Turner's Seafood Grill & Market - Melrose MA — Restaurant in Melrose

Good food (4 stars), poor service (0 stars.) Went last night, party of 6 for my dad's birthday. Reservation, seated us right away, nice clean table. Ordered apps, couple of dozen cherrystones, steamers, calamari. All good. Ordered the mains, and my brother asks for a salad. The server just said, "no" with no explanation that a salad would be additional. He said what do you mean no? She said salad is not a side. He was fine paying for a salad, so he got the strawberry salad. I was seated next to him and asked if the salad was big, she said it was, so I asked for an extra plate to share it with him. She said ok. Everyone else ordered. The server's demeanor and overall vibe was not great, but whatever, just get the orders right and we are fine. Salad comes, no extra plate. We ask a food runner for one, but still no plate comes, so instead we just both ate out of the same dish "like animals" (which is what my dad said.) Main orders come, dad is missing side of mashed, wife gets mashed cauliflower instead of mashed potatoes (she thought it was just gross mashed potato until I tasted it.) No check on how things were going, so those issues didn't get fixed either. Bro and I were splitting the bill, so she brings the credit card gizmo thing and hovers over us while we put in the tip and sign. Poor form right there. It was the first time in literally years I tipped only 15%, but the service was not good. It was a bunch of little issues, and if she was apologetic or engaged with the table or checked in with us at all it would be forgivable. But that was not the case. In fact we are done with this place. We dropped $285 on the bill plus 15% tip and got surly Hot dog stand service. Bad day? New server? Really busy? It may have been, but it seemed more like disinterested garbage service to me. Bye Turners. Your food is good, but I can't in good conscience go back if this is what customers dropping literally hundreds can expect. Back to Legal's for us.

UPDATE: As you see below, someone tried to contact me. I replied via email, but they provided an incorrect email address. So, now I dropped it to one star due to further incompetence. Further, my wife and I went to Legal's in Kendall Sq last night (they re-opened in June.) Lord, what a difference. Wife had the lobster roll same as she had last week at Turner's, and Legal's blows Turner's out of the water. For service, Legal's is in...

If you're on the fence about seafood, this place will drag you over to the seafood lovers side. What an awesome restaurant for everything seafood. The owners are involved in day to day operations, so you know they really care. The absolute best and freshest seafood you'll ever have while out for dinner. They have been doing this for eons as their parents and their parents parents have been involved in Bostons seafood industry for generations. They are the real deal when it comes to fish. Legal doesn't come close and if you know Boston and Seafood, you know this family is genuine. Their commitment to their restaurant and serving the very best shines through each and every day. I'd love to point out several of my personal favorites but that wouldn't be fair to Turners. Everything is so good I honestly couldn't say any dish or appetizer is not great. If you're looking to experience a great night out and try some of New England's finest seafood this is the place for you. Every time I visit, I leave thinking "wow", "awesome ". If you want the best, forget the rest was my slogan when I ran a seafood market I. Everett from 87 to 93 and this place certainly deserves that same slogan. I've been enjoying seafood as an expert that got his fish daily from the pier and Turners is the only restaurant on earth that I would happily pass my slogan to. Do yourself a favor and go there for a fantastic evening. The servers are friendly and very much add a Bostonian flare to your evening. Chris at the raw bar will never disappoint you and can suggest great entries to your liking g. The owners are really their and are super involved in every aspect of your meal like they were serving their own mother on Mother's Day. This is by far the best choice for a night out on the town. A short ride north of Boston will not disappoint. My hat's off to this restaurant and their staff. Great job Turners and the Turner family. See you soon...... If I added a photo, it would only be a...

I frequent the Salem location and the Gloucester Market, but this location was terrible. I was so disappointed with this visit to Turner's. I took my family out for a Father's Day dinner. It was our first time here. The service was bad from the start. When the waitress came over to greet our table she walked away in the middle of her sentence. Just walked away... When she finally came back we had questions about how to order. They gave paper menus that explained how to order using the QR code, but the waitress said to order through her?? That was a little confusing. It was also hot and crowded in the area we were seated in. We had to wait 10 minutes to put in a drink order after asking the waitress because she was busy. Don't get fountain drinks here. They tasted very weird. The food was average. I ordered haddock and it was too salty to eat. I didn't finish it. The mashed potatoes were great though. The Asian nachos were also good. After we finished eating, right when they were clearing our plates, a woman (maybe the manager?) came over to our table and asked my boyfriend for his chair. She used it to turn on the ceiling fan in our area. I don't know if it was just us, but we found that to be very unprofessional. You took a guest's chair to stand on it with the dirty shoes you've been walking all over the restaurant in to then give it back to him to sit on without cleaning it... After that we were done. We wanted to sit and have dessert, but decided not to after that. Not a great experience for a Father's Day dinner. I really do understand that it was a busy night and they have signs posted everywhere about how understaffed they are, but we just expected a little more. At least have a pleasant attitude when you approach the table. If the service wasn't so bad we would've considered going back. Bad service plus average food is just not worth it to us. It's even more disappointing because we just moved a few mins away. I was really excited to have a...