harbor house

slow service; bad food.. for a high endrestaurantone would expect service and food to match the views.

harbor house misses on two of the three.

two visits with one month with executive level colleagues for celebrations.

service was brutal from the start to the point of bring almost surreal.

side dishes and other platrs camr out cold or unseasoned. i will say truthfully the cut of beef was amazingly tender and flavorful again.

complaints of both fell on deaf ears.

... at least we had tome to enjoy the view of downtown and the lake.

been two times. same result.

none of us will be back.

well, we liked this restaurant. didn't love it, but it was fine. the view is unbelievable and the interior of therestaurantis very pretty. the menu was uninspiring. i ordered the bronzino, which was a fish served whole. the fish was cooked nicely, but was kind of dull tasting. many entrees, including mine, came with roast potatoes. huh? how dull. they tasted even more boring.
all in all, therestaurantlacks creativity, from its menu to its interior. i far prefer hinterland, roots or smythe at the iron horse hotel. more soul, guts and innovation.

first off, the harbor house might have the best view in milwaukee. located just north of discovery world, therestaurantsits on a piece of land that stretches into lake michigan. the views of the art museum and skyline are unmatched. i am sure that during the summer, the scenery is even more dramatic.

resting on laurels. bartolatta and cudahay, could not care less about you as a patron or even a person .
in fact it's obvious all they are seeing when you walk through the door at harbor houserestaurantare dollar signs.
i know now in my heart that the days of loving your customers and really being truly glad they came to your establishment are gone.
i gave thisrestauranttwo chances to make me love it and they blew it both times.
the first time i actually told bartollata about my dreadful experience and he basically had the attitude that "we opened it here and they will come"
so with that kind of turd at the top , well gravity can only send it in one direction.
he sadly is correct , they come in busloads .
it is the place to be seen. if you have a problem with your service or your meal , please keep it to yourself because "we don't care what you think.. just look at the mobs of folks who line up and keep on lining up..
we can afford one or two or three fowl ups..
oh and i was also told that perhaps i should have gone some place " not so busy" for my birthday .
really great business ethics there you two pillars if the milwaukee business community.
when push comes to shove all we americans have left us our choice of where we want to spend our cash...
oh and word of mouth advertisement ...
that's something that always works in our favor.
definitely will not go back to harbor house.

what a shame. went to dinner last thursday evening with 2 other couples, we were all very excited for our first trip to the harbor house, unfortunately it will be our last. on a positive note, the oysters were excellent. however things went downhill quickly . the service was unacceptable for arestaurantthat only offers valet parking, we repeatedly had to ask to have our dirty plates and glasses cleared from the table. we had bread plates and butter knives and had to ask for bread 20 minutes into our seating. they seem to print their menus weekly but were out of the first two bottle of wines that we ordered. the seafood bisque was void of any seafood. the plates were served with the warning "be careful the plates are very hot, please do not touch them"..what does that mean?? yup, they've been sitting under a heat lamp for some time. my one, split king crab leg showed the sign of heat lamp drying both of the scallop plates just shouldn't have ever left the kitchen. who here likes chewy scallops? i asked for a med rare steak, it was served quite rare. no problem, i'll take a undercooked steak every time. even after being sent back to the kitchen for more heat, it was still rare. the halibut was described much differently on the menu than it was served. it came in a broth and frankly why would you serve a breaded fish in a broth? who likes soggy breading? the location was beautiful and it is just a shame to waste this location on food that isn't worthy of a 2 star hotel restaurant. maybe it was an off night, maybe some key personnel were out. in my mind there is no excuse. mr. bartolatta either need to make some vast improvements or remove his association from the harbor house.

great food, slow service. we made an unexpected trip to harbor house this weekend after the nearby wine festival was rained out. as you can imagine, it was packed--both a normal crowd of diners and others who, like us, came to escape the rain. we were told it was an hour and a half for a table, to to their credit they seated after only half an hour.

luckily, we already had wine from the bar. we waited half an hour for a server to stop by and another 15 minutes for bread, at which time they took our appetizer order. (the bread basket offered a nice variety.)
our appetizers took another half an hour to arrive. we had the crab cakes and the scallops. both were fantastic--fresh, perfectly seasoned and perfectly cooked. when our appetizers arrived we ordered soup as our main course, since we'd already been sitting there for over an hour and had gone through two bread baskets. fifteen minutes after our appetizers were cleared we were brought spoons, and then about 45 minutes after that our soup finally arrived. we both had the bisque. it was great, very rich and tasted shellfish sweet, which was just what the waitress described. very good, but not really an entree soup. i'd highly recommend it before a main course. it took us about another 45 minutes to eat and receive our check. we noticed that others seemed to be receiving a similar level of service.

i have absolutely no criticism of the food. it was very good and well worth the money. the atmosphere is great, and we were there under what was probably unusually crowded circumstances.

that said, i expect better service from arestaurantassociated with the bartolotta name. i always appreciate that they don't rush you at their restaurants and you can linger and chat, but an hour for soup? really? and our wine glasses and water glasses were both dry for quite while before they were refreshed.

i definitely recommend people try thisrestaurantif they like fresh seafood, but i would recommend that you are prepared for a slow, relaxed dinner. perhaps several hours.

show off milwaukee; bring your friends from out of town!. amazing place. after how many years of horrible food/service at pieces of eight, the new joint venture between the bartolotta's & cudahy takes advantage of the best view and location for arestaurantin the city. totally remodeled, its white wood interior or "nantucket" styling is attractive. the view is amazing of the milwaukee skyline & art museum. when you walk in you are greeted by the bar, past that is the large, long dining room with an open kitchen on the south side of the restaurant. there is also a "raw bar" that is between the bar & kitchen. i have dined here twice- both very good experiences, service is right on par with friendly (not stuffy)wait staff (they are still working some minor glitches out since they just opened late july 2010). scallops are great, raw oysters very fresh, calamari light and tender, beef filet rivals any steakhouse, halibut is grilled to perfection, steamed clams are delicious; i don't think you can go wrong. this is a fantastic place to bring people from out of town and perfect place for a business lunch. menu prices vary from $15-$53.