Marlin’s Family Restaurant

6 Reviews on “Marlin’s Family Restaurant”

• Apteagles

  Used to be Good…. I used to eat at Marlin’s all the time. They used to have good food and great service. Their food started going downhill a little over a year ago, so I quit going as often. Then, last summer, I walked there with my 18-month-old daughter. It took us a while to get served, even though there was only one other table of customers in the whole restaurant, and it took waaay too long for our food to come. While we were waiting, my daughter decided that she needed a diaper change. I did it as quickly as I could and hurried back to our table. As I feared, the waitress had brought our food and left it on our empty table. However, she had neglected to bring silverware. I ended up having to walk around the restaurant until I found where they kept them. My food was both burnt and cold when I finally got to it. I never saw the waitress again; she never checked on us, and I ended up grabbing a menu and doing the math on my phone so I knew how much I needed to leave on the table to cover my bill. I went back again about two weeks later. The service was mediocre and the food wasn’t any better. I didn’t go back again until yesterday, when I decided to walk with my now just over two-year-old again. We waited a while to get seated, even though two employees walked right past us during that time. We finally got seated, and that was it. No one acknowledged us after that point. I didn’t get asked what I wanted to drink or if I was ready to order, nothing. I watched another table get seated, get their drinks, and get their order taken. I waited for over 15 minutes before I got up to leave. I went out to the entryway and strapped my daughter into her stroller and turned to leave. I glanced back into the restaurant and happened to see a man who I know to be the manager. I pushed the stroller over to him and told him what had happened, that I had waited 15 minutes and no one served me. He said it was unlike the servers to do that. I then told him that it wasn’t the first time I had a problem here, and he told me that he takes pride in the restaurant’s service. I told him that he shouldn’t, because the service isn’t good, and he waved me away. He didn’t even address the problem. Maybe it’s a good thing that I didn’t get served, because if their horrible service is the high point of the restaurant and the thing that they take pride in, their food must be just awful. I will never go back there again.

  July 30, 2015, 4:40 pm

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• Rick Freitag

  Breakfast disappointment. Wife and I had breakfast today 1-3-15 @ 8:45. Our waitresses was Jess. We were seated by the kitchen entrance the redish carpet had a black grease trail about 4 feet wide that ran the whole length of the walkway between the booths (gross).We had 1 plate of french toast with sausage links and a plate of 2 eggs,2 sausage patties , hash browns and toast. The sausage links dribbled grease on my wife’s jacket and tasted of fat.My hash browns tasted like steamed instant something with grease, the eggs tasted of a fresh cleaned flat top and the sausage patties had no flavor at all. The toast and coffee was good. Overall for our first visit it was not good.

  April 3, 2015, 3:49 pm

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• 114aolson

  Great service!!. Everything was fast our waitress Ruby was awesome! We had a toddler and a child in a wheelchair plus our daughter. Fast friendly service! This was on a Saturday at 11am.

  January 18, 2015, 5:08 pm

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• Fargo Foodies

  Great food. Mediocre service.. We went to Marlin’s on a Thursday around 5pm. As we walked into the restaurant, the hostess seated us immediately in a comfortable booth. Looking around the restaurant, we noticed that there were only a few other tables taken. Our waitress was prompt on coming to our table and brought our drinks within minutes. The drinks are nicely priced at $1.99 w/ unlimited refills and are served in Mason jars, which we thought was a nice touch. It was our first time in the restaurant so we spent a good while looking over the menu and our waitress was very polite and patient as we took time to look it over. We decided to order the appetizer sampler first and put in our entree order later. While there wasn’t much wait on getting the sampler, it seemed to take a while for our entrees to come. The appetizer sampler was tasty, but looked quite different from what the menu had shown. We both had chosen to order a burger with fries. The burgers are a little on the smaller side but you get a hefty amount of fries on the side to make up for it. The waitress brought us our check within a couple minutes of us starting to eat, which I didn’t like. We had to end up placing another order at the end to get our dessert. The biggest problem with the restaurant is not the food or the atmosphere, it’s the wait staff. The restaurant was very empty and we still had to wait over 15 minutes for the waitress to come back and take our bill. We ordered the Fried Cheesecake & Ice Cream dessert which was very sweet and decadent and very delicious. We were expecting a small serving but it came on a large dinner plate and was nicely presented with caramel, chocolate, and whipped cream. We will definitely be returning to Marlin’s again – we just hope that our waitress will be a little more on the ball. Overall, we’d give Marlin’s an 8/10. Great food, great prices, great portions, poor wait staff.

  February 28, 2013, 5:18 am

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• RL Granlund

  Poor Service, Tasty Gravy. When I walk into certain restaurants, (especially chains) I can usually make a fair assessment on how the food is going to be. Recognizing the potential of Marlins (formerly Northtown Grill), I opted to go for a hot beef sandwich. The water is brought to you in Mason Jars (how cute) and food is served diner-style. Although it took forever to be served and waited on properly in an empty (24-hour) restaurant, my meal was quite good. The gravy was is exactly what I ask of diner-style restaurants. Don’t let Marlin’s fool you; It’s not a ‘family grill,’ it’s an above-average 24-hour diner with pretty darn good food. If you see Marlins for what it really is, you can appreciate it.

  January 2, 2013, 4:20 pm

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• Iheartfood

  Ignored in an empty restaurant. The title pretty much sums it up. My family and I ate here tonight and the service is HORRIBLE!!! The sign was out that we had to wait to be seated (why I don’t know). The waitress finally seated us after we waited for a good 5 minutes. It took forever for us to get drinks and to actually get to place our order. Thank goodness the food was actually good. I had the French Dip which I recommend but they need to thin the au jus, it was black and very very salty. I will consider going back for the food but not if I see the waitress we had working. When she brought the ticket she just laid it on the table and walked away, she didn’t let us know where to pay. This was our first time at the restaurant we had no clue where to pay the ticket at. She had to go to the back to get change for us and my husband noticed she was peering over at our table to see if we had left her a tip. ARE YOU KIDDING ME! No I’m giving you a tip. I don’t mind giving a tip to someone who clearly has earned, just because you are a waitress you are not entitled to a tip. I waitressed for many years so I know what it takes to give great service and when I pay the prices today to eat out I expect great service. Food thumbs up! Service – two thumbs down!

  July 26, 2012, 1:19 am

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