1878 on the Lake — Restaurant in Delavan

Ugh, sooo disappointed in our experience last night. We come here every year for a girls weekend, and its been about 8 years now. We don’t leave the resort - we have a spa day at Calladora, we spend Friday & Saturday night at the Lookout Bar, and we dine at 1878 at least twice throughout the weekend. There were of 7 us. As soon as our server Liz came to our table, we let her know that we’d like separate checks. And yes, we get that may be annoying and more work, but we’re at a higher-end restaurant and the prices of the menu items reflect a higher expectation of customer service. Liz told us “the system “ would only allow for 3 bills per table. Huh. We might have believed that load of nonsense …. except we were just at 1878 for breakfast that SAME day, and the server didn’t bat an eye when we asked for separate checks. So a little awkward when you know someone is just lying straight to your face, but we were too Midwest nice to point out that out. However a bit later in the service, one of us couldn’t help but mention to Liz that it seemed like processing 7 credit cards might even be more of a hassle than just splitting the checks. Liz told us that “the system” can only take a max of 4 cards. Again, we used 7 cards THAT DAY in the SAME restaurant. Again, none of us really knew how to appropriately respond to a server just straight out lying to our faces. And none of us had cash, so we were all a little panicked on how we were going to figure out the logistics of the random rules Liz kept announcing. But finally, one of us had enough wine and enough crappy service to mention that we were there 10 hours earlier and had 7 bills with 7 cards. That’s when Liz told us that the “system” was “too busy” to process that many cards. Folks, we were the ONLY people in the restaurant. Ummm, at that point it was clear that Liz knew we knew she was making this crap up, but almost daring us to do anything about it. Obviously the “system” was Liz and Liz just wanted to throw one check at us and take one credit card and not do a minute more of work so she could go home. Fair enough, bit if I am paying $20 for a side salad, she can do a little extra work. We likely won’t return to Lake Lawn. We spend thousands of dollars on one weekend, and we would like to feel like our business...

We had a nice dinner at 1878 on the Lake, one of the few "fancy" restaurants in the Geneva Lake area we had yet to try. One complaint is it isn't clear enough how to find the restaurant for non resort guests like us, but we did find it without too much fuss.

I went with the Prime Rib and my wife tried the Tomato Pesto Rigatoni. We enjoyed the complimentary rolls while we waited for our food in the pleasant, dark dining room. Just the way we like it.

The Prime Rib came with mashed potatoes and asparagus. The prime rib was good, with a nice, flavorful rub on the outside. The potatoes and asparagus were both bland, however, and I had to salt them myself. I generally don't expect to have to reach for the salt at a restaurant of this caliber, but I did here. Both were fine after that addition.

My wife's pasta looked good from my side of the table, and she ordered it because it had two of her favorite things - pesto and sausage. I can't really speak for how it was, but she said it was ok, but didn't think it was quite worth the price point.

We elected to do dessert this night instead of an appetizer, and ordered two. The Apple Crisp for me and the flourless Chocolate Cake for her. The crisp had a nice presentation in a cast iron dish, but I found it average overall. The "crisp" part wasn't flavorful enough for me, and the apples were a little odd since they left he skin on when cooking. It did help hold the apples together, but it felt weird for the actual eating. My wife ate the whole chocolate cake, but she mentioned she's getting over all the "flourless" chocolate cakes out there that are essentially cakes in name only and seem more like pure fudge in some ways. She would prefer a classic multilayer chocolate cake.

Overall, we did enjoy our experience and would come again. I look forward to trying the Wagyu burger next time - I'm a sucker for a good burger at a...

1878 on the lake was definitely a good experience for us. My girl and I went there after spending the entire day on Lake Geneva and was starving. When we arrived, we will admit the restaurant can be a little bit tough to find. You have to walk past several conference rooms, down a set of stairs, pass a café and around a private reception room just to get to the place.

Once you get to the restaurant, you are greeted with these VAST windows that are open to Lake Delavan!! we asked if we could sit outside, but unfortunately the hostess refused because she claimed it was going to rain. It did not, we were disappointed, but it did not hinder our experience. Continue to read more to find out why.

Our waitress was the named Liz. We sat in a beautiful corner spot where we had the best view of not only the lake, but also a view of an actual wedding taking place! I kid you not! We actually saw someone get married while we were eating! The food was great. I got the Wagyu Burger, which I highly recommend. Where is my girl got the shrimp risotto paired with white wine. And because it was a “special occasion,” we were greeted with a champagne and Mocktail Mojito. We even struck up a conversation with the guests around our table about the wedding taking place outside. Again it was an unforgettable experience.

All in all, I highly recommend 1878 on the lake. Make sure you ask for Liz as your waitress. Also make sure you ask for AJ as he did an incredible job taking our photo on the terrace and providing us with our beautiful drinks for our special occasion. Thanks again guys for the wonderful...