Harbor Fish Market & Grille — Restaurant in Town of Baileys Harbor

We came here tonight for my girlfriends birthday dinner as we are up in Door County for a few days from Illinois celebrating. We were really looking forward to the Wednesday Lobster Boil special, as lobster is one of my lovely girlfriends favorite meals. There are a few things, though, that I would like to mention- as out of character as this may be for me.

First and foremost, the meal from start to finish was absolutely without a doubt amazing. From the fresh lobster bisque soup, to the open fire boiled lobsters we had- 10/10. I couldn’t have asked for better food if I wanted to. The chef tonight deserves to be commended! The service, on the other hand, needs some help.

From the second we entered the restaurant I feel we were snubbed. The hostess was condescending, and seemed to be in way over her head. Our reservation was for 7:30 pm, and we promptly arrived at 7:30 pm. We were then told that our table was being cleaned and sanitized for us, and we were asked to wait about 5 minutes. We sat down at the bar top tables towards the front and waited for our table to be ready. After 5 minutes turned into about 15, our table was finally ready. I wasn’t too upset about a 15 minute wait for a table to be cleaned and sanitized though, as we are still in a pandemic and I don’t want to go back to not being able to go out to eat!

Once we were brought to our table, it seemed as though there were already 2 rounds of customers who’d already been seated at our table prior to us, and was not very clean at all. There was French fries below our seats, and other various crumbs from whatever else was eaten there. This made me question why we were waiting for 15 minutes after our reservation, as it did not seem to have been cleaned as thoroughly as the hostess had told us prior. I really feel that the hostess just simply did not feel we were of high enough priority, and might have forgotten about us for those 15 minutes. I would like to reiterate that our meal was some of the best seafood we think we have ever had in our lives. But, the service just got worse from here.

Our servers name was Michelle, and we put our order in almost immediately after being seated, as we knew what we wanted prior to even arriving. After we got our soup and drinks though, we didn’t see our server for the next 45 minutes to an hour. The candle heating my butter went out after only being lit for about 15 minutes, and I waited 20 minutes in hopes of our server showing up to let her know. Unfortunately, I had to give up on waiting for her and I let the other server know who we saw quite frequently throughout our time here. I genuinely wish we could have gotten her to serve us instead. I do not know her name, but she was an absolute rock star- consistently checking up on her tables and was even gracious enough to try to relight my candle! It turned out to be empty, but she immediately went to grab a fresh one for me!

Overall, I don’t know if we will be back here the next time we come up to Door County. This experience just put a bad taste in my mouth being a first time customer and to have been treated the way we were. I wish I could have given Harbor Fish Market & Grille a 5 star review, I just do not feel it would be in my good conscience. The food deserves all 5 stars, which is why this is a 2 star review instead of a...

My husband and I dined at the Harbor Fish Market & Grille on October 14th, 2023 to celebrate our one year wedding anniversary.

When we arrived, we were led to our table promptly, even though we were early for our reservation. Our kind server, Kayla, immediately took our drink orders and started us with some warm bread and butter. We enjoyed it while sipping on our drinks and looking at the menu. The menu was large, but not overwhelming. We each ordered our food. We ordered crab cakes and lobster bisque as an appetizer. I ordered the scallops with sweet potato & brussels sprout hash. My husband ordered the ribeye with Korean barbecue brussels sprouts and potatoes au gratin. We also ordered a side of brown butter sage gnocchi.

We were served our meals approximately 10-15 minutes after we ordered. It didn’t feel like we were waiting a while. Although it did give me some time to look at the decor. It was a little outdated, but it did not detract from the overall relaxing atmosphere.

We were served the lobster bisque first. It was mediocre at best. It was under salted and needed some heat. We used the salt and pepper provided on the table, which we were very disappointed in. The pepper must have been at least a year old because it was tasteless. The servers should bring a pepper mill to the table and ask the patrons if they would like freshly cracked pepper on their dishes. The salt on the table was obviously iodized salt, which is a culinary nightmare unless you want your guests’ food to taste like a penny. It’s tacky to put salt on the table in a fine dining establishment in the first place (because you should expect your food to be adequately salted), and even worse to assault your guests’ tastebuds with the McDonald’s equivalent of salt at a fancy restaurant.

