Maxwell's Beach Cafe — Restaurant in Arnolds Park

I had been looking forward to this meal for 3 years. Unfortunately, I was not impressed. We were a party of 6 with a reservation inside as it was rainy. We were seated promptly. Drink orders were taken without issue but the server was noticeably awkward. (Totally not trying to fault someone for being shy but they simply seemed uninterested in their duties). We ordered the pistachio crusted brie appetizer which was actually quite delicious. Entrée orders were next, three of our party ordered the prime rib as they are not exactly adventurous eaters. My wife ordered the salmon And I chose the tomahawk pork chop. The last of our party gave in to the description of the daily special from the waiter for a squash stuffed ravioli with shrimp and salmon.

Overall, the food came out and was delivered to the table in a timely manner. The prime rib meals actually looked very good. My pork chop was fantastic. My only issue with this meal was there was literally nothing green on the plate. My wife Described her salmon as having great texture, but no crispness from being “pan seared”. The main issue she found with her meal was that it was to come with seasonal vegetables. It was served with zucchini slices, one sliver of red pepper, and one sliver on an onion. (Small details matter when in this level of dining space) and her dinner salad was extremely overdressed, absolutely drenched and dressing. (She’s and Iowa girl, loves ranch but not that much!) Finally, we have to talk about the ravioli, The way the waiter described the daily special, every person in our party thought about ordering that meal. We expected a bed of the stuffed ravioli with perhaps some shrimp tossed in and a decent piece of salmon on top. Instead, a small plate with five or six raviolis in sauce was delivered. I watched my friend digging around in his food to try and decipher what was shrimp and what was salmon. This meal was $50. Most of us wondered if there was a second plate that never came.

I actually had to get up and go find our waiter to order another cocktail as he had walked past our table multiple times and never stopped. My wife’s drink sat empty the entire meal until I went and found the waiter. At this time, I also let him know that one of the members of our party was celebrating birthday to which his immediate response was, we don’t give away free desserts. This was not at all what I was looking for. I trying to ask for something simple yet special we could do for him during our meal such as a candle for cake that I would be happy to pay for. He told me he would bring the dessert menu. I still had to flag him down yet again to try and order a piece of cheesecake for my friend.

Overall the atmosphere inside is a bit lacking and dated, it seemed as though our waiter was rushing us at the end of the meal. I agree with a few of the lower end reviews about prices being a bit elevated for the overall dining experience we were offered.

We have dined at the other upscale establishments in town and have had much better experiences than our night at maxwells.

I’m not saying don’t go because most people love it. Check it out for yourself. But please hold our lakes area establishments accountable to offering great dining experiences that align with their...

If I could leave less than one star I would. We received the most disrespectful service at this over priced restaurant. We went there for dinner as a group for a friend's birthday, and a US Veteran reunion. Two of the steaks that were ordered were very overdone. When we asked the server to have them sent back and redone, the manager proceeded to pull our pregnant party member inside to prove that in fact they had cooked it correctly and that it was just the outdoor lighting that made it seem incorrect. After a 25 minute wait when the new steaks arrived, our pregnant party members' steak was covered in Cabernet sauce, of which she had ordered originally without. When she expressed again that it was not what she ordered, the manager insisted that it was good and that she should just eat it as is, not even offering to take it back again to make it right (this was a $40 filet, mind you). After a mistake was made on one of the parties' bills and it was brought to our servers attention, the manager came out and demanded to know if we were rude/mean to her because she came in crying. That server assured us that it had been a long day and that it wasn't us she was upset about. We did LOVE our server, she was fantastic! After collectively spending $400 one of our party members tried to speak to the manager about his disrespectful actions towards our party. We had people yell at him to get away from the the kitchen and the owner got involved and wanted to know what else had gone wrong besides our steaks being incorrectly done. The manager then placed his hand on our pregnant members lower back and when asked that he not touch her, he replied that he was escorting her out. She replied that she did not need to be escorted out, that obviously she was not drunk. He then remarked " Oh, I guess I didn't get you drunk off of the Cabernet sauce after all". Never have we ever experienced this amount of disrespect at such a "high end' establishment. Would absolutely...

2020 Update below Have dined here several times, this review is for an 8/27/2018 meal which is towards the end of the visitor season. Granted the Okoboji visitor season is very seasonal and dependent upon college/high school help, our last experience was unfortunately poor in nearly every respect. After receiving our drinks and appetizer, it was 50 minutes until our meals were served. Our food arrived just passably warm and the scallop entree had only three rubbery scallops among a pile of noodles. The salmon entree was very small. It took nearly 5 minutes to have a dropped fork replaced. On this night there were probably better dining experiences available for much better value. Overall the food was overpriced and took far too long to be served.

UPDATE August 28, 2020

Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me pretty well describes our latest experience with Maxwell's Beach Cafe. We had not patronized Maxwell's since our very unsatisfactory August 2018 experience. We decided to give Maxwell's another try. Our mistake. We were seated immediately but waited nearly 15 minutes for a server to appear for our drink order. Another nearly 30 minute wait until drinks appeared - such as 2 glasses of wine and a beer. We decided to immediately order - Colossal Shrimp, Halibut & Salmon. The dinner entree's were served after another 30 minute wait. However one dinner was missing a fork (captured when the salad plates were removed) and the replacement took nearly 5 minutes. That dinner then discovered that his baked potato was nearly stone cold and after mentioning it to the server no offer was made to replace it. All in all it took 90 minutes from start to finish a very medium $150 3- meal service despite an average number of dinners. There are much, much better meal values and experiences in the Okoboji area. We won't be...