McGarry’s Roadhouse

We had a lovely experience here. Food was delicious, service outstanding and atmosphere cozy but upscale. Steaks very good and cooked correctly. Ask for Mitch, he was great! And trust his recommendations, he was spot on.

We were visiting and this restaurant was recommended. The setting is fabulous with a nice menu. Terrible service. Also one of our dinner was pork and was not cooked thoroughly. Waitress told mgr yet no one addressed it with us. They were not concerned with our satisfaction at all

If you want fish prepared to perfection this is the place to go. I ordered the salmon and my wife the halibut. The fish was so good we shared each other’s meal. This is a place for diners not fast fooder’s’

Highly recommend! We had the Caesar salad, shrimp pad Thai, and a ribeye steak (special of the day). All was delicious! And the house Cabernet was very nice. Last, but not least was a chocolate brownie with salted caramel drizzled over home made vanilla ice cream. Did not leave one morsel of that dessert behind! Excellent service too.

While off the beaten path of downtown, McGarry’s is a great restaurant with one of the best of the very best bartenders in town, Sandy. Her husband Stephen runs the kitchen and produces some great food with an often Asian twist (though McGarry’s is not an Asian restaurant, per se).
Their large booths makes the restaurant one of the intimate places in Whitefish, but go sit at the bar, have Sandy make you an amazing martini and enjoy a great dinner.

Disappointing! This restaurant was recommended by a local and we were craving a really good meal after spending a week in the park eating dehydrated food. Service over all was good and wine list decent but the food left a lot to be desired. The phyllo appetizer with curry sauce tasted like something out of a frozen food section from the grocery store and the crab cakes were mushy. Both fish dishes were bland but the biggest disappointment was an issue we had with the ribeye steak. My friend and I both ordered it medium rare. His was well done and tried to pick out the good parts (no one likes to complain) until finally we made him raise the issue after he tried mine (which was actually seasoned/​cooked to perfection — best dish out all all). The waiter said the owner put him in charge to take care of it and we naturally thought the rest of the inedible dish would be comped since the waiter offered to re-​fire (we decided to just share my dish). He made mention the dessert was awesome– 4 of us shared the brownie and requested an extra scoop of ice cream (which was really great). Got the bill. No comped steak, not even a comped dessert drink– was comped the $ 9 dessert (didn’t even comp the $ 3 extra ice cream scoop). We are a pretty easy going group but were pretty furious that we paid for that steak ($ 38!!). If you only have one night in town, I don’t recommend this place.

We went to this restaurant because it was across the street from the Good Medicine Lodge where we stayed. This was probably the worst meal of our two week journey. We were two couples and had problems with three of the four dinners. When the meals were delivered we were told that the Fish & Chip dinner had fallen on the floor and was being replaced. The Shrimp Pad Thai came with no sauce at all. After this was questioned the waiter came back with hot sauce. The Smoked Chicken Penne had chicken pieces so small that they were hard to find. Will say that the Big Mountain Noodles & Vegetables were good.
The thing that really got me was this. The Ketchup bottled would not pour so the waiter said let me show you how to do this. He picked up a spoon on the table and proceeded to stick the handle up into the bottle. That worked, but I am not sure the handle of a spoon is the most sanitary device to use.
All in all for a Fine Dining Restaurant we were very disappointed.

Our friends brought us in last night for cocktails and we felt like we were at home. Sandy and Stephen — the owners were wonderful.
Unfortunately we had already had dinner so I can’t rate the food. If the service from the owners and friendliness of the waitstaff is any indication, I’d bet the food is top notch.

We had the phyllo pastries which came with a curry yogurt sauce which was not good. The kids butter noodles had burnt butter in the bottom if their bowls. The Pad Thai was too salty with little flavour and mushy noodles. The porterhouse pork was a OK, the sides of rice and slaw were not good.

What an unexpected menu! When I saw Roadhouse in the name, I was expecting steak, rolls, and peanuts on the floor, not a fine dining experience. First, the service was fantastic. We were greeted and seated right away by the owner. Our waitress was very friendly and attentive, and answered all of our questions, obviously very knowledgeable about the menu options. The menu is diverse, and the list of specials was probably just as long as the regular menu. Our table had the halibut (amazing, with a delicious peanut sauce), steak, pork chop, mountain noodles, smoked chicken alfredo, and a kids quesadilla with mac & cheese. All our dishes were perfectly prepared, with amazing accompaniments. My husband, who usually isn’t a fan of fried food, ate every last french fry that came with his steak – they were amazing. (Lol, I just told him that I was writing a review, and he said his mouth is watering;) Our only regret about our visit is that we were too full to try the apple pie that sounded incredible. Planning to go back for some of that!

Excellent service, Excellent food!
We were just finishing up a trip eating at many fine dining establishments throughout Alberta Canada and this was our last stop, but the BEST FOOD we had on our trip, even compared to the Fairmont Hotels in Lake Louise and Banff and the Lodge at Whitefish Lake.
Our server Mitch, made several recommendations, which were all fantastic! The Ribeye was excellently prepared and seasoned, the trout one of the best trout dishes ever and the Poached Salmon special was delicious!
Mitch addressed us by name and provided excellent service. Sandy and Stephen have come up with a friendly establishment, with great food for every budget.
We will be coming back every time we visit Whitefish!

