I really love my annual summer and fall visits to Saugatuck for the scenery, shopping and the friendly people. After dining at a few of the other local eateries my expectations are pretty low when it comes to mind-blowing meals, but Mermaid is my favorite choice. It isn't fancy fare, but the have the sandwich/wrap/burger thing down! My favorite is the turkey sundried tomato wrap (side note: it's huge! Way too much food for a standard lunch) with sweet potato fries. I had a hard time deciding whose fries were better: The Mermaid or Coral Gables (not a fan of CG but the fries are legendary) and I think The Mermaid's nudged its way to the top spot today.
The interior is a little dim and outdated; the outside dining area is the way to go. Gorgeous view of the marina and million dollar yachts combined with plenty of sunshine! No complaints on the staff either - waiters are efficient and do an above average job.
Bottom line? Come with a laid back attitude, go with a sandwich (not a steak) and enjoy the water!
Probably the best place in Saugatuck to have lunch on a day when it's warm enough to eat outside. Â Lovely patio that's kept clean and attractive. Â Â I've eaten here probably a couple of dozen times over the years and I don't think I have ever experienced anything but friendly, attentive, competent service. Â The food (my experience is mostly with sandwiches) is always very tasty and attractively presented. Â The kitchen seems to pay attention to the little things that make a difference, and doesn't just crank the stuff out thoughtlessly. Â Excellent turkey burger, decent regular burger, really good Philly cheese steak when it's available (not authentically Philly, but an excellent steak sandwich nonetheless). Â The fries are always good, too. Â (And server Nick is just completely adorable and charming!)
Review Source:This isn't a review of the food or decor or even the experience of eating here because, unfortunately, they were closed. This is a review of the sucky people who run this place and don't communicate with customers.
Before our trip to Saugatuck I contacted the visitor's center to get a list of places to eat and visit. Because Annette J. recommended the Mermaid Bar & Grill I was anxious to give it a try. I got the contact info off the list and called them. No answer. No voice mail. The next week, right before we left I tried again and was able to leave a message. No call back. I couldn't tell from the map where they located (turns out they are kind of inside and part of the rear of a long building full of shops and food places). No return call.
When we arrived the woman from the B&B where we were staying called to find out their hours since some places in town are only open on the weekend and we were arriving on a Thursday. They answered the phone but hung up on her. Seriously? Â I did finally get someone on the phone who gave me detailed directions on how to get there and where to park. Oddly, even though I said we were planning to come to dinner that night, he NEVER mentioned that they weren't opening for the season until the next weekend.
Of course we went there and found out it was closed. But all is well that ends well. We discovered Phil's and had an awesome dinner instead.
So I want to give this place ZERO stars for being so yucky at customer service. But I see yelpers I know and trust are giving them four and five stars so this is a provisional three star review to be increased once we actually eat there and taste the fabulousness that I've heard the Mermaid Grill is made of.
It's been a few months since we visited Saugatuck, but I remember the meal at The Mermaid. Â It was the best meal we had while there and I highly recommend it. Â The pecan crusted Walleye is an exceptional dish - local, fresh, exquisite. Â The service is super with tables right on the water. Â A must when in Saugatuck.
Review Source:Like other Mermaid advocates, I'm surprised at the conflicting reviews on this site.
I am a "foodie" and have eaten at this restaurant numerous times...and the food has always been great, as well as the service and even extra touches of saving a table on the deck with an umbrella at the end (because my dog was with me). Â Today I had the chicken chili and it was delicious. Nice big hunks of chicken and a great flavor. Wish mine at home would turn out this way. Other favorites are the shrimp salad for lunch and the pasta for dinner. Â I've never had a bad experience, and the view is awesome. Â Sitting on the harbor, watching people, and boats, IS scenery. Prices are right in line with what would be expected as well. The inside was great on this dreary, rainy day as I sat right by the fireplace.
The Mermaid gets 5-stars for location, and view of the river, as well as the service. Â However, I would give 3 to 4-stars for the food. Â Most items on the menu are pretty good, some are just ok. Â Fresher ingredients, and made-from-scratch dishes I think could help here. Â You are definitely paying a little more $ for the location. Â But, it really is a great place to sit on a patio during the summer. Â In the 10+ times I have been there the service has always been top-notch! Â The Bloody Marys, and Margaritas are a good choice! Â And, the fresh summer salads and fish tacos are always delicious! Â And for dessert, get the Key Lime Pie - it is one of the best I've ever had!!!
