The Lacustre — Restaurant in Lausanne

Most tourists says it’s a beautiful place. If you’re not paying attention to the service and want to profit of a view, or just stop by for less than 30 minutes, why not?

But if you plan to have a long evening with friends, this can be helpful to read a honest review made by a local guest traveling the world frequently, to taste new experiences and discover interesting spots.

Speaking for myself, I don’t know where to start with the sharing of my disappointment with this place. I used to come eat here in the early 90s and had fantastic memories about it, especially with my related friends as well as with my family for a few lunch breaks over the weekend… but gosh it has changed a lot since… and sadly not for the better.

I visited the place 3x since June 2024, every time because I needed to join friends for business meetings, discuss real estate opportunities or was with friends planning our night out. So, as a customer, I have really try to do my best to give this place a chance to keep me as a regular, but maybe my expectations are to lower again for that.

Each time I visited it in 2024, I’ve been going with a good feeling and leaving disappointed.

The first time at beginning of the summer, the waitress was disrespectful and cold and took almost 15 minutes before allowing me to join friends for a business after work drink together.

The second time in middle of the summer, before leaving for a trip with friends, I ordered a small meal and the food was arriving cold.

Now was the third time we visited, and I was taking a basic chocolate drink with friends, but it sadly again turned into a waiting that was so long that we left telling the gentleman that’s was offering responsibly and respectfully to bring us 2 new hot chocolate drinks free of charge to makes it better again that we will give a honest review.

Last visit was on a Friday evening around 20:00 local time, the personal was at least serving fast the orders at the bar for the drinks, and the outside area was super cold to have a seat because all the furnitures are made of steel/aluminium. In summer you burn your skin on it and in winter you freeze your butt when seating outside (no blankets provided).

When you think about « Le Lacustre » you might think about a fantastic experience such as a visit of the Nautilus, but instead the place is giving you the feeling of being trapped with Bootstrap Bill Turner on the Black Pearl.

I can’t wait for someone to buy the actual business, close it, renovate everything, and reopen it for the next 20-50 years.

It can easily be turned it into a cozy space to become again a local institution on the bay, filled with emotions and a real interior design that welcomes you to stay, and come back with more friends amongst all other details.

Will I visit the place again with my friends? Sadly no more unless it’s refreshed seriously.

Do I recommend it for tourists? Hell no, you can take better snapshots from the lake on the side of the restaurant. Don’t get trapped with the pricing applied (pricing available online).

For the end bill, we paid 4 CHF for a fruit juice of 20cl that you can find for less than 2 CHF at the supermarket for 1L, and 4.50 CHF per cup of hot chocolate (made by a coffee machine, cup were half filled by steamed milk foam), total 13 CHF to freeze before deciding to terminate the evening in a warmer place and more welcoming environment because the inside was so loud we couldn’t enjoy and sadly the outside were not equipped with patio/mushroom heaters in middle of...

Nice view, but full of racist and sexist staff. Go there if you want to have your evening ruined...

We went to The Lacustre on August 1st early in the evening, knowing that it will probably be full because of the festivities of the Swiss national day. The waiter told us that most of the tables are booked but we can still look if we find a place. We found ourselves a table without any "reserved" signs at the corner, ordered some drinks, and later some food. At 9pm, right in the middle of our food, a waitress came instructing us to "leave, as all the tables of that corner are reserved for a private event!" We replied that there was no indication that our table was reserved (and that's why we had originally decided to stay at The Lacustre). However, she answered that all the neighboring tables are reserved from 9 pm with a sign, so we should've inferred that our table is also reserved as of 9 pm! While it was entirely the staff's fault not to indicate the reservations properly, we gladly accepted to move to another table on the terrace, should they find us one. She replied that there is no more place and we will only be granted a few minutes to finish our food and leave as soon as possible! We asked to talk to the bar manager. Afterward, five different people came to us, one after another, introducing themselves as the manager of the bar or the members of the security team, repeating the same thing to us: we should leave despite the fact that our table was not indicated to be reserved from 9 pm. Even a couple of them accused us of removing the "reserved" sign from the table to stay there! In the end, one of those guys promised that he will find us another table on the other side of the terrace if we go with him, grabbed our plates, and left. Having no choice, we followed him to the new table. But he only gave us a warm and stuffy table inside besides the pizza oven and said that's it! We objected about his mischievous behavior to the person who had introduced himself as the bar manager, but we only got bombarded with their racist insults and sexist comments to my girlfriend (let it alone that we never had a chance to finish our food that had become cold after all the incidents)

The staff should be ashamed of such conducts. I am also sorry for the City of Lausanne to have let such a team manage such a...

Very disappointing considering the prime location. Very disorganised. We were a party of 4 and the host sat us at a “very good table” with 3 seats. She left and never came back. You have to order in one section and collect drinks in another but for all the signage and items hanging from the ceiling or on the wall, they did not have anything about that. So you easily wait at the wrong spot losing time before being told.

Our server completely messed up the 3 drinks but we were told “that’s what he put in, you must have them now”. It’s very chaotic. Food bus employee, had no idea where tables were to deliver food, and we chose to leave and find another place to eat. The foot didn’t look great and many tables were empty and had food left. What really finished it for me was witnessing a bar tender spit into the sink behind the bar as an order was being served. She may have been stung since there were many flies and bees and wasps around the bar area, but still. In a busy bar I wouldn’t want to see a server spit.

Nobody wanted to talk broken English which is a shock since they had so many staff and I’d imagine is a tourist spot with the dock and boat trips etc.

High expectations but couldn’t get out of there quick enough. They also made us feel like we...