Gandy Dancer

The Gandy Dancer is a fantastic place to have a nice dinner on a special occasion. Throughout our visit, the staff was extremely attentive and professional. We started our meal with warm bread that was served with a delicious smoked salmon pâté on the side. The pâté was wonderful, and made the classic bread and butter basket much more special.

For our main course, we ordered the Parmesan crusted snapper with shrimp and the prime rib with shrimp scampi. The snapper had an excellent texture and flavor and was coated in a tasty cream sauce. It was served alongside a coconut ginger rice which complemented the fish well. My only qualm was that the dish was only served with two pieces of asparagus, which was disappointing to both the presentation and overall enjoyment the meal.

The prime rib was perfectly cooked and paired well with the scampi. It was served with whipped potatoes which were good, but not special in any particular way.

For dessert, we had the vanilla bean creme brûlée. It was absolutely delicious and one of the best we've ever had. Overall, we had a lovely dinner and we will definitely return.

Dined here for the first time recently, and while I certainly enjoyed the experience, I also have some mixed feelings.

FOOD/DRINKS: My friend and I shared the dynamite mahi mahi and the tenderloin duet.
- Mahi mahi -- tender and soft with some overcooked areas for both the mahi mahi and the asparagus. Crab topping provided great flavor and texture contrast. Rice tasted more like the fried rice from my elementary school lunches, with little coconut flavor
- Tenderloin duet -- Cooked perfectly (medium rare)! Loved the huge juicy shrimps too. Mashed potato was fine, but paled in comparison to the rest of the dish
- Mango mojito -- amazing! Perfect for those who love mint + lime. Super refreshing and took all my power to not chug it.

SERVICE: Very attentive, helpful, and friendly waiter. Due to the 1.5h dining time limit, the clearing of the table felt rushed (finished dishes were promptly cleared and dessert menus were provided, even though some were still finishing their mains). At least we weren't rushed out.

ENVIRONMENT: somewhat upscale with predominantly middle-aged/older diners. Interesting location next to train tracks with the occasional train passing by.

COVID PRECAUTIONS: 1.5h dining limit for cleaning, masks required, hand sanitizer available. Tables possibly 6ft apart, but it's hard to imagine them being any closer

OVERALL: Good food, drinks, and service, but poor value given the multiple shortcomings (nearly $55 for the mahi mahi + mojito, including tip). Would return, but not a place I'd seek out.

What a fantastic atmosphere!!!!  Loved the food, the wine list was great, the wait staff awesome but the history and the interior of this beautiful historical building were awe inspiring.  We were SO lucky to have three trains go by and loved the clapping (read to find out why you clap when the train goes by!!) while we enjoyed a delicious dinner.  The desserts were wonderful as well.  Walk around the interior and check out every room....it is one of the grandest places you'll ever be in.  Ann Arbor is so lucky to have this gem.

Came here in college, that was awhile ago!
Great food - both then and now!  Romantic atmosphere, friendly service, enjoyed a casual meal in the bar: big salad, added seared salmon.  Tasty, fresh and healthy.
Good selection of draft beers- we got a dark Sam Adam's Winter brew we really liked.
Good place fir a quiet conversation. Lots of history here, lots of railroad memorabilia here too, you can watch the trains go by from the dining room.
Get the Valet parking if you can't find a place.

I have eaten here in the past and had great service and great food. Today we came with two other couples expecting the same thing. We arrived 30 minutes prior to our reservation and enjoyed a drink at the bar. Good so far. We sat down exactly at our reservation time. Our waiter, Tony, briefly stopped to the table and we asked what the specials were. He wierdly walked away while mentioning a couple dishes and acted like we had bothered him. As he walked off, I asked to order scallops for an appetizer and he disappeared.  Ten minutes later our scallops arrived along with bread and crackers. Tony disappeared again for about15 minutes before returning to take our food and drink order. Drinks came and we enjoyed our drinks, appetizer and bread as we waited for our entrees. About 20 minutes later, Tony returned and said he lost his "paper" and needed to retake our order. We gave him the order again and asked for more crackers. Tony left and we didn't see him again for about 30 minutes without bringing any crackers or checking on our drinks. Another server dropped off the food at this time and asked if we needed anything. We told him we needed more water and would like to order drinks. He got us water and said he would tell our waiter we wanted to order drinks. As we were about finished eating, Tony finally came back and took our drink order. 10 minutes later he brought drinks but didn't have the drink order right. He left again and returned 5 minutes later with a dessert menu. We told him we were done and would like our checks. 5 more minutes passed and he brought out one check. We told him we were all couples and asked to have the check split up. 5 more minutes passed and Tony returned with the checks but had mixed up items on all of the checks. By this time we were pretty much fed up with waiting extended amounts of time for him each time we needed something so we each paid the checks we were given.

