The Lakehouse Pizza Bar and Grill — Restaurant in The Entrance

(3.5 stars)

It’s not every day your beverages command their own seat at the table, but that’s exactly what occurred when I visited The Entrance Lake House last weekend. Spying a forty-buck Craft Gin Tasting Board ($40/6 x 15ml) where you get to select your own gins from a sixteen-strong list proved too hard for me to resist. “It’s a good way to get the day going: a taster and midday feels like 5.30pm,” offers our waitress with a grin as she delivers the chair-mounted collection, encircling a glass of ice cubes.

Taking in the lovely view of Tuggerah Lake’s wide passage to the Tasman Sea from our window table, I work my way through the collection. While I won’t bore you with a full run-down, my two favourites were the Scottish-made, Japanese-inspired Jinzu Gin, and Husk Distillers’ Ink Gin made in Tumbulgum in Northern NSW. Jinzu is flavoured with junmai sake, yuzu (Japanese citrus) and cherry blossoms with subtle juniper underneath, and drinks very nicely with some melted ice to lengthen it. Ink Gin is more complex and savoury, speaking of sea plants before moving on to be dominated by more volatile aromatics like juniper, pine, orange peel and pepper berry. While I like it as a sipper, by adding tonic you get to really appreciate the science behind this colour-changing gin.

Not one to be out-done, my dining companion also orders a chair full of drinks with a Tasting Board ($40/6 x 15ml) from the Lake House’s fifteen-strong Scottish Whisky collection. Arranged by region with a helpful map, it’s Islay that impresses the most with the Bowmore 12-Year-Old being an easy winner with peat, smoke and vanilla. Downed with a Six String Pale Ale chaser from the venue’s Invitational Craft Beer ($9) tap, it’s certainly a nice way to kick start your weekend.

The venue’s airy interior adds to the relaxed holiday ambience too, with wide archways, loads of natural light, slowly rotating ceiling fans and enough height for potted indoor palms. The room’s centrepiece is an original 1903 wooden staircase that harks back to the building’s origins as a guesthouse for tourists exploring the newly opened Newcastle railway line.

The menu offers up one-plate-meal mains like Beer Battered Flathead ($27), or the option to eat tapas style. Cut into three long thin fingers, the aforementioned fish is fresh and well-handled with a good intensity of flavour against credible chips, tartare and salad. The same batter doesn’t work quite so well on soft shell crab in Crab Two Ways ($16) as it’s a bit too heavy to really taste the crustacean interior. Combined with fairly bland claw meat, the crab is served in a nicely presented Asian-inspired green noodle salad that benefits from some additional seasoning.

Oysters ($36/dozen) don’t list provenance on the menu but were plump Sydney rocks on the day I dined. They were opened a bit early, so lost their tasty liquor making au natural a bit disappointing. Kilpatrick wanted for a bit more crispness on the bacon, while miso mornay was applied too heavily to taste the underlying bivalve.

Beef Carpaccio ($16) is a little on the small side for sharing, but it’s tasty and well-seasoned with truffle mayonnaise, toasted hazelnuts and Parmesan Reggiano cheese hiding under mixed leaves and edible flowers. Wedges of Crispy Squid ($16) are nicely tender and well-suited to the smear of lightly spicy harissa aioli they’re served upon. I’m less excited by the Roast Pumpkin Salad ($16) teaming walnuts, pear and not quite enough feta cheese with mixed leaves, so I’d probably skip it over in favour of dessert. The latter runs from Pannacotta ($16) topped with ice cream and tart stewed berries to creamy old-fashioned vanilla malt milkshakes.

While there’s better food to be found in other Central Coast venues, there’s a warmth and friendliness to this spot that’s appealing, with particular mention to the service delivered by our bubbly waitress Ashleigh, from...

