Fish Tale Grill by Merrick Seafood

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2,906 reviews

#5 of 322 Restaurants in Cape Coral₱₱ - ₱₱₱, Seafood, Grill

+1 239-257-3167+ Add website

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Hours

Sun

10:00 AM - 8:00 PM

Mon

11:00 AM - 9:00 PM

Tue

11:00 AM - 9:00 PM

Wed

11:00 AM - 9:00 PM

Thu

11:00 AM - 9:00 PM

Fri

11:00 AM - 9:00 PM

Sat

10:00 AM - 9:00 PM

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What is Travelers’ Choice?

Tripadvisor gives a Travelers’ Choice award to accommodations, attractions and restaurants that consistently earn great reviews from travelers and are ranked within the top 10% of properties on Tripadvisor.

Ratings and reviews

4.5

2,906 reviews

#5 of 322 Restaurants in Cape Coral

Travelers' Choice 2024

RATINGS

Food

Service

Value

Atmosphere

Food and ambience

Local cuisine, Seafood, Grill, Healthy

“I had the starter Caesar salad with blackened salmon, perfect Our server Mel...”

“Scallops with caviar, crisp fish and chips are my favorites .”

Special occasions, Romantic, Large groups, Bar scene

“Also the bar service seemed very slow.”

“Local seafood market attached to the restaurant and an outside bar/dining area.”

Location and contact

1229 SE 47th Ter Suite B, Cape Coral, FL 33904-9614

+1 239-257-3167

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Is this a Bahamian restaurant?

Yes

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Details

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About

Southwest Florida's premiere steak and seafood restaurant. Voted Best Seafood in Cape Coral for 8 years running. Our seafood Tower, Loaded Seafood Bloody Mary and many other offerings showcase the best seafood southwest Florida has to offer. Cutting edge craft cocktails, live music and destination bar. Whether you are joining us for lunch, Dinner or our famous Brunch you are sure to find something that fits your seafood palate. Indoor and covered outdoor seating are both available.

CUISINES

Seafood, Grill, Healthy

Meals

Lunch, Dinner, Brunch, Drinks

FEATURES

Takeout, Outdoor Seating, Seating, Parking Available, Street Parking, Highchairs Available, Wheelchair Accessible, Serves Alcohol, Full Bar, Wine and Beer, Accepts Credit Cards, Table Service, Live Music, Gift Cards Available

Top 3 reasons to eat here

Sponsored by: Fish Tale Grill by Merrick Seafood

1. Best Seafood Restaurant

"The selection is great, always fresh and service is excellent"

158josephz

2. Full Bar - Specialty Cocktails

"The drinks were tasty and the service was impeccable."

Jose F

3. Fresh from the Boat

"Truly fresh Fish! Straight from the Boats! "

Astinus2

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4.5

2,906 reviews

Excellent

2,148

Very good

482

Average

164

Poor

Terrible

JandR769

Cottage Grove8 contributions

Favorite Review

Beyond our expectations

Feb 2024 • family

Outstanding food and service. Right down to the man and woman who greeted us, the bartender(s) and our waitress LeighAnn. They were all so friendly, accommodating and efficient. We had the Captains Platter for 2 and Crab Chowder. The meal was beyond our expectations. We will return.

Written February 16, 2024

This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.

cyndi011

North Port199 contributions

Super seafood!

Jan 2020 • none

Worth the wait! Waiting for a table outside with an outdoor bar was a treat in early January! The menu has lots of interesting options. Their salads were very fresh and the entrees were generous portions and also very flavorful. Decent wine list too! We sat inside but the outdoor deck looking super nice as well. We'll be back.

Written January 11, 2020

scouser1077

Jensen Beach1030 contributions

First time visit but pleasantly surprised

May 2021 • none

We were a party of five looking for a nice evening meal. The Fish Tale came recommended by family as being a restaurant that serves quality food at reasonable prices. This was an understatement. From our martini orders we started the evening off really well with a decent pour of vodka based martini's. Appetizers, be warned they are large, Calamari rings a big hit, the Grilled Octopus is to die for. I have eaten Octopus around the world but this was so tender cut it with your fork, plus another huge portion. Main courses were varied and come with a salad...so come hungry, please. From the basic Fish and Chips to Chilean Sea Bass, Bourbon Salmon, Mixed Seafood over pasta which was mine and delicious, Ginger Tuna top class, presentation excellent, food was served on hot plates kudos. Add to this a remarkable waiter who paid attention to our table and supplied us wonderfully, take a bow Marco. The only downside was the Bread Pudding for dessert, not to our liking too dry. An excellent evenings dinner for all.

