River Crab Blue Water Inn — Restaurant in St. Clair Township

I chose to make the hour drive and make the River Crab the choice for our anniversary dinner based on it's reviews as well as the location on the waterfront. We had 6:30 reservations and were able to get a table outside on the deck with fantastic views of the St Clair River. We order drinks and my wife ordered some clam chowder which she thought was excellent. For dinner, I order the large prime rib cooked Medium-rare and my wife the lobster tail.

We enjoyed the drinks and enjoyed the view while we waited for our entrees, which took about an hour to reach us. The first thing I noticed was that the prime rib didn't look medium-rare and was almost a grey in color. I cut into the meat and sure enough, it was medium-well to well. I showed the waitress and she seemed surprised on how well it was done, which shocked me because I would think she would have looked at the meat when picking it up and could see it was obviously way overcooked. She said she would take it back and get me a piece cooked medium-rare. While waiting for her to return, my wife started on her lobster tail and found it was also way overcooked. She had to borrow my steak knife to cut the lobster up. She was disappointed, but starving at this point and decided to eat it and not wait for another. She ate about half of it before decided she wasn't enjoying it and had enough. That's when the waitress returned with the same piece of prime rib that she brought me previously. She told me that this was the best the kitchen could come up with, everything else was cooked the same way. At this point, we had been there almost 90 minutes and I decided to decline the offer to order some other entrée, I was unhappy and didn't feel like waiting any longer. We she asked about my wife's lobster tail, noticing that it was only half-eaten, we explained that it was also over-cooked and she took it away.

What baffles me about the prime-rib is the lack of communication between the kitchen and front of house. Why didn't the kitchen communicate to the servers that they had no more prime-rib that wasn't below medium-well? I would have immediately ordered a filet or something else. And why would the kitchen decide to just plate the meat knowing it wasn't what was ordered? And lastly, why didn't the server notice it and say something to the kitchen (or to us) before trying to serve it? And how does a restaurant specializing in seafood overcook a lobster tail?

She said the manager took the prime-rib off the bill (obviously) and offered us a free dessert. We chose one but ordered it to go...which took another 15 minute to receive. Overall, we love the location and the ambiance but with the super-slow service and the overcooked entrees, I don't think we'll ever be back. Luckily, there was a McDonalds on the way home so a trip through the drive-thru was in order. Definitely a disappointing anniversary...

I did not realize that you had to walk through everyone else's deck area to get to your room. It is a tight fit in some places and really inconvenient if anyone is sitting out on their deck. I assumed that there would be entrances on the other side of the building to get into your room, but no. The rooms on the main level, level 2, are the only ones that are accessible at all to anyone who isn't 20 years old and in great shape. If you are on the upper or lower level you have to drag your luggage up and down a flight of steps. I know I wouldn't be able to. ||The pictures of the property on their website are deceiving. The deck areas look much larger and the views look unobstructed, and appear to overlook the restaurant deck. Nearly all of the rooms do not have a view like that. We were told that we had the room with the best view. Well, we were able to see up the river, but most of our view was of the roof of the restaurant and a/c system. We couldn't see the restaurant deck at all. ||Several people walked down and stood in front of our room looking at the view, so your outdoor space was not private at all. I was also disappointed that there wasn't a dining size table on the patio so you could enjoy your meals outside without holding them in your lap.||They state the rooms were recently renovated, decor wasn't to my taste, but they forgot to take care of the little details, like painting the trim and doors which were all scratched. The lighting in the room was very dim. With all the lights on there still wasn't enough light to read. The TV remote was difficult to operate. The mattress was extremely hard and the pillows extremely soft. It was the most uncomfortable bed we had on our 2 week road trip. ||The bathroom and kitchenette had adequate counter space, but they had trays sitting on both with towels, coffee cups, etc. You had to sit the trays on the floor to have room for any of your stuff, which a counter should be for. Overall, just too cluttered. The bathroom sink was extremely slow to drain so we had to turn off the water and wait for it to drain to keep it from overflowing. Very oddly, when I opened the soap, which was in a paper box, it was wet. So, I don't know if it had been used before, but it was off-putting and didn't seem sanitary. I don't understand how it was wet but the box was dry.||Ice was in the office, so they would only let you have a little bucket. Fortunately, there is a liquor store across the street where you can get bags of ice. I wish we had known that before we spent a long time driving around Port Huron to find beer. ||The office didn't open until 8 AM, so you won't be able to get any ice or supplies in the morning if you need to...

I did not realize that you had to walk through everyone else's deck area to get to your room. It is a tight fit in some places and really inconvenient if anyone is sitting out on their deck. I assumed that there would be entrances on the other side of the building to get into your room, but no. The rooms on the main level, level 2, are the only ones that are accessible at all to anyone who isn't 20 years old and in great shape. If you are on the upper or lower level you have to drag your luggage up and down a flight of steps. I know I wouldn't be able to. ||The pictures of the property on their website are deceiving. The deck areas look much larger and the views look unobstructed, and appear to overlook the restaurant deck. Nearly all of the rooms do not have a view like that. We were told that we had the room with the best view. Well, we were able to see up the river, but most of our view was of the roof of the restaurant and a/c system. We couldn't see the restaurant deck at all. ||Several people walked down and stood in front of our room looking at the view, so your outdoor space was not private at all. I was also disappointed that there wasn't a dining size table on the patio so you could enjoy your meals outside without holding them in your lap.||They state the rooms were recently renovated, decor wasn't to my taste, but they forgot to take care of the little details, like painting the trim and doors which were all scratched. The lighting in the room was very dim. With all the lights on there still wasn't enough light to read. The TV remote was difficult to operate. The mattress was extremely hard and the pillows extremely soft. It was the most uncomfortable bed we had on our 2 week road trip. ||The bathroom and kitchenette had adequate counter space, but they had trays sitting on both with towels, coffee cups, etc. You had to sit the trays on the floor to have room for any of your stuff, which a counter should be for. Overall, just too cluttered. The bathroom sink was extremely slow to drain so we had to turn off the water and wait for it to drain to keep it from overflowing. Very oddly, when I opened the soap, which was in a paper box, it was wet. So, I don't know if it had been used before, but it was off-putting and didn't seem sanitary. I don't understand how it was wet but the box was dry.||Ice was in the office, so they would only let you have a little bucket. Fortunately, there is a liquor store across the street where you can get bags of ice. I wish we had known that before we spent a long time driving around Port Huron to find beer. ||The office didn't open until 8 AM, so you won't be able to get any ice or supplies in the morning if you need to...