Extremely Disappointing. We drove from Sydney to take a friend out to celebrate his 80th birthday. He is a local, but I said “leave it to me, I’ll find somewhere nice”, and booked a table at Lake House after searching online and reading reviews. The only thing that went smoothly was the online reservation. Upon arrival we had to wait for our table to be made up, despite booking in advance and arriving on time. Once seated we ordered one English Breakfast tea and two coffees. The waitress came back to inform they had run out of English Breakfast and offered alternatives. We selected an Earl Grey, and shortly later the two coffees and a pot of Camomile arrived. Go figure. We then ordered our breakfasts - two Cecilia’s Big Breakfasts, and two Breakfast Bowls. After twenty minutes the two Cecilia’s Breakfasts were served, but no sign of the Breakfast Bowls. The old “go ahead and eat before it gets cold”. Another ten minutes passes before the waitress advised us they could not do the Breakfast Bowls as they had run out of smashed avocado, and asked if we would like it with avocado slices. Confused, we looked at our forks and said ”that’s fine”, thinking we’ll smash them ourselves. We then checked the menu and realised the Breakfast Bowl is served with avocado not smashed avocado anyway. Again, go figure. The waitress returned again to advise they had run out of all avocado and could not do the Breakfast Bowls at all. By this time the most of the Cecilia’s Big Breakfasts had been consumed – but they were still attempting to chew through the bacon which was overcooked. Not crispy, just chewy. We reordered one Eggs Benedict and one Cecilia’s Big Breakfast, without the bacon and sausage. After another ten minutes or so and the two remaining breakfast were served, by now the first two had been eaten. The Eggs Benedict were as ordered, and OK, albeit with ham substituting the bacon as they had run out. What was served as Cecilia’s Big Breakfast without the bacon and sausage, was in fact a Breakfast Bowl, complete with avocado, but wait, it was missing the bloody eggs. At this stage we were looking around for a hidden camera thinking this must be a gee up. It was like a scene from Faulty Towers! The meal was taken away again and five minutes later brought back with the eggs. When we finally got to eat our breakfast it was on a par with everything else that had occurred, well below an acceptable standard. I certainly would not recommend or spend another hour and a half of my life driving to Lake House. Next time I will suggest my friend use his local knowledge to book a table...

Abysmal service and food Cannot believe i paid for what we got today. We wont be coming back. Not enough staff on to serve tablets, we waited 40 minutes for the drinks menu, and to get water. We then waited about an hour for someone to take hour orders, an hour later we get our entrees then 30 minutes later we get food. We ran out of water but no one was here to give drinks, or let alone checking. Your waiter then said "You should have told me you were out of water" Im not understanding how your waiters whom are paid to check these things or even ask, let alone she was never around to ask anything. Your staff today, had no idea what you were actually serving and could barely answer any of the questions we had about the dishes. We were told we would get veggies with one meal, what my nanna got was literally one baby carrot, three snap peas, a piece of broccoli and two small potatoes? (your waiter again said a decent portion) And im not understanding why she had to pay $30 for that. She said her duck was hard and dry. She didnt enoy it. 4 of us ordered your $25 fish and chips, half the plates were spinach. I know on mine my "salad" consisted of 3 slices of cucumber, two tomatoes slices in quarters and it was like "garnished" in carrot. You had at least a cup of spinach on the plate and called it a salad. I understand you were out of your thick chips, but what i got on my plate was not worth your $25. A handful of chips? Two very thin pieces of fish that were mostly batter? I honestly could have gone to maccas today for better chips. Speaking of Maccas another family member had your chicken wrap and said that we should have gone to maccas because the quality and meal size would have been better, let alone the price. We understand you location is pretty amazing, but honestly with food and service like that its no way near your price hike. Literally you guys were so busy and understaffed today, there was no one we could talk to about any of our issues with your place. (which this is getting long enough, i feel like i dont need to list more) We booked in weeks in advance, i personally traveled over an hour to your place, pretty excited to leave disappointed and hungry. I dont think ive ever left a restaurant...