McGrath’s Fish House

A 10 minute wait. The service was good. The food was poor. The rice with veggies looked like it was there for a week. Way to much salad dressing on the salad. So I’m not going to order food here again.

My husband and I visited on a Wednesday evening around 6:30 and had to wait almost an hour to be seated even though we later learned there was an entire section of tables not being used. My husband ordered the alder plank salmon which he pronounced wonderful. He also had the cole slaw which he said was good. His salmon came with steamed red potatoes and brocolli. I ordered the crab cakes with rice pilaf and brocolli. We both had the clam chowder and the meal came with sourdough bread and butter. The crab cakes (3 good-​sized) were a major disappointment: Too much green and red sweet peppers overwhelmed the crab flavor, although the texture was pleasant. The rice pilaf was weirdly dry and tasted only of sweet peppers. The brocolli was under-​done and arrived too cool for the soft butter provided with the bread to melt into it. The clam chowder was really very good, as was the bread. We also ordered dessert: I had the chocolate ganache pie with marionberry sauce and my husband had the NY cheesecake with strawberry sauce. Both were delicious, although the ganache was more like mousse and not the dark, dense consistency ganache usually is. The bill, with coffee for my husband, came to over $ 40 and, frankly, I don’t think it was worth it. I’d rather go to Skipper’s, because if we return to McGrath’s, I’ll be sticking to the deep-​fried fish and shrimp, which is less expensive at Skipper’s. The service was good: Both the hostess and our waitress were accomodating. My husband tried to get me a glass of water from the bar while we were waiting and was completely ignored by the female bartender who was also acting as a waitress there, so the hostess got it for me.

Took awhile to get our order in. Ingredients are at par with general steakhouses. I had the ahi salad. The pineapples were from a can but the fish tasted alright. My friend had two big fish tacos. We had a nice time beating the rush by sitting at the bar. Definitely a popular spot on the weekends.

Tough one. Food was good, although seared ahi was overdone. But the wait staff … Wow. What a disaster! Never could figure out who our waiter was but it didn’t matter as the half dozen people who «helped» us were pretty unhelpful. Food order came out before soup and salad. Both meals were wrong. Refill on soda required me to actually get up and go to the bar. Manager «apology» was mumbled and worthless. General manager tried to appease us with a «coupon» for next time. And to top it all we had to stand up at our table and wait until finally a check came. Comped our appetizer. Lol. Hope this was a fluke but fair warning.

I love this place, the best in town for fresh seafood and friendly service. They also cater to people with food allergies, which I seriously appreciate. If you haven’t tried their key lime pie, you’re really missing out!

Nasty over cooked frozen food. The good was poor quality and it was most decently frozen not fresh. The shrimp were like a rubber tire from binging reheated after frozen, the haibate was nasty, looked just like McDonald’s fish patty, the scallops were tough from over cooking and from being caused the breading to fall off everything

Service is good. Not great, but not poor.
They definitely need to turn the heat up in winter.
All the people I saw around us had coats on while eating, including myself as it was very cold.
Dishes are anywhere from I don’t want to finish this to great, it really just depends on what you order.
So unless you have a dish there that you know you love how they make– I’d recommend playing it safe and ordering something simple

Food was really good, prices are reasonable. Loved it, will go back again. Extensive menu, lots of fabulous specials.

My family has patronized McGrath’s since it started. They are locally owned and had a good thing going for awhile, but they are seriously slipping recently. I tend to order a small selection of favorite dishes, so can’t comment on a broad selection of menu items. Perhaps they have signature dishes where they are still holding the line on quality.
I think most patrons will find when ordering a dinner plate that the sides are very pedestrian — pilaf like some Uncle Ben’s instant box stuff, veggies carrots and broccoli florets. Squid rings are a favorite with lots of people and they used to come with what sure tasted like real aioli, made from scratch. I don’t know what the dipping sauce is now. Service is unpredictable now. It seems like the owner is trying to hold costs down in order to remain at a certain price point. McGrath’s has always been a special treat for valley folks and I would have preferred prices to rise and the service and food maintained at a high level.
The Muzak is obnoxious. It’s cheap pop music like in Home Depot or worse, and pretty loud. I’ve complained for years to managers to no effect and finally wrote a letter to the owner himself. I cannot see the appropriateness in a venue where older people go for anniversaries and such. Managers come and go. Usually a complaint, if they bothered to listen at all, would be met with a blank stare, like I was some nutcase who dared to pipe up in paradise. They have feedback cards at the reception counter but they no longer have a mailing address on them.

Giving this five stars to compensate the rudeness of the people I was with. They berated the help to the point I thought the poor girl was going to cry.
Still, great food and service.

We had our annual family Christmas dinner here. Very happy with the service and food. We were a party of 40 with everyone ordering their own dishes. The staff did great. Very happy and we’ll be back!

