Pat O’Brien’s Tavern

We should have left after waiting a half hour without being served. There were ONLY three tables of diners. It took 45 MINUTES.
No! Really! We were out with family that had just moved in to the neighborhood. We wanted fish for lunch. The ONLY good thing about the experience was the walleye.
The waitress was hiding in the kitchen. It took 10 minutes to get 2 Diet Cokes. ANOTHER 10 minutes to get 2 «iced teas «(powdered instant)? Lukewarm French onion soup appeared shortly after. The salad didn’t come out until the meals were served. A «half serving «of perch was 4 pieces of fish,(1×3.5 inch). The 2 orders of sweet potato fries ($ 2.00 extra per serving) were lukewarm, soggy and appeared to be one serving hastily split up onto 2 plates.
The waitress appeared to see nothing wrong with serving the table that was seated AFTER us before bringing us the sad soup. The waitress appeared to find NOTHING unusual about customers waiting three quarters of an hour before serving them. There was no sense of urgency OR any sort of offer to comp part of the meal.
If you are looking for a tasty meal, reasonably priced, in a friendly atmosphere, Pat O’Brien’s is NOT THE PLACE YOU ARE LOOKING FOR!

Love the French onion soup. Great patio as well. A good place to be a regular. The service is always great and the staff are friendly.

I have been coming to Pat O’Brien’s since I was a child. The food is always good — I tried the infamous perch this last Saturday and could then understand what all the hype is about — I was extremely satisfied with my choice.
The 5 star experience did not end with the food — our server, Cynthia, was absolutely incredible. My family from Detroit that now lives out of town always visits Pat O’Brien’s for the perch when they make a visit to Detroit. Cynthia made our dining experience wonderful. Not only was she attentive — but she made us feel overly special — like we were the only table she would have all night.
My mother was so smitten with the service — she took the time to tell management that Cynthia was a wonderful part of the staff and proved to be one of the best servers she has ever had.
I plan to ask for Cynthia the next time I am at Pat’s. Thank you for the wonderful service!!!

Really really bad clam chowder and bad service. Really 2.5 stars but they get the extra half for their beer selection.

Come for the original atmosphere, buy the perch for the meal. This place has enough unique offerings to make it a go-​to place for the nights you don’t want to cook, or if you have a quick need for a bit of Irish offerings. Their Cottage Pie (think Shepherd’s Pie) is really REALLY good.
For some reason, their specials are the best of the menu! I wish they would focus on making more unique dishes and a little less on the bar food aspect. It’s not a complaint, as much as it is a wish.

Family friendly. We sat in the back area ánd had a great meal; kids were treated very nice.

This place is alright, alright, alriiiight.
Thursday is trivia night so bring a beer drinking attitude and hopefully some friends with a rather moderate IQ if you plan to leave with some extra dough. The beer specials are pretty good, including $ 1 cans of some Canadian beer that tastes like PBR. It’s not that bad, to be honest. There are a few TV’s as well for watching sports, and the bar is a good place to hang out for groups of 2 or 3.
I also like the outdoor patio for smoking purposes (you can drink outside) or just hanging out in the warmer months. Food is good, too. Cool place right off Jefferson with great service.

It is a corner bar, with food.
The perch is fine.
Have been back a few times and we tried a few things in the menu, and will stick with the perch.
The drinks are reasonably priced.
The wait staff is attentive.
We will go back.

Amazing drinks, amazing food, great staff. My friend and I love it here and come here casually, and for our birthdays and holidays. Great overall!

We come here often, at least once every couple of weeks. We have always had excellent meals and excellent service. For some reason we always have been seated in the same booth too. All of that adds to a great welcoming, friendly and relaxing atmosphere. We highly recommend the Piedmontese burgers, shepherd’s pie, patty melt, fish & chips and big behemoth burger. Hands down, the clam chowder is the best ever! You won’t be disappointed by the food, service or ambience.
Ask for Ashley if you can. She is a great waitress and anticipates your needs. You never have to look for her — she is always there with what you need when you need it!

THERE WILL BE PERCH!
Holy Mackerel!.. I mean Perch! Well let’s cut to the chase. It was my birthday and I hadn’t had any fresh water foodstuffs in at least a year so it was time to find a good place to chow down at. Pat O’Brien’s did not disappoint. We went the Platter route and were treated to about 20 fillets (10 fish) on a nice oblong tray along with some Slaw and Fries. Michigan’s finest on a plate folks. Great batter, soft moist fish that was most likely killed while you wait.
The only complaint would be that I didn’t get to have the fun of catching the fish myself!
If you want a fish dinner other than Cod, find yourself here… soon.

On this week’s Scooby Doo Adventures, we try and solve The Case of the Disappearing Bartender!
[cue spooky music]
Look, I get it. Basically an east side dive bar, and I love dive bars, but the one thing that you can do that seriously annoys the ever living hell out of me is to have a bartender vanish for long periods of time when there are multiple people sitting at the bar and there are other people who work there who would be clearly capable of handling drink orders but none of them do so and so then I wind up wandering to find the other bar inside and OHMYGODTHERESNOBODYTHEREEITHERAND…
[deep breaths]
Five times I wandered up to the bar, and that happened all five times. I can forgive once. I can tolerate twice. I get twitchy at three. But all five? Meh.
I didn’t try the food, so I can’t comment on that from personal experience, but a few others did and said it was decent so I’ll give them the benefit of the doubt.
Drink prices are low, so it’s probably someplace that I’d be willing to pop into from time to time if I happen to be in the area and someone brings it up, but it’s not someplace that I’m adding to my «must get back to» list.

