New Orleans. I was so excited to go here for my sister's birthday with the family. I have a toddler and a baby ... there are not really many great places to bring kids in the city so I was pumped about the playground. My daughter enjoyed it however, the adults experience here was not great. The acoustics in this place is HORRIBLE. I am a concert goer ... I love live music and have been to many festivals and shows and do not mind music in the background. I literally had the waiters pack up our food (after a LONG 3 hour wait) and headed out because my ears/head started hurting. I get the live music thing it is great however, pick your lane are you a kid place where you can actually hear what your kids are saying to you or are you a live music party place where people come to drink, dance, and mingle. Our waitress was GREAT and I could tell the manager was trying to help us because we were obviously a big group with babies and kids but, oh my god the band just cleared the place out with the sound bouncing off the walls. The food was OK it took forever. The view is awesome, such a perfect spot on the river. I would hate to see this place go downhill so I hope they figure out the sound in there. There are professionals that can help figure that out. Anywayssss... I likely will not be back here for a while. I hate to sound like a Karren but, I am not a Karren so IMO figure out how to get food out in a timely manner and get a sound person in there to help y'all out with acoustics and then I will be back to enjoy this...

This restaurant has large openings to the outside, that includes great views of the river, a play area for kids, and an outdoor seating area.

Staff was prompt and friendly.

The anchor shrimp (appetizer) was was crispy, perfectly portioned and the flavor didn't disappoint it's appearance.

Garlic parmesan wings (appetizer) were good. I prefer crispier wings, but they were typical compared to other restaurants I have been to. If anyone knows of a place that has large crispy wings let me know!!

The Nashville hot and chicken was good. Crispy and juicy.

The bacon jam burger was delicious. The bacon and jam added a sweet and savory component over your typical burgers.

The fries were just ok. Thicker size like Wendy's fries, little to no seasoning/flavor and kinda on the softer size.

Fish and chips, again the fries are nothing to write home about. But the large portion of crunchy and flaky redfish hit the spot for me.

Strawberry lemonade mint daiquiri doesn't really have a mint taste but is very good.

The play area was a good size and all the kids there including mine enjoyed this space.

I was told the menu changes ever couple months.

Don't know if there is a live band every night but there was a good band during our meal and the overall atmosphere was outstanding. One of our favorite places so far on the north shore overall, covering all ages...