Visits

Maw's Place (in Milan)

Friday Night's Lake Erie Perch Special

First, the bad news....boy, is this restaurant hard to find. I'd been driving by it for six months before I finally saw it one day. Maw's Place is located a 1/4 south of the Ohio Turnpike on the west side of Rt.250 which should make it easy to find, but the building sets well back from the road and unless you know it's there, you may not even see it because it's sandwiched between two large, white motel buildings near the road. They've recently put a new sign out by the road and I hope that will pay for itself quickly in additional business. They also need a light at the entrance of their drive. Not a problem in the summertime, but a real problem for people in the eastbound lanes of Rt. 250 during the early darkening winter months.

Now for the good news...they have an all you can eat, very good Friday Night Lake Erie  Perch Special. First, you get a lot of perch, so if you like perch (which I do) and you get hungry for it (which I do) this is a good place to spend a Friday evening. The plate they bring you has four full, breaded and deep-fried, perch filets (8 - half pieces if you count by half size), a good portion of excellent browned French fries (note condiment comment below), tasty dipping tarter sauce, side rolls and a small side-dish of creamy cole slaw. All of this for $10.95 and if that's not enough they'll gladly re-stock your plate with more perch because like the ad says - "all-you-can-eat!" This is a well thought out special with just the right amount of food to feed most customers. Well, I'm 6'5", 250lbs. and it filled me up so I'm pretty sure it will work for most people.

During my lifetime I've owned several restaurants and I know from experience that most specials don't live up to the hype. This one does and I heartedly recommend it to everyone who's longing for a perch dinner. There's parking across the front and along the side with windows on both sides. The interior is functional with well spaced booths against the window areas and tables in the center of the room under ceiling fans which add to the atmosphere and comfort. There's also a banquet room in the back. Other specials such as meatloaf, cabbage rolls and liver & onions are available other evenings plus a full menu available daily from 6am to 9pm.

2007 UPDATE: Several other points I would also make in this review that would fall under general observations. First the name "Maws" is not named for the founders mother or grandmother, but rather is the initials of the person that owns this restaurant. There is an elderly woman who works as a cashier at the Milan restaurant who some customers call "maw", but I assume that would be with affection rather than thinking the restaurant was named for her. Second, I've also noticed that they don't always keep their posted hours during the winter season. This is unfortunate because my wife and I (because of job requirements) often cannot get to the restaurant until 8pm in the evening and occasionally they have already closed by then. I don't fault them for shutting down when the weather is bad or when there is little business, but you may want to call and verify that they're open before driving to the restaurant near closing time.

2008 UPDATE: Most people buy condiments by brand name (for example: Heinz ketchup, French's mustard, A-1 Sauce, etc.) because they like the way a particular brand tastes. Unfortunately ketchup prices have been going up and some restaurants are now putting ketchup into red squeeze bottles (usually considered an unsanitary practice) so that you don't really know what brand of ketchup it is or how fresh it is or because they are trying to cut corners with the cost of a generic ketchup. Maw's has their ketchup in those red squeeze bottles and the ketchup is very bitter to my taste buds. I prefer Heinz and theirs is not or if is, it's gone bad. I think if a restaurant is going to serve condiments to their customers, they should leave it in the bottle so that the customer is assured of the brand. The problem for me and customers like me, is that if the ketchup tastes bad, so does the french fries or onion rings or anything else we would eat with ketchup. So in effect, by having an off brand of any condiment, it reflects badly on other food that the restaurant serves. Frankly, I would bring my own ketchup if I knew a restaurant was not using my preferred brand. (As a side note, Heinz now makes restaurant ketchup in new plastic bottles where the lids can't be removed which insures brand and freshness to the customers.) Now if we could just get restaurants to stop using the generic red squeeze bottles.

2010 SUMMER UPDATE: Several times in the last few months I've had the Perch dinner as a take out on Friday night. Each time it's been worse. The last time the perch were broken in pieces and the french fries were cold and undercooked. And as bad as the food was, my experience at the restaurant was even worse. The last three times I've taken carryout at Maw's the hostess, waitress or person waiting on me asked if I want to leave a tip. Clearly they're trying to embarrass me into leaving a tip and this is the worst kind of intimation that I've seen in a restaurant. Let's look at this a minute. I live about five miles from Maws which means I drive 10 miles round trip to take their takeout. That cost's me about $2.00 in gas. And if I feel my time is worth the same as the waitress, then I'm losing money every time I go to a restaurant for a pick-up. The waitress is already at the restaurant and she spends about a minute or two putting my dinner in a bag for my pickup. Clearly, rather than get a tip from me, she should offer me a discount on the food I buy. The bottom line is that I can get a large pizza which will feed my wife and I nicely for only $10.00 and nobody asks me to give a tip when I pick up the pizza. Here I spend about $22.00 and the food has been mediocre lately and the person waiting on me is insulting me by asking for a tip. Actually, I think I'll just get a pizza next time... 

Note: Ask for the free VIP Customer Card for additional savings