Gibson's Midway — Restaurant in Midway

Went here for a date night, and we're "local" so we're familar with the Midway scene. Our experience was decidedly mediocre, and I'll detail why:

1. When ordering wine, my wife ordered a Chianti. The server came back with a glass of white wine, and said "Oh, we are out of red Chianti...". She was serious (!) but we laughed it off and my wife chose another red on the list...only to look directly up at the wine rack that was over our heads later and see the bottle of red Chianti she had ordered which they were "out of". We gently pointed this out to the server with a bit of laughter, and she seemed fairly unconcerned.

2. I ordered the walleye with garlic mashed potatoes. Upon waiting ~20 min for our food, the server approached and said the mashed potatoes "weren't looking too good" and asked if I'd like another choice. A strange bit of feedback from the kitchen, to be sure.

3. We both got the same salad, so it was brought out in a metal bowl to serve ourselves. As we plated our salads, we were 1/2 into eating them, and the server came and tried to clear/take our still 1/3 full bowl of house salad to the point she grabbed the bowl which was across the table and over our plates. We stopped her because 1) we were eating and 2) there was still plenty of salad to be eaten, and she seemed surprised.

Also of note on the "appetizer" section, there was no bread/butter, which is fairly standard for a dinner location like this. My wife commented she was surprised at this.

4. In general, the food was "good". Not life changing but altogether "decent" except for the asparagus, which still had very "woody" ends. The steak my wife got was cooked nicely, and my walleye was a generous portion with good flavor.

The servers were nice and friendly, albeit clearly untrained and "raw". I'm fine with "casual dining" at Applebee's but as a "white tablecloth" location, the servers were all wearing jeans, some rippped/with holes in the knees and literally random t-shirts (not branded for the restaurant). A weird vibe for "white tablecloth" for sure.

5. The restaurant was supposed to close at 10pm, and we were one of only about 4 couples in the restaurant so it was a "slow" night. At approximately 7:45-8pm one of the employees proceeded to start vacuuming a large area for about 5 minutes, very loudly, at the expense of being able to hear each other or converse at our table. We just laughed and rolled our eyes a bit...who runs a vacuum during dinner hours, especially hours from close?

6. The Creme Brulee dessert was $9 for a very, very small ramekin. It was topped with some shady looking chopped strawberries, and was "ok" at best, but certainly not $9 for a small serving. Fairly priced would be $5, at best.

7. The silverware looked like it came from a middle school lunch room. I don't need to dine with fine silver by any means, but this was the "is it metal or not?" stuff that was discolored, dull knives, and bent forks.

We try to keep perspective and realize that post-COVID most restaurants are still trying to survive and find workers willing to actually work. Midway experiences pretty frequent turnover of restaurants, and has lost some good ones in recent years. However, at Gibson's the training of staff and overall quality was very much so lacking for a $100 date-night dinner. If you're going to position your restaurant as a "white tablecloth" type of place, your service and food should match the image you're putting out.

We wouldn't recommend it to others for such an outing, to be sure. We will hope that they improve and would love to experience a better try in the future, if they can fix their...

Party of 3... 2 adults, 1 child. Walked in, was greeted and seated in a kind and timely fashion. Not many patrons were present, so I thought we arrived at an opportune time to be served in a timely manner. Ordered drinks, one being a neat bourbon, the others being sodas and water, along with an appetizer. Got the drinks, the adult beverage was skimpy for the price, but no complaint, I just decided it wouldn't be worth another, and ordered our main dishes. Got our appetizer in a timely manner. Cheesticks, a little overcooked, but still recommended them to a couple we knew that arrived about 20 minutes after our initial seating. After finishing our appetizer, we waited... and waited, and waited. Drinks were refilled, but the time it took for the main dishes to arrive lead me to believe that someone forgot that our order was ready to be brought to our table. 5 minutes after finally being served our main dish, the aforementioned couple was leaving with to go containers of the food they had time to order, be served, eat, get full, pack up, pay and chat with us before walking out. By then, I was over it. I spent over $100, for a shot of bourbon, 2 wilted salads, and lukewarm pasta. The calzone was excellent, but the cheesestick appetizer was over cooked. We barely touched our main dishes due to the wait and got to go containers. I still left an appropriate tip, but someone dropped the ball. If the quality of the food was better, I would give the place another try, but this was not a good first impression and the prices are too high to for me to keep testing the waters. Living in Versailles, and never before visiting the Midway railroad track restaurants, I wanted to try something different, and this wasn't a good first experience, so I'll be trying the other restaurants along the strip before I make my way back around...

Now to date… This is the best eatery I’ve had in Midway. I don’t want to make this super long but the food he deserves my gratitude.

First off, the young ladies who took care of me upon my arrival, were nice and kind. Already starting off good. I was quickly seated, not hurriedly and given ample time to review the menu. So many selections that made my mouth water just by reading the description. After some time, I asked the young lady for her suggestions and she happily gave me the rundown.

For starters I ordered the shrimp cocktail. It came to me as soon as she walked away. I think they can read minds.. After being placed in front of me, I saw a wonderful display of little seahorses dancing around the plate. The taste was phenomenal. So fresh as if they were caught minutes ago. The flavor was mild and quite tasty.

After devouring the little bites of heaven, I ordered the main course…. Seafood pasta. I was also informed that it came with a salad. So I opted for the Caesar. And what a great choice that was? Whoever came up with the idea to add bacon along with the croutons and banana peppers, is pure genius. So much flavor and the right combo.

At last, it was time for the pasta and as expected, it was scrumptious. The pasta contains shrimp, crawfish, and sausage. Topped with a Cajun cream sauce and veggies. Can someone say palate pleaser? Yes, yes, yes.

Also might I add the sweet tea was great. Not overly sweet like that McDonald’s junk. But I digress.

Overall this was a stellar experience and I can’t wait to return to the grail of food...