McCarthy’s on the Riverwalk

This really is a great restaurant.
We always use this as a venue for business dinners we have as the staff is courteous and professional.
They have great fish & chips.

Had lunch here and it was great, a bit overpriced though. I have a lot of food allergies, including gluten-​intolerance and they were wonderful. Though they don’t have a gluten-​free menu, they do have a gluten friendly menu. They charged me an additional $ 1 for gluten-​free because they had to take the extra time to clean the grills, utensils, etc., but I had no problem with that at all! I really appreciated the extra steps they took! They also have a policy that gluten-​free foods come out on a different tray, separate from the other food so there is no cross-​contamination. Though they cannot guarantee cross-​contamination will not happen, they take many precautions to prevent it. I would return!

I got the macaroni and cheese and was satisfied although it was much too hot, the people I went with said the salads they had could have been better. The service was okay although the waitress forgot to bring the bread and silverware until she brought out our food but other than that is was okay.

Husband and I went here for date night. After several years walking by this place, we finally decided to give a try. We both wished we had tried it sooner. The food and service was amazing. Our waitress even treated us like we were on a date. It was wonderful.
The Food
I had the stuffed Chicken with Colcannon. For drink I had a flirtini. My husband had fish and chips. The stuffed chicken was very good, they topped it with a white cream sauce and I think it would of been better with a tomato based sauce but it was good regardless. The Colcannon. Wow! The best Colcannon I’ve ever tasted. I liked their version of it. I tasted my husband’s fish and it was excellent, and the chips were like the best.
Soup
The highlight of my dinner… soup. It was almost the Colcannon but the soup… so good. They make their soups from scratch. We had the loaded potato. Wholly cow… I kept saying «Omg, this is soo good!» it has large chunks of potato. Very yummy! In fact we wanted to go back the next day but it was the 4^th of July.

Ventured out with a business colleague (we are from out of town) and it was a great choice. I had the Sheppard’s Pie, it was as delicious as visually appealing. He had the Fish and Chips (devoured them). Service was prompt, polite and informative (Holly). Not a bad drive from south Elkhart hotels and we’ll worth the trip.

Loved this place. It was very clean and pleasant decorations. I had the seafood salad. My husband had the Big Irish Burger. It was a handful. Jeanne our waitress was very attentive. We are not from around here but if we are anywhere near again we will stop in.

Shepherds pie was awesome. Steak was cooked well but over seasoned. But overall good fine. Would come back to try fish and chips. Check in for free glass of wine. House cab was amazing!

Irish Mac & Cheese was to die for! And I don’t even like Mac & Cheese! I only agreed to it to appease my boyfriend. We ordered a half order, which was plenty to share. The flavors are rich, but not too heavy. For $ 3 more, you can get a full order, which would be my recommendation. We added sauteed mushrooms for $… best dollar ever spent. In short, great Elkhart restaurants are hard to find, if you want quality food, you are going to have to pay a little more than what the less than impressive restaurants are charging. It’s worth it, trust.

The next time my Elkhart friends suggest eating at McCarthy’s I have to remember how much I dislike their FOOD! Terribly overpriced in regards to the quality. I always leave regretting having eaten there. Beautiful place, pretty patio is the best I can offer. I ordered the Seafood Avocado salad. It sounded tasty… What a disappointment. The menu description isn’t what you’re actually served. Mixed greens? No… you get a plate full of iceberg lettuce. Char roasted red peppers? Hardly… more like frozen red peppers that had been thawed. Squishy and tasteless. The chipotle lime dressing was actually some weird mustard concoction that I thankfully tasted first before pouring on my salad. Oh, and all this for a $ 17 salad. Never again will I eat at McCarthy’s. Better options are near by.

Having been born and raised in Elkhart (and since left for a big city) McCarthy’s is fancy by Elkhart-​standards and I’ve dined here several times. I went for dinner on a weekday evening recently and was greeted by the always friendly staff. The bread brought to the table I had the salmon with rice pilaf and veggies. The salmon was dry, the pilaf all right and the veggies overcooked. In my opinion, it was not worth the $ 20.

The food at McCarthys has improved significantly. Tonight we dined with friends and tried several new dishes. None of them disappointed. We had chips with blue cheese cream and pretzels with porter cheese as appetizers. Both delicious. The rack of lamb is awesome. Fish and chips is the best around. Our friends both had the tilapia special and loved it. We will be back.

Overpriced for the quality of food. I’ve just never had a meal there that i didn’t leave afterwards wishing I hadn’t wasted the money. Their service is painfully slow if they’re even slightly busy.

Simply amazing. Sat outside and enjoyed the weather. Not a very big craft beer selection but enough to fill the void. The food was simply fantastic. Great service well worth the trip on a Friday night.

