Madigan’s Waterfront

I love this place. The atmosphere is beautiful in the restaurant, and it’s such a fun place to go when the weather is nice. The service staff is always very friendly to me!
The food is very good (I always get the nautical pasta). Some people are very critical but I’ve gone to this restaurant several times and I have never been unhappy with my experience or the food.

The food is really eclectic and very tasty. It has sevral option for seating, indoors or outdoors. I really like the fish tacos and the wine list! You will enjoy the outdoors in the summer. A perfect place for lunch with friends or a nice date night.

Mehhhhhh. We came on a cold Saturday night to a divey bar full of… interesting characters. You probably already know you’re not here for the food. There are a bunch of sports games on and the atmosphere is pretty loud. They have Titos for cheap and you can probably find a bottle of seasonal leinenkugel but it’s not really my scene. I’m willing to give it another shot though once the weather gets warmer and we can sit on the back patio with a water view. We shall see.

Our family has been coming to Madigan’s for at least the last 10 years and we were quite disappointed on our recent visit for lunch in the dining area. Our server spilled a Bloody Mary on my mother which wouldn’t have been a big deal had he apologized, but instead he offers no extra napkins or apology. Instead he says «well the drinks still full so I see no problems». As someone who works in the restaurant industry I thought this was a poor response. All he had to do was apologize, but it set the awkward tone for the remainder of our lunch. Hope the service will be adequate IF we decide to come back.

I never write reviews but this place has the worst service ever! Took 10 minutes for someone who wasn’t even our waiter to come over to our table. Service was terribly slow, the waiters for any time barely appeared and even tables around us were complaining. Food was definitely not worth the wait!

Called one Saturday night to see if you need a reservation and was told yes, so we made one for the following Saturday to celebrate my wife’s and my birthdays (mine was thurs and hers was the following tues, sounded like a great idea and they even said over the phone that we would both get a free dessert and that they would put it on our reservation). A reservation is simply not needed. They looked at us like, really you made a reservation?
First off, Occoquan is awesome, tons of great little places. This location was well maintained, clean, had a great view and a really nice hostess had us excited to try the place.
The waiter was horrible. Took forever to take our order, took forever to get our food, was not to be found. Had to stop two other waiters for a napkin (None on the table) and for a refill on my ice tea. Other waiters seemed to be a lot better, I actually saw them.
The food. Be careful first off, the menu online is not the menu at the restaurant. I really wanted a Rueben but its only on the online menu. So I ordered the stuffed flounder for $ 22.95. The fish was okay at best. it was really small, really small. It came with 1 side… why one? cheap I guess but normally a meal will come with a vegetable and starch like mash potatoes… but on the menu so okay I ordered the garlic mash potatoes. Smallest potion I have ever seen and they were room temp. I would have been disappointed if it had a $ 7.99 price point not to mention $ 22.95.
My wife ordered the Grilled Vegetarian Portobello… comically small for a Portobello, easily half the size of every other Portobello mushrooms I have ever seen. She did like them though.
I guess they did not really put that it was our birthdays on our reservation because the waiter had no idea and brought us our check after we were done with out asking if we wanted dessert, but honestly we were so done with the place we just wanted to get out of the place.
We ended up leaving the place still hungry (my wife is 100 lbs I am 150, not large people)

This place is awful — the hostess acted like seating us was one of life’s great miseries, the food was bland to the point that our table was joking that they must have stuck everything in a a de-​flavoring machine before bringing it out. The location is amazing, but doesn’t even come close to making up for the rest of the experience. My advice, just order a beer and look at the water… Oh yeah, and PS, just read the other reviews here about the staff seeming to talk negatively about customers — you totally get that impression from almost every server. I’m guessing they’re reading the Unilocal reviews :)

Great crab chowder! Fun live music at night. Food is ok but not as good as the party scene. There are two dining areas, inside and out, that both are adjacent to a bar with live music, but dancing is inside in the front bar area.
You can get here by boat or from town. Its mostly seafood and the place can get pretty crowded after work and late. The service tries to accommodate the crowds but if your thirsty and in the bar areas then you might need to show some initiative and go to the bar yourself.

Had a bad experience! The hostess, «Debbie» was very RUDE, UNPROFESSIONAL, DISRESPECTFUL & NASTY. This was by far, THE WORST DINNING EXPERIENCE I have ever had. Will not come back nor recommend this place because of «Debbie».
The only reason my family did not leave when we came was because we did not want our server, Stephen to get in trouble. Stephen was great by the way. I wish the manager would reconsider having Debbie on staff. Below is what I ordered…

I went there for the first time with a group and the experience was horrible. The hostess (who wasn’t wearing a name tag but said her name was Debbie when we asked) was extremely rude with a nasty attitude. Our kind server had to apologize for her. I ordered a French Dip and it was pretty good but a bit expensive.
Won’t be back!

