Pavilion Indiana Dunes - Beach Café — Restaurant in Chesterton

Since I had to physically go to the pavilion to get answers I was seeking online and by phone, I will put them here and hopefully someone finds it helpful. The restaurant that is open Wednesday through Monday is a full menu restaurant with indoor seating as well as an outdoor patio on the ground floor where you can see the lake at eye level. The rooftop lounge that's only open Thursday through Sunday has a rather limited menu which can be found on the website, and there's also a full service bar on the roof. There are waiters/waitresses on the rooftop, but you can only order from the rooftop menu through them. However, if you order food from the main restaurant to-go, you can bring it up to the rooftop as long as it's not at capacity. So if you want to eat from the main menu, but also on the roof, I would suggest getting seated on the roof first and then order food to-go from downstairs and have someone from your party go get it and bring it upstairs. As far as I can tell, neither place takes reservations, because in order to do so they would need to answer the phone. I called about 20 separate times over the course of 3 days and no one ever answered the phone. Finally drove up there around 630pm on a Friday, there was an hour wait at the restaurant and a 30 minute wait for the rooftop, so I opted for the rooftop. There was no buzzer or texting type system, so the hostess said to come check in every 10 minutes to see if a spot had opened, which was annoying, but I was actually able to get in after my second check in, so only a 20 minute wait. Once on the rooftop, there was no one to seat you, you just had to find an open spot, which in my case was just a few chairs around a fire pit. A waitress did eventually come and take my order, but there were no tables available at the time so I just ordered a drink and truffle fries and ate at a small end table next to the chairs; more like a nightstand, not an actual table. The actual tables are "who ever gets to it first", so we could have moved to a table immediately after a group left if no one else beat us to it, but by the time that happened, we had already finished eating. I was there for about an hour, and there were multiple actual tables where people were just having drinks, groups already there when I arrived and still there when I left. You would think they would reserve the tables to people who were ordering food, or at least put a time limit at them for those only having drinks, but that did not seem to be the case. I ordered the truffle fries, the person I was with ordered the chicken wings, and we both enjoyed our food quite a bit, it was fairly priced, and it actually did not take long at all to get our food. The view of the lake was beautiful, albeit hard to see from where we were seated, we would have had a fantastic view had we been lucky enough to get an actual table. The waitress was very nice.

All things considered, I will almost definitely be going back! It would be nice to be able to make reservations, and even better if you were able to order off the main floor menu directly from the lounge, but it's not uncommon to have separate menus at this sort of setup. Mostly they need to figure out a better seating arrangement so that those ordering food can eat at an actual table and those just having drinks can be seated by the fire pit with a nightstand. Again, food was great, waitress was friendly, but the seating arrangement was ONLY worth it due to the fact we were on the roof. If I had had the same experience at a restaurant that didn't have a rooftop view of the lake, I wouldn't even...

First time eating here. Very mixed review. The atmosphere was fantastic. We ate outside on the deck overlooking the lake. We could see all the way to Chicago. There is inside seating as well, fair warning the music is loud inside. First frustration was trying to get a cup of hot water for my mother in law. We were told the machine was broken and we couldn't get one. After asking if they could get the hot water a different way we finally got one - they also said no charge for the hot water - but we were charged 2.49 for it. We started off our meal with 2 orders of truffle fries which were excellent. My husband tried to order the steak sandwich but was told that was the lunch side of the menu and that it ended at 4 (would be helpful if the menu indicated that). My mother in law had questions about a dish and the server couldn't answer them (she apparently hadn't worked there long and wasn't knowledgeable about some of the dishes). We all ended up getting the sweet corn pasta - my husband and mother in law added chicken to their pasta. The dish was unique and full of flavor. I loved it. My husband really enjoyed the chicken as well, but my mother in law said her chicken had lots of bones in it. We had a very difficult time getting drink refills. Our server seemed overwhelmed and annoyed. We did finally get them from another server who is the one who told us that our server hadn't worked there long. We opted not to get the one dessert that they had. In addition to the 2 soft drinks and overpriced hot water, I got the gate free colada which was small but delicious. Out total bill was just over 100 for 3...

The ambience is phenomenal. Love the patio! Great view of the beach. Staff was very nice and personable. Menu isn't very big but the food, at least what I got, is very good. I had the beach burger and it was delicious. Watching the sunset as you're enjoying dinner is a wonderful feeling. The patio was very crowded and tables were very close to each other. But totally understandable, because I'm sure everyone would love to be on the patio. I highly recommend this place! Did I mention the convenient store! Good move....comes in handy with the wait times and hungry kids!

Update to this post 6/28/25....the wait was terrible. Hour plus. When we were finally seated, it took our waitress about 20 minutes to come to us. When she took our order, she said that the kitchen was backed up. We went forward with the order. Bad mistake! 75 minutes before our food reached our table. It took us to get up and leave before they told us our food was on its way out. We sat back down and they brought us 3 out of the 4 meals. Another 20 minutes for the 4th meal to come out. Not to mention, they messed up our order. Charged me for food that I never received. Drinks were weak. The best part of the experience, was a pigeon. I highly recommend to stay away from this place. Terrible service, food was mid at best, drinks are expensive and weak. Better of going anywhere else. So sad they had such a fall from grace. Atmosphere is great, but they need more people working, better organization, and better management. I hope they get their act...