Fitzwater Station

I don’t know why this place doesn’t have more stars! I always enjoyed my food and the service is good, they put water bowls out for the doggies! Granted I only get the salad, that s all that this vegan can get here, maybe I should deduct a star for not having at least a veggie burger on the menu, but my salad was so good I won’t! There is nothing like having a beautiful day on the water in my kayak and stopping by here for a cold drink, good food and a clean bathroom

There aren’t many places in the area where you can eat outdoors on a nice spring day. For this reason alone I stop by this place every so often. It’s great to sit on the porch and watch the canoes, kayaks, and ducks go by. The food, however, is mediocre at best. We had a kid’s meal hot dog and fries and a blue cheese-​bacon burger. The fries and burger were just ok, but the hot dog tasted absolutely terrible. Even the cheapest hot dogs from Sam’s Club taste better than this so I have a feeling that it was very old. The server was very friendly and attentive so no complaints there. If only the food could be better this would be a great place for happy hour or a nice outdoor dinner.

Went back to the Fitz because they have always had the best original buffalo wings and French onion soup. Went hoping the recipes were the same despite many changes (I believe they are under new ownership?) The wings did not disappoint crunchy outside, moist inside, buffalo dipping sauce is excellent. The soup was good too. Much much improved experience compared to in the past. We always went accepting the fact that our food would take forever. We go during the day so it was never busy but our food always took very long. This time service was quick, waitress kept our beers coming. We left very happy, kept the good food from before and improved service. Finally we can recommend without explaining the need to be VERY patient.

Very slow service. An excellent place for your last meal. Or for a quick lunch, if you clear the rest of your afternoon schedule. Or if mother-​in-​law is in town. You get the point…

3 Stars for the Canoe, Kayak and tube rentals… For the food and service I would give 1 star. Service was extremely slow even though there was only like 1 other person in there besides us. This place has a lot of potential if they would just clean it up and get a well trained staff and better food. I will try again in the future to see if anything has changed.

It’s a shame that the service sucks. The server staff are miserable. The food was decent and the location is fantastic but the staff killed the whole experience. Not once did our server smile and I heard another server drop the f bomb talking about customers. It basically seemed the servers did not want to work or have customers at all. This place has so much potential but need to either change its management or fire all of its serving staff and start over.

needs a better wait staff and higher food quality, biggest saving grace is that you can hoop right into a canoe or kayak and route to the schuylkill via the canal.

Just had a great lunch here today. Service was fast and efficient. Food was very good large salad, salmon and fish basket tasty. I have not been here in a while but I will be back soon.

Fitzwater is a place where you an get cold beer, delicious food and a nice quite view on the river and served by friendly people. I absolutely love it and im so happy they re opened.

I would have given a 0 star if it was an option. Service was horrible, food was blah, and other customers were loud and rude. There were only 3 or 4 tables and the waitress took more than 20 minutes to get us the check. We ordered crab fries instead of chips to go with the sandwich, but she gave us regular fries and charged extra. The only reason we didn’t bring up the issue was because it would taken her another 2 hours just to sort it out.
Do not go there.

This gets a big fat 0 as my review! Not only was our service completely horrible but it took 2 hrs for us to get our food. When we asked where our food was they blamed it on the kitchen and the waitress gave us attitude. Don’t bother wasting your time with that garbage! On a side note the kayak rentals are AWESOME!

The ONLY reason I rated this place 3-​stars (and not 2) is because of the unique location and cool deck. Word to the wise: let go of any expectation of good service when you go here, else you may be extremely dissapointed.
First, the good: this is a cool little bar/​restaurant that’s tucked away off the beaten path. It’s an old stone house that sits right on the canal. The outdoor deck is fairly large (maybe 10 – 12 tables), and looks right over the canal. On Sundays, they have a band that plays outdoors (weather permitting, obviously) on the front yard. You can just hang out on a blanket or chairs, watch the band, and bring drinks and food out from the bar.
Now, the bad: The food is ok. Nothing great, nothing horrible. Typical bar fare. Where this place lacks is service. I have never seen a more disorganized group of servers anywhere! We sat for about 15 minutes at our table on the deck, with two servers constantly walking past. You’d think one of them would have stopped and asked, «Has anyone been out to help you yet? No? Oh, I’m sorry, I’ll have someone come right out!» Nope! Took a visit to the bartender to ask for someone to come out. And this has happened on more than one occasion. Plus, the place was not exactly crowded.
We ordered two appetizers. Only one came out correct. Expect your drinks to sit empty before someone comes by and asks if you want more. To our server’s credit, she left us the «wrong» appetizer to eat, and did not charge us. She also comped a beer for the slow start we got off to.
In summary, if you don’t have high expectations for service, you’ll probably find this a fun place to hang out on a warm, sunny afternoon.

