Location: 3118 N. Highway 97, Bend

Hours: 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Monday through Thursday, 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. Friday and Saturday, 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Sunday

Price Range: Lunch entrees $8.99 to $12.99; dinner entrees $9.99 to $26.99

Alcoholic Beverages: Full service

Reservations: Not accepted, but there is a preferred seating list for those who call ahead up to two hours in advance

Credit Cards: Visa, MasterCard, American Express, Discover

Contact: 388-4555

McGrath’s Fish House didn’t start in Bend, but it snowballed from here.

McGrath’s is a thriving, Oregon-owned chain offering halibut, crab, lobster, oysters and a slew of other seafood in such landlocked places as Idaho, Utah and Arizona. There are also establishments in California and Washington.

It started small, at a downtown Salem location that opened in 1980.

As far as owner and founder John McGrath is concerned, McGrath’s became what it is – a family-friendly dinner house – when he opened the second location in Bend in 1986.

”I always like to think of Bend as what really got McGrath’s started the way it is,” McGrath said in a phone interview. ”The first one we did in Salem was just a little, tiny space underneath the parking lot there. We were very successful with that, but we did our first free-standing building in Bend. It kind of changed what McGrath’s was from that point on.”

At McGrath’s Bend location, there are diners seated at window tables even at 3 in the afternoon. Framed photos of beefy fishermen, wooden fishing boats and giant fish landed on docks line the walls while paddle fans whirl lazily overhead.

General manager Jody Reeve has an easy familiarity with the menu, dining room and habits of the patrons.

Reeve notes that the menu underwent a slight change a few weeks ago and now includes sushi, three types of crab legs, wraps and sandwiches. The more popular wraps, such as the chicken caesar wrap, are served in a tortilla. The roasted portabella sandwich and the classic turkey club are also popular menu items.

A lot more than seafood is available from the ever-evolving menu, as entrees and in soups, salads and appetizers, or piggybacked in combos with prime rib or top sirloin. One can also buy Dungeness crabs and other fresh seafood by the pound for a homemade meal.

For landlubbers’ tastes, there are burgers, steaks and sandwiches.

– David Jasper