Lighthouse Inn — Restaurant in Iowa

I stopped by here on a Friday evening after having been out riding the motorcycle. I got there right before opening time and there were several people already waiting for entry. They open at 5 pm. We were admitted to the establishment and took a few minutes to get seated. The hostess seems very nice but a bit rushed with several groups of people. I got seated and my waitress was brand new, 1st night on the job. She did a pretty good job but couldn't really help with any recommendations as she hadn't eaten any of the food. I ended up ordering the spinach dip wontons. I also ordered the special, prime rib. That came with a salad, bread and I subbed out the potato for the mixed vegetables. The wontons were decent with a decent amount and were wrapped in a crispy phyllo dough. The bread was a loaf and super tasty. The salad was small but okay with a goodly amount of veggies. The only downside to the salad was it seemed kind of squashed like it had stuff sitting on top of it. The mixed vegetables were ok, nothing overly special. I was super excited to get to the prime rib as it looked very good and seemed like a good portion. How wrong I was. The prime rib was not good at all. It was mostly tough and super chewy with only a few select bites being that velvety bite you should get. It seemed like it was under cooked or more likely cooked hot and fast so the fat didn't fully render and the meat didn't tenderize like it's supposed to. Plus, it was $40 for the prime rib which if the meat had been done properly, would have been worth it but not so much. Overall, it was a mostly good experience with a brand new waitress, the place is cool and best and kind of throw back. Most of the food was good with bread being great but the prime rib being terrible. I would recommend checking it out but staying away from the prime rib. The ribs looked really good and I've heard that the broasted chicken is excellent. I will probably go back and try one more time with a different item...

My wife and I stopped in last night. She wanted broasted chicken. I didn't want to go to Pizza Ranch. So, this was our compromise.

To start, we were pretty amused by and a little sad for our server. She seemed so nervous and worried about everything. She apologized that they were short staffed and she thought the service was too slow, etc. No. The service was fine. Perfect. We had absolutely no complaints about the service. Please relax. You were pleasant and friendly and you did a great job.

The food, for the most part, was pretty good. The salad was more or less what I'd expect from a bag bought in HyVee, which was adequate, but not exciting. The dressing was good. The bread was very nice, and I'm not much of a bread eater. The appetizer was delicious.

My wife said her chicken was good. My ribs were a bit too chewy for my taste and I'm not sure they were seasoned at all. The sauce on them was nice, though. In general, good, but not something I'd order again when there are many better places to get ribs in Cedar Rapids. The iced tea was the only real downer of the meal. I couldn't tell the difference between it and the water we were given. The server mentioned something about them brewing iced tea last night, as opposed to making Nestea. I swear that's what she said. Usually brewed tea is ten times better than Nestea. This was very weak.

The decor - interesting. It felt like something that would have been called stylish and maybe even fancy in the seventies or eighties. Now it all felt so dated and kitschy, yet I really liked it.

All in all a good experience. We'll likely return sometime. I just won't get the ribs next time and maybe stick to just...

March 15th I called and placed an order with Dave at the bar👍 he was great, wait for food was fast considering Friday night around 730. Upon arriving I made myself to the bar to pick up my order. Dave handed me the bill and I almost fell over. I had ordered 2 kings and a queen, burger and pork tenderloin. We hadn’t gotten food from here in a while and used our previous menus for an idea of how much the food might cost having in mind that the prices probably had gone up some. Some was an understatement as I walked in with a rough idea of say $115, nope $189.00, kings were $34 and queens I believe were $23. Not anymore, king was $50+ and queen was $40+, I had almost crapped myself as my wages have never jumped almost half but sure do wish they had. My friends $50+ filet was ordered medium rare and there was little to no pink to be found, my king was pictured and was close to medium rare but had a dryness to it where I was finding myself almost having to drink something to swallow my bite, my daughter really enjoyed her medium queen. I was sampling the burger and PT off my kids plates and the burger also seemed dry and not very tasty, same for the PT. I’ve always wanted to love the Lighthouses food but I never seemed to get my mouth satisfied, and with the new prices I may never have that chance. I’m all for paying more for knock my socks off food but not that night. My friend was very disappointed as she really didn’t care for her filet but managed to eat what she wanted and shared the rest with my dog, which...