I received the worst service ever here! Just HORRIBLE! 1^st the table was dirty 2^nd they out things, like greens for a salad! 3^rd we never received utensils, napkins, or water (I went inside to get napkins & ketchup) 4^th I went back inside to find the waitress to ask for my side of sauce & plate to put the peels from shrimp on 5^th waitress never came around to see how things were going, if we needed anything else, ready for the check. My daughter went to the car to get her water out because she was so thirsty & tired of waiting 6^th I had to ask somebody else for my check 7^th Again, waitress never came to collect my check, I went into the bar to pay 8^th this girl game me the wrong change!!!
My advice would be to get a better training program or don’t put somebody on the floor if they are not ready!

Four stars for Fitzwater Station, two stars for Port Providence Paddle.
Did a Sunday brunch for my wedding here and bought everyone tubes and lunch. Sue did a great job planning the menu and event. She went out of her way to make it a good deal for us, giving us a flat rate per person, setting up tables for us with plastic tablecloths on the shady grass by the canal. The planning and customer service were fabulous, the food was pretty nice– lots of fried food and cheese and meat which isn’t really my thing– but the fried green tomatoes were awesome! One regret: there was no music or background noise in the picnic grove, which meant it was way too quiet when the guests were first trickling in, and I could see that they all felt uncomfortable. Really wish I had brought music and lawn games.
Port Providence Paddle was only two stars. Despite being located a few feet apart, they have different owners, and they do not communicate well with each other. Planning a group tubing event was a nightmare. The guy who runs Port Providence was impossible to get in touch with. He would call me, I would run to the phone and just miss it, call him instantly back and he wouldn’t pick up. We would agree on a time for a phone call and he just wouldn’t pick up then. It really felt like he didn’t want my 30+ people worth of business. Dealing with him was stressful from start to finish. He was hounding us during our whole meal to get in the tubes, but he wouldn’t help me get a headcount for how many tubes we still needed to fill. The young teenagers he had running his booth were being young teenagers.
However, to his great credit, he didn’t charge us for the tubes we reserved but didn’t use, which I really appreciated.
Group rate: $ 45 per canoe, $ 15 per tube. The river was slow with sharp rocks. Water shoes and sunscreen are a must. We found it very hard to keep the tubes together despite the slow current. Also, they forgot to put up the sign that says where to get out of the water, so we all went way too far downstream. One of my guests ended up at an impassable waterfall and had to use his military training to navigate a mile through the woods back to the party– a good opportunity to keep his survival skills sharp :)

Update to last review on 9.24.2009
There are no good qualities left to speak of. They used to have good food, and it was great for a beer after a bike ride or kayak paddle, but I believe there are new owners.
Our waitress was nice, but absolutely clueless. We asked how the Mac & cheese was, and she replied that she liked it. Ours came out ice cold, and when we asked if it was supposed to be hot, she said she didn’t know. (Thought you said it was good, which would imply you know if it should be hot or cold???). The crab Mac and cheese is also 15.99, but is the size of a side dish.
Service was painfully slow. Never checked with us once and had to flag people down for the bill. I would have loved another beer, if I could have found the waitress. No attention to the basics.
In the category of «just plain weird»… Everyone receives a large boiled carrot with their meal now. Heard one table say «am I supposed to make a snowman with this???» It’s a wasteful, unattractive garnish folks. Come on now! Otherwise, I’ll call the food unhealthy AND flavorless. I’m fine with unhealthy once in a while, but only when it TASTES good!
Hummus for my 4 year old came out with two fried pita chips lathered up in hot sauce. ??? The Fitz burger is good, and the only thing I would order again although my medium rare was more like surface of the sun charred and well done.
Patrons are typically bikers and locals. Many people bring dogs, but some are unleashed, which leads to brutal dog fights. I think it’s actually nice that they let you have dogs there, but one lady had two GIANT dogs on the tiny deck. Doesn’t work…
Think this would be a great candidate for Kitchen Nightmares or similar tv show!!!

New staff and new bartenders… New ownership… need the guy from bar rescue… This is the most disorganized establishment I’ve ever been in!!! Horrible service and the waitresses don’t know the menu. bartenders don’t know their drinks… horrible horrible horrible… drinking there was like watching a train wreck in slow motion… they really should hire some experienced staff!!!

