Harrington's By The Bay — Restaurant in Traverse City

On the recommendation of a local friend we went to harrington's. I had the ribeye potato and vegetables my husband had the grilled chicken breasts with a Caesar salad and vegetable. As an appetizer we chose the bacon wrapped shrimp. Starting with the good the bacon wrapped shrimp or stellar they were perfectly cooked not ever done and the bacon had a most wonderful Smokey flavor that gave a very unique touch to this starter. And unfortunately went down from here. My 14 oz ribeye steak was ordered medium and came out very close to well done it was only a very small touch of pinkish flesh in the middle portion everything else was completely cooked, it was over salted and not a pleasure to eat. The potato was not warm enough to melt the butter provided. And if the zucchini carrot vegetable accompaniment was 2 oz that would have been generous. My husband's chicken breasts were exceptionally dry and the same small portion of vegetables. His Caesar salad was fine. They closed at 9:00 and we arrived at about 8:45 so I did not complain because it would have kept everyone later and made us wait even longer for our dinner and we have been out cycling and climbing dunes all day and we're very tired. I did ask to speak to the manager after we paid just to make him aware of how disappointed we were. He said he wished we had told him and he could have fixed it but for the aforementioned reasons we didn't. If I never back in traverse City I'll probably give Harrington's another chance but tonight's experience...

Showed up at 7pm on a Sunday evening with a party of 4. Plenty of tables available, but was asked for a reservation? Informed them we didn't make one, as we've never done so in the past. Was told they didn't have enough servers, so they couldn't seat us. We asked to speak with a manager and told her we wouldn't mind being seated and getting slow service, as we wanted to enjoy some adult beverages prior to eating anyway and she said she couldn't do that because they "pride themselves on their service and giving slow service isn't their desire." She invited the four of us to sit up at the bar and enjoy our beverages and maybe have an appetizer while we wait 25-minutes to be seated. Maybe I would've done that if I had been seated at one of the dozen empty tables/booths, but I'm sure the heck am not going to do that sitting on a bar stool, bellied up to a bar. So much for the "pride of service." We took our business downtown to Minerva's and was immediately seated. The food was much better than we've ever had at Harrington's and it wasn't as expensive. Denise (our waiter) was a pleasure. Her recommendations were excellent and she provided OUTSTANDING service, of which she and Minerva's can be proud. We used to visit Harrington's from time-to-time, but they've lost our business and any recommendations from us in the future. The food there is decent, but it's over-priced and if they can't figure out how to "service" their clientele, they'll lose them. So long...

Prior to being sat we were told the wait time was 25-30 minutes. We watched the hostess turn patrons away telling them they were no longer taking names bc the wait time exceeded the operating hours. We were sat within 10 minutes of arriving. Our server greeted us and told us she would be right over with some waters. We gave her our drink order in hopes of simplifying her job/ less trips to our table. She wasn’t knowledgeable of all seltzers in stock/flavors & brought me the incorrect beverage. Cider instead of the seltzer I ordered & still no waters for our party of 4. I went to the bar to get the right beverage myself. 5 minutes after placing our food order we were told the kitchen ran out of our entree along with two other fish dishes on the menu only leaving whitefish available. Our appetizer (calamari) came and was over cooked and flavorless.Still no waters. At this point we all agreed that we were just going to cash out for what we had received and go somewhere else. I understand that the summer is likely busy for all restaurants in traverse city. However, if you’re out of 3 of rhe 4 fish entrees on your tiny menu an hour before you close, that’s a prep issue. Wait staff was kind & apologetic given the circumstances but clearly overwhelmed in an environment that really wasn’t that overwhelming from my perspective since half the restaurant cleared out 5 minutes after...