I was given a gift card here, so I was looking forward to a good meal. The service was awful. The fish was lukewarm and greasy. After the bad dinner, I thought I would treat myself to dessert. The marion berry cobbler ended up being an overly sweet congealed pie. Yuck! Save your money and choose another restaurant for good seafood.

stopped in today for lunch, we were told the bar was open seating (no wait). We sat at the bar for 25 minutes. There were 3 waiters who were in the bar. They never acknowledged us, much less offered to wait on us. There were other people eating @ the bar. When I tried to get the attention of a waiter the looked the other way & rushed past. We finally left without ever being acknowledged by the wait staff. I have had less than satisfactory service in the past. We won’t be back!

My day started at 7:00AM in DC and ended at 8:00PM in Salem. Had a craving for Seafood and asked my buddy, Unilocal for advice. Well, McGrath’s Fish House delivers. Started with the great Shrimp Lettuce Cup, followed by their great Fish Stew, and ended with Louisiana Blackened Cod topped with shrimp and all kinds of goodies… a nice twist to Jambalaya. Awesome!

Here on a quiet Sunday night. It was not very busy. We were sat promptly and greeted by our server quickly. My boyfriends cocktail and my glass of wine arrived quickly as did our salads and bread. Our server was very pleasant and the atmosphere was enjoyable. Our entrees came and were generous in portion and had nice presentation.
Overall — a very nice experience.

Went on a Saturday, relatively busy about a 15/​minute wait at the door it was about 6:30. Hostess was calm, nice and timely. Our waitress was Lupe she was okay not horrible but not great, not really very attentive. The food came out timely the only thing I would complain about is the Irish nachos. They were super over cooked, hard with little topping. Ended up finishing our meal around 8 they had significantly slowed down. Lupe still acted although she was lost and confused so I thought maybe she was new. Manager was really nice he checked on us more than our own waitress (without first getting her attention anyways) so that was nice. All in all it was OK.

Our party of four sat in the bar area for dinner so we would not have to stand in the entry area. We ordered drinks, which came right away. I ordered coffee, which was barely warm. We ordered appetizers, which came timely. That ended the timely service. Our server was working the outside tables, which were full. Our server came by our table 3 times. Apologizing for our food not being out, stating it should be right out. After 53 minutes, it was delivered. My steak was warm, but not hot. The fries were not hot, indicating our food had sat for a period of time. An order of halibut was overcooked, and not eaten. The drinks, $ 46.00 worth were successfully hiding the fact that they were alcohol, and were not quality in the least. A complaint about the halibut was lodged, and the manager contacted us and graciously took it off the bill.
I enjoy going out to a quality dinner and expect to receive quality food and drinks that I pay good money to enjoy. I felt very disappointed in the overall quality of the service received from the kitchen staff.
I believe I will go elsewhere for dinner henceforth.

First visit here and it was just OK. I will give it another try with different choices next time. Their clam chowder was good if not true New England style. Fried clam strips were decent but nothing special. The breading was so-​so. The cocktail shrimp appetizer consisted of tiny salad sized shrimp which my wife and I didn’t really care for. The sourdough bread with our meal was good and freshly baked.
I did like the setting and décor of the restaurant.

The overall experience was pleasurable, despite a few issues. It seems that communication from the back to the front was a little lacking.
We arrived just after 5pm, and only had to wait a few minutes for our table. The décor is starting to look a little dated. I’ve been visiting McGraths since the mid 90’s and haven’t noticed any upgrades.
They used to bring bread right after seating but our sever politely explained that the bread doesn’t come until after the appetizer now.
Water isn’t automatic, you have to order it. The pace of the meal was off, too long of a wait for drinks and bread, but the salad was only a few minutes after the appetizer, and the meal was served less than a minute after the salad.
Our drinks didn’t arrive together. No straw was offered for the soda, and one of the drinks didn’t come at all so we had to re order it during dinner.
There wasn’t enough room on the table for appetizer, plates, salads, entrees, & drinks, and they didn’t take any plates away, so it was very crowded.
On the plus side, the whole place was extremely clean. Even though they were somewhat busy, tables were cleaned off immediately between patrons, and even the restrooms were spotless.
Our server, Lexie, was very friendly and personable. She was attentive but seemed a bit too busy.

Had the Parmesan Crusted Halibut which was slightly over-​cooked and had a slight burnt taste to it. This location had the best freshly baked bread than any other McGrath’s location I’ve eaten at. Server was great and very attentive, he even brought an extra basket of bread without asking for it. Besides the issue with the fish I actually enjoyed this location better than others I’ve visited, it looked to be newer than the other locations. I would have rated a 4 star if it wasn’t for the Halibut issue.