I am so disappointed I do not even know where to begin.
My family has enjoyed The Fitz for over 15 years. My husband and I are also fans of the French Quarter Bistro and were delighted when the new management took over the Fitz and changed the menu. We have visited the Fitz several times over the past few months and have not been disappointed… until today.
We arrived at 11:30 and were the only patrons in the place (they open at 11:00 so it was not surprising that it was empty before the lunch crowd). We were greeted by a «quirky» (you will see where I am going with this later), young, tattooed waitress. She was VERY excited to see us and proceeded to tell us she was so glad we were there because the restaurant has been really slow lately and she needed to make some money. She came over to take our drink order but could not remember the types of beers so my husband walked to the bar area to pick one out. A few minutes later she came back to see if we were ready to order, we were still checking out the menu so we placed an order for some potato skin appetizers. While we were placing the order some more patrons entered and our waitress ran over to greet them and said she was so excited to see people so she could make some money. Once they were seated she redirected herself to us and took our apps order. a few minutes later she returned to take our order, as we started to tell her what we wanted she said «Oh wait I should probably write this down» and then disappeared to the bar area. Returning with paper and pen she now seemed ready to take our order. My son ordered a cheese-​steak with fries and my daughter a cheeseburger and fries. I ordered a Turkey Cobb Sandwich (a lunch special) and my husband ordered wings. Our waitress dashed off with our order immediately not even asking how the burger was to be cooked, what type of cheese for the steak or burger or what type of wing sauce my husband wanted. A few minutes later she was back asking who ordered the chicken sandwich. Um. what??? She reviewed our orders with us and we determined that when she wrote down cheeseburger she could not read her writing and it looked like «chicken something». At that time she did ask what types of cheese my son and daughter wanted but did not ask about the wing sauce.
Our appetizer came out and she placed the plate on our table said «enjoy» and walked away. Now there were FOUR of us and ONE plate with the appetizers on it. My husband got up and sought out our waitress and asked her for some PLATES. She brought us TWO and asked «is that okay:» Sigh…
A few minutes later our food arrived. My husband got a mild sauce with his wings, he likes spicy, but hey who cares our waitress was making money right? My son and daughter got chips instead of french fries. We asked for the fries and finally did get them AFTER the sandwiches had been eaten.
The food was very good. My husband loved the wings despite the «mild» sauce and my Turkey Cobb sandwich (carved roast turkey, sliced apple, lettuce, tomato and a spicy cranberry mayo on a brioche roll) was awesome. When it came time for the bill our waitress again mentioned about how glad she was that we chose the Fitz for lunch because she needed the money. She also said we should come back for Karaōke one night and ask to get seated at her table. Um… no thanks.
The new menu at the Fitz is very good, we all enjoyed our food very much. Sadly, the dining experience gets one star. Do not tell us the restaurant has been slow, do not tell us you need to make money and do not get our orders wrong!

Inside: What is that smell?! Mold, Mildew?
Outside: broken umbrellas, baking in the sun. Strange plastic covering on tables, (for hygienic reasons, due to the ducks and geese?, looks as if it has not been changed in a week.)
Ordered: pumpkin beer, delicious, good service at beginning. Then, grilled chicken sandwich, diced with apple wood bacon and mushrooms. Huge bun, little tiny pieces of super dry curled up chicken chunks no seasoning and no sauce. black, charred, stringy mushrooms dripping in heavy grease. Gross. Where did our waiter go? Didn’t see him for 40 minutes and the place is empty. Water glass empty. Chased him down to find the check.
Family: enjoyed their overly breaded sandwiches, pork and crab.
What is that smell?! Why don’t I check Unilocal,before I go out? Must remember!

3.5 stars.
I came to canoe. They allow dogs, which is a plus. When you canoe, in order to make a loop, you have to get out of the water and drag your canoe two times, which was a pain. We worked up an appetite and decided to stay for lunch. I had the chicken salad, which was huge and very tasty. S had the Salmon BLT. We both enjoyed our food. My only complaint was that the service was extreeeemely slow. And the waitress forgot to bring the beer. But even brought ice cubes for the dogs water! We also had a nice view sitting on the deck while we were eating.

Nice deck view for a sunday afternoon beer. A little pricey for a draft beer in a plastic cup, but its right on the bike trail — so location, location, location trumps the day,