Food review: Three members of our party had prime rib . One had been ordered medium well and came medium rare. One of the medium rare prime ribs was very tough and my friend stated that it had a bitter flavor.  The coconut shrimp i ordered had very little coconut flavor and was more like plain fried shrimp. My wife ordered a cajun chicken pasta dish and loved it. A couple of us ordered butternut squash bisque which was fantastic.

If the service was better,  my review would have probably been a 4 out of 5. For the price we paid for eating here,  the service we received was disappointing and the waiter made it uncomfotable. A train did go by at one point which was cool, hehe.

My boyfriend and I went to Gandy Dancer on a date. Overall, we found the experience lacking.

The interior of the restaurant is very nice. The architecture is very interesting, and it's nice that there are multiple rooms. The room in the back has wall to wall windows, which is nice.

We ordered the lobster bisque, and butternut squash bisque to start (FYI, neither soup nor salad are  included with your meal unless you do their twilight prefix menu which ends at 5:30). They were delicious - very flavorful, hot and well seasoned. The browned butter crouton on the butternut squash soup was the highlight, my boyfriend said he wished there were more.

For dinner we ordered the dynamite mahi mahi, and the lobster and shrimp stuffed salmon. The mahi mahi came with coconut ginger rice and asparagus. The salmon came with mashed potatoes and asparagus. Both of us really enjoyed the fish we ordered, but were highly disappointed in the sides. My mashed potatoes were lumpy, and had no flavor at all, and tasted like there wasn't cream, butter or salt in them. It was literally like a mashed baked potato. The rice on my boyfriends plate had very little flavor, and I have no idea why it is called coconut ginger rice. It didn't taste like coconut or ginger in the slightest, it tasted like it was cooked in chicken broth. It didn't have any coconut or ginger in it, but looked like there might have been bell peppers in it. The asparagus was cooked fine, but had zero salt, pepper, spices, butter or anything else on it. It was just plain asparagus. For the price we were paying for the dishes, I expected the sides to be good.

Lastly was our waiter. He was a nice guy, but very inattentive. There were 2 other tables in our area that were his, and he spent ample time with both of those tables, and checked on them fairly often. For us, he was missing for about 20- 25 minutes at a time, even though he was in the area with the other 2 tables. We wanted to order dessert but by the time he finally came back we didn't have time because we had somewhere to be so we skipped it. We think this is because we didn't order alcohol. Even so, our bill was over $100, so we should have had better service.

We might be back, we might not. It just wasn't impressive and I don't feel like I need to tell people how great it was.

Mothers Day DISAPPOINTMENT!!!  One would expect to have a nice dining experience at the Candy Dancer after looking at photos of the exterior/interior of the restaurant along with the menu pricing, but looks can be deceiving.  I did NOT expect to see other patrons wearing sporting tee shirts, baseball hats, beach attire with flip flops, and so on.  The appetizer (calamari) was COLD and the serving dish that my gazpacho came in was dirty and sticky (GROSS).  The dishes accumulated on the table and were not cleared in a timely manor between courses.  For what we paid for our total bill; the service was fair to poor and the food needs improvement. I would NOT recommend this restaurant to spend your hard earned cash- Go somewhere else.
I am expecting to receive the same cut and past response from management as seen in others reviews/complaints: Thank you for choosing to dine with us, as we know you could have chosen anywhere to enjoy your meal. We are always looking for ways to improve and would appreciate any additional feedback you would be willing to provide at the link below.bit.ly/landrysfeed…

I had the blackened mahi. I ate everything on my plate. It really was good. The rice was ordinary but decent. 4 of us had no complaints. The atmosphere was good. The drinks were good. The service was excellent. Pricing was reasonable for a high end place. We will return.

Every dish tastes good! Grilled salmon is juicy, the squash soup is creamy, the crab cake is full of crab meat, the bread is soft, the sorbet is fresh... out of vocabulary, but overall it is a great dinner experience!

I love this place and have loved it for 30+ years.  The food is consistently excellent, the service gracious, the building historic and charming.