The Pickled Herring

Good place to eat, watch the ferry, and the locals. Indoor or outdoor seating and friendly staff. Perfect place for lunch on the deck.

Food was truly fantastic. The fish fry is especially good. The view is beautiful and our waitress was very patient and made sure we had everything we needed, including their awesome bloody Mary’s!

Wonderful place for lunch, dinner and drinks. Nice outdoor seating for warm weather days. We visit Bayfield several weekends a year and always stop in on Friday night to enjoy the All-​You-​Can-​Eat Friday Night Fish Fry. Very tasty and a great price! Comes with a nice dinner salad-​very fresh and chilled greens; a combination of deep-​fried lake trout or whitefish (or you can select just one type of fish); and choice of potato. We have had great lunches and other dinners here. Great burgers. And their desserts are good too-​we get the carrot cake «to go» and bring it home-​it is a very generous serving and moist and delicious. Clean and friendly staff.

Really nice lunch place. Ate outside with a great view of the marina.
Wife has the ruben sandwich which was a special and they actually ran out of it while we were eating. The corned beef looked freshly cooked and tasted great!
I had fish and chips. They use fresh whitefish and it was great! Also home made potato chips which were very nice! The service was friendly and fast. I’d eat here again!

Decided to get a quick bite before out boat tour took off and this happened to be the closest place and the reviews seemed good. It’s a cute little place with a nice location. Our server was frumpy and not great, we ordered hot wings and nachos. Our hot wings came out with no hot sauce on them, they were dry. I wanted to ask for hot sauce but she was gone for so long that we just ended up eating the dry little fried chicken wings. Nachos were ok, nothing I’d recommend. Only reason I’d go back was because of location, even in spite of poor service.

Cobb Salad was large with generous portions of good stuff, gluten free options with soup and buns for sandwiches, fish fry Friday nights with all you can eat fried whitefish and trout. Service was great even with a full house.

Wife and I had a great lunch here, close to the water, great for families and people watching. She had the BBQ bacon burger! Char grilled to perfection. I had the whitefish sandwich which was so large it hung over the bun! We’ll be back!

We were greeting as we walked in. Great! Sat outside but there was a family with a 21 year old kid who was lying down on a bench with his head a foot away from me. I thought he’d get up once we were seated but he didn’t so we moved inside. I couldn’t eat with a bearded greasy head in my lap. Once inside, I told the hostess where we had moved. We sat for 15 minutes while waitresses and bus boys passed us. We had no service at the last two restaurants we were at on Madeline Island. What’s up with this area? Had enough, walked out. Hello people. Greet, seat, tell us who will be serving us, give us water ASAP and take drink orders. Damn.

We had a great meal and beer here at the Pickled Herring. My husband and I both got the veggie burger. What made it different was in addition to the typical ingredients, they served it with cucumber and caramelized onion. Yum! We sat at the bar and I’m so glad we did because we meet some really fun and adventurous people.

Love love this place! I’ve lived on Madeline Island most of my life, so we rarely actually spend enough time in Bayfield to eat, but when we do this is the go-​to. Fabulous food, friendly staff, and a convenient location. Today I was absolutely starving and needed some lunch, but didn’t have the time to sit in and dine. I called in for a whitefish sandwich, no onions. People on the phone were friendly and efficient. Had a great variety of sides, I chose sweet potato fries, which are the BEST I’ve ever had. Food was ready in time, and is absolutely delicious. I have no complaints!

Stopped in for a late dinner one night and had the piccata whitefish. Loved it so we came back the next evening for the Friday all you can eat fish fry. Great food, great value.

The family was starving after walking to the Apostle Island ice caves, so we were happy to find this little gem along our path back to the hotel.
I have never had fish and chips that were so fresh! I was literally looking out the window at the waters where my fish was caught, which was pretty cool. This also means that they don’t have a bunch of frozen fish in the freezer just waiting for folks to order it. There is a limited amount everyday because they fish for it everyday. So if you are one of the lucky ones, check it out! Overall the lunch was a bit too pricey considering that there are only three of us and the bill was over $ 60 for lunch. Our server was amazing and really knew her stuff. Her name was Mary, and she took a lot of pride in how they get their fish and the attention that they pay to the preparation of each person’s meal. I would go back for sure.

Busy holiday weekend crowd, so we expected a bit of a wait. Hostess was very friendly and attentive dispute the tired, over warm tourist rush.
Our server was busy, busy but was super nice, gave great service and even paused a moment to answer questions.
Ordered the risotto balls appetizer (yum!), the whitefish sandwich (super yum!), the pulled pork Cuban sandwich (very tasty!) and the north Cobb salad (huge and excellent!)
The view of the harbor was fantastic and a great place to take a break. For a tourist heavy, lakeside restaurant, we did not think the prices were out of range.

Finished the island tour and was hungry. We stopped here and we’re not disappointed. Our food was good but my son raved over their buffalo white fish wrap. A highly recommended place but be warned their menu is limited.

A GREAT PLACE TO STOP AT…
After going on one of the Apostle Island boat tours, I stopped in here to check it out.
B I N G O.
Cute name, cute location, cute everything, typical for a resort. Quirky too. So I brought friends two more times, and always a delightful experience.
Specifically, their calamari has tentacles, not just Os. I had to slam a drink first, but I managed to gag down tentacles, and they weren’t bad. Maybe that’s how Andrew Z does it.
Another time, as off duty seasonal Girl Scouts, we ordered a drink called «Dirty Girl Scout».
Tee Hee. I couldn’t remember exactly what went in it, but the bartenders bible actually had the recipe ! We had a minty green drink that tasted exactly like a Thin Mint, but with a vodka punch. Yum Yum Yum.
Besides that, all the food ever ordered here was above average. Staff was always attentive, probably locals who can only make good money during the tourist season, so they milk it.
Definitely stop here if you are visiting Bayfield. Sure there are other places to get a drink or some food, but this place has some sort of «pull». Maybe it is haunted (it is old)… and the ghosts drag you in. Works for me.
KUM BY YA KUM BY YA

We stopped for lunch and loved it! Nice place, beautiful views and outdoor seating available. Service was very good and there’s even a very sweet waitress that looks like Paula Deen.
Food was great. Burgers, buffalo chicken sandwich, fish sandwich, and the lunch special, chicken wild rice and broccoli casserole, were all delicious! Very good lemonades too.

We recently visited Bayfield on vacation. After taking one of the boat tours, we needed a place to go to dinner. We decided on The Pickled Herring /​Pier Plaza Restaurant. When we walked by earlier it looked nice and had a decent crowd.
Despite it getting kind of late (I think we had dinner close to 9:00) they were still open and very friendly. The crowd had died down which was nice too. The place was nice — sort of a bar area and a dining area with a nice outside area too. We sat inside.
My wife ordered the Rib dinner — large amount of food. She got Ribs, two half ears of corn, potatoes and bread stick. The double starch was a bit much, but all was very tasty and good. I got the Pickled Herring sandwich — which by the way does NOT have pickled herring on it. (we had to ask). It was FANTASTIC! Ham and Turkey (I think, maybe chicken) with bacon, cheese, lettuce on very yummy ciabatta bread. WOW, so good I wanted to go back the next day to have another. Really top notch.
Service was very good — fast and friendly. Had a couple of beers from the bar. Overall a great place to dine. Glad we went.

Hamburgers were very good, and onion rings were excellent.
REAL iced tea. Good value. Pleasant service.

Went in for Lunch, food was good, nothing outstanding. They had lots of good non-​alcoholic drinks. Had the «Northern Cuban», which was fine. Good stop for a quick lunch.