The Cedars Floating Restaurant — Restaurant in Coeur d'Alene

In all of my decades coming to the resort, I had never been to TCFR. After visiting tonight, I wish I had come here sooner.

First, the gimmick of a floating restaurant (no less one that dates back to the 1960s) is actually pretty fun. And the vibe inside—all wood paneling and gold accents—is quite relaxing. Walking down the dock and into the restaurant, it is hard not to feel at ease. And the views from the windows are spectacular.

Second, Shelly. Hands down, one of the nicest waitresses I have ever met. A local, with a quick smile and a good sense of humor. She had the beats down pat. Quick to check in and make sure that we had what we needed. Made sure that our apps, salads, mains, and desserts were paced appropriately. She seemed to love her job. And I really enjoyed getting such excellent service.

Third, the food. The old school “salad bar with your entrée” always makes me smile. And it is a smaller, if similar, salad bar to the one at Dockside (if that matters to you). The calamari was very well prepared. The halibut was out of this world. The peppercorn sirloin was a perfect medium rare. The side of mushrooms was nicely portioned and delicious. The potatoes, loaded or otherwise, were just so-so. The mile high mud pie? A must for dessert.

Fourth, Shelly again. Two in my group ordered filets that were supposed to be medium-rare and turned out medium. To me, that isn’t a big deal, as the margin for error is quite small. But, for them, and for the price, it was not acceptable. They told Shelly. She agreed. And, again with a smile on her face, she let us know at the end that she comped our appetizer, our sides, and our corkage fee. We didn’t ask. We didn’t expect it. But she did what a waitress does when she wants to make sure her guests are happy. Shelly deserves a raise!

As an aside, they have an incredible wine list that is not overly expensive. We brought one of our own and had one of theirs. A place like this could charge far more for some of the prestige labels (like Silver Oak, both Alexander Valley and Napa) that they have on their list.

Think of this place as Dockside-plus-plus. Or, maybe, a solid meal when you don’t want to be showy and go to Beverly’s in your Fauxkane Fashion Outfit (if you are familiar with the area, you will know what I mean . . . think sparkles and two-tone hair). It is a fun throwback, with good food, great ambiance, and (at least for us) one of the best servers I have ever had the luck to meet.

Thanks for a wonderful final meal on this most recent visit. I will be back. Recommended.

And, Courtney, no need to reply. You are good at your job. But the standard replies you are required to send out--to every review--don't really...

I had received a gift certificate from my boss a few years back and had nearly forgotten I had it. Our anniversary sermed to be a fitting time to utilize it since we rarely go to expensive restaurants. I was hoping for a much better experience and food quality. I don't typically care to review places I'll never return to but when spending this kind of money on a meal, I feel obligated.

The reservation system was quite advanced but a tad cumbersome to do online. If I'm out and about or driving, I'd like to be able to just phone in. If you are at all the type of person who gets car sick, think twice. It IS a floating (and rolling) restaurant. It helps that every seat has a view of the surrounding mountains to ease the motion. The ambiance was OK internally, nothing to write home about. A nice touch was the Happy Anniversary card and rose petals at the table. They get a lot of special occasions and it was obvious the cards get recycled often.

The server was attentive enough but seemed rushed to get you the bill. The people whom refilled our water was on it, almost annoyingly. The table was also covered in water but not due to spillage but rather sweating glasses and the polyester napkins did little to sop it up. A simple coaster would help alleviate that. The buss staff was less than professional, carrying several dirty dishes from table to table collecting, and literally dumping my partners fork back on the table for reuse. We even had to return silverware, a bread plate, and a chipped glass back (and we aren't the type to be picky about water spots, this was food).

It was quite nice to be able to assemble your own salad from the salad bar where I found it all quite fresh, but we were also the first seating/reservation of the day. The drinks were fairly weak. The meal wasn't plated spectacularly (I forgot to take a pic of the main course) and the temperature of the food cooled rather quickly leaving cold clumpy mashed potatoes and barely warm New York steak. My partner did say his lobster tail was cooked perfectly although! A nice touch again was the complementary huckleberry ice cream taster for our anniversary.

The portions were adequate enough, but I do not feel worth the price as I could have spent as much at a lesser touted restaurant and feel I would receive more value, quality, and pleasurable...

I called Cedars after I got engaged in January and I spoke to someone at the front desk. I told them we wanted to reserve the patio for our wedding dinner with family members (about 40 people). They told me this was no problem and that they reserve the patio for large groups quite often. They put me down for our wedding date and said they would run it by the lady who was in charge of handling large reservations and if there were any issues at all she would call me. I never heard anything so I called back a few months later to check on the reservation. I spoke to a different person at the front desk and they said they didn’t have anyone down for the patio on that date. I told them I had already booked it so they said they would put my name down again and let the reservation lady know. I never heard back. My fiancé and I came here for our anniversary dinner and I casually mentioned to our waiter that we had the patio reserved for our wedding and that we were so excited. He looked at me confused and told me he would send the reservation lady over. I think she’s a manager, maybe her name was Lynette? I can’t remember. She came to the table and was immediately rude, saying “Well if you didn’t speak to me then you don’t have a reservation.” And then hit me with a huge bomb. She told me they charge a $2500 site fee to reserve the patio (for one hour?!) and that the fee doesn’t go towards the total bill. I told her that none of the people I spoke to had ever mentioned any kind of fee and that now my wedding is two months away, invitations are sent out with Cedars information, and now we don’t have a reservation for dinner because of the horrible communication from Cedars. If they decide to fix this issue and let us keep our booking I will remove this review, but if you’re still reading this it means they ruined our special day, and poorly handled the entire situation. I will never go back if this...