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| - It is a longstanding tradition for my dad and I to have dinner here at his birthday time. He's a fan of the traditional supper club, and that is Mariner's in a nutshell. Heavy wood interior, lovely window views of a Lake Mendota inlet and docked boats. Lots of birds to watch through the windows. Service tends to be attentive, which is nice. Soda was from fountain and flat. Server was attentive with ice water and fresh lemon for drinking. They used to have mixed greens for their salads, but are back to iceberg lettuce, which was disappointing. Mine had quite a bit of the yellow lettuce heart. Great peppercorn dressing. The clam chowder is consistently delicious and among the best in Madison. A basket of rolls came with the salads, two white and one pumpernickel. Since there were three of us, that seems kind of an assumption. One seemed less fresh than the other two, but the fresh ones were nice.
We usually get the seafood stuffed mushroom appetizer, which was good, although the hollandaise type sauce seemed a little thick and more bland than I remember. Stuffing was good with obvious seafood chunks. We had the Tuesday shrimp special which was a lot of shrimp--four large cocktail shrimp, three fried shrimp and two stuffed shrimp. I always love their fried jumbo shrimp--a light batter with firm shrimp, but the cocktail ones were disappointing. Stuffed shrimp were oddly similar to the stuffed mushrooms. Good cocktail sauce. Their "famous" hashbrowns are okay--onion flavor was strong and they are quite oily. Other sides were mashed potatoes, baked potatoes, french fries, au gratin potatoes and vegetable of the day. One time I had a rice mix, and I wish they'd bring it back. I'm assured by my dad and sister that the steaks are delicious. I've only made it to dessert once. It remains my favorite place for shrimp, but be prepared for heavy food. There is a "lighter fare" menu with smaller portions, which is nice, because the full portions are truly too much food (although most people will probably manage).
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