The Gateway Restaurant & Lodge — Restaurant in Exeter

The so called resort/lodge is just a very low quality motel with a nice name attached to it. Most travel guides would give it a 5 for its location to the National Park, other travelers, well.. their reviews seem to be more optimistic. I must say they “must” have low standards for quality. The price to stay with taxes is $273 per night. We stayed in room #2, upon entering the room we noticed that the beds looked like the sheets had not been washed and when we flipped the pillows over we notice stains on the pillow cases from spit and the obvious hair oils from other patrons heads, not to mention dust in between furniture along with the bathroom door that was literally cut with an unsteady hand in order to get it to fit the frame which-it would not fit because of the failed attempt by the owner to buy a new one. The door was literally brought in by someone to make it fit. The food at the restaurant was subpar to say the very least. The price you pay given today’s economy I would not pay to eat there. If your going to stay for convenience, go to the towns pizza factory. We ordered burgers and the buns were toasted in old grease which ruined any flavor that the meat had. I seen other patrons order steaks and let’s just say for the sake of conversation and the extreme high price these patrons paid, it did not look like they were happy either. The staff was friendly, but seemed to lack confidence and I understand why. From a financial perspective this place makes money per night for their rooms, their food including breakfast; lunch, dinner and alcohol sales at night for drinks so there is no reason to have such outdated rooms and all the other issues that are present. This place has so much potential given its location to be a higher quality resort/lodge if the owners would take more pride in quality and in training their employees properly. In conclusion I do not blame the employees, the blame is solely on the owners and them not taking time to train the employees properly and really caring about what they have and could potentially have in the future if they make some major adjustments. Update 06/26/24. After my review along with other reviews of The Gateway Motel/Lodge I received an automated response as did others that were similar to my review which is typical when a less than stellar review is written and posted about an underperforming low quality “so” called resort. I’ve read and studied similar responses to this “Motel” on the “beautiful river”. If it were not for the River this place would be barely visible. The owner(s) have clearly not understood nor are willing to understand the definition of Quality even when they get reviews from those that suggest what they need to do differently with hospitality; cleanliness of rooms, food, service and exterior appearance of this Motel. For an automated response from the owner to suggest talking to a manager first is a firewall to protect the owner and then blame the manager then the staff, and that is disingenuous. The owners need to take responsibility, it...

Crossing the historic bridge with the view of the Gateway in sight had me excited to visit. Seeing the patrons outside laughing and having a great time really piqued my interest. What I love about this place is the riverside seating and the view of the mountains. Peering into the river as we entered the front door showed sings of waterfowl about the shoreline, and we even saw a fish in the water! The entrance was somewhat cramped with people trying to enter and exit, the bar was to the left of the front door. Being we just wanted to eat and head to our campsite, the best bet was to eat at the bar, which was mostly empty. As we sat towards the end, we noticed there was some musical equipment in the corner. The bartender, who was a really, really, nice person explained they do live music, just not so frequently. I get it. As the bar began to fill up, we order off the menu. I did not realize there were two menus, but I was really happy to know the bar menu was more reasonably priced than the dining room, itself. Our food had yet to arrive and beer number 2 came. My partner and I became surrounded by what we presumed to be, locals? It was after all, passed working hours on a weekday. As we sat and engaged in conversation with one patron, having a great talk about the local area, a separate patron felt the need to proclaim, and I quote: "this is a TRUMP bar, right here, if you all don't like it, go home..." umm.. what? WTF exactly he meant, I don't know..? We asked the bartender if we could be sat outside to avoid further political demonstration, and were granted a nice seat outside. Low and behold, the same gent that graced our presence inside, presumed we cared to further our impromptu, and one-sided political debate highlighting the Trump presidency and all of it's benefit to the modern United States. Our food finally arrived, and fortunately the local guy had vacated the area. Burger and a salad. The salad was excellent. The burger, too. We had to return to the bar to pay our tab, at which time we were greeted by the same patron, this time however, a more inebriated version than the previous, this time accompanied by other, equally as cheerful bar patrons. As we searched to cling on to any thread of salvation to save us from this situation, whom so gracefully shared our time at this establishment, we paid and departed as soon as possible. Never before had I felt the need to vacate an establishment sans-payment like I did this time thanks to these frequent "customers". I can assure the Google public this place has a great stigma that swells with history and pride. Just, maybe don't pet...

Summary:

You're paying for the location. Price over quality. Service varies. I recommend a visit. Assess for future patronage and recommendations to friends/family.

Want to know the details? Read below.

The location is awesome. Seated next to the rolling river was great. Highly recommend making a reservation and asking to be seated outside. They do allow for pets to be with you so long as they are well mannered. The food was nothing special but not terrible to not warrant visiting again. We had the Cheeseburger w/fries, Clam Chowder and Ribs. The ribs were $33 but weren't worth it. Maybe I'll there steaks a try bext time. The Cheeseburger was the standard stuff but the bun was a bit stale. For the price of the Cheeseburger I'd hope to get a burger with the equivalent quality as the ones ar Brewbakers in downtown Visalia. I had a bottled beer that was on the cusp of being cold. I was hoping for an ice cold and refreshing beer after a day at the lake but unfortunately that wasn't the case. The pineapple juice was refreshing and the water w/ ice was clutch. Made up for the beer that only got warmer as our time there went on. The apple pie a la mode was alright but their chocolate lave cake a la mode was delicious! Overall we'd love to visit again but we hope to have a different waitress/waiter. Our waitress, Kaitlyn, seemed to be displeased in serving us. She had an expression on her face that appeared as if she was in physical discomfort. Perhaps she wasn't keen on having to wait on patrons outside as it was a bit humid. Her tone was that of being inconvenienced and when our friend asked for a bit more time to look over the desert menu she made a dismissive gesture with her hand that shocked us and even our 11 year old recognized as rude. Our 11 year old looked at us and asked "Why did she do that?" We were extremely polite until that point after which we stopped with the pleases and thank you's. To give her some credit she always had our water glasses filled. The was another waitress who was kind enough to offer a bowl w/ water for my dog. I noticed the other waitresses/waitors having a good experience with their patrons. Although our tab was only about $150 for 4 of us I would have been happy to leave a generous 20%-30% tip but given how how our waitress could've ended our future patronage, I contemplating leaving nothing at all. I decided to leave $10. I understand most waitresses/waiters tip out their service/cooks. Better luck next...