Review Source:Not sure if this was an off night or what, but the food was mediocre at best--hence the two star rating. For a waterside restaurant very near Lake Michigan, I would expect some of the best fish & chips. I was very disappointed to receive what looked like perfectly formed, frozen fish filets and frozen french fries. It looked and tasted like Gorton's frozen fish and frozen Ore Ida fries. Should have sent it back, but was so hungry. Will not go back. Gordon Ramsay would shout out a big "Piss Off!" to the owner's of this place. Perhaps once a gem in the area, now just an old, washed-up Mermaid.
Review Source:So being in Saugatuck made me realise that there wasnt much to do there. Albiet, its one of the prettiest places I had been to in a while. We glanced around to see what there was to do for dinner, and all the cool places had an hour wait. Gentle yelpers, I wait not an hour for food in Chicago, why would I wait in Saugatuck?
enter Mermaid. Nice enough wine, on the lakefront and good old American food. No complaints from this hungry traveller. I had the mermaid burger which was good, but what surprised me were the fries- they were incredible! Crisp without being double fried and slender, just as they should be.
The bar is on the lakefront, and so we saw lots of people taking prom pics, most of them showed up at the bar to eat as well. I would recommend you sit on the patio with your wine, come summer. And the staff is incredible, they found a place and charger to charge my iphone and gave us complimentary dessert- it was the key lime pie, well made.
Kisses mermaid.
We really enjoyed the view here, and had a good time watching the yachts. The Mermaid had a good selection of daily fish specials. I had the Walleye, which was spectactular, and you could tell that it was really fresh. The waitresses were quick and helpful. I would definitely go back again.
Review Source:EEk! Â Methinks not.
I'm going to keep it simple and too the point. Â
Service SUCKED!
Food SUCKED, with the exception of the Portobello Fries.
Salad were drenched in dressing, making it not edible
Fish Tacos - tortillas were filled with greens and very little fish
My girlfriends and I went to this restaurant, because it was recommended by a friend of a friend. Â Never go that route. Â Plus it was way too pricey. Â Trust me, I've been to many restaurants and had great service and food, but this restaurant was awful. Â The owner was rude, service was extremely slow. Â If you are thinking about coming here, STOP! Â Turn around and head to Wally's.
The service was excellent, as was the food! Went on a Tuesday night and got a table on the patio right away. Our waitress was great and constantly checked on us. I got the Santa fe chicken dish that I would highly recommend. Others I was with got the salmon and fish tacos, which they both highly recommended. We got there a little after 8 and by the time we were done, the sun still had not set, picture perfect meal on the river!
Review Source:Went to mermaids with friends tonite. They had never been and we told them they had great food in our experience. Sorry...not any more. We had calamari that our friends commented had more breading than any calamari they had ever had. The hubs had pork tenderloin tenderloin which was almost raw and very rubbery. My mussels were on a bed of just green and red peppers. The mussels were cold. Not great. Service and the view were great though! Too bad about the food.
Review Source:We were visiting Saugatuck for the weekend and decided to dine at Mermaid on Saturday, for my birthday. We had 6:30 reservations.
We arrived right at 6:30 and went up to the hostess. She apologized, and told us we would have to wait a little bit and that the next table would be ours. I was starving, but agreed to wait. About five minutes later, a table opened up. She came right over to us the moment the table was cleaned. We sat right on the water's edge and had a pretty view during our meal.
The menu has standard fare - burgers, wraps, pulled pork, salads, some seafood, nothing too fancy. We started with the Santa Fe quesadillas and they were really good. Perfectly puffed and fried, served with black beans and corn. Totally hit the spot while we waited for our main dishes to arrive.
My husband and I decided to get a couple dishes to share. We had the mahi mahi fish tacos and the sea scallops. Both were really good and packed with flavor. The tacos had grilled (not fried) fish, which I really enjoyed and came in a very large portion - three completely filled, large-sized tacos. The scallops were delicious too. They came in a kind of habanero sauce that had a little kick to it, but still tasted sweet. Sea scallops can be tricky to cook, but Mermaid cooked them right and they were tender and not at all rubbery.
Our waitress was as nice as can be. She checked on us often, to make sure we had everything we needed, but was not at all intrusive. She always had a smile, which is quite rare in food service these days.
I would definitely go back.