Ice Tea, 2 waters
2 Cups of Crab Chowder
Crab Nachos
Crab Alfredo
Server’s Name is: SUZANNE, she Was great, service was very friendly and quick.
Food was delicious. We have been here before from a previous positive experience last year, when I proposed to my Wife right next to the restaurant there is a Gazebo. We just got married a couple days ago, and I wanted to take her out again to celebrate. So we went back where I got down on 1 knee, and for all the gentlemen out there, I untied my shoelace and got down on my knee to tie it and that’s how I proposed by singing some lyrics by Train: Marry Me.
;D
Goofy but yet smart and I got a YES!
;)
So anyways thank you again Madigan’s Waterfront for 2 great positive experiences. And we’ll be back many more time later for more celebrations. :)

Maybe it’s a local thing as there appears to be more employee focus on the bingo game, yes, bingo, as compared to the service. Could be I’m sitting in the tiki bar and the service is more focused on drinks than food.
I ordered the cowboy steak per an earlier review and agree, it was great. I ordered rare and the center was cool. Garlic mash potatoes appeared to be from a box — kinda soupy. I never received my salad and it was at least 15 minutes after I finished my meal and move my plate to the side before anyone returned to the table.
But it was nice sitting on the deck, under an open sky, next to the boats with good music (Jimmy Buffet and Beach Boys) playing in the background.
While the server recognized my dissatisfaction, I still grudgingly rate this a two star.

The cowboy ribeye it was great although it was not medium well as I order. My guest had the Mad burger and it has great flavor.
But the dessert not the best we order the chocolate madness and it look great but it was a rock… Not really it was hard as a rock.
Luckily we were here for the view. So our expectations were low. The wine and beer were great… How come you mess up that right! Will come back for the outdoor relax ambient.
At the end the waiter was more into the check that on his guest US.

Madigans is an Occoquan staple. It’s simply a good time. You’ll get some standard drinks, some standard food, but you’re on the water and the people watching is spectacular. I’m not being an ass — the mix of people at Madigans is bikers, golfers, chain smokers (outside), locals, younger folks, you name it. Everyone is friendly.
The best thing on the menu is the crab cake app. A lot of other items are too forgettable to mention, but the crab cakes are consistently good and you get a few bites of wild rice that add a little something to the app. For food in Occoquan, go to Cock & Bowl or the new wine shoppe (just reviewed it if you want more details).
I know it doesn’t sound like a raving review, but we e been going to Madigans for 4 years in the summer. It’s outside, fun, come have drinks here.

I was kinda skeptical when I first walked in. The hostess was getting reprimanded for sitting down by who I assume was a manager. When I walked up and asked to be seated I got the stink eye like I was interrupting. They seemed annoyed.
I was seated outside and once the waitress Introduced herself I was a happier. She was pleasant and knowledgable about the menu. We were brought ice waters with lemon immediately which was great. I ordered the all American salad which was very well done. The fresh avocado is what made the salad for me! Bacon bits, chicken, leafy romain lettuce… yum!
The picturesque view is the reason we chose to eat there. I’d definitely go back.

My boss enjoys coming here for lunch, and when we had a lunch meeting this is where ended up. I really enjoyed the food and ambience. We sat outside on the patio, there was a slight breeze and it was a beautiful day. I ordered a bowl of the crab chowder and had the cold platter for lunch. It consisted of chicken salad, crackers and fruit and was very filling. My coworkers enjoyed the crab chowder as well, along with the crab cake sandwich and a club sandwich. Food was delicious, server was very friendly and we our guest was impressed. I’ll be back!

Tinest oysters ever. It’s like they selected the smallest of the bunch just for us. Very disappointing appetizer.

Met some friends at the Occoquan Festival this past weekend. The street fare was not appealing to my friends, so we ventured over to Madigan’s Waterfront. I had been to this place many years ago and I was not impressed by the venue or the food, so despite my lack of enthusiasm to dine here, I went with the crowd.
To my surprise, we had a wonderful server! She was attentive, apologetic when things went wrong, and quiet accommodating. There were a few junk food lovers in our group and a few healthy foodies. There was something on the menu for all.
I ordered the french dip sandwich with my choice of onion rings. My girlfriend ordered the same sandwich but selected fries. Unfortunately, she said the fries were cold. My onion rings were standard fare, nothing to cheer about but much better than the cold fries. The sandwich was ‘beefy’ and somewhat lukewarm. The others ordered salads that they enjoyed.
The outdoor patio was ‘dated’, but was situated right above the waterfront. There were ‘fans’ that kept us cool on this 95 degree day. Tables and chairs could definitely use a facelift but maybe that’s how they are supposed to look when kept outdoors.
All in all, it was a pleasant dining experience but not first choice if dining in historic Occoquan.

We sat outside. There was a nice breeze good live music. The singer was pretty good.
The food took a little longer to arrive, but when it did it was delicious! so were the margaritas !!
There was a band playing inside & we danced before ending a perfect night!

This place was very meh. The restaurant itself is situated behind a sportsbar, and while the restaurant area is nice, its bathrooms are in the bar. The bar smells like cheap beer and bad decisions. If I’m paying like $ 12 for a sandwich and $ 7 for my kid’s plain pasta, maybe spring for better bathrooms? Maybe?
The food was decent, if nothing else. I think I’d rather have spent my time in the bar. At least there, I know what I’m getting.
The restaurant had a really nice view of the water, but it was 75 degrees outside, and there was no outside seating. Kinda lame.