Marlin's Family - Fargo

Poor Service, Tasty Gravy. When I walk into certain restaurants, (especially chains) I can usually make a fair assessment on how the food is going to be. Recognizing the potential of Marlins (formerly Northtown Grill), I opted to go for a hot beef sandwich. The water is brought to you in Mason Jars (how cute) and food is served diner-style. Although it took forever to be served and waited on properly in an empty (24-hour) restaurant, my meal was quite good. The gravy was is exactly what I ask of diner-style restaurants. Don 't let Marlin 's fool you; It 's not a 'family grill, ' it 's an above-average 24-hour diner with pretty darn good food. If you see Marlins for what it really is, you can appreciate it.

Great selection of American food with good portions. Enjoyed my noon-time breakfast.

Food was absolutely delicious, chicken fried steak, mashed potatoes, gravy and salad... excellent. Server was very nice and attentive, checked on me multiple times. I really like the separate areas for truckers and non truckers, it's nice to be able to eat and enjoy some quiet time, away from the rude and discourteous people who drive cars and act like fools on the road. Will definitely be back on future trips.

Great food. Mediocre service.. We went to Marlin's on a Thursday around 5pm. As we walked into the restaurant, the hostess seated us immediately in a comfortable booth. Looking around the restaurant, we noticed that there were only a few other tables taken. Our waitress was prompt on coming to our table and brought our drinks within minutes. The drinks are nicely priced at $1.99 w/ unlimited refills and are served in Mason jars, which we thought was a nice touch. It was our first time in the restaurant so we spent a good while looking over the menu and our waitress was very polite and patient as we took time to look it over. We decided to order the appetizer sampler first and put in our entree order later. While there wasn't much wait on getting the sampler, it seemed to take a while for our entrees to come. The appetizer sampler was tasty, but looked quite different from what the menu had shown. We both had chosen to order a burger with fries. The burgers are a little on the smaller side but you get a hefty amount of fries on the side to make up for it. The waitress brought us our check within a couple minutes of us starting to eat, which I didn't like. We had to end up placing another order at the end to get our dessert. The biggest problem with the restaurant is not the food or the atmosphere, it's the wait staff. The restaurant was very empty and we still had to wait over 15 minutes for the waitress to come back and take our bill. We ordered the Fried Cheesecake Ice Cream dessert which was very sweet and decadent and very delicious. We were expecting a small serving but it came on a large dinner plate and was nicely presented with caramel, chocolate, and whipped cream. We will definitely be returning to Marlin's again we just hope that our waitress will be a little more on the ball. Overall, we'd give Marlin's an 8/10. Great food, great prices, great portions, poor wait staff.

Had this turkey Parmesan melt. It was really good and juicy. The waitress was nice and in a hurry