Looking back, I really enjoyed this place. Â Great food! Â I had the salmon which was absolutely wonderful. Â And now I can't stop eating salmon. Â This is a nice place overall. Â A little small, crowded maybe. Â But it doesn't take away from the dining experience at all. Â The meal was great and the service was wonderful. Â Ha-ha, perhaps what I found the most entertaining here was the bathroom. Â A giant Mona Lisa print hangs up on the wall. Â And really it's huge. Â Ha-ha. Â I think everyone enjoyed their meal and were satisfied. Â This place was great.
So GENIUS.
So bummed to see such low ratings for the Mermaid on here! Of course it's not the most fancy of joints but for a lovely meal on the riverfront with good beer and food it's perfect!
Big fan of the shrimp and goat cheese pasta. It's my favorite dish on the menu. It's not for the calorie conscious but it's great. Different types of pasta shapes, sautéed shrimp, and veggies tossed with a red pepper cream sauce with dollops of goat cheese and dusted with parmesan. Very indulgent and very good. The white fish dip appetizer is excellent as well. It's creamy and smoky and served with pita chips, crackers and crudités. Their fish and chips are awesome and the Mermaid Salad with ahi tuna is nice and fresh.
They're not rocking the boat (no dock pun intended) or whipping up any fancy culinary delights but for a casual, yummy dinner on the water (eat outside if you can) the Mermaid is perfect.
TIP: if you're eating at dusk or night be sure to bring the bug spray. Those mosquitoes are killer!
Very average pub grub. 2 stars for the food 4 stars for the scenery. Excellent outdoor seating and views of the harbor. We had a burger and wings. The burger was cooked as ordered but where was the flavor? Wings had too much breading. Ice cold beer and good service after waiting for a few minutes when we first down, in fact the service was very good. Will go back for the cold beer, scenery and service, but not the food.
Review Source:The Mermaid is stuck in time and I wouldn't say in a good way. Â The menu seems ok at first, not too upscale and yet, not too dive bar-ish. Â But the food just wasn't very good. Â I had the ribs and there was like a half inch think spread of bbq sauce on top of it so I'm not really sure what they tasted like otherwise. Â Even the fries were only so so. Â
Inside, defintely needed a little sprucing up. Â It felt like you were dining in, well...just an older, early bird special kind of place. Â An example of something I noticed and seems like old school mom and pop to me...I ordered a beer to start but didn't also get a water. Â Granted, ribs aren't totally gourmet but it wasn't like I was sitting at the bar. Â To me, this is simply one of those touches that nicer than average restaurants bring to the guests. Â It's common knowledge, you don't ask, it just comes. Â I hate to throw the dollar thing in the mix too but, at $20 plate for ribs, I'd think I could get water without having to ask. Â Sorry Mermaid, it's in the little things.
So my venting is complete. Â The service really was between ok to good...it's more of a training issue and management WANTING to make the restaurant better. Â Just felt transported to a very bland world where all that mattered was that you left full. Â And as long as that happened, mission accomplished.
If you consider yourself a foodie - even a LITTLE bit, I would recommend going somewhere else for dinner. I give 2 stars because the service was decent, being that it was a Saturday night and we were a group of 7, and the view was perfect. However, the food is by no means fresh - all the fish comes in frozen. And I don't mean flash frozen, it's more like cheap grocery store style frozen. I had the Ahi Tuna entree- by far the most disgusting piece of tuna I have ever seen in my life. That poor tuna died for no reason :( I eat tuna ALL of the time, I love ahi tuna, like, a lot and I honestly have never seen it so poorly flavored, cooked and presented in my life. It was as though it came in frozen (duh), they thawed it out, seared it, froze it again, thawed it out and reheated it right before they brought it out to me. It was a disgrace, complete mush. I regretfully took one bite and exchanged it for the trout. I should have just skipped the reorder and had fries for dinner. Hopefully the chef sees this as a wake-up call.
Review Source:Great atmosphere. Went here tonight for my birthday. Â Great service. I had the grilled salmon which is served with gnocchi, spinach, artichokes and red peppers. deeee-lish!! Â My boyfriend had the fish and chips which were also very tasty! It was Saturday night and we got there at 6:30 and there was no wait at all. Â Can't wait to go back!!!
Review Source:Sometimes Mermaid is 3 stars, sometimes it pushes it's way up to 4...
