My friend owns a home at the far northern end of Torch Lake, and i visit frequently, so the fact that we drive the nearly 30 minutes south to this restaurant should say something very positive about it. Well.....that's based on the sensational meals and service we once received there in the past, in 2017, 2018 and 2019. But since the pandemic, this place has been a HUGE disappointment.
I hate to have to write this but in looking through the many other recent reviews my thoughts are actually shared by other patrons.
This restaurant used to have an exceptional menu with 2 full pages of entrees. That has been reduced to an offering of basic appetizers, pre-packaged salads, sandwiches, pizza, and 2 pasta dishes - the oven baked lasagna and an offering of spaghetti, fettuccine, or cavatappi with sauce choice, also oven baked. That's it.
My party sat down last night at the 4 seat outer bar area, a prime spot, at 7:30pm and waited nearly 90 minutes for a lasagna, a baked cavatappi marinara, a sandwich, and a pizza, NO BREAD was served with the pasta entrees either. Just the tins of baked pasta. That's correct, i said served in disposable tin trays with plastic cutlery.
We had drinks for an hour and a half to pass the time, had the bartender who was visably embarrassed, check 3 TIMES with the kitchen for our food, and nearly asked her to tab us out early because we could not continue to drink without eating something. If there was a manager there it wasn't obvious because no one stopped by or showed any concern; forget about getting an apology.
As many other people have pointed out in their recent reviews, the product they serve is largely brought out in cardboard trays with plastic utensils. As I've also indicated, even the baked items we ordered arrived in disposable baking trays, cheese and pasta sticking to the tray. And eating lasagna with a plastic fork and knife is a complete joke.
For our 4 entrees and assorted drinks our bill came to $125, before tip, so the prices certainly haven't been adjusted to reflect the NOW average food quality and McDonald's style serving arrangement. I should also mention that what used to be well prepared salads with great ingredients served in a bowl, are now served in pre-made, prepackaged plastic containers.
Let me reiterate that this used to be a FIRST CLASS restaurant with a great menu offering and excellent nightly specials. NONE of this is what this restaurant is today. It's a total shame.
I understand that the pandemic has disrupted the normal order of things and created staffing challenges for many businesses, but this business has lost ALL semblance of their once fine offering. When our food finally arrived we ate what we could in 15 minutes, took most of it with us and left having wasted 2 and a half hours of our time.
When you're failing miserably in your service offering you need to warn people. When we sat down we weren't given any warning or indication that food would take 90 minutes to prepare. When our check arrived we were offered NO compensation for our experience EITHER. We weren't even comped as much as a round of drinks.
My friends and i have come to this spot for the last 5 years expecting and once receiving a great meal and service, well worth the price. But this is NOT the case NOW. If you go here expect to be very...
  Â
Read more
Learn more insights from Wanderboat AI.
