Molly Cool’s Seafood Tavern

This place is ok. I mean in an ok sort of way. When friends from out of town wanted me to pick a place to meet for dinner a few weeks ago, I picked this place because it was close to where they were staying at aLoft Hotel. Also I had heard the patio was fabulous.
The patio was fabulous. It was under an awning so it really was available rain or shine. Thee was an excellent view of the Milwaukee River and watching boats cruise up and down led to a general feeling of relaxation.
The patio was really the high point of our visit. Sadly, nothing else measured up.
My friends first were trying to remember what restaurant was here before Molly Cool’s. We couldn’t place it. That was kind of a key phrase that defined our service for the evening. It wasn’t awful, but it was like our server couldn’t remember us. We kind of kept getting forgotten in an absent minded sort of way. Like my friends split a dish and didn’t get extra plates until half way through the meal when they had already dug in. Same when it came to getting our checks and settling up. It just took time.
Also, the food wasn’t all that great. It was just adequate. I am a Wisconsin girl and I had the fish fry. Now you’d think a seafood place would do this solid. Not really. It was over-​battered with little flavor. And at $ 15 it was pricey. I’ve had way better for less.
If you go here, I would suggest just having drinks on the patio. That way you will have a fabulous experience!

We dined here on the patio last Sunday evening. The service was poor. First of all they were out of multiple items so the waiter let is know we couldn’t order certain things and he kept making excuses to make himself look better. I ended up just ordering a fish sandwich and I got a fish fry platter instead. I told him it was wrong and he offered to take it back but I told him it was fine. In the end he charged me for the incorrect platter which was $ 3 more. Also there was a huge spill of food on the patio which the waiter told us «yeah we were just about to clean that up» yet they left it the whole time. Bugs were flying around the food. When I entered nobody paid attention to me and I had to ask the bartender if they were still open for dinner and if I could get a table.
Overall a complete failure by the staff. It really felt like they didn’t care at all about customer service. Food was good I have no complaints there. But the service was pretty bad.

Brunch 2 starts
Dinner 3 starts
Service 4 starts
Molly Cool’s is much better for dinner than brunch. Have been here for dinner multiple time and had a good expire nice. Bunch options are not the best and the items we tried lacked in flavor.
Last time we went our waitress was fantastic and attentive. Most times the service is good.

I was here with a group on a Tuesday night and the restaurant was empty. I’m not sure what this says about the restaurant but given the location (on the river) and potential for a great happy hour spot downtown, I was a bit surprised. In previous years, I’ve seen it packed.
The food was just ok. I got the fish tacos but found it hard to find the actual fish within them. Good happy hour drink specials. Otherwise the menu seemed overpriced and left few healthier options to choose from.
The service was great! But like I said, we were the only ones there.
I would go back but it wouldn’t be a place that I would propose going to.

This place is disappointing. The menu looks great but the food is just ok. I have had much better seafood, wouldn’t recommend this place. Plus there drinks are weak. If with a large group they do have seating and also have outdoor seating on the river, but thats about it.

I’ve lived in Milwaukee for a long time, and I had never been here, so I decided to try it. Big disappointment. It’s strange for such a mediocre/​unimpressive restaurant to be where it is — right along the river, which seems like a prime location.
I didn’t see any vegetarian options on the menu, so I just ordered the California roll without the crab. We also ordered the cheesy bread as an appetizer. The cheesy bread wasn’t great — it was literally store-​bought bread with melted cheese on top. It wasn’t horrible, but It wasn’t something I would ever order again. I realize that this isn’t the place to order sushi rolls — I’m very well aware. But I just felt that I was limited by the lack of vegetarian options so this seemed like one of the only choices that would be easily customizable. For this day in age and for a trendy location downtown, you would think that they would have options for all types of dietary restrictions. Oh well.
The sushi was too big, as in the cut pieces were too large to fit into my mouth. You can’t really easily bite through seaweed, but I made an attempt as not to jam a massive rice ball into my mouth. The flavor was lacking and there was too much wasabi mayo on top. I make better sushi at home…
The drink specials were nice, though. $ 3 for a Spotted Cow during happy hour wasn’t bad. Maybe if I come back next time, I would just stay for drinks on the river during happy hour. Otherwise I am not likely to return.

