Harbor Lights Grille — Restaurant in Carp Lake Township

My wife and I were vacationing at a family cottage in Carp Lake. We ate 3 breakfasts and 2 suppers there.

The food is excellent! On Sunday mornings, they have breakfast pasties, filled with eggs, hash browns, breakfast meats and topped with sausage gravy. It's a must have!

The second time we were there, we had the Broaster Chicken with fries and onion rings. Delicious! If you're familiar with Broaster Chicken, then you know how good it is! Outside of that, the sidewinder fries were fantastic. They are fries that seem to be cut in a crescent shape. I never had them like that before and I cannot recommend them highly enough! I ordered the onion rings for myself and was definitely not disappointed. They were beer battered and beautifully fried with a nice sweet onion in the center. Yum!

The third time was for another breakfast. My wife had a breakfast skillet thing that had an egg on top. That was very tasty! I had Cinnamon Roll French Toast with sausage links and an egg. It was amazing! I never thought of using a cinnamon roll as the bread in French Toast. It only needed a light drizzle of syrup. The French Toast batter complimented the cinnamon roll perfectly!

The fourth time we were there, my wife had the New York Strip and I had the Cajun Blackened Whitefish. The steak was done perfectly. It was medium rare and seasoned so skillfully that it did not need anything added at the table -- not even a grain of salt! I had my Whitefish, which was just as excellent! It was seasoned with authority, creating a outer crust that complimented, but did not overpower, the Whitefish. As far as sides, I had a wild rice pilaf, which was made in their own stock, and a salad. My wife had a baked potato, and some very good, homemade chili.

Our last stop was when we were leaving to go back home. We stopped for breakfast. My wife had the steak and eggs. The steak was just as good as the New York Strip from the previous time. I had a French toast with bacon and an egg. That French toast was amazing with it's eggy goodness. The bacon was cooked perfectly.

We also ordered dessert on 2 occasions. For the first occasion, we ordered the lemon meringue and the coconut pies. They were very good! The lemon tasted like my MIL's super secret recipe! That says a lot because I don't like lemon and my MIL's recipe (and now Harbor Lights) are the only ones I will eat! The coconut pie was amazing as well! You can tell a master baker made those!

The second time we had dessert, we decided to try a couple of their numerous cheesecakes. My wife ordered the Lavender Cheesecake, which was very good! I wasn't certain about the Lavender flavor, but it worked really well with the creaminess of the cheesecake. I ordered the cinnamon roll cheesecake. It's a taste combination that everyone should try. It is a perfect balance of the cinnamon and the cream cheese. It was just beautiful!

The restaurant is right on Lake Paradise, with a dock that welcomes boaters and has amazing views of the lake. The interior is pristine, with all sorts of sea/lake decor that offers a warm and inviting atmosphere to all who enter.

Finally, the greatest part of these experiences are the people that work there. Every one there were so genuinely nice and helpful! By the end of the week, we were starting to be on first name terms with all the waitresses. And you will be hard pressed to find a harder working crew, especially during rush times.

I can honestly say that, if you're in the area, Harbor Lights is a gem waiting to give you a pleasant experience with amazing food and...

Very disappointing dinner. We had previously had lunch and it was delicious, the whitefish baskets were great... however dinner was marginal at best. We were seated quickly had a great table with a view. Our waitress came took our beverage order. We decided on our dinners and ordered promptly. My husband had the Parmesan encrusted whitefish with mashed potatoes. I had the smothered chicken breast with onions, mushrooms cheese sauce and crisp onion straws. We both ordered salads with blue cheese dressing. After waiting about 20 minutes we asked the hostess where our rolls and salads were. She told our waitress and our salads finally arrived, but still no rolls. We had to ask for them. She then kind of tossed a basket of rolls that were wadded up in a napkin... very poor presentation. Our salads were good, the blue cheese dressing was very good. When our meals arrived shortly there after our waitress said the plates were very hot. Both of our meals looked like they been sitting out awhile and put in the microwave to reheat. Only the plates were hot the food was just warm. The veggies appeared to be old and over cooked. The panko on the Parmesan encrusted whitefish looked very dark and over cooked. The fish needed a lemon wedge. The gravy for the mashed potatoes tasted like canned and it was very congealed. Our waitress stopped back and asked how our meals were about a minute after she delivered them....it’s too bad this experience was not so good... the restaurant is very nice and clean we just had bad service and food was not really good. We will try it again for lunch but probably...

I do not usually write negative reviews but I was incredibly disappointed today at lunch at Harbor Lights. My husband has a serious nut allergy. Prior to ordering dessert we inquired with our waitress if there were nuts in the type of cheesecake. Waitress said she did not know but went to ask someone. A second waitress came up to our table and said “No” with no context and walked away. My husband took a bite of the dessert and immediately started to have a reaction. When we cashed out I mentioned to the second waitress (who was also cashing us out) that as an FYI the cheesecake did in fact have nuts or had come into contact with nuts at some point. She looked at me blankly and said “No there wasn’t”. I mentioned that at this point my husband was now in the parking lot taking Benadryl and trying to rinse out his mouth. She again so “No”. I walked out. Incredibly disappointing considering how prevalent food allergies are now. I understand that there is no way of completely knowing the ingredients however when a customer lets you know that there was an allergen in a dish you listen if nothing else but to protect the next customer. Families with food...