Aquarium Restaurant

Angel in Indy
First Reviewer
3 out of 5
Avg. Member Rating
7
Reviews

Read Before you Eat Here

  • February 18, 2008
  • Rated 1 of 5 by tidnee from nashville, Tennessee
My husband and I ate at the Aquarium tonight. While the tank was beautiful the food was terrible. It ended up taking us forever to get waited on and the food was cold. We also made it a point to eat there while the fish were being fed as we had been told how amazing it would be. I suppose it could have been except the eatery allows others to stand in front of the tank completely blocking the view. They were only serving at a twenty percent compacity and there was NO crowd control during this time. Seriously was terrible!
I will say if you have young children and are not there for the food then this is the place to take them. The diver takes pictures from inside of the tank which all the children loved. Just keep in mind that you are there for the tank and not the food.

Aquarium Restaurant

  • May 9, 2007
  • Rated 4 of 5 by cmeekins03 from Wauwatosa, Wisconsin
This was one of the few restaurants that we wanted to make sure to take the kids. We had read varying reviews but who could pass up taking toddlers to a dining area with a 20,000 gallon fish tank?

We had a short wait to get into the restaurant but they have a tank with I believe they said 4800 gallons and the archway one which was right around 8000 gallons. I thought the allure wasn't going to last when the girls started getting fidgety while waiting to be seated. Turns out they just wanted to get up by the really big tank with more tropical fish, some small sharks, and quite a few rays. My husband and I each took a turn walking them around the tank after we ordered to pass some time - and it's pretty impressive.

As for the food, I don't like many fishes so I chose to try crab filled shrimp. I was going to just try the regular shrimp but another customer was actually telling the table behind us that the shrimp was really dry! Anyhow, what I ordered was alright, but nothing worth trying again. The kids ate their fish, probably nothing spectacular, but they ate it. My husband definitely chose the best item - blackened Mahi Mahi. I even thought it tasted great. My husband was bold enough to say that it tasted better than the one he tried in Miami a few years ago.

Once dinner was done we headed out much to the disappointment to our youngest who still wanted to walk around the fish tank longer. I thought for sure it would get old by the time dinner was done but no...maybe she'll be a marine biologist someday.

In summary, the only menu item we found that was great was the Mahi Mahi. Still, we would definitely go back if we were in the area again because the kids enjoyed it so much. It also pointed out to us the fact that maybe a trip to the Shedd Aquarium in Chicago would be a good idea to do soon since we are down that way routinely.

From journal Nashville Tennessee With Toddlers

Editor Pick

Aquarium Restaurant

  • April 19, 2006
  • Rated 5 of 5 by amjohnson from Holly Grove, Arkansas
This was a really neat restaurant for people of all ages. It is located in the Opry Mills shopping mall in Nashville. We arrived without reservations, so we had to wait to be seated, but they gave us a pager that worked in the entire mall, so we actually shopped around the mall while waiting, and that really made the wait go by fast. When the pager went off, we got in line to get a host or hostess to seat us, and that line took a few minutes, but we were surrounded by tanks of fish to look at during this wait. Once we were seated, we got our menus and our waiter came by quickly. We ate there the night of Valentine’s Day, so the place was pretty crowded.

The restaurant has a 200,000-gallon aquarium with over 100 species of fish, so it is pretty neat. It gives you the feel of eating under the ocean. The fish are all around you and it is a little dark, so it is a pretty neat place. I have had a few people who said they did not like this place because they didn’t like to watch fish swim around while eating fish, so you have to overlook that part to really enjoy the experience. I ate shrimp, so that wasn’t a problem for me.

They had several specials the night we were there for Valentine's Day, and I ordered what our waiter recommended, which was broiled stuffed shrimp. The others ordered a seafood platter, and I ordered my young son mini cheeseburgers and fries. All of the food was really good, and my stuffed shrimp was the best I have ever had—wonderful. My rice was a little on the gummy side, though. The kid's menu was really good. It had a pretty good variety mac and cheese, cheeseburgers, corn dogs, shrimp, fish, and more. The adult menu also has a large variety of choices. They offered many seafood platters, chicken, beef, sandwiches, soups, fish, shrimp, and pasta. They had a wide choice of each of these, too. There were several things I wanted to order, and that is why I just let the waiter give me a suggestion.

The food came pretty quick, but we had to flag down someone and ask for drink refills. They were very busy that night, so I overlooked that since the food tasted so good. This is a restaurant I plan to visit again on my next trip to Nashville.

From journal February Trip to Nashville, TN

Aquarium Restaurant

  • March 20, 2006
  • Rated 2 of 5 by s&s2681 from memphis, Tennessee

This restaurant apparently is usually crowded enough for a significant wait, but we arrived at 9pm and were seated right away. The service was quick, efficient, and friendly for the most part. The exceptions were the hostess (hello, first impression? Bad attitude, and a lack of any interest in their job other than the group of teen boys hanging around outside), and the hosts at the Sea Ray Experience (same thing, basically, except busy on a cell phone and the carousel operator talking to friends).

The concept is "underwater dining." There are huge tanks filled with all sorts of marine life, which allow you to watch black-tipped sharks swim by while you dine... on seafood. Seems a little cruel, but anyhow, our waiter was great— very patient with the kids' questions, and knew a lot about the fish and habitat. The food was pretty good, and the portions were more than generous, but as most chain, themed, mall located places are often, overpriced. Kids meals were a reasonable $5 or $6, but entrees and appetizers were somewhat pricey ($20 to $30 entrees) for average quality.

Also, kids (not mine!) were running around and crowding the tanks, making it hard to see and overall a less than pleasant experience. Obviously, this could occur anywhere and is not the fault of the restaurant. Overall, an OK experience, but I doubt we'll be back. BTW, there is a separate "experience" located across from the restaurant that allows hands-on touching and feeding of sea rays, a carousel, three very lame carnival type games, and a few tanks of reptiles and fish. All for an additional cost of $5 per person, and the games are additional $3. Between this (already at the gate before we realized it was not a free attraction, or part of the dining experience) and dinner, our family of four spent $150.

From journal Weekend Getaway with Kids

Aquarium Restaurant

  • August 3, 2005
  • Rated 2 of 5 by KP8 from Springfield, Illinois
Expensive, limited menu. Beautiful, gigantic aquarium. Long wait to be served. We were very disappointed in the food, but very impressed with the fish and sharks, etc., in the tank. You can go look at the tank for free without ordering anything, and it has a cute souvenir shop.

Our table had steak, fish and chips, and grilled fish--mahimahi. The grilled fish was good, but everything else was not.

From journal Music City, USA

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