This place is decent although it doesn’t compare to an east coast or west coast joint. But for Milwaukee, we gotta take what we can get!
I had a Groupon and my friend and I went during happy hour on a Friday. I’m glad we were able to get some specials because the menu prices looked a little steep. I will say that the 69 cent oysters (Fridays only 3 — 6 p.m., minimum of 6) were great! I would definitely come back just for the oysters. The drink specials were very good, too. The pasta entrée I had was ok, but not spectacular. My friend loved the spinach dip. However, she was super hungry when we got there so maybe anything would have hit the spot.
One thing I didn’t like was that the entrance was hard to find and our high top table seemed too high. It made me feel a little dizzy!

Molly ain’t so cool!
There are a ton of other places in MKE that I would rather have dined, but because it was business I made the trek to Molly’s. Located on Old Third World and the banks of the Milwaukee River, this seafood tavern is far from special. In fact, the entrance is «blah,» the valet parking is a joke because you have to flag down an attendant, and the ambiance is boring.
The menu is a mix of starters, sushi, salads, sandwiches, and entrees. They praise their daily seafood delivery. Sorry, but this is an expectation in my book. Especially with scallops at $ 24– and that’s for four almost lukewarm medium sized pieces of the sea overtaken by an obsurd amount of succotash.
I wasn’t impressed. The pro’s? Service was good for a party of eight. Plus, we had a private room. Yet, the music couldn’t be turned down because it was on one system. Seriously? This should be about the customer experience.
Would I go back? No. I wasn’t impressed. Parking is difficult. And, true forward thinking other establishments out there deserve my business. This place missed the opportunity to show passion.

Yea, this place is terrible.
We didn’t expect it to be great, it’s kind of in an odd location to begin with, but we were waiting for the late boat ride on the Eidelweiss so… we had to get dinner somewhere.
I should at least say our waitress was very friendly. Maybe a bit overly so as she chatted with us a LOT, but better than the alternative.
The food was, however, terrible.
At first the big menu, which included sushi, seemed exciting…
Till I got the ceviche which was suggested to be ‘very good.’ It was terrible, and everything tasted like it was washed in acidity. Why I ate as much of it as I did I don’t know — well I do, I was hungry, but dear lord!
The crab cake that came next was unsurprisingly of similar quality. There was nothing good to be had with it.
My friend got the Fisherman’s platter which was of course just fried fish, cod and some shrimp. — At least that was edible.
My husband got a burger he didn’t even finish.
No thanks, MKE — on this one.

I’ve been here several times with co-​workers for Friday night happy hour special. I can definitely say I appreciate their two for one pints especially after a long week — solid selection of beer on tap and some choices for bottles. A somewhat small (in my opinion) selection of apps available for $ 6 during happy hour too.
Me and my coworkers ordered a few different apps — I found the spinach artichoke dip to be pretty solid but served with a limited amount of toasted bread on the side. The dip was so good (and I was so hungry) I just dived in with a spoon! One of my co-​workers ordered the cheesy garlic bread and since I’m all about the carbs, I ordered one for myself. It was well worth it.
Patio seating along the river is available to those who want to sit outside. They asked if we wanted to sit in the shade or in the sun — all I could see was seating in the shade. Maybe there is more seating I didn’t see? Seating is pretty spread out on the inside. I wonder if Molly’s is every packed?
My experiences have only been with the happy hour — definitely check it out if you’re looking for a place after work to meet and a few pints of beer are in your future.

This is one of the only seafood places in Milwaukee. We went here because my friend had a Groupon. All three of us had Fish Fry and we also had the chicken spring rolls.
It wasn’t terrible, but it was definitely not worth the price. We sat outside and the patio is really nice, but the food just isn’t worth all of the money. It’s pretty pricy for that. To be honest, the fish fry at BBC is way better.
The service wasn’t terrible, she was nice, but we had to remind her to bring a couple of things, multiple times.
If you have a Groupon, I suppose it might be worth it, but I’d skip it otherwise.