Written May 26, 2021

Kathie R

Tweed97 contributions

Great deck, appetizers and mojitos. Pass on dinner.

Jan 2020 • none

Looked online for a great restaurant where four of us could celebrate my husband’s 75th birthday and based on reviews, decided on Fish Tale. Went early to avoid the rush and to get a seat on the deck. The appetizers - octopus was amazing as was the in house cured salmon. The bacon wrapped shrimp were done in the deep fryer, no batter, and a fresh shrimp cocktail were good. The wine list was quite limited and not very exciting for a special occasion. But the bartender makes great mojitos! We should have stopped there. By this time the deck was packed, our wonderful waitress, Janet, was slammed. The steaks came overcooked, and on the cool side, the accompanying scallops were dry and overcooked as well. My Cobb was tasteless huge and the scallops were maybe cured but tasted raw, personally I didn’t care for the texture. When asked how our food was we were honest and constructive. The steaks were half eaten by this time so we didn’t want them replaced as was offered. My husband asked for the scallops to be replaced and they came deep fried in batter and were nothing like the appetizer scallops that he had requested- possibly a lack of communication? The 3 combo, shareable, dessert which came was, to all of us, heavy sweet and too rich. No one enjoyed it. If we had stopped with drinks and an appetizer there would be 5 stars. The dinner was a huge disappointment. Oh, and the music on the deck was enjoyed by us all.

Written January 26, 2020

Carolyn S

Cape Coral8 contributions

Disappointing meal and service

Feb 2020 • none

2/6/2020 My husband and I were excited to see that they had Fried Whole Belly Ipswich Clams. We grew up in Massachusetts and love clams. After ordering Fried Whole Belly Ipswich Clams I received a plate of fried crumbs not resembling the clams at all. The manager came out and I explained why I was disappointed with the clams. He just told me " that's what we got." Very unprofessional..

Written February 8, 2020

Capecoral

Cape Coral69 contributions

NO MASKS

Nov 2020 • none

Owner gripes that trip advisor reviews should be about food and not nonsense about masks. Well, a resturant experience is not just about food, but an overall relaxing evening with great atmosphere, service, ambiance, food and attitude. An owner who disregards peoples feeling of safety and social responsibility is a selfish , greedy man. Staff at this restaurant has come down with Covid and to have servers not wearing masks is being medically irresponsible and having tables not socially responsibly separated is just beyond my imagination. With staff dealing with hundreds of people per week, do you think life is a rose garden or a petri dish. We will NEVER come back and will continue to reveal your denial stance on the covid issue on every social media site we can, if tour staff doesn’t have a mask tomorrow. Kiss tour business goodbye.

Written November 27, 2020

Pathfinder546104

1 contribution

Disappointed

Mar 2021 • couples

After reading the reviews, we were so excited to try the. Fishtale Grill. After a 40 min wait for our table, we enjoyed an app and a salad, an hour and 15 min later we received our ice cold entrees. The waitress offered to throw my steak back on the grill, every part of the dish was cold. My husbands 50.00 entree was so cold the butter on his potato wouldn’t even melt. They manager offered a reheat as well. We had them box it up. No compensation was even offered. I told the waitress I was very surprised at the lack of customer service and she rolled her eyes at me.

Written March 9, 2021

David L

Manalapan14 contributions

Very Disappointed

Nov 2020 • family

I never write a bad review but I had such a disappointing experience that I felt I had to. We called Friday afternoon to make a reservation. The hostess on the phone said they dont take reservations. We got there at 6:15 and wanted to sit outside. The hostess said all the tables were reserved. ?????. We said we would wait but she mumbled some nonsense and we moved on. They sat us next to the market. We ordered drinks and my daughter in laws drink tasted like dishwater. The waiter blamed it on the ice. I ordered a Mango Madness and I got a Pina Colada. The waiter had no clue about the many market prices of the seafood. He said the King Crab legs were $55 we got charged $59. The lobster was $29 and we got charged $35. Most of the food we got was delicious but the Duo Tartare was very bland. Then I noticed the smell of bleach. It got stronger and by the time our meal was over I was nauseous. I live for dessert and their items sounded amazing but I felt ill. Got the bill and I saw the prices were all different and although soup was included we were charged $2 each. Should have told us that. To pour salt on the wound, when we walked outside there was a singer and the weather was beautiful. $300 bill for 3 and I left nauseous. Wonderful.

