Dockside Torch Lake — Restaurant in Forest Home Township

Back in the day The Dockside Restaurant was not only a great place 2 sit outside or inside and enjoy the atmosphere of being on the clam River and being so close to Torch Lake with the food and service always completely enjoyable.

Nowadays the Dockside Restaurant still provides a spectacular view from the deck and a nice location close to torch but 90% of the food seems batter fried more breaded, the prices are not commensurate with the value of the food you're receiving and the people in the kitchen do not seem to know how to put everything on a serving plate they make their waitresses take to your table with everything being nice and hot if the dish is required to be hot.

The bathrooms are enough to make you sick to your stomach so whatever you do do not go in there to wash your hands are get ready to eat because you will lose your appetite immediately. Why this owner or manager does not have a person dedicated to policing the bathrooms in this food service business is beyond me because most managers of a food-related businesses in today's world understand that most people no the Golden Rule that says if the bathrooms dirty the entire place is dirty. The Dockside should make their bathrooms the cleanest bathrooms in the county and then keep it that way. Also big announcement... Women do not like gross dirty stinky bathrooms with pee on the floor and stains in the toilet s and overflowing trash cans.

Another thing rather disappointing was the low and almost undetectable personality of the wait staff who seem to be waiting for the day to end rather than providing a happy and smiling and accommodating service 2 the people who sit in their sections. just sitting down and being personable while taking the order is not the entire package of what I call quote service on quote from a wait staff. For instance when my burger basket was served the burger was smaller then the burgers they served last year and last year's burgers we're smaller than the burgers that they serve before and the burger was a medium Heat in temperature and my fries were called and seemed to me like the cooks in the kitchen filled up a bunch of baskets with fries and let them just sit there until the next came along and put the main part of the basket meal into the basket once the main portion was done. Also I had ordered a glass of water but the waitresses don't bring water out as fast as they bring beer out or mixed drinks because water is free and so they forgot I got about my water and did not bring it out until I was wiping my lips after completing my meal when I would have rather preferred to enjoy the water throughout my entire meal. The wait staff should also practice eye contact and practice at least trying to come across as personable and actually interested in the people who have sat at their table having great experience but it seems like once they get your order they don't return very often.

The waitresses are all nice looking young girls with their short shorts and they do make a pleasant first impression but they need a lot of work learning how to be waitresses especially when I watched one of them walk past the ladies table whose purse had dropped off her seat and fallen on the floor behind her in an area where people were walking back and forth and that waitress did not pick the purse up or indicate to its owner that it had fallen on the floor. We we're all a little perplexed when we saw another waitress notice that there were napkins and food and other things left underneath one of the picnic tables buy a party that had just left and instead of picking those things up and cleaning the area she pulled her camera out and took a picture of it and walked away . It wasn't until our waitress who was seemingly more diligent than the others actually noticed the garbage left under the picnic table and she bent down and picked it all up and took it inside and threw it away so a clean eating area it's also another thing that the management should pay attention to.

Better quality food service and...

For the only restaurant on the water between Lake Bellaire & Torch, you'd think this would be the best place to grab a drink, some good food & enjoy the scenery. The beautiful outlook of Torch Lake & the service is probably the only good thing I've experienced here. The food is below average - nothing I can't make at home for half the price - everything is poorly prepared & frozen. The drinks are all juices & mixes - can barely taste the liquoir in 90% of the drinks, unless you get an extra shot or anything in a can/bottle. The staff tho is amazing & very attentive - always trying to make up for the lacks of the restaurant. I was told from a bunch of locals that since the change in ownership, the establishment has gone under significantly - such a shame. ALWAYS CHECK YOUR TOGO FOOD BEFORE LEAVING THE BUILDING & KEEP THE RECIPTS My family & I ordered takeout on the 4th & was very disappointed with what we recieved. The communication between the front of the house & back are lacking. We ordered 2 southwest wraps, a turkey avocado wrap & a california club. Once we got to the sandbar to chow down, we had (1) southwest wrap that was 80% sauce & half of the ingredients weren't even in the wrap. The turkey avocado on the menu stated ranch - however it was drenched in mayo & their were two tiny slices of avocado. The Cali club wasn't even what was on the menu - it was on a hamburger bun, again drenched in 1000 island with 1 piece of turkey. Unfortunately, I did not grab the receipt so nothing could be done other...

If I could leave 0 stars, I definitely would! We arrived as a group of 4, when the establishment was less than halfway full. We got our drink orders taken and shortly after we put our orders in. It started to get busy, so we were more than patient. Our appetizers took about 25 minutes, and we continued to wait for our food order. We waited over an hour for 4 meals. Tables with larger groups were already receiving their orders and they had arrived after us. We asked how much longer our food would take and the waitress was very rude stating that it was busy and walked away. She did not offer to check on our food, she just walked away. We asked for a check for the appetizers and drinks, and asked to speak with a manager. The manager came over and we explained our situation and she was just plain rude. She stated that we were stressing out her waitress when in reality we asked our waitress ONE time if she knew when our food would be ready. We told the manager that we had been waiting and her excuse is that burgers take at least 30 minutes to cook. Which is fine, except we had been waiting over and hour. I'm not sure what the logic there was. We paid 30 freaking dollars for CANS of soda, and two small appetizers. We had 4 different waitresses, and none of the waitresses knew where they were going with food orders. This place is a joke, and I cannot believe that it is so highly rated on Google. Save your time and sanity, go...