As a vegan food blogger, you get one star from me. Judging from everyone else’s meal as a trained chef, I’d probably give you 2 – 3 stars.
Over the years as a vegetarian, now vegan, I’ve learned to call ahead when dining out, especially when I’m with family in a large, private function, because I don’t want to make people uncomfortable during the ordering process.
I first reviewed your menu on-​line, and found that it wasn’t even vegetarian friendly, which was unfortunate, as the guest of honor in our large party was a vegetarian. Usually us veg heads can find a pasta to adapt, but not easily here.
So I called ahead, on behalf of the 3 vegetarians, in our private party of 20+, and inquired what the chef might be able to offer. I was told that I could order from the sides menu. Humm …
So what did I end up with for dinner?
When the waiter came around, I mentioned again that I was vegan, and asked if he could make a suggestion. He also repeated that my only option would be «the sides», and named off broccoli, asparagus and seasonal squash. Ok, I said. Well, imagine how embarrassing it was when my «entrée» was delivered, and what came out was a whole head of broccoli, a whole bunch of asparagus, and at least two whole zucchinis on three large platters. Simply steamed. It was really pretty comical, but not dinner, and not good service. I did enjoy my pre-​dinner strawberry salad, but the hummus veggie plate was really bland.
As for the rest of the group, I can only comment specifically as to the crab cakes, which looked like hockey pucks and were sent back. If a seafood restaurant can’t get those right, there’s a problem.

Over the years, we’ve partaken in quite a few meals here taking advantage of their happy hour, since they have HH every day, and they are so conveniently located in the self-​park lot of the Aloft Hotel, our home away from home in MKE. Happy hour = $ 1 Maryland oysters, a twofer deal on tap and rail drinks, and $ 6 apps. I think it used to be 50% off. Now, it’s $ 6 for any app, which is kind of a gyp if you think about. Not all the apps are priced $ 12 or above. Since the lowest priced apps is $ 8, unless you absolutely need a smaller portion, you should just get the regular app versus the HH portion which only saves our $ 2.
So after a brief discussion about the ins and outs of the happy hour menu, we ordered the spinach artichoke dip, some Lakefront IPAs and a dozen raw oysters. The spinach artichoke dip always comes out piping hot, with a good ratio of leafy stuff to cheesy stuff, and comes with garlic toast points to top to your hearts delight. Oysters were fresh tasting, briny, sweet and served with a dollop on horseradish in a small cup of cocktail sauce, and 1 lemon wedge., so if you need more of anything there, ask for it when you order so you can be ready to dig in immediately. The Lakefront IPA — sweet citrusy start with a slight bitter finish. yum yum yum.
As a meal I had the Milwaukee Chicken sandwich. Is that even a thing? I’m not sure I’ve ever heard of a sandwich claiming «The Good Land“‘s namesake, but the ingredients sounded good, so I thought I’d try it out. Grilled chicken, bacon, sriracha mayo, cheddar and swiss cheeses on Focaccia. In theory, it sounds good, but I thought it would have been better maybe on a crustier bread, or any bread that doesn’t have the oil-​soaking affinity focaccia does. My sandwich was bogged down when I ate both pieces of the bun, so for the second half of the sandwich, I just ate the bottom bun with the cheese as the top half of the bun which lightened the ‘wich considerably. Maybe some green tomatoes, cilantro or giardiniera on there, anything to brighten the flavor some. Fries were good. My wife had the salmon. It’s salmon. Came with garlic mashed taters with a huge dollop of butter in the middle, and a giant stalk of broccoli. A machete was requested to break down the veggies to edible sizes. We had to split the broccoli because it was too big for just one. That’s what she said, sorry I couldn’t help it.
Since I’m still digging in to my sandwich when my wife gets finished, she orders dessert, the Red Velvet. When it comes, I’m finished with my dinner and ready for a sweet treat. Unfortunately what we got was sweet, but other than that, was nothing that you expect when you order red velvet. Moist? No. Cakelike? Negative. Good eats? Nyet. No, this red velvet cake was a dense, previously frozen and hardly thawed pre-​made dessert. And I can understand if a restaurant isn’t doing the volume it should be to be able to make fresh desserts, but at least offer something that can still be made easily without compromising the quality of the dessert. Glazed bananas topped with crushed pistachios? Ice cream? Anything. Just take the red velvet off the menu, or don’t order it unless you ask if it was made today.
The bill comes and as I’m looking over the list, the spinach artichoke dip was charged at regular price. When I bring this up to our server, she says matter-​of-​factly that it was obviously the regular priced portion. How was I to know that, unless she took both out on a platter for comparison’s sake? I said well, we wanted the happy hour portion. Again, with more retort, she says «well she pointed to it on the menu». My wife didn’t point to anything on the menu. She doesn’t point at shit on menus, not that there’s anything wrong with that, but I know her, and she typically doesn’t even hold the menu when she’s looking at it. She lays it flat on the table and reads, and when she’s ready to order, she keeps her eyes on the prize and then looks up at the server to speak the words.
She doesn’t point at the menu. Either way, why would we clarify the happy hour stuff if we were just going to order regular apps? I didn’t have to say, «I’d like the $ 1 oysters and the BOGO beer.» I just ordered them, and they were correctly priced. Our server was like a cold-​calling stockbroker, always closing and quick with rebuttal. Didn’t matter anyway, with the app debacle and the terrible dessert I had enough and wanted out. I left a note and and explanation for her less than stellar tip, which I hate doing but this was one time I felt it was merited.
The bad thing is, I will be back. It is inevitable. They have a fun patio for drinking next to the river, good fishbowls, a menu that has something for any appetite, the hours are good and it’s close to the Aloft. This is a 3.5 rounded up, by the way.

