Harbor Inn: Marina Bar and Grill
 Akron, Ohio                    Date of Visit  08/12/10

 http://theoldeharborinn.com/Marina_Bar_and_Grill/index.php

I have lived in the area for a long time now and have never made my way to the Portage Lake area. Celebrating an anniversary we were treated to our first journey to a beautiful location. In a lot of ways it took me back to summers in Sandusky with the quiet lap of the water and the cry of the gulls as we sat out on a deck built over the water. I didn’t know until we had arrived that there are actually three separate dining options, a downstairs bar, a seafood restaurant and our casual waterside dock.

Can't Go Wrong with Fried Cheese
 

The service staff is young and not overly efficient but held their own with honesty and enthusiasm throughout the evening. As a matter of fact they managed to do things more experience staffs fail to do, such as splitting entrees and desserts that were being shared. We started with Wisconsin Beer Cheese Bites, crunchy and cheesy with a little cup of marinara and green salad. I ordered the salmon, it was a struggle, I saw a lot of burgers being delivered and the fish and chips sounded good, but the salmon won out tonight. Ordered mid it arrived just as ordered and the Hawaiian sesame BBQ glaze and pineapple-mango salsa made for a really tasty entrée. The sides were complete throwaways with dry rice and texture-less veggies but the salmon didn’t disappoint. I didn’t try the fish sandwich which looked good and disappeared quickly.

It took a few minutes to get some tartar sauce as the server didn’t initially ask and it apparently isn’t a given although one of the two should be standard operating procedure, especially if the sandwich is not dressed in some other manner. The chicken and warm goat cheese salad with cherries, strawberries and pine nuts was really good with a mix of sweet and bitter greens and awash in a biting and sweet vinaigrette.
 

Desserts consisted of vanilla cheesecake topped with blueberries and a warm apple tart with a bourbon crème anglaise, both of which were perfectly passable with the crème anglaise being the standout. The menu declares the Inn as Akron’s Key West and in some ways it is. It may not have the strong Cuban, Jamaican, French or Bahamian influences, it does have the same laid back feel, water, and a lot of folks having a good time. For me, it felt very much like a day on Erie, casual, mostly tasty, and beautiful. On the way out we checked out the restaurant menu, expect to see something soon, we will return.