JERRY & THE MERMAID - RIVERHEAD, NY

As a family, we have visited the Long Island Aquarium for years with our children. This was the first time that we stayed at the Hyatt next door. That‘s a review for a different time though. Just after checking in we decided to try out Jerry and The Mermaid. My wife had done some research on the local restaurants that we haven’t visited yet and Jerry and The Mermaid seemed like an obvious choice. It was such an obvious choice that we actually ate dinner there as well in the same day.

FIRST IMPRESSIONS

The great thing about Jerry and The Mermaid is that they share the parking lot with The Hyatt. The walk over to the restaurant was less than a minute which we appreciated. When walking up to the restaurant, you see a wooden statue of Jerry and The Mermaid which my children loved. The photo above of the old man holding the lobster is more noticeable on the way out but it’s by the entrance. We were the first customers the day we visited and the staff was quick to greet us. They were friendly and accommodating. Their customer service was fantastic. Even though it was not intentional, we ended up going back to Jerry and The Mermaid’s for dinner that same day. They were busier as the dinner service began and the new server that we had was attentive and nice. The only opportunity that I would suggest is to tell us the specials before we order. I overheard the other server tell her table about that evening’s specials and they sounded pretty good. I would have most likely ordered one of them.

THE FOOD

During our lunch visit, I fell into my typical trap of having to order the Linguine with Clam Sauce once I saw it on the menu. I’m happy that I did. The dish was the typical chopped clam most likely canned which is what is found in a lot of restaurants now. With that said, the clams had good flavor. You tasted the garlic and white wine but the flavor that truly stood out was butter. Now when a clam sauce has a lot of butter, I feel that it can over power the dish. This was not the case. Even though the butter flavor stood out, it blended nicely with the clams and other flavors. My only complaints is I did not feel that the portion justified the price as I felt that there could have been a little more and that they should have given bread to dip into that delicious sauce.

When going back that day for dinner, I wanted to try the dishes that I did not during lunch. I knew that I would not get another opportunity during our time in Riverhead since we came back for a second meal. I started with the Crispy Duck Wings. They were coated with an Asian BBQ sauce and sesame seeds. The crisp of the skin was fantastic and the flavor was better than expected. If you go to Jerry and The Mermaid’s, this is a must have appetizer.

I then ordered the Broiled Combo which was made up of bay scallops, pangasius white fish, baked clam and shrimp. I had it with rice and vegetables. Make sure you are hungry when you order this because the portion is huge and every bit of it is delicious. I found that I craved the Broiled Combo for the entirety of the rest of our trip. They bay scallops were my favorite part of the dish but that does not take away from any of the other components because they were just wonderful. This is also a must order for anyone going to Jerry and The Mermaid.

My wife had the Sesame Crusted Ahi Tuna which was served with soy ginger glaze and wasabi aioli. The tuna was fresh and pan seared to a perfect rare. She found the aioli enjoyable and the soy ginger glaze really complemented the tuna. Great job here.

LASTING IMPRESSIONS

We expected to have one good meal when it came to lunch. I did not mention this earlier because I did not talk about my wife’s food but our server ended up bringing out the wrong wrap. My wife ordered the Crispy Shrimp Wrap and received the Thai Chili Vegan Wrap. The server did the right thing and exchanged it for the correct order but she challenged my wife before doing so. My wife ordered the correct dish, I was paying extra attention because the server did not write the order down but instead relied on memory. I appreciate the skill that it takes to remember orders but I will always be in favor of the server who writes down the order due to the simple fact that they can reference what they wrote on the order slip and not make an educated guess as to what the customer wanted. We ruled it out to a simple mistake and did not hold it against the server but I still felt that it was worth mentioning. Lunch was still very enjoyable. If it wasn’t, we would have never went back for dinner.

Dinner service was a better experience than lunch. Who knows if the experience would have changed if this server had remembered to mention the specials. We don’t know because we were not given the choice. But as I said, the Broiled Combo stayed with me in the best way possible for the rest of the trip and my children enjoyed their dinner and chocolate molten cake dessert.

I give Jerry and The Mermaid my full recommendation and feel that visiting this restaurant is a definite must if visiting Riverhead. If you do visit please make sure to leave a comment on this article or even send me a message to tell me how you felt about your visit. I would love to hear about it. In the meantime, enjoy!

Jerry and The Mermaid is located:

469 E Main St

Riverhead, NY 11901-2556

1 631 727 8489

jerryandthemermaid.com