Nick's Lake House Restaurant — Restaurant in Kidder Township

we arrived between 6:45-7 pm on a saturday and there was a 30 minute wait. the hostess was rude to my boyfriends mom which was :( but whatever (?) anyway. we finally got inside around 7:45 ish i would say and there were a bunch of empty tables that no people were sitting at - mind you were a party of four. so i don’t understand how it was a 30 minute wait for a bunch of empty tables, especially since they don’t to reservations. we got our drinks pretty fast, ordered our food and an appetizer and as of right now, we haven’t gotten our appetizers. as of writing this first part, we are sitting at the table and it’s 8:30pm. there are so many waiters/waitresses walking back and forth in our area with nothing in their hands. they’re literally just walking back and forth. ???

we got our appetizer (mozzarella sticks) at 8:37. the lady brought the plate and i had to stop myself from laughing because tell me why we put our order in around 7:55/8 and it took that long to bring out four (4) mozzarella sticks. 4???? i was expecting like 6, but 4! is crazy!

we did get a refill on our drinks without asking so that’s good. there is one kid though, that just walks back and forth carrying one bottle of ketchup. is there just one bottle of ketchup that just rotates around the whole place?? give him a better job please.

we got our food shortly after the appetizer arrived and my boyfriends mom’s pizza was cold. so that was unpleasant. me & my boyfriend both ordered burgers with fries and we were told they were out of fries and that they would bring them out when they were ready. first of all, how do you run out of fries. almost everything on the menu came with a side of fries. also, we just never got them. i was done with my burger and just never got them. we got chips instead, and they just put the bag on the plate. they could’ve at least taken them out of the bag and put them on the plate. like i would’ve thought that maybe they were homemade if they were out of the bag but whatever.

never got the fries and they couldn’t get taken off the bill so they discounted them. the food was good but they wait was NOT worth it.

it seemed like everybody was in a hurry to do nothing.

not enough root beer lollipops in the little bucket by the front.

also. it smelled...

I am in the service industry and understand how important quality and customer service are. We are in town for vacation and this restaurant came highly recommended. We were pleased at first with a beautiful outdoor area, view of the lake and a pleasant waitress. Only to then be extremely disappointed by everything to come. We ordered simple items...wings, breaded shrimp, fries, pizza and a burger. The wings, fries and shrimp came in a reasonable amount of time but we then waited roughly 75-90 minutes for pizza and the burger. In the meantime we had ordered another round of wings that came prior to our original order. Not once was anything addressed about the wait time, apologies, etc. When we finally got the rest of our food, the pizza was slightly burnt and my burger was extremely dry. I had hoped to ask for more bbq sauce to just eat it any way but for 15 minutes our waitress was swamped with other tables and we had not seen her. I then walked to the fron to see if any one else could help me but everyone was busy. Finally the hostess came back and before I could ask for help or the manager, another woman came over and was losing her mind over her bill/service. I waited while she yelled at the manager only to watch him not really be concerned with her situation and then go to the kitchen before I could get his attention. The large table sitting by us outside also seemed very upset by their visit this evening as I over heard them getting a round of drinks and % off their bill. Obviously there is some kind of issue going on here tonight and I feel that should of been addressed to your patrons. I get hard times but they can not be ignored. Once we finally were able to leave (I gave up at this point and just wanted to leave) I over heard the manager and some waitresses discussing problems with patrons that they were having. Someone is always listening and watching. There were people at the bar with you, shame on you.

I hope you take your business seriously and this was just a bad night for this restaurant as it seems to have good potential, just extremely disappointing. I love to spend money on food/service and I...

Curious experience last night. We (2 party older couple) arrived there at 8:45pm only to be told by the (slightly bearded, 30-something) gentleman who abruptly walked up to the host area that he had to “cut off” seating any further guests because it was “too late” and that the kitchen would already be “cooking till after 10pm”. So we quietly left.

We then stood just outside the door for a few minutes and witnessed the same host guy seat at least two couples (who happened to be younger…) that arrived AFTER we did. They walked in, spoke to the host for a moment or two - then were promptly seated. Remember - Nick’s does not take reservations.

And then, we finally observed a group of young African- American young ladies walk in and, you got it…were turned away with the “too late” excuse. We actually ran into these young women at the nearby BVT a short time later and they relayed a similar experience of observing the SAME guy seat people who asked for a seat AFTER they were rejected. By that time it was after 8:50pm.

Seems like Nick’s MAY be playing games with with how they determine (or another word could be discriminate…) who gets a seat and who doesn’t after 8:30pm. Many restaurants play preferences for different reasons, but it’s the reasons here that I question. An older couple and a group of African-American ladies are rejected - while at least one younger Caucasian couple are seated.

There may be nothing sinister or intentional here. Maybe the host staff extends courtesy to “regulars”, or maybe the host responds well to people pleading their case for a seat (we simply just turned and left - we don’t plead with businesses to take our money if they don’t want it!) but the optics suck, and the experience won’t be forgotten.

Perhaps Nick’s has video that could be reviewed by the managing staff? If I’m wrong about what I observed I’d be happy to edit/delete any inaccurate information in...