Lakewood Tavern — Restaurant in Lake Elmo

Incredibly impressed with our first visit!

New places can be a gamble, but Lakewood Tavern knows what they’re doing. Really attractive place, so we were hopeful the food would look as good as the decor.

Greeted and seated promptly during a busy brunch. We got a really comfy booth in the dining area and the server was fast and friendly. We took full advantage of the ample build-your-own Bloody Mary bar. They’ve got a really great selection, and we ended up with really delicious drinks!

They serve breakfast until 2 on the weekends, so I had the Junkyard (eggs, meat, veggies, cheese on hashbrowns, topped with hollandaise) and my wife built her own omelet. Big helpings and delicious food. I’m picky, and I loved mine!

Coffee was great and despite it being close to noon, didn’t taste like it had been on a burner all morning. A side of real cream and homemade jelly for my wife’s English muffin really sealed the deal.

The manager stopped by to make sure things were great and the owner even took the time to stop by, which he seemed to be doing to every table.

We are so impressed! We saw lots of specials on the menu, so we’re already planning another visit, maybe in the bar area this time!

Stop in and you’ll have a new area...

I want to like this place so badly because I know they are new to the area and the staff is so nice. Unfortunately, we have given this place three tries and it just falls short! :( First of all, the food is the biggest problem I have with this place... We have never eaten anything here that has been very good. The deep fried pickles are "spears" rather than "chips" so they end up being very hot yet soggy, not crunchy at all. The food is very bland. I had the blackened cod bowl and it was SO BLAND!!!! It sounded so good, but honestly the only way I could eat it was by covering it in Cholula sauce just to give it some flavor. My spouse got the hangover burger, which was ok but they sure did skimp on the waffle fries. I don't remember what we ordered the other few times we've been here, but it obviously was not good enough to get again or speak about. And the prices are not cheap! A simple dinner for two with a few drinks each was just under $200 with tip. Also, we sat on the patio for the first time and we had a "nice" view of the on ramp to the freeway...it was also very loud from the cars. Unfortunately, this will not be our date night place. This place just can't compete with Hazelwood, Tavern or...

The only thing that was actually good was the chicken tenders. Fries were ok, chicken wings were incredibly cold, cups were dirty, the waiter was very rude. He was very dismissive of us and it seemed intentional, (was sitting by another customer at the bar, having a conversation, ignoring us WHILE making eye contact with me). He threw our straws at the table after originally forgetting them. The food took abnormally long to come despite the small amount of people in the restaurant. We had to call ANOTHER waiter to get the original waiter to bring us the bill, then after 15 minutes, he didn’t even bring our card back and we had to get it ourselves. After we confronted him about all this, he just rolled his eyes and said “oh, we just took your drinks off the bill so you can just go now” in a sassy, rude tone. To top everything off, another waiter had to be the one to clean our table because the original waiter was too busy sitting down, chatting at the bar with other people.

Overall this was a miserable experience, the environment was very hostile and unwelcoming; the customer service was quite abysmal. I don’t think I will be coming back...