Mac's Fish House Provincetown — Restaurant in Provincetown

Tragic Tale by the Sea .. that will give you a harsh slap in the face. Go elsewhere! --- please read the entire review!!

Our food seemingly vaulted out of the kitchen in haste and looked fine.

All well you say? Alas, this is when we begin our stormy dining night. Accommodating Erica our server asked if we needed anything else? I replied that I could use another large plate. She brought out a couple of small bread plates. This was both confusing and not what I asked for.

"Thank you, but what I want is actually a large plate," I said. Pointing to the dinner plate that I already had in front of me. Erica brought me out a rectangular plate and mentioned that it was still quite warm. As someone who has worked in a professional kitchen for many years, I understand "warm" plates. I picked this one up and immediately dropped it. It was searing hot! My fingertips are burnt and even two blisters immediately formed.

Shocked, upset and concerned, as was my partner, I asked right away to speak to the manager about my burnt fingertips and some young kid Colin came over. Instead of gathering facts, he started to point fingers and say, "the waitress told you the plate was warm." At this point, I fired back and said I had worked in kitchens since before he was born. Instead of being conciliatory or concerned and asking me if I was okay; he added fuel to the fire and directly said to us “We have been rude to all the staff since we arrived.” Then tried to backpedal on this statement.

At this point, I was aghast, insulted and offended - I interrupted him and asked if I could please just have another plate that was room temperature. Additionally, I also requested to speak with Jessica who sat us.

Jessica came over immediately and listened and addressed the situation. She agreed with us and felt the plate as I kept it and used it under my dish to keep my food warm. Even at that point Jessica felt the plate and said “Not even sure how Erica handled this - This plate is still too warm” a good 5 to 7 minutes had passed, and the plate was still this hot?!

Jessica said what can we do to make it right. I said that sometimes the guest just needs to be heard. Simple. I was not upset that my fingers got burnt and had blisters and that I should be okay. I asked for my food to be reheated and returned to the table … and all was smoothed over at that point.

Attempting to move on to a positive conclusion to our experience, we order dessert, Key Lime Pie. Great! I am always a sucker for dessert as I am a professionally trained pastry chef. It was adequate, and we were more than ready to leave.

While we were sitting there waiting for our check to be delivered, along ambled Colin Ashe, returning to give us a backhanded apology and says they will be more careful where they keep the plates in the kitchen. Colin continues and says that our "check has been taken care of, AND we are not welcome back, and he thinks it would be best that I never return to this restaurant in the future.”

I asked to speak to Jessica who helped smooth over the situation, at this point he got snarky again and said… "she has been sent home for the day, and she works for me!”

What a harsh slap in the face as well since Jessica herself had invited us back to Mac’s anytime just moments before Colin the ignorant, arrogant, self-righteous kid said what he said.

Is the business is so good that you can tell guests who have been coming to your restaurant as regulars for many years not to come back?

Moreover, in a tolerant and village-like community, to have anyone treat their neighbor with such callous disregard is much like Ursala the Sea Witch from The Little Mermaid. I guess Mac's is just one more "poor, unfortunate soul" drifting into irrelevance and disregard with their choice...

Our dining experience tonight was mediocre at best. Not the worst dining experience, but the 4.5 rating is a little too generous from our perspective.

The Calamari appetizer was a small plate portion, chewy and had only 4 baby squid in the mix. The Aioli sauce was sparce, definitely not enough to spark up this appetizer dish.

The clam chowder was clam chowder/onion soup, not New England style chowder at all. No creamy base, which is what you expect when you order clam chowder when in New England. It was more like Manhattan style chowder (without the tomato base). The menu description does not indicate that it is not authentic style New England clam chowder. The menu description just says, "Mac's Clam Chowder". Anyone who is a first-time patron would not know that Mac's has its own unique twist on clam chowder. So, a little more guidance by the wait staff is needed to explain what to expect so not be disappointed.

The fried fish... half of the plate was fries. They were ok, but nothing special that you could order from a diner. The fish was more batter than fish and was not sweet, fresh tasting cod like it came right off the boat. Which is interesting because the fish market is a block away. The small scoop of Cole slaw was hiding under the mountain of fries. Nothing special about the slaw either... diner quality again.

I put my chowder soup to the side so I could start on the Shrimp and Scallop dumplings. They were ok. The staff was polite and friendly. But 3 times, 3 different wait staff members just started walking off with the rest of my soup/chowder. None of them asked if I was finished, just started to take it off the table.

Not one time, during or after the meal did anyone ask how our food was or if we enjoyed the meal.

The menus were filthy. The inserts were soiled and well-worn, the menu holders were sticky. They need to do a better job cleaning and sanitizing the menu holders and changing out the inserts. Your food was served on clean dishes and with clean utensils. The menus that the customer handles before touching the clean fork and knifes should be just as clean as well.

Very disappointed. Provincetown is an annual vacation for us and dining out is a big part of the...

Please note that my giving this restaurant 2 stars is due specifically to one dish. We have been coming to Mac's for years and have never been disappointed. Food is always very good and fresh, and we have tried and have enjoyed many things on thier menu. This time, however, I decided to try something different...the crab lumanche. I realize that the Cape is not known for crabs....its more of a lobster, scallop, fish kind of area.....buy okay, I thought a seafood place should still be able to source a good supply of crab if they are going to advertise a dish like this. Well I was quite wrong. The dish was basically mac & cheese with maybe a hint of crab pieces mixed in. Look at the menu and see how they advertise this dish.....the first ingredient....FIRST......is lump crab meat! Call me crazy, but given that I was expecting to at least see some crab meat in my order!!! There was really none to speak of. Listen guys (if anyone from Mac's os bothering to read this).....don't advertise a dish with the first ingredient being lump crab if you aren't going to put any in it. Call it what it is....mac & cheese with a hint of crab. I wouldn't have ordered this, and paid $30 for it, if I knew what it really was. Sorry for this review, but it it is the truth and you should be ashamed to offer a dish like this with that kind of title and price without its main ingredient. Its really false advertising and I would highly recommend not getting it if you were in the mood for or expecting some kind of...