mary mahoney's old french house

sometimes you simply forget how magnificent the hometown classics are. marymahoney's has been a focal point of every special event in my life, every relative who has come to visit, but i guess i get caught up in the new stuff and forget about my old favorites.  well, not this time.  a couple weeks ago, we had a friend in town and i could think of no better place to take her.  it was a wednesday night at 6:30, a day we had had some pretty horrific weather.  i never expected a reservation would be required.  but when we got there, they were slammed!  luckily, longtime friend bobby mahoney was manning the maître d desk and managed to squeeze us in.  there's just something about old southern charm and service that is so welcoming.  as soon as you walk in, you feel taken care of, at home, like all is well and a good time is ahead.  the service is always perfect, and it was on this very busy night.  it was impossible to tell that anyone else was in the place.  our every need was taken care of.  their gumbo is the only gumbo, as far as i am concerned.  the sautéed crab claws are the best in the land.  the speckled trout i ordered with a meuniere (brown butter) sauce, topped with lumb crabmeat, simply out of this world.  ladies and gentlemen, this family can cook, and they know how to lay on the charm and the service at the same time.  best part about the restaurant is that bobby mahoney always has a great joke and a smile.  great job, sir.  sorry it has taken me so long to review your very special piece of gulf coast paradise.

we are proud of this biloxi jewel. this is one of the oldest buildings in the state & has survived 2 major hurricanes. mahoneys has catered to celebrities and presidents. the food is always perfection. generous portions w/ fantastic flavor. i have never had anything other than a perfect experience here. you can't come to biloxi & not trymarymahoney's !

so m'fin gooooood oh ma god. my jesus lord that died for us on that cross and went to heaven must own this joint. i tell you what, them soft shell crabs taste like something the same man that died on that cross must have caught with his (p)fishing net because they is so hot damn good. next in line? the bread pudding. i swear to earth and my grandkids life that i would live off that bread pudding. i wish i lived in the kitchen atmarymahoneys. hell, i might. now, i'm not food connoisseur (obvi since i had to google how to spell it) but i know for a goddamn fact this is the best food ever. meowwww.

we really really enjoyed our dinner! escargot, salad, stuffed snapper, key lime pie! all were delicious. the service was a little lacking but he had a lot of tables. my first experience atmarymahoney’s and i definitely want to return! my husband loves it.

my in-laws rave aboutmarymahoney's so we finally stopped by. it was okay, but not great.
we were seated in the back room with a lovely view of the parking lot. the room itself was not quaint or charming .
the service was great. our server was friendly, knowledge and efficient. the meal was paced nicely too.
the food was good, but not great. it was heavy on the worcestershire sauce and cheese. and extremely overpriced. i am not cheap. we have eaten dinner at the most expensive steak house in the country. i didn’t mind because the food was worth it. that was not the case here.

i have heard that this was the best restaurant in the area and compares with all the top restaurants in new orleans. i was not impressed withmarymahoneys at all. the salad was a small dish of iceberg lettuce with a tiny slice of tomato. the bread was a piece of french bread like you buy at kroger. their main signature dish had so much worcestershire sauce in it i could barely taste the overcooked shrimp. extremely overpriced as far as the food goes. i guess your paying for the atmosphere of a 300 year old landmark. staff was friendly. have drinks at the bar, read about the history but pass on the food

i knowmarymahoney's is an institution on the mississippi gulf coast and that many people like it, for their own reasons. but for me the food was too rich or just adequate or sometimes awful and always way overpriced. to each his/her own!

great place for a restaurant. i lovemarymahoney's atmosphere the ambience is perfect, the food however is another matter. we took out of town guests there over the holidays for lunch. our friends ordered the stuffed snapper. the fish was just fair and the side of étouffé was horrible. i tasted it and it was obviously old and someone had tried revive it with some sort of spice we couldn't identify. bottom line it was not edible and was sent back untouched. i had the fried trout with a side of pasta with crab sauce. the trout was heavily battered and not seasoned well the pasta was gummy the sauce was pasty and i could not find any crab in it. the bread pudding and coffee were great but hardly made up for the poor entrées. the meal was a disappointment. at this price point folks are looking for freshly prepared food not sides but have been sitting out under a heat lamp. if you're looking for fine dining, keep looking!

ignored - never served. my mom and i drove from pensacola to new orleans to spend a few days sampling great food and music. three generations of my family have enjoyed wonderful and memorable meals atmarymahoney's and we were really looking forward to having lunch there yesterday. we were promptly seated, served a glass of water then left alone....all alone for quite awhile although there were only 5 tables occupied in the room. other diners arrived after we did and their order was taken efficiently while my mom and i waited with no service. we both felt as if we were being deliberately ignored so we left. on our way out, i told a passing server that we were leaving because we were hungry and we had not been visited by any servers; she replied "ok". i sought out the hostess and told her the same thing with the same response. at the time, we were very disappointed but after reading other reviews this morning, we were grateful we lunched elsewhere. i will not return.

lived up to it's reputation. while recently on the coast for business meetings, a small group of us took in lunch atmarymahoney's. this was my first time dining at the landmark establishment in several years and i think i came away more impressed than i was before. ordering from the lunch menu i selected the stuffed flounder. this is one of my all time favorite dishes. when served it was a very nice whole flounder stuffed with a large portion lump crab meat stuffing with a side of steamed broccoli. their french bread is a compliment to all of the entrees.

my stuffed flounder was excellent, broiled to near perfection and the crab stuffing was top notch.

we finished it off with a nice, but not memorable bread pudding.

