The Lakehouse — Restaurant in Cleveland

I don't enjoy giving low ratings but sometimes I truly believe it's necessary.

Went to Lindsey's for dinner with my wife to celebrate our wedding anniversary and left frustrated with the lack of service and low quality of the food.

Let me start by saying we didn't receive our utensils nor napkins till after about 10 minutes after receiving our entrees, which means we had to eat our appetizers with our fingers, no small plates for splitting portions onto them and just literally licking our fingertips clean as we went. Awesome!

Anyways, my wife and I had a guacamole and the biscuits apps. The guac lacked flavor. It didn't taste fresh and was missing salt, cilantro and lime. So in essence we were eating avocado, tomatoes and some pepitas.

The biscuits were delicious. Unfortunately, as stated above, we didn't have any utensils nor napkins so we had to try and separate the biscuits, which come bunched up in a hot iron pan, with our fingers. Fun! Primitive dining.

We then got our entrees, my wife ordered the lobsters roll and I had the ribs. As you can see by the pictures, I only ate about 3 of the bones because the ribs were covered, smothered, with cheap tasting BBQ sauce that completely overpowered them and made the dinner completely uneatable.

Even my wife, who knows I like bbq sauce, said, "They really drenched those in sauce. Did they empty the whole bottle on them? I bet you can't even taste the meat." And she was right, it felt like it was a joke.

Going back to the lack of napkins and utensils, after sitting with the entrees on the table for about 10 minutes and not seeing our waitress, I got up and walked around to the ordering station where a manager (?) was standing and told him we had been waiting for our utensils and could he please get some for us.

At that point the waitress walked up to the table with them and I went back to eat. Nobody came to the table to apologize for the issues. Nobody came to the table to ask how our food was. Nobody came to the table, after I told the waitress the ribs were ruined by the amount of sauce on them and to please take them away along with my wife's finished food, to see if there was anything they could do to make the dinner better. Nothing.

They don't care. That's the only thing that comes to mind. They are too busy making money off people who just want to go there because of the views that the actual service and caring of the people is lost. That's the only thing I can come up with.

We paid. Left a good tip (Yup, because karma) and left. Never again.

One last thing, and this may make me sound like an a$$hole and I totally get it if people don't like my comment but seriously, it's extremely unappetizing for the food runner to be missing almost all of her front teeth. Sorry, I understand this is a rude comment and I also understand the cost of dental health is insanely expensive, but you have to see it, literally, from the diner's point of view. It's not appealing. It's not welcoming. Specially right before you're going to start eating.

Like I said, never again.

Two Stars because the biscuits were phenomenal and the receptionist was extremely nice...

August 2021: My supervisor was in town and had never been to Cleveland. So as host, I needed to find a good place to show off the Land and get a good bite to eat. Enter Lindsey's Lake House on the beautiful, picturesque East Bank of the Flats.

We went on a weekday while the parking prices and availability was not too bad ($5 - $10 USD). Also, we were very fortunate to have sunny weather with a nice summer breeze. It was still somewhat hot so we sat by the deck doors to get the best of both worlds - air conditioned coolness, shade from the sun, and exposure to the Cuyahoga River beaming with an assortment of boaters, rowers, and kayakers.

We ordered a few Haze Jude IPAs, the heavenly biscuits, and the firecracker shrimp for starters. Everything paired extremely well - the crisp, citrusy pale ale was smooth and not as hoppy as I would have expected, but delicious nonetheless. The firecracker shrimp arrived on a bed of house special cole slaw and tasted somewhat like the bang bang shrimp from the Bonefish Grill. It was very tasty, had a kick, but not too spicy. The shrimp paired well with the sweet, honey buttered bread.

For the entree, I ordered the shrimp and grits mainly because I was curious as to how they would prepare it. The food arrived fairly quickly and it was flavorful. The grits had a moist, yet thick texture to them and they did not have any seasoning on them except for the butter. I was almost disappointed until I found out that I needed to mix the zesty shrimp and veggies in with them. Once I did that, everything blended well and was seasoned just right 👌🏾.

Pros: The waiter (I forgot his name) was very friendly, courteous, and efficient. He gave us plenty of time to order and thoroughly explained the alcohol offerings. Clean restaurant with a bright white ambience. Clean white tables, white chairs, white beams all blended with a wooded decor. Good food. See my explanation above. Reasonable prices. Beautiful views of the river and the flats. Perfect place to take the significant other for a date night. Pet friendly. I had seen several doggy bowls inside on the floors. Outdoor patio looks amazing. Location. There are not any "mistakes by the lake" here.

Cons: Later in the evenings, it can get super busy. We went around 5pm and it was not too busy, but around 6:30ish, things ramped up a lot. The floors can be slippery so exercise caution when walking. It is a river front property with a lot of humidity. Cool air inside meets hot air outside and science happens on the...

Went here for dinner. Location is the main draw, right along the river.

The good Again, location was great. Along the water, great views, weather was perfect so we sat outside. Waiter was good, attentive, and did a nice job.

Food was good, but we had gone to another place for a pre dinner beer and had some fries, was not that hungry so we split a meal, a very good Caesar salad for starter, and spicy shrimp tacos. The food was good, no complaints at all. Had the key lime pie for the finish, a huge piece (way too much for one person). The pie crust was perfect, not soggy, but the pie was a tad too sweet…could have had a bit less sugar which would have made the key lime flavor pop instead of being covered by the sweetness.

Now the bad Walking through the inside of restaurant on our way to the patio almost made us turn around and leave. The overpowering stench of sour mopped floors filled the place! Wow…think somebody would notice, but obviously not…maybe that is why there was nobody sitting inside!

2nd bad was all the outside tables rock very badly due to the slanted patio, and we watched every server stuff handfuls of napkins under the legs every time somebody was seated. Obviously a known issue, but something nobody cares to fix!

3rd issue was the copious amount of sparrows filling the eating area. Constantly flying in and out of the tables, and when someone would leave they would literally cover the table, attacking the food remaining in the dishes. Again, a known issue, but nobody seemed to clear the tables right away, so again, no attempt to minimize the intrusion.

One other small issue was we were trying to choose between the two Chardonnays on the menu, and our server offered to bring us a taste of each…nice. Unfortunately this never showed up, and our server came back later and said there was only one bartender who was swamped. We just ordered a glass of each, but was then surprised at how quickly we got them…after being told the swamped bartender was supposedly unable to provide a taste…

Would I go there again…probably not. Would I recommend…probably not. Plenty of other places in the area to...