When we got our meals, I asked about our appetizer that we ordered (the crab cakes). Our server said she forgot them, but apologized and made it right by offering us a free dessert. I took her up on it and we skipped the crab cakes.

When I looked at my plate of food, it was beautifully plated, however it seemed a little overkill. There was caviar atop my scallops, sweet potato and brussel hash, a few grilled carrots, and some sauce. It was much too busy. I tried the scallops first, without the caviar. To my surprise, the scallops were slightly undercooked and tasted fishy. I only ate one of the five I was served. The brussels sprout and sweet potato hash was bland and, like everything else I had eaten thus far, needed salt. The grilled carrots were my favorite thing on the plate.

Now for my husband’s meal. He said the ribeye was cooked nicely and he enjoyed it. The brussels sprouts could have used less sauce, as they were swimming in it. However, the flavor was excellent. The au gratin potatoes were not his favorite, the potatoes were cubed, which is not how au gratin potatoes are supposed to be made. They should have been scalloped.

The brown butter sage gnocchi was enjoyed by both of us equally and we had no complaints about it.

For our free dessert, we chose the cherry bread pudding. I have a huge sweet tooth, so my hopes were high, but I was let down again. There were maybe 3 cherries in the whole slice and it was not flavorful.

All in all, spending $140 before tip made us extremely disappointed. We will...

Let me just start by saying that the only good thing about our experience, was our server Dahlia. My son and I have been in the hospitality industry for years as upper management, and this experience would show any restaurant manager what not to do in a situation where a guest is not happy with their dining experience we ordered cocktails and an appetizer, which were fine, nothing to rave about just fine. Then we ordered our entrees, which were the halibut and the lobster roll. The halibut was way overcooked and dry as a bone, the wild rice had no flavor, and the broccolini was so overcooked and burnt that it was crispy and back, no green. The only thing on the plate with any flavor or moisture was the chimichurri sauce. Now on to the lobster roll, which had so much celery, green onions, and cucumber, it was all I tasted. The lobster had a consistency of canned tuna, mushy, and no large chunks whatsoever - almost as if it was ground up first. This is my first complaint review in probably 20 years, as I like to look for the good in things as opposed to just the negative. However, when we explained to our server, when she offered to box up our leftovers that we didn't care for it, we had another server visit our table, asking what the problem was. We explained, then, the host came to our table, and we explained yet again. Within 5 minutes the host was back at our table informing us that both she and the chef tried both dishes and concluded that everything tasted as it should - Well I'm very happy that you enjoyed our meal - unfortunately, we did not. One thing you don't do with a guest in this industry, is argue with them about how they feel about their dish. Neither dish was good, neither dish had flavor, neither dish had color. We did not like the food at all. That's the end of the conversation. Trying to shove a free dessert down our throats when we didn't even eat dinner is not what I call making it right. We left your establishment and crossed the street to Chives, and had an absolutely beautiful dinner that was both delicious, moist, and flavorful. Your Chef might want to take a page out of their chefs book on how to prepare halibut properly. I've never been so disappointed in a fine dining establishment ever, let alone up in door county. Some of your co-workers need to go back to school and learn the definition of guest service. We wanted or expected nothing to be comped. What I would have liked is for the host to ask us if we'd like to look at the menu and order something different. We took three bites out of our meal, paid the Full Tab plus a 50% tip to our amazing server because she was wonderful, and left. I gave the atmosphere a two because the table we were seated at would bounce every time anyone walked by, which was a lot. We honestly felt like we were sitting on a trampoline at one point. I wish I had taken photos of this food. It would have spoken volumes to this review. You are a restaurant in Door...