Don’t Bother Trying Mattison’s City Grille in Bradenton

We were so excited that Mattison’s was coming to Bradenton.  When we pulled up to the restaurant, they definitely “Mattisonized” it so it looked like the Sarasota site. We have eaten at the Sarasota Mattison’s City Grille a few times and also ate at Mattison’s 41 so we thought they would bring the same good food to Bradenton. Were we wrong. None of the food we had was worth our time. For that matter, neither was the drinks.

We were so disappointed. The calamari was fried but it was limp not crisp the way it should be. We didn’t even have time to finish it before they brought out the mains. I had the “bronze salmon” with broccolini and risotto. The burre blanc sauce was very sweet and it shouldn’t be. Mike had the grouper sandwich and there was barely a piece of grouper and it just didn’t look appetizing.

I had the happy hour “boat drink.” It was a  grapefruit margarita. I don’t think there was any grapefruit in it. The mojito was so sweet that it was undrinkable. It would have been okay if it was just not made that way because the mint was tasty.

We didn’t bother looking at the desserts.

As an aside, we went there when it was Yachtsea. It wasn’t very good then either. The Riverwalk deserves a good restaurant but Mattison’s isn’t it. We sure hope it gets better.