Charlie's on the Lake — Restaurant in Omaha

My husband and I visit Charlie's quite frequently and have been loyal for years. The experience here is unmatched by other local restaurants, as it has always had an ambience that is very unique to the area. The food is always superb and although the quality of service can fluctuate, as every establishment, my husband and I always have left with my stomach full of an exceptional cuisine and satisfied with our overall experience. Unfortunately, this has taken a drastic decline since the introduction of new management to this establishment. Servers have come and gone but serving is a tedious profession in itself. The frequent turnover of employees I believe is in direct coordination with the monstrosity of a woman that has, by some tragedy, come to represent this business. The general experience and ambience Charlie's once delivered has been since obliterated. The employees seem to work well together and assist one another in their duties and the staff seems to be working towards a common goal, except for this woman. My husband and I had the misfortune of being in this woman's rage path as we were treated terribly. We were greeted with displeasure and were spoken to as though we were incompetent. When this woman delivered our meal, I requested politely for her to refill my water so that I may have a full beverage with my meal. Now, this is not a complicated nor impossible request. My glass was about halfway and I thought perhaps it would be convenient for our waitress, who hightailed around to ensure her guests and her peers guests were pleased, to have one less thing to worry about. The disgusting rebuttal that was expelled from this woman makes me never want to dine here again. I was told that it was not in her job description and that I would have to go HUNT MY WAITRESS DOWN to get one. The words used were "unfortunately, serving you is not in my job description but if you'd like to go find wherever your waitress is slacking off at go for it". I had never in all my years been treated with such disrespect nor have I encountered a manager with the gall to speak poorly of her staff. On top of that disgrace we watched her stand not far from our table and engage in inappropriate and cruel conversation with another server. We then saw her call over our waitress and begin to belittle her and talk very harshly and disrespectfully to her. Please note, we have been dining at Charlie's for years and noticed our waitress the last couple times we visited but she is fairly new. If I recall correctly, her name was Laura. She is a beautiful, exuberant young woman who genuinely apprears to care about her guests and we have noticed her phenomenal service and unsurpassed hard work. She accepted the unfair delusional criticism from this woman and returned to attending to her tables seemingly unaffected after what I consider to be emotional verbal abuse at its finest. To treat your customers and employees with such disrespect is sickening. After the events that took place I was distraught and blown away to the point I was unable to finish my supper. My husband and I agreed that we would leave and only return if and when this manager is removed from her position. We come to have an amazing experience and to enjoy our interactions with the patrons and staff, not that disaster or whatever you would like to label our experience as. We requested our bill and our waitress seemed surprised that we had only taken a few mere bites and requested to leave. We assured her the food was phenomenal and that her service was impeccable but we had something come up and needed to attend to it. She continued to impress us with her unwavering attentiveness and genuine desire to give her guests a positive experience, despite the immense mistreatment she received. We left our waitress a healthy tip out of our sincere apologies to have left abruptly and as a recognition of her hardwork and the disrespect we witnessed her undergo. In conclusion, the restaurant is exceptional in all aspects apart from the vile woman who by some tragedy has become...

First time here. Arrived for a late dinner & stood at the front greeter's desk for an awkward long while by ourselves before 2 workers asked us in relatively short succession if we needed something. The first person evidently went back to whatever they were doing, which we both found confusing. Several people were seated at the bar, but no one was letting us know where to go or welcoming us. Luckily, our 3rd party was still in their car on a phone call, so we had reason to stand there longer, which helped the awkwardness slightly. Not like anyone would know that, though.

When the 2nd worker came over we repeated that it was our 1st time there & we didn't know if we were supposed to seat ourselves somewhere or what the procedure was exactly. We were finally seated, offered indoor or outdoor, we chose indoor. We were the only ones in that particular dining area.

We'd read on Google the pricing was going to be higher here, so hubby & I agreed to share an appetizer. We were here to buy a decent meal for our friend anyway. We just wanted to try this place once anyway since we love walking the lake behind there & always pass by the back where all the ducks hang out. We were curious. The waitress was nice, we enjoyed chatting with her. She asked if one shared app was going to be enough. The app (a plate of a few quartered chicken quesadillas) was yummy & plenty for the 2 of us to share. We drank water with our meal.

Our friend bought the raviolis (they were okay, kinda weird with the breading), beer & some steak fingers. Those were quite yummy too, despite him having something other than my favorite: well done. He loves to eat seafood, but when he saw the price, he chose something less expensive, commenting that he didn't need a $32 dinner on us. Well, for 3 of us the total bill was $48 plus tip. In his defense, we didn't stop him from getting the 2nd appetizer, & he was hungry. Probably won't come here on any regular basis due to the higher price point. We did choose to leave the normally expected tip amount.

The thing that we all whispered to one another was how it was such a strange feeling there to not have a solid plan for making people feel welcome right at the gate. Left an odd taste in our mouths. Had our waitress not been so sweet, we likely would've left before making our order. We had strongly considered going to BW3s across the street like we usually do. They cost less, & we always feel like we're part of the team there - but we wanted to give Charlie's a chance. Maybe we'll try some dessert on another visit or grab an appetizer, but probably won't be anytime soon.

Also, unrelated to the food or friendliness: they need to pour some water down their bathroom drains or something to get rid of the weird odors. Cute decor, sewery smell. Three stars is about the best we can give for our personal experience here, landing it at...

I had my wedding reception here on April 1st, 2017 and for the most part was extremely pleased. The wait staff was seriously AMAZING. Especially the guy who took control of the reception basically. I can't remember his name, but he was extremely helpful and so incredibly nice. He deserves a 5 star rating! The food was great and the reception was very nice and peaceful. The only issue I had with the night was right after my wedding on our way over to the reception I called to ask if they had my lights on in my center pieces. The General Manager answered with "Hello" not even "Hello this is blank from Charlie's on the Lake...." I asked her if she would be willing to go take a look to see if my center pieces were on and she told me that wasn't her job and she couldn't walk 10 feet to look to see if they were on. I then asked her if she could ask the guy (head waiter) if he could since I thought maybe he was in charge. She proceeded to tell me he wasn't in charge and that she was, so I kindly asked her again if she could check them. She again told me it wasn't her job. At this point I was getting frustrated. It was a pretty stressful day already because I wanted things to be perfect. I asked if she could have someone go check or even put me on hold until she wasn't busy or something just to let me know if they were on. She told me no she couldn't and she wouldn't ask anyone to go check. She then told me I needed to stop being rude to her for asking her to turn my lights on because that's "your" job. She was EXTREMELY unprofessional. I finally ended up hanging up on her after she continuously interrupted me and wouldn't answer any of my questions anymore. I started crying in the car because she stressed me out so much and never answered my question. When I got to the reception my lights were on, but that drive even after calling I had no idea if they would be.

I am 20 years old and I've worked in the food industry and retail for 2 years and I can say that I have and would never treat a customer, especially someone paying $3500, like that. From my personal experience this lady should absolute not be a general manager and I was embarrassed for her that she is someone representing their company.

So that was the one thing I was very disappointed in. It's sad seeing someone pretty high up being disrespectful and rude to customers and then a waiter getting paid far less than them and being extremely respectful and sincere. Honestly their waiter would make a better GM. I hope someone seriously has a talk with that lady, because if I owned this company I would be extremely embarrassed if I found out someone working for me treated my...