Oh Molly Cools, more like Molly Okay’s. Our experience was mediocre and the food was decent.
The cheft burned one of our table’s fish, and she didn’t get it until everyone else was done eating. They didn’t even try to give her a discount, she had to ask for it. I had a chicken sandwich as I wasn’t feeling too fishy. It was pretty good. We did have the Crab Cakes for an appetizer, and they were delicious.
The bathrooms are shared with. Lucille’s Piano Bar, which makes them quite nasty by the end of the night. On the up side, you get into Lucille’s for free because you ate at Molly Cool’s.
The service was not so hot, makes you cringe a bit since they tack on an 18% gratuity for large tables. Not that I wouldn’t have tipped her, but I hate being forced to when it is not deserved. Our server was absent for most of the evening, and would not make eye contact to avoid being asked for anything else. My beereth run dry, and I must speak loudly to refill it.

I was hungry for fish fry and it was not a Friday… and I had a Groupon to Molly Cools. I wasn’t sure what to expect as I walked through the lobby, which felt like I was either in a hotel or a nice office building… My first impression was «Wow, this place is nice.» All the furnishings are dark, and the length of the restaurant offers a view of the Milwaukee River. There were maybe 4 or 5 other patrons, all seated at the bar, on this particular evening.
We were seated immediately and handed our menus — paper menus. Now, I don’t have any problems with places that have paper menus but I was under the impression this is a classy restaurant on the river; it’s definitely a restaurant, with a bar, as oppose to a bar that serves food. I would think such an establishment would have nice, bound menus rather than cheap looking and feeling paper menus.
We securitized the menu (even though I knew exactly what I wanted) and felt prices were pretty high — I totally agree with Justin K’s and Kelly B’s reviews. I ended up ordering the fish & chips, with fries, and my boyfriend ordered the walleye fingers with Molly’s potato cakes. We each got a beer — which run $ 4 for the «lower quality» beers such as Miller Lite/​Coors Light/​Bud Light.
The walleye fingers were very good, compared to other walleye I have sampled. My fish & chips was good — the fish was flakey and lightly battered but pretty greasy. The fries were awesome, because they were also greasy. None of it was remotely healthy. I also liked the coleslaw, and I’m super picky when it comes to the ‘slaw. Honestly, I’ve had better fish fry but this was pretty good especially for a Tuesday… My boyfriend loved the Molly’s potato cakes; they were 2 rolls of mashed potatoes + blue cheese + seasoning and deep fried. I’m not a big fan of blue cheese and I could slightly taste it, so I was not a fan.
Portions were pretty large, we each ended up with a small to-​go container.
While our waiter was top notch and I enjoyed my dining experience, I just don’t feel this place is worth paying full price… I enjoyed the ambiance, however I don’t see myself returning without some sort of Groupon deal or to check out their happy hour specials, as it sounds like those are pretty decent.

Oh Molly cools, you have a beautiful view of the river. You have a very nice drink and seafood menu. But your actual food was a wee bit underwhelming. I had lobster and scrambled eggs which was a little light on the actual lobster. The cucumber mojito I had was very good — light and refreshing and perfect for summer. I’ll come here again for drinks, etc, but I think ill stick was bar type food (fish and chips, etc.).

