McGrath’s Fish House

Arguably the worst dining experience I’ve ever had. Do yourself a favor and go next door to Jack In The Box. You’ll save money and have a better meal.

I have given a sharp review of their Center St. location and others have jumped on this location. In the spirit of fairness I must say my last two visits here revealed very energetic management. This location does a roaring trade at lunchtime and perhaps the heavy visitation makes it a profit center which gets special attention from the owners. Good employees, top to bottom.
I would give four or five stars except that with a senior’s appetite I often order only one dish from the appetizer menu. This makes my opinion of the entire menu statistically meaningless.
My sole complaint at this point would be the ubiquitous Muzak.

Took a client to lunch here at their request. We both got the halibut fish and chips with“crisp” fries. I was expecting the best of the best given this restaurant is supposed to be better than the competition at seafood — it’s their specialty! Unfortunately, it fell far short of that mark.
The batter was nice and flaky on the outside. Just under that surface it was soft and mushy. The fish too was mushy, had a bland watery taste, and was some of the worst I’ve had. Come on now, ‘step your game up.‘
The ‘crisp’ fries were, on one end, dark brown and as close to burned as they could be without being actually burned while, the rest was close to ‘golden’. Not really sure how that’s possible. They were also room temperature while the fish was ‘breath after a bite’ hot. A competent kitchen would served all the food on a plate at the same time it’s all done at the same time.
I haven’t eaten at a McGrath’s in many, many years. I can say that’s the same for the future.

A complete bad experience. Will never go again and will never recommend this restaurant.

We ordered fish and frensh fries. They were so so oily and fat. Wouldn’t recommend it. I had a stomahache after i ate at this place.

Very nice dining experience. We were seated pretty quickly. Food was very good. Came quickly. I had fish and chips and chowder. It was very good.
Jason was out waiter and was very attentive and friendly.
I would recommend eating here.

I have to say, I have eaten here several times and always had a great meal… The employees have the best attitudes, and so focused on the customers. I have read some bad reviews, and it makes me wonder if there is one very unhappy person behind them.
The place outdid itself today… Veterans Day.
I wasn’t sure what expect with the free meal offer for us Vets, but what they delivered was more than awesome!
And to finish the night, the waitress stopped by one more time to thank me for ‘my service’!

McGrath’s, a chain restaurant that isn’t a polished well oiled marketing machine serving overlly processed, salted, previously frozen seafood like Red Lobster.
It also doesn’t serve the delicious cheddar biscuits that draw folks in to Red Lobster too. :(It serves uncooked sourdough bread.
That said, what McGrath’s is more like a 70s outdated family affair, complete with offerings of a side of cottage cheese and an overly large offering of menu items. Right out of that 70s play book.
Although the service is fair-​we waited 15 minutes at our seat before anyone came over to greet us or take our drink order, the food is average– good.
My daughter loved the clam chowder, seafood Alfredo and the defrosted SYSCO NY Cheesecake.
My husband had the lobster stuffed salmon and enjoyed it.
I had the pan fried oysters and liked them too.
My seafood stew was basically canned tomatoes and a few tiny bits of some type of fish. The veggies were raw, but served warm. I am not sure if the put them in a steamer just as a quick perfunctory.
All in all, we were hungry after the Beavers game and this place filled the bill. We left satisfied.

This restaurant has very good service. One of my favorite dishes is their pear salad. It is the perfect combination of flavors. Attentive service, very welcoming. Always a thank you for coming.

Had to go with family coming down to visit on a Sunday. OMG that was crud. I’ve never wanted to eat here anyway, now I am certain. My beer was okay. Gpa liked his overcooked ‘fish’. So it wasn’t all bad. Maybe you have to be over 80 to enjoy.

Extremely disappointed. We waited for 15 minutes for a hostess to appear. The waiting area was full the whole time and NO ONE was around to help. Two parties left in that time. Once we got seated, it took 10 minutes to get water and our order taken. Then we waited for our food for 40 minutes. Service was horrible. Food was ok. Our baked potatoes were almost cold. Will not go back.

This place is hit or miss, fish tacos for lunch one day — Yum
Fish Tacos for dinner — not so much, food was lukewarm at best.

I can’t believe this place is still open. The food is so bad. Everyone working in the kitchen should be fired. If you can’t cook seafood, don’t cook in a seafood restaurant! The crab stuffed mushrooms and fried calamari apps were served cold even though the crab mushrooms had a nice baked brown crust on top. This leads me to believe they are cooked in advance then reheated. Problem is you served them room temperature.
For main course, every entrée was way over cooked. Razor clams were like chewing on rubber. «Wild Fresh» salmon was cooked dry of any moisture. «Wild fresh salmon» should have been the clue. Usually you see «wild fresh chinook salmon» or sockeye or coho. This fish was flavorless as well as dry! I’m sure it was fresh before they froze it. The scallops were also cooked to rubber! What is with over-​cooking everything? Oh, my mistake. Not everything was over-​cooked. The steamed vegetables were so under cooked, the carrots tasted as if the cooking method used was holding them under the hot water tap. Is there no one in the kitchen who gives a crap about quality… are you lazy or stupid? Or both?
The only good thing about our experience was our server, Cameron. He really did his best and had the apps refired. But when the kitchen screwed up every entrée, that was it. We will never go back. When this place closes, I hope Cameron get work in a place that deserves a great server.