Was very pleased with my experience. I have ate there twice now while on travel. Both times have been great. Really loved the rack of lamb. Service was great especially with our group of 15.

I am always a fan of restaurants that serve bread before the meals.
I had the shrimp and chicken penne. It was very good, but unbelievably spicy. My sinuses were cleared, and I can’t believe how many glasses of water I downed just to survive.
The waitresses were nice as well.

I ordered the pork tenderloin. It came came with green beans and a loaded baked Potato. The tenderloin came medium rare, which was fine. After taking a bite, I discovered that the outside was charred and tasted burnt. The beans were greasy and the potato was dry. I believe the price on this dish was $ 18.50, which was way too much for what I got. It’s a good room and a good location with a nice view of the river. Sadly, the food doesn’t justify a return vist.

My mom and I came here for lunch while I was home, and the food wasnt all that great… at all. The place was EMPTY besides us and one other table, indication number one something might be off. Our waitress was wonderful though so two stars for the service. The food was terrible. I ordered a salad called the «Seafood Avocado Salad» expecting to have plenty of Avocado and plenty of Seafood. Well, if you consider two tiny slices of avocado, two small shrimp, two small scallops and no crab meat a Seafood Avocado Salad then you are sorely mistaken. I noticed there was no crab meat so we asked the waitress and she checked with the kitchen and they were currently out of crab meat and she had no idea. Why would the kitchen NOT inform her that a major ingredient of the salad is missing? For $ 14, you better be packing on the seafood and avocado. My mom got the Irish Cottage Salad with fruit, steak, etc. and that was much better than mine. The lettuce on both salads seemed to be out of a grocery store pre-​mixed lettuce bag. It just wasnt good.
The next time I am home, I will definitely NOT be coming back here to dine. There are plenty of other favorites that I will be returning to.

The only reason this does not have three or four stars is because I was very disappointed with the quality of food. The service was great, we had a large group & they handle us very well. That being said, they are a bit pricy for the quality of food preparation, my veal was very rubbery & fatty, which I thought was impossible with veal & the steaks on my wife’s kabobs were extremely undercooked, to the point of still being red & lukewarm in the middle. I am not a fan of giving bad reviews but I was a bit disappointed.

This is my second visit to this popular hangout of Elkhart’s movers and shakers. The first time was a 5-​star, tonight was a 3… So, I post a 4-​star rating.
The feel and atmosphere are fantastic — its warm and inviting and has great lighting. The furniture, the décor and even the floor make for a good eating and drinking mood.
And the food is very good, too, for the most part.
On my first dinner visit — a double date — we all had different dishes: the lamb, the pork, salmon, and a pasta. Everyone enjoyed their meal. I had the lamb and loved it. Took a bite of the pork and loved it. The salmon was tasty though a little salty for the ladies. We ate the delicious crab cakes, too.
This time around I had a small cut filet but wasn’t as «wowed.» However, my teen son and step dad loved the burgers?! Yes, the burgers. My step-​dad said the Big Irish Burger was quite possibly the best burger he has ever tasted — although when he ordered it off the menu the server had never heard of it before. On the other hand, my wife, who loves a good crab cake wasn’t very impressed this visit.
Still a good stop. Food is good. And the atmosphere is great.

I have to bring my review down to only 2 stars and if the restaurant weren’t so gorgeous and a beautiful location and robust drink menu, I would have to make it only 1 star.
I dined there again last night and found my food inedible. I ordered a Reuban sandwich, which they brought out as a Fresco and had to take it back to the kitchen to make the right one. Then, when it finally came out, it was all wrong. I had ordered the Thousand Island dressing on the side, it was on the sandwich, I ordered their chips and it came out with 1 lone French fry on top (how’d that get there??) — the rye bread was wafer thing so I could barely pick up the sandwich and corned beef was so salty, I couldn’t even eat it.
For one of the 1^st times in all of my dining experiences, I actually sent the sandwich back and told them I couldn’t eat it. They did bend over backwards trying to apologize and remedy the situation — get me a new dish, which I declined, free gift certificates for dessert and apps on my next visit but looking around, I noticed pretty much EVERY table getting the wrong dishes or no food at all so why roll the dice on something else? And my dining companion was incredibly disappointed to order their Saturday evening special, the prime rib and find it almost inedible too. Overcooked (he ordered medium rare and they served it medium) and chewy with watery au jus for dipping. He ordered it with rice and it came with green beans — a tiny little scoop of rice that was mushy, like it had been sitting around a long time and the green beans were not tasty at all.
I will not be back to McCarthy’s and it breaks my heart because as a prominent downtown Elkhart restaurant, I really want to support them. But there are too many other great restaurants serving delicious food to waste so much money here.