Molly Cool’s is what I would call good enough. It is right downtown, so a great stop after/​before any show or special event. Reservations are never hard to get, and the happy hour is great.
The menu can be really hit or miss. We went one night for the whole lobster special, and they had crammed so many live lobsters into the tank that one died on the bottom, contaminated the entire tank and they had to kill them all. I was pissed.
We went once after my graduation and had one of the worst servers ever. However, I also have been here and had good service and good food.
First and foremost, don’t expect the bang you pay for. Coconut shrimp, while tasty, seems like it was microwaved out of the freezer section of your grocery store. The salmon sliders were not what I expected, a piece of salmon on a bun… they were diced up salmon mixed with God knows what and formed into a shapless blob.
On the other hand… the swordfish is some of the best I’ve had. I always get it blackened, with the lemon basil buerre blanc, broccoli, and potato thingers. (Which are AWESOME… It’s like crispy hashbrown outside and mashed potatoes inside). Definitely worth it.
Bottom line with this place is that you HAVE to be careful. The fresh catch is usually good, but beware that most of the entrees taste overwhlemingly like whatever sauce they drown it in. Be sure to go for a special or with a groupon,…the prices are insane.

Our server and the service was great. I really liked our waiter. My Manhattans were also really good and the bartender did a superb job.
Love the outdoor patio on the river.
However, the food was so terrible, I’ll never be back.
Appetizer — Crab stuffed shrooms. House specialty/​customer fave! How could we go wrong?
Oh geez.
The shrooms themselves were great… the filling was so bad! A layer of cream cheese in the bottom (why???) with a sliver of crab meat on top overpowered by an enormous amount of panko bread crumbs. Just horrible.
Seafood chowder — No flavor whatsoever. None. Added a ½ salt shaker to the thing and it still didn’t taste good.
Seafood trio entrée — Ahi tuna, grouper, halibut, garlic mashed. Tuna was RAW. I know Ahi Tuna should be served rare — but not sushi raw when it’s supposed to be seared. And, it was gray. It looked like a pancreas from a horror movie. Devastating. The grouper had so much old bay seasoning on it, it was inedible. The halibut was in a pungent pungent soy pon-​zu sauce. Completely unnecessary and ruined the fish. Garlic mashed tasted like no-​seasoned potato purée. I have no clue who thought the mashed potatoes tasted like they had garlic in them.
Husband had the scallops with goat cheese and mushrooms and a head of broccoli. First of all, who the hell puts a goat cheese fondue with scallops? And, if you’re going to do that, at least make sure it tastes good! Secondly, the scallops were fishy, rubbery, and just bad quality. The broccoli had no seasoning and the mushrooms were almost non-​existent.
We hardly ate any of the food and just found it to be hilariously comical that a place who prides itself on serving good seafood could really send a mess of crap out of their kitchen.
Save your money and go somewhere else for food. Drinks on the patio? Fo’ Sure!

Disappointing. Very disappointing.
My friends and I wanted to have dinner here during happy hour. We got there over an hour before happy hour would end, but they were super packed and the wait time would have got us to our seats just as happy hour was over. We decided to go somewhere else to eat since we were super hungry and had really wanted to take advantage of happy hour.
While we were at dinner, I called to make a reservation to go back there so we could at least get some drinks there. I was told they couldn’t guarantee anything until 8 so I went ahead and made our reservation at that time.
We got there and they had no record of my reservation. We walked in through the back where we could see the patio with plenty of open tables and asked if we could just sit there. The hostess said that would be fine they just needed to break down some big tables. This was mind boggling since there were clearly open tables both inside and outside already waiting to be sat, settings and napkins already set up.
We were told to wait by the bar, which we did while all of these open tables were just idle. We finally got approached by the hostess, and were led outside. There is a main patio seating, and then a slightly farther seating on the water. There were tables open, again set up with napkins waiting for people on the main patio where there was also live music… but we were led over to the farther area by the water. Where no. one. else. was seated.
It definitely felt like we were getting some cruel and unusual punishment for either leaving earlier or for them losing our reservation. Awesome, except I’m being totally sarcastic. When our server came over to us he even mentioned how we finally got a table, cuz he had seen us waiting by the bar for a long time.
I will say that our server was very helpful and attentive, but the hostess staff was ridic. and I really felt like they didn’t even want to get us a table. I really don’t know if I would go back especially when there are so many other restaurants nearby where we could probably get much better service.
Super sad, cuz they do have fishbowls which I go out of my way to find/​have and I really don’t even want to go back for one here.

Did my downtown dining week stint over at Molly Cool’s for lunch.
For ten bux I got a cup of delicious crab bisque (love it more than lobster bisque, for sure), a grilled chicken sandwich with sriracha mayo and two types of melted cheese; and chocolate peanut butter pie for dessert.
I loved my meal, and that pie was something else. I will return to Molly’s just for that pie. DAMN it was good!
I also loved sitting by the river, of course, and can say I am a fan of this spot.