Horrible service and mediocre food. After being seated for 20 minutes with waiters/​waitresses walking by we still had not been approached by any wait staff. I finally flagged down a waitress and we placed our order. 12 minutes later my soup arrived even though we still had not received our drinks or even water. When the bread arrived it was frozen. Horrible experience. Never again…

We as a family enjoy this restaurant for many special occasions and enjoy every minute of it! Tonight’s experience was awful and making us seriously consider if this restaurant will remain on our list.
We arrived early for dinner, before 4:30, we were seated promptly with drink order taken very quickly. Appetizers were ordered before drinks arrived, and while they took longer than normal to arrive, they were very good, both the drinks and appetizers. At that point things took a strange turn, our meal fell to pieces. Bread had to be requested more than once, a request for water was completely ignored. While the salads were delivered a few minutes later than we expected, we were still patient. I have to say the wait from salad plate pick up until dinner service was at least 45 minutes, but our night was ruined with COLD entrees, all five of them!
While the manager did discount our meal, I have to say more than 2 hours for dinner, was way too long. We arrived in restaurant with just a few table filled and left with a lobby full of guests waiting. Not sure what is going on at this establishment but I hope they fix it soon!
2 stars simply because the beginning of service was excellent, but there really is and should be no excuse for COLD dinner entrees!

If I were reviewing this just on the service and the dishes my family received, this would be a 5-​star review.
My brother has been a regular at this place for several years, always ordering their Halibut Parmesan, which he absolutely loves. This time was still exactly what he has come to expect. My mother and I, on the other hand, had never before been here. She ordered their Macadamia Basa, which she praised by saying it couldn’t have been any better. This is an exceptional compliment from her, as she rarely praises anything. Considering she ate Every Single Bite, I can only applaud them for making such a superb dish.
The disappointment came from my crab cakes, which were bland and meh, even with the sweet chili sauce. Maybe it’s a regional thing, but I’m accustomed to crab cakes which have more seasoning. I also felt the chili dipping sauce didn’t compliment the food, but instead covered its crab flavors. It was, at best, a 3-​star item among a family of 5-​star dishes and service. Due to the nature of my travel, I stuck to water and never even considered their wine menu. Overall, I feel this is a solidly good restaurant which fell just short of being superb. Having said this, the next time I’m in Corvallis, I’ll likely go again and will try a different entrée and a glass of wine.

In from California, we looked all day to find the place we totally loved three years ago! On Labor Day we were served strange, dry, pieces of red snapper like we feed to kitty back home, no fillet! Those parts that get over cooked and fall off the grill?! Also a terrible macadamia crusted sole, greasy and soaked in some kind of bizarre caper sauce. A very DYED red salmon… sockeye never looked that red! The al dente roast veggies broke our teeth. I’m so sorry, just nothing was remotely appealing! EXCEPT, the sourdough, which was what we remembered from our last visit! We are here once a year and now I can’t see visiting McGrath’s again. How sad, because the staff was so friendly and helpful. Our guess is the Labor Day cooks were not the regulars, but to spend $ 105.00 and feel sick and sad… well, there are many good spots in Corvallis and that’s where we are headed in the future…

One hour and 20 min. And still no food? Very disappointed from a regular customer .We finally gave up and went to Baja Fresh. Thank you Mc. For the free beer and I apologize to our waitress

Okay. The Corvallis McGrath’s is in an excellent location: next to the movie theater. If you want to grab a drink before the movie – perfect. For food, I’m not a huge seafood connoisseur (so take this with a fleck of fish) but the cod has been decent and the wood-​fired shrimp are fine. Salads: 5 stars. Baked potatoes: 5 stars. Staff: 5 stars. Excluding the manager *you’ll recognize him as the hoverer* Here’s the thing, please do NOT insincerely (how does he do this you ask? With a look on his face like he’s the head of a stuffy company) walk my party to a table and then twenty minutes later stop by in between my awesome waitstaff person looking like you’re checking on them and ask us «How is everything.» I don’t like that kind of false-​restaurant manager crap. Some people appreciate this. I’d say this is an older generation thing (and I’m not young) that likes this. Please stop. You are turning people away.
Really everyone else working there is friendly, polite, helpful. They don’t linger too long, they don’t stop you in mid-​chew, and they fill your refills before you ask.
Four stars for food and staff minus the manager.

This place is a joke, it’s fast food seafood. If you like your fish frozen, probably purchased from Winco, and warmed in the microwave then pig out.
I will never come here again.