I don’t get it. I just don’t. Been here a few times since I’ve been back in the area and service is always less than stellar and the food just isn’t that good. However, they are known for their perch but I’m not really a fish person.

Finally, the first awesome day to sit outside to enjoy a beer. The patio is descent but… loud. The numerous motorcycles cruising by made it hard to hear the waitress and each other. We basically had to yell to each other. I’m sure the patrons around us enjoyed our inappropriate conversation as well.
I had the Honey Soy Salmon Salad-​fresh greens with almonds, carrots, cucumbers, tomatoes, onions and crispy noodles with toasted sesame vinaigrette. It was OK, kind of bland really. It needed some zazz! At least I felt healthy while downing copious amounts of beer :)

Server was really slow and not very versed on the menu. Most of our table ordered the perch dinners. They forgot one of the meals and had to refire.
We waited a long time for the few desserts that were ordered. When the checks came they were incorrect and had to be redone. Wow the incompetence of the waitress was dumbfounding.
We came to have a family meal and it took an astounding two and a half hours.

The staff is always friendly. Great hometown place for a family dinner or a night out with your friends. The seasonal patio gives a great view of the life of Saint Clair Shores.
The menu is large and their perch is great!
I am only giving a three star rating because there is room for improvement in some areas. The bathrooms are not always the tidiest. The dining room can become a bit cramped, especially on a Friday evening during lent. The prices aren’t the best either. But this won’t keep me from going back!

I’m not crazy about their food. It’s decent, but I would hardly call it good. Decent drinks, fun patio, good location. Other than that, it doesn’t have much going for it.
Service generally sucks, not ran very well, mediocre food. No real reason to go here, I definitely wouldn’t go out of my way to head here. Shame too, if it was cleaner, ran better, had a couple more taps and better food it could be an awesome Irish pub.

What the??? This is not the best perch, maybe it was in the past, but I don’t get it.
Split the large order Perch Dinner with my BF — looking at some other reviews I think they shrunk the portions and raised the price. We received SIX SMALL (two bite size portions) perch with fries for $ 17.99!!! Really? A freakin fried fish? Is Perch the new Lobster? Honestly maybe I’m not aware this fish is so expensive. The batter had no flavor and was soggy on the bottom. Tartar sauce was good but the cocktail sauce tasted like it was frozen then thawed. Being so small we ate the perch in about 2 minutes.
Good craft beer selection, had the Dripa (Kuhnhenn) — honestly tasted watered down v. from Kuhnhenn and no joke, I think they gave it in an 8oz glass, if not it was absolutely no more than 10oz, and charged $ 7.00!
I frequent this place for a drink on the patio sometimes and for that I give it some stars, at least it’s some place to hang out.

Pub trivia was the reason for my visit on a Thursday night. I remember coming here about 20 years ago with my dad because he liked the perch. I was reminiscing on my way there and looking forward to having some fish.
I wanted the whitefish, but the waitress suggested the walleye special. I have never had walleye, so I went ‘safe’ with the half lake perch dinner. Chose a salad and rice as my sides.
The salad was nice, real greens and carrots with some nice croutons and yummy ranch dressing. I also enjoyed the house Chardonnay, which was very good for $ 5 a glass. My friends liked the $ 2 cans of Black Label!
The review now goes downhill. The perch, for which they are known, was not to my expectations. It came quickly, when I was about halfway through my little side salad. It was almost cold. I am sure they fried it prior to me ordering it since I know what freshly fried perch tastes like. My step father is an ice fisherman and we love to make it at home. The outside was dry and the breading was falling off. Flavor was okay, but I give that credit to the fish and not the cooks or preparation. Seriously, how hard is it to make 4 pieces of tiny lake perch to order? I can’t believe they don’t make the food to order. It was obvious. Not pleased, but I ate my meal since our trivia game was about to start and I didn’t want to be distracted by eating.
My friend got the Tiramisu, and it looked ok, but she got sick from it. I am sure it was Gordon’s or something from the freezer, not made in house. My other friend also had the perch and just ate it because she was hungry, it was not up to her expectations either. Another friend ordered the chicken quesadillas. While the portion was generous, it looked like a mess. Presentation is not a priority here.
Waitstaff was okay, we seemed to get our refills when we needed them. Two stars, one for the salad, one for the attentive service. Lacking with the food, and I was looking forward to my meal. Hopefully you have a better experience if you chose to come here. Perhaps ask if the perch is made to order, or request that yours is freshly fried.

We stopped here for dinner one night with our gracious hosts who were keeping us for the night on our trip westward. Other than the huge amount of those nasty flies you guys keep up there in MI, it looked like a decent place outside.
We ended up sitting in the covered outdoor area, and grabbed a table close to the bar.
We were seen, so I am still confused as to why it took us so long to get served. And once we were served, our waitress was so ditzy I can’t believe we got the right food.
I went inside to go to the restroom, and it was dark, bar-​like, and reminded me of somewhere I may have avoided while in college.
If it’s your thing, go for it, but if it’s not, go somewhere else.