Maxwell's On The River — Restaurant in Muscatine

Exceeded Expectations

While staying at The Merrill I was directed to Maxwells by the staff when I checked in. Being a veteran of many hotel restaurants and not always being impressed, I walked over to Maxwells to have a look before I went up to my room. What I saw was a very well designed dining area, very new and distinguished. The bar itself was shiny, charming and aesthetic. I went back to my room, had a quick workout in the fitness center, went for a nice long walk along the river, and then went to Warrior Crossfit for a WOD. When I got back to the hotel, I went back to my room changed, showered and heading down to Maxwells.

I was very fortunate to arrive when I did as the restaurant was starting to fill up. I went to the bar and sat down and took in the ambiance for a couple of minutes. The bartender, who served me was a joy to talk to and I also stuck up a conversation with some folks at the bar who were staying at the Merrill as well. As you can imagine from all my activities that day I was famished, so I came with an appetite. Despite that over the last couple of days, I had consumed quite a bit of food. That said Maxwells was a perfect place to have a meal. The food was very well imagined, had just the right portion size and it was very high quality.

I started off with one of the salads on the menu, a harvest salad which was composed of locally sourced items. The portion size just right and the ingredients were very fresh and high quality. My salad was composed of field greens, roasted beets, citrus, goat cheese, candied pistachios with a light coating of apple cider vinaigrette. This was a very appetizing and flavourful salad. Next up was the main and the side. Please note that some of the mains are served al la carte, and some have sides on the plate. The main dish was a summer feature, an amazingly light and flavourful pickerel dish about 7-8 ounces drizzled with a citrus vinaigrette, topped with lightly sauteed mixed veggies. This dish was top-notch, as an angler, I have caught and eaten pickerel shortly after catching it. This was was fresh and not fishy tasting at all. Pickeral itself is a light and flaky fish and should be prepared gently as it was at Maxwell's. They know what they are doing in the kitchen. My side was absolutely delicious creation, grilled and slightly charred asparagus with pecan smoked bacon, roasted peppers, with a light drizzle of balsamic. Wow just amazing, Maxwells is the perfect companion to the hotel as it is an extension of the high standard that defines...

It was far from a quiet romantic meal for my birthday! Way too noisy in the open concept dining area and the only view we got were the smokers smoking outside and the cars pulling up to the front lobby door. Personally, the dining room should be located upstairs on it's own! The food was adequate: the french onion soup did not have any baked bread crumbs in it and way too much wine?! The filet mignon bled all over the mashed potatoes because they placed the steak on the potatoes! Big Mistake! Drinks were okay but my husband has had better Old Fashion and my pop was different tasting in the rum. Couldn't put my finger on it. Not satisfied in the least. Oh, and we wanted salt, pepper & some additional butter but by the time we flagged our waitresses down, the food was cold. I "get" the slow dining experience but come check on your table for their needs and wants at least once! We spent plenty of $ for 2 people and walked away dissatisfied. We will continue to go out of town for our 5 star meals...

Very nice atmosphere restaurant. The service was fair. Not excellent. We sat at the bar and the waitress seemed distracted by other people every time we tried to order. We had to wait about 10 minutes to order until she was finally squared away. I don’t know if they were short of help or she just Considered other people were more priority but either way the food was excellent. Very far overpriced but still very good food. I had the salmon with a side of onion soup and also aside of their specialty button mushrooms. The value though isn’t quite what I expected. Very nice atmosphere. Very eclectic, very modern and decorated very tastefully. I came here in mid January and they still had seasonal decorations up from Christmas, which made it still very...