McCormick & Schmicks "Happy Hour"

[zhelder]

Hi everyone. Being a very frugal eGulleter, I'm always on the lookout for cheap eats, including scouring bars and restaurants for cheap happy hours. I just discovered that McCormick & Schmicks, which is a seafood restaurant in Riverside Square in Hackensack, does a $1.95 happy hour, and there are apparently several appetizers to choose from, as well as a 1/2 pound hamburger. I would have never thought a place like this would do a happy hour like this, but I called up today and apparently it's for real. However, the guy I spoke to said that there is a 2 drink minimum. I don't have a problem with that, as long as a pint of beer doesn't cost $18. Has anyone been to this happy hour? Is the food good? How are drink prices? I tend to prefer more casual places, but I'm dying to go here just to check this deal out. Any information is appreciated!

[divalasvegas]

Hi everyone. Being a very frugal eGulleter, I'm always on the lookout for cheap eats, including scouring bars and restaurants for cheap happy hours. I just discovered that McCormick & Schmicks, which is a seafood restaurant in Riverside Square in Hackensack, does a $1.95 happy hour, and there are apparently several appetizers to choose from, as well as a 1/2 pound hamburger. I would have never thought a place like this would do a happy hour like this, but I called up today and apparently it's for real. However, the guy I spoke to said that there is a 2 drink minimum. I don't have a problem with that, as long as a pint of beer doesn't cost $18. Has anyone been to this happy hour? Is the food good? How are drink prices? I tend to prefer more casual places, but I'm dying to go here just to check this deal out. Any information is appreciated!

←

Hello Zhelder. The only McCormick & Schmick I'm familiar with is the one in downtown Washington, DC. But since it's a national chain seafood restaurant, I think the menu is the same nationwide. Here's the link I found for the downtown DC restaurant.

http://www.mccormickandschmicks.com/main.c...dinner&locID=38

The $1.95 a drink happy hour special is offered here as well. But a search of their website, as far as I could see, didn't provide a menu for happy hour. A call to this DC location says that their happy hour items are $1.99 conditional upon that two-drink minimum. The woman who answered was pleasant but speaking extremely fast and I felt a bit rushed in asking her too many detailed questions, like exactly what do you get for $1.99: one hot wing or two, a decent size order of cheese nachos or what?

Overall, it appears that each restaurant across the US has the same generic set menu (as found on this website), but that, depending on which city/state their located there is also a written menu, featuring local specialties. Makes sense in the DC area (with the Chesapeake Bay and all) as well as New Jersey. However, for the landlocked states like Nevada and Denver they say that seafood is flown in fresh daily.

They state that their generic menu is a sampling of what they may serve and that there is no guarantee that every item shown on their website menu will be available on any given day. I found this to be true on a lunchtime visit where I thought I would pick from the website menu and save a little time during the ordering process at the restaurant. Well everything I chose, even alternative choices, were not available. What I did finally order I found quite underwhelming. I know that for many on this forum $25.00 for lunch may be cheap eats. I didn't expect perfection; I did expect it to at least taste good. It wasn't horrible, but it wasn't that good either. Example, sauteed red bell pepper strips with peel still on where the peel was so chewy I had to spit them out, cold mashed potatoes, no bread offered for the table, extremely slow service, etc. I had the occasion to have dinner there at a later date which was a slightly better experience, but then again I wasn't paying.

Maybe I just caught them at a couple of bad times.

Best of luck.

[redglass]

Haven't done happy hour there in a while, but last time I did they had all the dishes on their menu and for $2 it was pretty good, IMHO. They had the $2 cheeseburger, oyster shooters, caesar salads, etc. They keep their drink prices at their normal level- no jacking up to compensate for the lower food prices. With two $4 beers, a burger and tip, you can get out of there for under $15. Not bad for dinner in downtown DC.

[rlibkind]

It's real. The booze prices are their standard ones, i.e., slightly pricey compared to the corner bar but fair for their locations. I've only tried the happy hour at the Philadelphia venue (Broad near Chestnut, I think, virtually in the center of Center City) and was quite pleased. A very reasonable value. Of course, Sansom Street Oyster House is only two or three blocks away, and offers half-price Blue Points and raw clams for its happy hour.

[Lreda]

Another reason why I hate the chains. Can't beat it. I might have to go.....on second thought, perhaps a bunch of us should go. I, at least, would feel a certain sense of glee.

[tommy]

the M&S at Riverside square is so dark in the bar that i can't imagine it being very happy-hour like. when i think "happy hour", i'm thinking bright and festive. hell, even the cheesecake factory fits that bill!

but, M&S has a big bar and plenty of room for some egulleters to throw down for an hour or two. the friend calamari can be decent at times as well. but not as good as Legal's version.

[LJC]

It's a great deal and good quality too. Clams and oysters are $.50 each and the $2 burger is very good (for $2).