Lunch at Clementine's

We left our B&B in Fenville, MI Sunday morning and decided to make our way back to Ann Arbor, via a short detour to South Haven.  Like so many of the towns on the western coast of Michigan, it has a quaint main street with several nice shops for gifts, including a Decandent Dogs, for unique dog gifts; Renaissance and Papyrus (clothes, gift cards, etc); and Just Bead It, a bead store for making jewelry -- which happens to be a hobby of Cathy's.  She bought some unique stones there.  

Dan's View

For our final meal of the Valentine's Day/Behan birthday weekend, we decided to stop at Clementine's. There are two locations -- South Haven and St. Joseph (about 30 minutes south) -- and the restaurant has a Bennigan's-like atmosphere.  The menu has the typical entrees you'd expect from this type of restaurant.  I decided to have the Mess of Lake Perch (picture below) accompanied with a pint of Ruppert's Dark while Cathy had the Haymaker and a glass of Kendall Jackson Chardonnay.

My meal had 8 or 9 pieces of perch, lightly breaded and deep fried.  I would have preferred a crispier breading, but the perch was still very tasty.  The meal came with a small crock of beef barley soup, fairly spicy with black pepper, and generous portions of sirloin.  Cole slaw was decent, but the garlic bread was somewhat soggy.

The Ruppert's Dark was a full-bodied dark ale which I enjoyed -- especially at $3.50 a pint.

Cathy's view

I have an instant aversion to any chainy restaurant, so wasn't excited by this menu which reminds me of Bennigan's. I was really excited about the great bead store, wonderful lake views and the dog store nearby. Yet hunger calls. I ordered the "Haymaker" because it had the most veggies for something not a salad. It was basically a simple pasta alfredo (with little taste) but a lot of (perfectly steamed) broccoli, spinach, snow peas and grilled chicken.

It could have served four, but was inexpensive enough for me not to feel bad about leaving most of it -- it wouldn't survive in the car on the three-hour drive home.

After a great walk along the lakeshore taking pictures, keeping warm in the breeze and checking out this really cute town, Clementine's offered a reasonable, healthy (the way I ate it) meal with great service.