I love sitting outside here, in the summer on a hot, sunny day. Â I love the shrimp and lobster cakes because they are light and delicious. Â I am in love with the salads- Mango shrimp is my #1, ahi tuna over caesar #2. Â The shrimp and goat cheese pasta is also quite tasty.
Other things are just alright. Â Such as service....kinda depends on the night. Â And food options are the same- some are lacking- such as the fish tacos- nothing binded them together and they really needed some creme fraiche or guacomole or something- quite dry and bland. Â And the fries were meh.
But the good things are so good it makes it worth coming back for. Â And it is very family friendly.
A local store owner recommended the Mermaid - so off we went. Â We thought the food was great - nice presentation and wonderful combinations.
I had the trout - it arrived, and was a huge bowl of artichoke, new potatoes, sweet peppers, artichokes, and surprisingly, sausage. Â Initially thought the sausage might over-power the trout - but no - it was delicious. Â Really enjoyed it. Â I was so focused on my food, I can't even remember what other family members ate. Â :-) Â I do remember it all looked good, and that whatever they were eating, they enjoyed.
View was beautiful. Â Wait staff were very nice, and service was timely the night we were there.
The one bad thing: Â We were told we would have a 35 minute wait...it was more like 45 minutes. Â To make it worse - they had their list easily viewable on the podium - it was quite easy to see that they had sat a party of 4 that came after us, before us. Â We finally got seated when I asked "how much longer is our wait" and looked down at the list. They apologized and seated us immediately. Â I can only *ass*u*me* that they seated some regulars before the out-of-towners. Â Maybe there's another reason... Â I'd like to think maybe we just didn't hear when they called us - but we were sitting 10 feet away, so doubt it. Â While I understand why you might want to favor the regulars, in a tourist town, might not be a good idea to alienate the visitors, especially when tools like <a href="http://yelp.com">http://yelp.com</a> exist, with everyone sharing information.
I'm a little surprised by the tough reviews of Mermaid. Â All four us liked it. Â We went here, on a Sunday, for lunch. Â The staff treated us like gold. Â They even put the Sox game on, even though there was a Detroit Tigers game on the other TV. Â
I thought the food was very good. Â A lot of fancy comfort food. Â We ordered: the chicken Margarita (excellent), mahi mahi fish tacos (excellent), burger (above average, crunchy chicken salad (unhealthy, but good). Â They have a pretty big menu too, so you can find something for the picky people. Â
For a touristy place, I was really impressed. Â
As far as the wait, I was told you can make a reservation. Â If not, be ready to wait between 30-60 minutes.
After bring deterred by a 45 Â minute wait on Saturday, we went back Sunday night. We were sat immediately on the patio. It was nice to sit outside but there is no view to admire. The service was a bit slow despite the restaurant not appearing too busy. The fish and chips and the portobello sandwich were both mediocre.
Review Source:Ended up here even though it seemed very touristy. A few places we wanted to try(Murros) weren't open on Monday. The food and service were fine. Prices what you'd expect but nothing to make you want to come back. I had the walleye which was pretty typical. Wife had mahi fish tacos which were kind of wierd. They had great greens and mango but also cheese. Not sure what the chef was thinking there.
Review Source:Food OK
Best thing location
Not child friendly !!
Our server (perhaps manager) was rude chosing to tell us to be quiet several  times ,we had 4, 5 6 and 8 year old not behaving badly at all and we even took them all away for 30 mins while we waited for our table
The server / manager was clerarly playing to "regulars" at the bar who were complaining if the kids did anything at all
She could see we were doing our best to keep kids energy levels down and even chose to tell us again as we were leaving putting coats on !!!
I told her she was rude, unprofessional and playing to an audience  and I returned the compliment of ensuring i told her very publically the same way she had done to us, which embarrassed her, go figure can give but can't take it.
We wont be going back
I agree with the first reviewer - you wouldn't go here for the food. Â Or the prices. Â The service is fine, the location and outdoor seating are great! Â When you walk in the restaurant, it kind of looks/smells like a museum. Â Hmmm....adding to that, there's a HUGE portrait of the most famous woman in the world hanging in the men's room. Â Odd place for it, if you ask me.
Review Source:I don't know what the deal is with the map of Saugatuck, but this place is right downtown on the river, not in the middle of nowehere as shown. Â
We have gone here a couple times to sit outside right on the water for lunch and people watch, check out the boats, and enjoy the scenery. Â The food was fine, but that's not why you go here - it's the atmposphere and the water's-edge experience.
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