Clinton House Restaurant — Restaurant in Port Clinton

I really wanted to go here mainly for the lobster bisque as I've heard it raved about best in the area. I have to say that this dish was by far the best thing they had going for them. When I go back, which I will, I will only be goung for their lobster bisque and hope it's not sold out. With that said, I will go on with my entire review.

Walking in sets the tone. It's an old building and the entrance door is very old. The handle is very low, and you must shut the door behind you. Not a huge deal, but not normal for a restaurant of their claims. The interior is decent and definitely highlights a very old building, but it did seem to be clean from our view.

We sat at a table and was promptly greeted by a server, Michael, who was young and friendly and only an employee of four months. One thing about him was his choice of clothing. He was wearing a nice polo shirt with khaki shorts. It was a comfortable temperature inside, and the shirts seemed out of place for the environment. Overall, Michael was a decent server, and besides his attire, there's not much to complain about. We left him a nice tip.

The menu had a decent variety of local fare. The prices were fairly high and comparable to a mid-high fine dining restaurant. $40 for a 12oz ribeye if I recall correctly. We ordered walleye bites and stuffed mushrooms along with two cups of lobster bisque. Being a longtime fisherman of Lake Erie and tasting walleye cooked in all ways and tastes, I'm can say I was not impressed with these rather small chunks. It was a fair portion for an appetizer for two. About the size of cheese curds and my first three pieces, all had bones in them. I was turned off and let my wife finish them. The mushrooms were three stuffed caps for $15. It's definitely not worth the price! They had sausage, which was nearly flavorless. They were ok at best at half the price. The lobster bisque, as stated before, absolutely lived up to the hype. Great flavor and full of chunks of meat. It's pre-made and was served quickly. My only complaint was on the menu you could order it by the cup, bowl, or quart. Once we got to taste it, we put an order in for a quart to go at the end of our dinner. As we were finishing and asked for the check and our to go quart our server quickly returned with upsetting news that the restaurant didn't want to sell us a quart as they were running low and wanted to reserve as much as possible for other diners. Now, this was around 7p on a Friday so I'm not sure how busy they were expecting to get but given the time of year and current amount of patrons I was a little upset by this. We were offered a cup to go rather than a quart. We declined their counter offer.

For the main entrees we ordered a bvq bacon cheeseburger medium with onion rings which was a $1.50 upcharge and a turkey club sandwich. My burger came out rare! It was nothing but a quick sear on each side and absolutely raw in the middle. The onion rings that I paid up for, there was five total including one about the size of a quarter. They tasted good but absolutely not worth the upcharge for five small to medium rings! Also, the burger for $14 was plain besides bacon, cheese, and bbq sauce. I had to ask for Lettuce and tomato. As for my wife's turkey club it was nothing special and like pretty much everything else, overpriced for the quality.

We also ordered a couple beers each. Nothing on tap despite having a large bar centered in the restaurant. We ordered a domestic and import. $8 for domestic and $12 for import for a bottle of beer! You'd better have deep pockets to get a good buzz here.

All in all it was ok, about 2.5 out of 5 stars. Our bill was $100 for two with a couple drinks, appetizers, cheaper entrees, and no dessert. Nothing great despite getting a great review recently by local news star Tony Geftos. Sorry Tony, I think you missed the mark on this one. I will go back but only for one thing, gimme more of that lobsta bisque ta go please!

Oh I almost forgot, parking is a nightmare! Very limited. Don't be surprised if you find...

Good - not close to great. My wife and I were here Friday night. We were way ahead of the dinner rush and even being early the service was very slow. Our waitress was very nice, and told us they were understaffed. We ordered the mozzarella wedges which were actually pretty good, but the stuffed mushrooms were not. The stuffing seemed like it was out of a box and the brown gravy like topping did nothing to add to the dish - I wouldn’t recommend at all. We both ordered the Lobster Bisque - which sadly was the highlight of the entire meal. The soup was actually one of the best bisques I’ve ever had - but that’s not what you go to a restaurant for. Because it was a Friday night, a lot of folks were ordering the Prime Rib. I noticed how small of a cut that kept coming out - and very fatty from what I could tell. Which brings me to my next point - the portion sizes. I ordered the French Dip which was really disappointing. A normal French Dip comes on a large hoagie roll cut into two. This was a small sub like roll that was maybe the size of a normal half of a French Dip - and at over $14 is really cutting back. My wife got the Club sandwich because after the appetizer round she said was probably “safe”, which it was. Good not great - and that unfortunately sums up our visit here. Outside of that, this was our first time there and will probably be our last. Too many high top tables with very small surface areas. There were a lot of parties of four people who were struggling to find a place to sit that would be comfortable. There was a large party who had reserved a table next to us (about 10 I think) who got so tired of waiting for drink orders to be placed, ended up going to the bar and paying cash there to get their drinks. On that subject - I had one 7&7. Big mistake. The drink came in a small plastic cup that was filled to the brim with ice and was the weakest drink I’ve ever had. I stuck to club soda for the rest of the night. To top it off, we were given someone else’s check and credit card to sign bc our waitress was running ragged trying to keep up. As we were finishing our meal one of the girls bringing food out tried to give us someone else’s appetizer twice. I get being short staffed to a point - but on a Friday night in the prime of your busy season, and not even at the busiest time of night - you’ve gotta step up your game. This is a 3 star review but honestly could have been less. For the two of us with tip it was an $80 night out that I honestly wish we had spent someplace else. It’s a shame bc it’s in a...

Our experience here was overall good. It started out a bit aggravating but ended up not too bad. We were sitting at our table for well over 5 minutes before anyone even seemed to notice we were there. The waitress seemed busy and rushed.

Once greeted, we asked if they had a drink menu, they did not. So we asked what types of drinks they offered, and our waitress seemed bothered by the question and responded with "we have like a hundred." Asked for a rum runner, and was told they don't offer one.

So no drink list. Couldn't name any when asked. Didnt have what I asked for out of "like a hundred"

Felt very frustrated, and seemed like we were just bothering her by asking her to be a waitress.

I assume she sensed that we felt this way, and offered to make me a rum runner anyways, since she knew how. And it was pretty darn good!

From that point on the service picked up, she seemed much more laid back and friendly from that point. The food was decent. Nothing to write home about, but we didnt leave hungry!

Shortly after arriving we thought we had made a mistake, but by the end of the evening we left happy and...