Sopra Bistro — Restaurant in Lake Geneva

My husband and I heard rave reviews about this place so we decided to try it out on a rare date night. After being seated we quickly realized we had the worst table in the restaurant, right in the service area of the bar. I walked to the host stand and noticed a few 2 top tables sitting empty and asked if there was any chance we could move to one of those. The host confirmed with, who assumed to be the owner, that they could not accommodate us moving. Strike one, but I understood, it’s a busy Saturday night. Being in the service industry myself the last thing I wanted was to feel like I was in the middle of a shift with all the trays of drinks, empty glasses and servers flying over my head on a rare night off. My recommendation would be to take this table away entirely, it was not enjoyable.

We got our drinks and contemplated if we were going to stay or not. Our server came around with the specials of the night and we decided to order. Hearing good things about the gnocchi I asked if we could order a side of them. We were told they did not have them tonight even though they were listed in a few different dishes on the menu. We ordered the mussels on special which came out with a heaping pile of French fries on top. I am a French fry gal so I was not disappointed at all. The mussels on the other hand were small and not anything I’d order again. Strike two on the mussels but man, those fries were good.

For our entrees my husband ordered the Korean Ribeye that was on special. I ordered the double bone pork chop. The food came out, it looked delicious. Both seemingly charred to perfection with beautiful plating. Upon my husbands first cut, the steak appeared to be medium rare as ordered, but after the first bite the only way he could describe it was “beef jerky”. It was extremely tough and hard to eat. He continued to cut into it hoping it was just a bad piece but each bite was worse than the last. After dissecting the hunk of meat it appeared there was more fat than meat, not unusual for a ribeye but definitely not worth the $59 price tag. The onion rings that came with the steak were easily the best onion rings we ever had. Now on to my pork chops… they were so dry I couldn’t even cut them with a steak knife. They had good flavor so I tried to choke down a few bites but concluded they were pretty much inedible. The spinach and beans that were served with it would ultimately be my dinner for the night. Big strike three.

We noticed the table next to us also ordered the Ribeye special. We couldn’t help but laugh when we over heard him compare the steak to “beef jerky” just as we did. She did say her pasta dish was delicious.

They server apologized for our bad experience and comped a few of our drinks which was much appreciated, though I would have rather them take the food off as neither of us could take more than a few bites.

The ambiance was great despite our nightmare table location, the staff friendly. I would have appreciated the owner stopping by our table at minimum after the issues but he turned the other way as we walked out the door without a “thank you” or “goodbye”. Will likely not return...

It looks really nice on the outside. They make themselves out to seem like they are a high class restaurant serving an exceptional dinning experience, however that was not the case for us.

I’d been wanting to try this place out for a while, so we made a reservation because the last time we tried we couldn’t just walk in. I was surprised when they were walking us to our table, because it turned into walking up a steep flight of stairs to a second level of the restaurant that was very small and felt like an abandoned island.

The server started off very nice and normal, however when I had explained that I was vegan and would just like a pasta dish, maybe with a plain marinara or just like an olive oil swopped out for the heavy cream, he looked very confused and asked a fellow server for some help. She was nice enough about it, and did try to suggest some things, but she also sprinkled in several times. “I’m not sure how slammed the chef is though” I wondered what the point of saying that was. Would they have honestly told a customer no? That they couldn’t make the same exact pasta on the menu, but instead just throw olive oil on it? I had even written in the notes section of our reservation that I was vegan, and would just like a modified menu item. If that had been a problem, they should’ve contacted me to say that they couldn’t accommodate me.

I was really grateful in the end because they ended up making a mushroom pasta cream dish for me and exchanged the cream for olive oil, and it was actually very tasty.

My problem comes with the fact that it took 45 minutes for our food to be delivered, and in that time even the bread we ordered didn’t come out for about 20 minutes and we had to remind the server- I think he forgot. When he did deliver it, he only gave us a half loaf when we had asked for a full one. It was the saddest little half piece of bread I’d ever seen in my life. We were starving, and our server wasn’t to be seen for a very long time after that so we gave up on asking for more.

It was so quiet up there, and our server barely came to check how we were doing. It seemed like all the other tables were being attended to so well, and we were just sitting up there like chopped liver. We even had to ask another server, to ask our server for the check.

The whole process took so excruciatingly long and it makes I wonder if I was being punished for having a dietary food request. I felt so uncomfortable there. I felt like an unwanted guest. I wanted to leave so badly. I won’t be visiting again. I was very disappointed because I imagined we were going to have...

I never really leave reviews but I felt really strongly about this one. Living in a place that is a bit more “rural”, there is appeal in having a local “bistro” or “casual fine dining” a little closer to home opposed to making the drive out to the city. The restaurants indoor decor is beautiful, tea light candles, and a one page menu. You think it would be really classy right? But I was really saddened when I was sitting across from my husband and I was really leaning towards him just to hear him during dinner. It was SO loud. There was a row of 6-7 men at the bar that were practically yelling. I didn’t understand if I was in a nice dimly lit “romantic restaurant” or a trashy local tavern. Plus, what I really didn’t understand is how WEIRD this restaurant was about the virus. I live in Illinois and I understand it is a different state but there was NO COVID HEALTH SAFETY AT ALL. The waitress literally lifted down her mask to talk to us even though we had taken off our masks at the table (again, probably because it was so loud she couldn’t even hear herself think). When we entered there was plenty of empty tables but none of them had plastic dividers or at least seating by every other table. Groups of 5-6 people were sitting right next to other groups of 5-6 people. And we literally had a table where if I stood up to go to the bathroom, my chair would hit the person behind me. It was so tightly packed. It’s like , I get it... maybe you’re over the virus but why are you going to have your staff wear masks as if you care about public health when you really don’t. And if you aren’t having customers come inside of your restaurant as much as precovid. Well guess what would help? HELPING PEOPLE FEEL SAFE. The pandemic doesn’t suddenly disappear only because you want to sell overpriced pasta. On top of all of this, the food was subpar. I could have had the same meal at home and lit a couple of candles and have it felt the same. It really sucks that I can’t get back the 70 dollars we paid to sit in COVID spreading room only to yell at my husband and not be able to sit well because the tables were so close together. All in all, my husband wrote a negative review too. Congrats Sopra ... two negative reviews in a row. Must be proud. Good luck adding to the death toll in the US. Never...