downhill. we recently ate atmarymahoney's, which we make a special effort to do each time we are in biloxi, usually twice a year. we were truly disappointed at the quality of some of the meals ordered. the st. patrick (shrimp and crab - escargot style) was terrible. it was drowned in worcestershire sauce, and was almost unedible. the veal itself was good in the veal antonio, but only after scraping off what seemed like a pound of cheese in order to find it. the salads were good, as well as the sisters of the sea, but overall not pleased. will think twice before returning.

sadness. it was over 30 years ago as a high school senior i had saved up enough money to take my date out for a special dinner and this was the place. they treated us like royalty and we metmarymahoney as well and she treated us to complimentary desserts after our meal. the food and dining experience was out of this world. down through the years i have enjoyed many a memorable dinner there with good friends and family, as well as the occaisonal business lunch always consistant and always good. the place made a heroic return following the destruction wrought upon it by katrina, but unfortunately something else is destroying this wonderful biloxi landmark and that is complacency. the mahoney family obviously either has no clue or no longer cares about the quality of food they are serving these days. it had been a long time since i dined here for dinner, the last time i had lunch here it was ok, but far from what it had been in the past. a recent dinner visit was heartbreaking to say the least. the once wonderful gumbo was too thick and had a burnt taste, our entree's were over cooked and bland. the wait staff is still top notch and they are not to blame for what comes out of the kitchen. i relayed my dissatisfaction to my server and he appologized and said he would pass it along to mr. mahoney who was not there at the moment. we over heard a couple at a nearby table make almost the same compliant we did. we left very saddened and still hungry as well. having read other reviews on here i can see we did not eat there on a random bad night. hopefully, the mahoney family may take note of this website and the numerous reviews as well as listen to the compliants being vocalized to them and take steps to save this place before it is too late.

never again1. i am from new orleans so i have to disagree with the billing this place likes to give itself as "new orleans style" and "french". the poodle i bought in covington is more french than the cuisine at this restaurant. having just wasted $120 of my hard earned money atmarymahoney's friday night - i feel compelled to warn off as many people as possible..... my husband and i went there to celebrate our anniversary on friday night. i made the mistake of getting their "famous" gumbo. it tasted like nothing but file', it was served to me lukewarm and it was terrible. it is obvious to me that whoever made that gumbo had no idea how to make a roux. to make things worse, i just found their gumbo recipe in a cookbook that we just bought while we were on the coast - it had no file in it - called for okra (there was none in mine) and looked a whole lot better in the cookbook that it did on my plate!!! my husband and i also had broiled fish, served with some burnt sauce that purported to be etouffe' and was served over angel hair pasta along with some broccoli that looked like it came out of the freezer first. again, these were $36 dollar entrees, people - it was an absolute insult! staff was decent, but this restaurant has not evolved since the eighties - they are living off of their former reputation - you want new orleans food? put in the extra mileage and drive to new orleans. you want a decent meal at a fair price - don't go here! this restaurant has deteriorated into tourist trap.... very disappointed - this used to be a great place.....

just another cajun restaurant. hmmmm...if the gulf coast ever got a "real" french restuarant - no one would go. i guess the locals think it's good because it tastes like and costs like all the other overpriced dumps in ms and la. we went 4 weeks ago at the recommendation of friends we were staying with on our vacation. the salad was small and dressing out of a bottle or packet. hidden vally makes better dressing. the lobster was rubbery and my wife's filet was chewy and tasteless. this is just another tourist trap calling itself a french restuarant. tastes like all the other "cajun" french restuarants. my wife and i have dined in paris as well as the french riviera and never saw a crappy menu or food like this. next time, it's off to ruth's chris or lb's or a similar type restaurant at one of the casinos. if i'm gonna spend big bucks...it ain't gonna be atmarymahoney's!!!!

stuffed snapper - served with crawfish etouffee over pasta. stuffed snapper- snapper fillet filled with shrimp & crabmeat sauce served with crawfish etouffee over pasta

i took my wife tomarymahoney's for her birthday. we both love it and enjoy meeting there for lunch with friends. i usually get a bowl of seafood gumbo as an appetizer and get the stuffed snapper as my main entree. the gumbo was literally brimming with fresh gulf shrimp and really hit the spot. we also enjoy their homemade bread and butter which comes with the meal and we normally finish with bread pudding or a sherbet dessert which also comes with the meal. the stuffed snapper is my personal favorite but my wife usually get's the stuffed shrimp.


-----16 feb, 2011-----

i went to lunch with some business colleagues from out of town who wanted to sample the local seafood cuisine. we got a private area for lunch. i normally get the stuffed snapper (snapper fillet filled with shrimp & crabmeat sauce served with crawfish etouffee over pasta). since i get that all the time, i decided to get another variation of the snapper. i just got the broiled snapper served with crawfish etouffee over pasta. it comes with a veggie (they served green beans today. it varies because sometimes you get carrots or something else). it also comes with a small salad with your choice of dressing. i ordered a cup of gumbo for a starter and as usual, the gumbo was spot on. their gumbo is in the top 3 on the ms gulf coast in my opinion. everyone commented that the gumbo was brimming with shrimp (there were at least 5 good sized shrimp in the cup i received.) the service was a bit slower than i have experienced in the past. we had a table of 10 people and only one waiter so that may have added to the wait time. the food was well worth it. the snapper i received was cooked to perfection. it was tender and spiced just right and was very good. i am very particular about eating fish and their snapper has always been a good fit for my palette. the etouffee over pasta was also very good. there were plenty of crawfish in my portion and i love their angel hair pasta. you get a choice of sherbet or bread pudding with whisky sauce for desert. everyone ordered the bread pudding except for 3 people who wanted the mississippi mud (they were out, so the 3 each ordered a slab of chocolate cake instead which they said was very good.) my bread pudding was warm and yummy. i really enjoy going tomarymahoney's. i normally only go for lunch because the prices are twice as much at dinner time for pretty much the same dishes and the same portions.