The Cutwater on Payette Lake — Restaurant in McCall

This is hard to say considering I like The Cutwater so much, but this past summer of 2020 has been a real disappointment. Very inconsistent. My family and I go there because of the great location, atmosphere, service, and what should be tastebud heaven. Unfortunately, the last two times have been awful. Recently, I experienced the worst omelet I've EVER had. I'm not kidding. I don't know how a place of this level could screw up an omelet so badly. I've had better on an airplane flight to give you reference. It was the Lumberjack Omelet with beef brisket, elk sausage, onion, wild mushroom, and sharp cheddar. Yum, right? First, it appears they used a pre-packaged egg mixture instead of whipping up real eggs. Secondly, it was fairly small. On top were maybe five melted strands of sharp cheddar, so I thought maybe the rest of the cheese was inside. I open it up and was shocked to not find any cheese and only maybe 15 pieces of other ingredients inside. Only 15 between all the items I listed above! Needless to say it was very sparse. It got worse. Most of the diced beef brisket pieces were pure fat. Inedible in my book and especially for a place of this caliber and price point. Not to mention all of it appeared to be leftovers, rather than fresh ingredients, that were microwaved or thrown on the grill and heated up too long. I showed my server who didn't know how to handle it so went to request the manager. While waiting for the manager she was trying to save face, but was so wrong and with a straight face told me that's how they do it. Are you effing kidding me!? This isn't my first omelet. Don't piss on me and tell me it's raining. The manager shows up, takes one quick look at how sparse it is and says he'll get more filling. I appreciated that. Unfortunately, it arrives and it was more of the same subpar ingredients with half of the brisket being pure fat and no more cheese. Ugh. It really needed to be replaced with a new one done properly (wasn't confident they were capable of that) or replaced with something else, but at this point the rest of my family is wrapping up their meals and I was famished. Plus, I already felt bad enough about making such a fuss. I decide to just set the extra chunks of fat aside and attempt to make the best of it. It was sooo mediocre. Even though it's been many years since I've been to a Dennys I was wishing I could have had something half as good from there. It still would have been better. Maybe call before you go and ask if they've made changes since this summer. Bottom line, with all the other options in McCall I'm not sure if or when my family, friends and I...

Just so-so. The views are beautiful, obviously. We came for Valentine's Day, expecting the kind of experience that you can look forward to with a menu at this price point. The rose on the table was a nice touch :) We ordered the brie appetizer, the ribeye and the scallops. The ribeye came out a perfect med-rare. (but was a touch under seasoned) Some of the scallops were raw. 2 out of 5 of them were sent back. The server was very gracious with this, even though I insisted it wasn't a big deal. I appreciated her taking care of it though, considering the dish is over $40. However, the replacement was ALSO raw. Literally cold in the middle. Which the server just apologized and moved on. I've worked in the food industry for nearly 10 years and I was very surprised there wasn't even a little garnish of parsley or something on the replacement plate. The creme brulee with huckleberries was quite good. We had multiple (delicious) cocktails and beers, all of which we had to ask for by flagging someone down (besides the first one). Once our meal was brought to the table, we were 3/4 of the way through before we were asked how everything was. My server never "up-sold" me, didn't even ask if we wanted coffee during our dessert. There was even a special to add scallops to the ribeye and she didn't offer that again at the point that we ordered our entree. She even dropped the bill off without asking if there was anything else we might want. Maybe this is part of the restaurant's training. I have no clue. She did seem like maybe she had a lot of tables to take care of. I know that can be a problem in town. The hostess was INCREDIBLY nice, and I hate to say, but she brought us the wrong menu. We had come for the "dinner and a movie" special, which was on our reservation and has a separate menu. By the time we had figured it out, we had already gotten excited about the main menu and ordered an appetizer. The whole experience fell flat. Instead of staying for the movie, we ended up going home and watching it instead in the comfort of our own bed.

As a wrap up...we of course tipped 20%, but it felt like a blow to not even get a beer taken...

We go to The Cutwater at Shorelodge at least a couple times a year. We spend around $200 plus tip when we do. We love the atmosphere and we typically enjoy the food. We aren’t ones to cause any drama but we will be honest if our food isn’t good when asked. We went last night 7/18/25, we ordered the bison nachos and they were pretty good but a little soggy like they sat in the back for a bit before they were brought out, our younger kids got kids meals and they didn’t really eat much but the fries. Our oldest got the wagyu burger which looked really good but he said it didn’t have much flavor.

Where it got really bad was my wife and I’s food. I got the BBQ ribs and my wife got the Al pastor 1/2 chicken. The ribs were so overcooked I could barely get meat off them and her chicken was undercooked and had no flavor. Our waitress noticed it was undercooked without us saying anything so she took it back to the kitchen. The second one they brought out was sadly less flavorful and now over cooked a bit.

We love going to cutwater when we visit McCall but it was so bad this go around we may have to try and find a new spot for a nice meal.

Or we may just stick to the cheaper entrees. We love the atmosphere. I really wish they’d get it together in the kitchen. It’s never spectacular when we go but this was really bad.

I can’t speak for breakfast or lunch much. We’ve only ever gone for dinners.

Hopefully reviews are read and taken to heart because we truly do love going to cutwater, really hoping they work on the food and the customer service. They didn’t comp a single food item or even offer. Not a big deal but would’ve been a nice gesture being that we didn’t eat it or even box it. They asked why and we mention it just wasn’t great this time around and...