Written November 7, 2020

Wes S

1 contribution

$36 for a bland mushy dinner

Jun 2020 • friends

I ordered a halibut special that was priced at $36.00. I love halibut! I was so excited! This was a bland, unseasoned piece of fish sitting on top of mushy, bland sweet potatoes and smelly, wet, mushy brussel sprouts. I ate some of the fish because I hated to waste it. I was eating with friends and didn’t feel comfortable complaining. I think it was the manager that picked up my almost completely full plate and didn’t ask a word about why I didn’t eat my dinner. What a total disappointment!!

Written June 13, 2020

Dee K

Cape Coral150 contributions

Highly Rated But Disappointed Overall

Oct 2020 • couples

We had high expectations and wanted seafood. Fish Tale Grill was recommended by a local to us. Small parking lot so we parked across the street in the shopping plaza and walked over. Outdoor seating next to road which we passed on and ate inside. Nice restaurant inside. Casual and smart casual dress. Server was prompt to get our order and bring drinks but never visited our table again. She passed by us many times but never attempted any eye contact nor a quick check in with us. We ordered a seafood tray to share and it was delivered with no utensils to crack crabs or picks. Had to wait 5 min to get a servers attention to help us. Then she only brought utensils for one. Did they not have enough to bring us both the tools we need to crack crabs? Unreal. No refills, no attention by anyone. We got through the meal. It was average seafood. Crab leg shells were soft, so they had been sitting in steamed water too long. No server around to bring our bill so we walked up to the front and asked for our bill so we could leave. Manager said they were not prepared for business and needed one more server. We never complained but won’t likely return soon. Unfortunately we chose a bad night to try this restaurant. There are many seafood restaurants for us to find great service and fresh seafood in Cape Coral.

Written October 23, 2020

Michieb882

9 contributions

Don't order for delivery

Mar 2021 • none

Placed an order for delivery thru Bite Squad. The order was missing a bag with 2 items. I called the restaurant and they told me that they forgot to give it to the driver but I would need to call Bite Squad to solve the problem....really, they made the mistake but it's up to me to call the delivery service to fix it???? This is the second time they messed up a delivery order. Has anyone ever tried to call Bite Squad? You can't...the "problem" button on their site goes nowhere so I had to google how to contact them and it's a chat only. Thankfully I didn't close the order page because you need the order number to get the problem solved. They didn't have any drivers available so I was offered a credit to the credit card or a Bite Squad credit. 2 people were not eating and one of the people was the person who paid the $111.00 bill. I spent over 20 years in the restaurant business in Chicago and I would have put a busboy in his car to deliver what they missed but I guess they thought it was a better idea to make me fix their problem. During the pandemic we've ordered regularly from local restaurants to support them thru tough times but I won't be ordering from Fishtale again.

Written March 7, 2021

docproc

107 contributions

Terrific!

Jan 2020 • none

Our party of five had a wonderful meal. We all agreed the lobster bisque was the marquee item, but we also enjoyed blackened scallops, miso sea bass, fried shrimp, mahi mahi, and surf and turf. Our server Rachel was most helpful in describing dishes and helping us make our choices. This restaurant isn't cheap, but the value is good. We will return the next time we're in Cape Coral.

Written January 10, 2020

Laurie B

1 contribution

Wonderful evening with family and friends!

Jul 2020 • none

For my birthday this year I chose a place that we had not been to. I've lived on the cape for 30+ years and while my husband and I have purchased fresh fish from Merricks Seafood we never visited Fish Tale Grill. My husband told me I could pick any where I wanted to go for my birthday so I chose Fish Tale Grill. This was one of the best choices I could have made. Everyone in our party enjoyed their meals, they have good portion sizes for the price, the ambiance was great along with the service. We all plan to go back there, can't wait!

Written July 31, 2020

Blonde Lady

Fort Myers96 contributions

Friends & Appetizers

Jan 2020 • friends

We stopped for appetizers with friends around noon. We ate outdoors. We liked the generous portion of calamari with 2 sauces. The lobster bisque served with oyster crackers was flavorful, however didn’t have many pieces of lobster. One in our group had a small chopped salad which was quite large in size. Our server was very efficient refilling lemonades & soft drinks as needed. Prices were reasonable. We will definitely visit again soon.

Written January 11, 2020

Sue D

3 contributions

The lobster bisque has gone down hill

Jan 2020 • none

Their lobster bisque used to be incredible. So delicious and chock full of big chunks of lobster. The last couple of times we've tried it, once for take out and once for dinner, the flavor has been off and there was no lobster meat. Very disappointing.

Written January 9, 2020

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