Crater Lake Lodge Dining Room — Restaurant in Klamath Falls

I left a separate review for the lodge itself - unimpressive.

At 3pm on a Sunday, we decided to make our way towards the restaurant - which we knew opened at 5pm - however, we heard they offered “drinks and appetizers” until then. Upon walking through the common area (tables, chairs, couches and fireplace), dirty dishes and glassware littered the tables. We approached the “host” (a young man with a wannabe shaggy Beatles haircut, lazily leaning against the podium on his cell phone). Annoyed, he looked up from his phone and said “Hi, can I help you?” “We’d like to order some food and drinks.” “We don’t open until 5.” “Oh, we thought we could get appetizers and drinks before then?” He points to the bar - less than 6 feet from his podium - and said “They can help you” “Ok, thanks. Can we see a menu?” (As we point to the stack of menus scattered on the host stand). “They have some.” And he looks back at his phone.

So - we stepped over to the bar and the two workers (gentleman with glasses and curly-ish hair and gal with braids) were very friendly. We decided to order 3 apps, a beer and a margarita and made our way to a couch and table about 15 feet from the bar — pushing aside someone else’s dishes and glass who had obviously left quite some time ago - Maybe the guy at the host stand could’ve been helping clear old dishes, but no - he was leaning on the host stand on his phone the entire hour and a half that we sat on the couch - briefly engaging in sluggish conversation if someone approached him to inquire about dinner reservations. The table behind us had dishes sitting on it the entire time we sat there, as well, and I heard multiple people wonder if they could sit there but were unsure because it looked taken. Lord knows y’all had enough staff present to help with clearing dishes but they were too preoccupied doing nothing. The 3 gals at the front counter were busy gabbing - maybe train them on how to clear plates?

Croquettes were delicious. Bruschetta was decent. The flatbread fell short. Melted mozzarella with sliced tomato - no other seasoning? Sprinkle of garlic? Oregano? Anything? Nope. Just cheese and sliced tomato. Zero flavor. Presentation of said items was lackluster - but so was the rest of the experience, so we weren’t surprised. Not disappointed we didn’t stay for the actual dinner. It’s likely over-priced and under-seasoned.

Dear GM, please motivate your staff to create a better, more welcoming experience. A friendlier staff could make all the difference. If you can’t find friendly staff, then focus on staff that wants to work / clean. Again - I left a review on the lodge’s listing for...

Reservations & timing are important! This is one of 2 restaurants in the entire Park so you are competing for a table against people coming here for the day (day trippers use the bathroom on the main floor, hangout, & try to get a meal), people staying at the lodge & campers. My family of 4 (includes 2 teens) stayed at the lodge for 3 days and ate most of our meals here. The food was really good but expensive. On average we spent $120 with tip for each meal. Overall, we had a good experience here and the service was good, but it depended which server you got (Some amazing, some not so good but all were really nice). The two main hosts were great!

Recommend eating here but if you are starving and desperate for a quick meal & service - this is not the place for you.

Dinner (5 pm - 10:00 pm) - I recommend having dinner reservations or you roll the dice with wait times & you will probably have to wait a long time. We made dinner reservations every night at 6 pm in advance and had no issue but one night we did have to wait 15 min. The restaurant gets really busy as the night goes on, so you will have more issues of waiting, especially after 8 pm.

Lunch (11:30 am - 2:30 pm) - Really busy until 1:30 pm. The Lodge is packed with visitors. We had no problem getting a table at 1:30 pm.

Breakfast (7:00 am - 10:30 am) - Get here at 7:15 am or earlier if you want a table and not a long wait time. Line starts forming before 7 am for a table. One morning we got there at 7:20 am and we got seated within 10 minutes but the group of 3 after us, had to wait 30+ min for a table because the restaurant was full (we were leaving when they were finally seated). I did notice after the first wave of diners from 7 - 8:30 am, the restaurant cleared out and you could easily get a table but that might have just been that morning.

Rocking chairs on the balcony - always packed except for in the morning before 9 am. Really hard to get a chair so we didn't try but it's a great place to get drinks and order meals with an...

My wife and I were excited to have dinner at the Crater lake lodge restaurant. We didn't have reservations so we waited until 5 pm to put our name on the wait list. We were told that a table would not be available until around 8 pm.. Ridiculous, we thought, but since I was dying to try the elk chops and there was a limited menu available in the lounge area, we decided to wait. We ordered mussels and an artichoke dip from the lounge menu. The mussels were delicious,some of the best I have ever eaten. The artichokes dip was very enjoyable. I thought, wow ,this is going to be an excellent dinner. This along with the beauty of Crater Lake motivated us to continue waiting. Around 7:40 we were seated . The waiter was abrupt, "we are out of elk chops." Oh no, that's why we waited so long. The waiter was apologigetic,but we do have lamb chops prepared the same way as the elk.I looked over the menu, the top 3 recommend dishes were duck,salmon and elk My wife ordered the salmon and French onion soup. I asked the waiter for his recommendation between the duck or lamb. Without hesitation he said,"the duck is my favorite ". He was the second person that recommended the duck. So. I ordered the duck and a salad. We were given buns and butter, they were OK. My salad was good. The French onion soup was not hot and rather flavorless. The broth was thin and lacked richness . The Crater greens salad was good. The grilled salmon was a nice piece of fish but it didn't look grilled and was a bit dry. The duck,huh, was definitely crispy and dry,so much so that I literally choked on it. Besides that there was no breast! For a $50 entre I was expecting more than an over cooked leg, thigh and part of a wing. I told the waiter about the missing breast. He reduced the bill by $25. Overall our experience was not good and the entrees definitely didn't warrant the $50 each price.We felt hurried and not welcomed.I couldn't wait to leave. In retrospect we would order from the bar menu and enjoy the beauty of...