Great service and drinks, a more formal place. Excellent starters and fish dishes. Nice looking place good for special occasions and dates.

We stopped by for dinner recently on a Saturday evening. It was my daughters birthday so we were celebrating. Surprisingly they weren’t busy. We tried a myriad of things and it was all very good. I ordered a New York strip and it was delicious. My daughter and I split the dinner and they charged $ 7.00 to do this which was a rip considering we ordered a ton of appetizers. This place is good with excellent service but not a cheap place to eat at all.

Lovely meal here. Staying at Kandahar Lodge, where the café was too chi chi for my 11 and 12 year old. Stopped at mcgarrys roadhouse because we liked the exterior. Service friendly, thoughtful, and fast. Had anniversary dinner here with kids and hubby, delicious tender mini filet, sinful potatoes, ranch salad, husband had house salad, salmon, moist with really great carrots. 11 year old Daughter happy with plain buttered pasta, son and the rest of us not wowed by bison meatloaf, but that was the only dish we didn’t love. And the prices were very reasonable for the high quality of the food. Very fresh produce.

I have to admit, our family came here for a nice meal, and I was extremely impressed. The steak I had was amazing. I have literally been craving it since going, and that has never happened to me before. It was cooked perfectly and the juices coming of the steak were so good. We are planning to go again here soon.

So let’s talk about McGarry’s. I’ll call this review 4.5 stars (and round it to a five), as there are just a few minor issues, overall. It would be helpful to note that I’ve eaten excellent places, of all sorts, nationwide.
New York, Chicago, Minneapolis, Seattle, Raleigh/​Durham, St. Louis, Orlando and Internationally. So when you read this review, take it into account.
I generally only rate places I like, unless I feel a restaurant is massively overrated.
We arrived for dinner after making reservations. The bar was full, and so were tables.
It took a second for us to be welcomed, and I realized later, it was because the lady who was to seat us was also busily making drinks.
I’m a bit on the high strung side, so waiting anywhere, for anything generally makes me a bit anxious. That didn’t happen on this occasion. We were graciously told that our table was occupied, and to have a seat at the bar.
I had looked up the menu online, and was slightly confused by the Asian offerings on the menu. If well executed, I knew we’d would be in for a treat.
It was. The chef/​owner here obviously refuses to dumb down the menu, which I am thankful for.
Just a note: If you’re one of those brilliant people who feels the need to ask the kitchen to «Please leave off x or y.» And then complain that your dish isn’t up to snuff, I don’t think this is the place for you. This is good food, made with above average ingredients. It ain’t Taco John’s.
I got the Bison Meatloaf, because if you’re mixing Bison with Chorizo, it’s either going to be a complete disaster, or fantastic. Turns out, it was the latter. Paired with the mashed potatoes, it is some of the best comfort food I’ve had. I hate to use words like «elevated», but they sure managed to take the meatloaf to another level.
In fact, I’m willing to bet that the chef wanted to call the meatloaf a «terrine», because it’s closer to that consistency than most meatloaves you might otherwise order. Moist, flavorful, smoky, spicy… and good. I’ll avoid using profanity to express myself.
My wife ordered the ribeye. It was expertly seasoned, it was cooked to perfection, and more tender than a «USDA Prime» advertised ribeye I received at a vaunted Minneapolis steakhouse the other night. Such a good steak. Really, among the top five I’ve ever had.
The server suggested the Huckleberry Martini over a Cosmo. My wife had two. Two, really, really good Martinis, excellently blended by a person I understand is a co-​owner.
The waitstaff was attentive, if overextended. If the owners read this (and I half hope they aren’t reading Unilocal,and are just focused on execution), then that is one area I’d say improve a bit on.
They need a runner/​general duty person on front-​of-​house for busier nights. Maybe they usually have one. I don’t know. But that would have definitely greased the wheels.
Overall, a fantastic meal and a really good evening out. Highly recommended.

Pleasant restaurant and good service, but both I and my dining companion found our salmon and halibut unflavorful and poorly seasoned. We both said that we would never Idententify what we were eating if we were blindfolded.

As good as it gets in Whitefish — for culinary sophistication, quality/​value, service and décor/​atmosphere.
Lots of seating choices… we loved the open kitchen area.
The owner was cooking the evening we were there and engaged us — asked if we enjoyed our meal. He was classy and professional and didn’t push himself on us.
The menu highlighted the mashed potatoes as «sinful» and they were!
The server was knowledgeable on the food and wine menus. We asked for suggestions and she gave them — and they were all good to fantastic.
We ordered the steak, crab cakes, ranch salad, and coleslaw.

A sad Whitefish discovery. I had the halibut special, dry and over cooked. She had the calf liver, smothered in a heavy sauce.
One kid had the fish-​n-​chips, it was perfect. The fish was moist & flaky, fries crisp and tatery. The other kid had mac-​n-​cheese, it wasn’t from a box, not was it spectacular. It was OK.
Service was disappointing. We had to wait for the initial service. The appetizer came with the entrees. We had to ask for the dessert menu, and then were given the check prior to asking if we wanted anything.
To offset the $ 28 dry halibut, we were «given» $ 8 worth of kids ice cream.
If you go, stick with the fish-​n-​chip and beer, pass on everything else. A sad expression for a $ 100 bill…

Love everything about this place.