The Fat Seagull — Restaurant in Manitowoc

Let me preface this review by saying I'm from central Wisconsin and I am obsessed with fish fries. I never miss an opportunity to try out local favorites. We are in town visiting family and happened to be here for friday night so of course I suggested a fish fry. I googled "best fish fry in manitowoc" and this is what came up.

The building is a typical Wisconsin bar with some mildly unimpressive boat flair scattered on the walls and very few places to sit for a party of more than 4. The staff was unwelcoming on initial entry. There were at least two bar tenders. Two females, one with short brown hair and one with blond hair. They did not welcome us nor did they offer us seating. We stood around for about 2 or 3 minutes. One from our party (of 7) asked a bar tender if they had a patio. She said very bluntly "no" and gave what seemed to us, a contemptuous look. We assembled our own seating from asking patrons to borrow their unused chairs and situated ourselves at an empty table made for four. Another from our party procured some menus from the inattentive bar staff.

When a waitress did attend to us, she was awesome. She had red hair and was very kind and happy. We all ordered drinks and food. I ordered an old fashion, cheese curds and (of course) a walleye fish fry. The old fashion was excellent. The food came quickly, before our appetizers.

The fish was great quality, sourced locally, but the preparation was sub par, the breading is a corn and flour based crust which was decent, but flavorless and crumbly. My fish arrived with half dollar sized portions of the batter falling off already. It was decent food. That's all. Not best fish fry material. If this is indeed best fish fry in manitowoc I do not desire to ever have a fish fry around here again. The coleslaw was very small, in a condiment container, and the drys were crinkle cut, luke warm and soggy.

I personally prefer a firmer flaky cod for a fish fry with a batter that isn't crumbly or a baked cod. If you are looking for an excellent fish fry look elsewhere around here and please let me know if you find one . Not to say it was bad, it wasnt. It was mediocre. And the bartenders were short (not physically) seemingly rude and cold. We almost left right away because of that. We immediately felt unwelcome.

Would I go back? Probably not for fish fry. Maybe there is another thing on the menu that is good but I will probably never know. If those bartenders are working I will certainly not go back. Our waitress was awesome though. Remember that. Red hair with a shark's tooth necklace. Thanks...

My husband and I stopped in because we heard great things, but honestly, we weren't too impressed. Although the fried green beans we ordered for our appetizer that they served with ranch dipping sauce (and without any plates or silverware, I might add) were pretty darn good, it went downhill from there. I'll tell you what we ordered, first, then explain. I ordered the Atlantic Haddock Po'Boy which was deep fried haddock in a tempura-type batter on a toasted sub roll with lettuce, tomatoes and tartar sauce. My husband ordered the Fat Seagull 1/4 lb-er which exactly is a quarter pound patty of beef smothered with blue cheese. It also comes in a half pound size for the heartier appetite. We split a basket of fries and THAT was an EXCELLENT choice! They brought us plenty! And awesome fries, too! As we go on, remember that! When my sandwich arrived, our server left and I looked over my food and it was missing the tomato. When I asked her to bring it, she brought tomatoes that obviously had been sliced and in cold storage for quite some time. (FYI: You should NEVER refrigerate tomatoes as it breaks down their cell structure and hence the taste. ALWAYS leave them at room temperature!)Her excuse for not having tomatoes on my plate was, "Oh, the cook is new and he's just learning the menu." I'm sorry, but that doesn't wash with me. If you're new somewhere, learn your job beforehand or read the menu and see what's supposed to be on the sandwich as you go. It even says "tomatoes" on the menu. No excuse. My bun had been burned around the edges and after eating it I couldn't get that burned taste out of my mouth for a long, long time, yuck! (He toasted it on an open-flamed grill.) My husband's sandwich wasn't any more successful. He had to put the blue cheese on himself and the burger patty was charred to insignificance. Although, being goodhearted as he is, he would NOT let me have her send it back as it would have made his lunch late. (He's a former Army Sergeant and can stomach anything.) In any case, the server should have seen how black his burger came out and told the cook to make another. The service was excellent. I have no qualms with that. She came back many times. Good ambience. It was not crowded, but it was getting that way when were leaving. I suppose if we ordered something else, or came when someone else was cooking? You be the judge. I'll go again and write another review....

Stopped in on the 4th of July, it was open! We came from a reasonable enough distance, to be not considered "a local". The service was quite slow, but friendly - they were pretty busy. An error here or there with food orders was quickly remedied. The burger was actually pretty good, though it was let down by the average quality of the bun. Very reasonable prices even with the meager holiday markup. Couple early evening patrons were clearly over served... but they still seemed happy. All the regulars seemed happy. No sideways glances or any issues with any unwelcome advances that one might tend to expect from local bars. Its hard to describe that sort of thing. But you know it when you see it. When the bar is full of bigger guys, you can tell if they're looking to fight or if they'd give you their shirt if you needed one. For us, thats sort of the most important thing. This place did not disappoint on that front. So bring your wife, GF, or SO and feel right at home. Not sure if thats just sort of the city wide vibe or not. But again, if you can't feel comfortable in a place you can't go back.

In the end, the prices, the quality, the overall vibe and friendliness for sure make me recommend this place. Don't expect a fancy supper club. Come as you are and shockingly, no matter what, you'll probably fit right in. There might be a wait on your food, but I'd say its worth it. We've never been to Manitowoc before, but if we come back, this will definitely be...