Beach House — Restaurant in Decatur

The two good things I can say about this place is that the view was suburb and the drinks were tasty. It went downhill from there...we ordered the garlic and parmesan oysters and they were placed on our table barely cooked. After barely getting the first one down, we gave them a second chance and tried another. We couldn't stomach the remaining two. Our waitress offered to have them replaced with a fresh batch, but we were already turned off to them at that point. In an effort not to waste them, we took the remaining two home to doctor up . Our waitress was obviously new because while the other waitresses checked on their tables often, our waitress came to check on us only when she came to refill our drinks. Once our food finally arrived, the vegetables, potatoes and crabcakes were barely warm. The salmon, was acceptable in temperature but obviously was not straight off the grill. It seemed as though the salmon and crabcakes had been sitting awhile while the potatoes and vegetables were not hot when they were put on the plate. We sent it back to the kitchen to be warmed up. The waitress returned after about 15 minutes to say they were remaking our plates however it was returned to our table shortly after that; the same plates we had sent back. The potatoes were hot but the vegetables were still the same temperature. We had only taken a few bites of the salmon and crabcakes before the plates were returned, however the portions seemed smaller when they were returned to the table. I wrote it off as they had shrunk during the warming process. When the waitress asked us if it was better, we replied, "It's warmer but the vegetables are still the same temperature." She shrugged and commented that the kitchen stated it was hot when put on the plate. I expected that going to this restaurant would result in a high bill, however, the overall experience left me feeling like I had just wasted a lot of money on a mediocre meal that I could have prepared myself for half the cost. At no point did the manager come to our table even though during the course of the evening, we could see our waitress speaking with her on several occasions while looking towards our table. At the end, we received a whopping 50% ($7.50) off of the price of the oysters. I was up charged the shelf price for the glass of wine I ordered, even though the menu stated a flat rate of $7 on a glass of wine. I didn't ask for top shelf, I asked for what was on the menu. They did end up adjusting for the glass of wine. While waiting for our food to return from the kitchen, we had ordered a Blue Long Island Ice Tea and a Bloody Mary. Again, we were up charged because they used top shelf spirits. I didn't ask for top shelf. The Bloody Mary garnishments were nice, however, it tasted like the mixer was the same I get at the store. Needless to say, I will not be returning. In the future, if I want an excellent meal that is going to cost $115 before the tip, I will not choose The...

We went to the Beach House for dinner and to celebrate our anniversary. The service at the table was good, the waitress was friendly. Unfortunately, our overall impression of the place was not good -- we'll stick with having sandwiches at lunch, to enjoy the view of the lake, in the future. The Good: to start, I had the chopped salad with candied pecans, bacon, and jalepeno ranch dressing -- quite tasty! I also enjoyed a gin and tonic and hubby enjoyed his Meiomi red wine. The Not So Good: Also to start we had the calimari -- but the breading didn't adhere at all, and the large pieces were quite chewy. (The dipping sauce was wonderful.) We'd wanted to order the crab cakes and jumbo, but they were out! Bummer. Later, they also ran out of Meiomi wine, so we couldn't have a 2nd glass of this with our meal. After waiting over an hour, our entrees finally arrived. Husband was very disappointed in his entree, the Shrimp "Risotto," because it was really not risotto at all -- they used regular rice, not carnoli, so the dish was not creamy at all; they should rename it shrimp and two rices -- the red and green sauces on the rice were tasty but the dish just wasn't risotto! I ordered the grouper with garlic smashed potatoes and daily vegetables; this was quite disappointing, too -- for $21 you get less than 4 ounces of fish, some aggressively garlicky potatoes (garlic should be roasted, not raw), and, on the day we went, an odd mixture of corn and snap peas. It looked like something one would order at a diner! Most of the pan-fried fish was tasty, but about a fourth of it was quite "fishy" tasting. I also would like to comment about our "welcome". When we entered the restaurant a waitress was busy doing something at the computer at the check-in desk. We later found out it wasn't her job to check us in, or to seat us. But we thought she could have at least acknowledged we were standing there, and told us someone else would come soon to help us. Instead, we just stood there for several minutes until the check-in hostess arrived. She was very pleasant and guided us to the bar where we got a drink, and then later agreed we would wait out on the deck. We drove over from Champaign to have a nice dinner out, with a view of the lake. While the view of the lake was very nice, we won't be recommending this place to our friends! And we won't be returning on a weekend, when both the cooking and serving staff seemed...

Went here for my wife and I to celebrate our anniversary and let me just say I was not satisfied with this place at all. We made reservations and table was not available at the time made days prior to. We got there and we ordered drinks and brought them to us, asked my wife to try it because it looked funny coming out of the fountain, let's just say it was not good and she had to order something else because I guess no one knows how to change syrup for soda drinks. Ordered an appetizer it wasn't bad but I wouldn't order it again, it was actually the highlight of our meal. I asked for the chefs special when ordering and waitress told me they were out as the kitchen only ordered 11 fillets? This was at 6:30 mind you. So I ordered the pretzel chicken, my wife ordered the mac and cheese with chicken on it. We got our meals and thank goodness for the garlic mashed potatoes or I wouldn't have hardly eaten at all. There chicken had a huge quality concern. My wife's chicken looked like it had sat out when it was raw exposed to air or freezer burnt or both, so she had to pick it all off to eat the mac and cheese. My chicken had a rubber type raw texture when chewing it. Made my stomach turn. we we're done with our meals and the waitress asked if we would like our leftovers boxed up and of course we did not and the waitress asked if the meal was ok. I politely said that they may want to do a quality check on there chicken because the outside looks dry and exposed for a long period of time and the quality is not good. The waitress said ok I am sure the kitchen would like to hear the feedback. She did not offer to make anything right on the customer side of it, not that I am looking for a hand out. But as a business owner I was astonished by the way it was handled. If your going to ask for premium prices at your establishment, then you better back it up with a quality dish. Especially in today's world when there is so much competition out there, these are things that will separate you from the rest. So we paid for our not even half eaten meals and left. Would not recommend and will not...