Charlie's On Prior — Restaurant in Prior Lake

Charlie's has been a huge improvement since the previous Captain Jack's in the quality of staff, food, pricing & customer service! I should know, I grew up here & currently live in Prior Lake!

Anyway, these restaurant owners know what they're doing for the most part... After all they own Lago Tacos. And I've eaten at their place in Excelsior, MN on many occasions in the past. Order their signature appetizer (Charlie's Too!) - Fried Avocados! They're Amazing! Also be sure to check out my other photos, my "Food Winners" for this place. They have a great menu of Americana Foods and I cannot complain about any of the items that I have tried on the "Main Menu." They also have great Happy Hour Specials year round - Drinks & Appetizers!

Sadly though.... I have my disappointments... Their Tuesdays All -You - Can - Eat Fish Tacos for $10.00 is a bust... Lots of veggies for filler & very little fish, plus they don't tell you what kind of fish it is. I asked, our server didn't know?! What?! The tacos were bland and lacked seasoning. I must say.... Here at Charlie's I've also noticed their service during the summer months can be sketchy - whether you're inside or out - your server can "accidentally" forget about you & your order... with a crowd, it happens. Best suggestions, be patient yet be alert when you place your Appetizer/Side order or Drink order... If it doesn't land on your table in 10 - 15 minutes flag your server or seek out a manager to find out if your order was even placed! Trust me, it's happened with us more then once!!

As for the boat parking availability at the docks...the bigger the boat, the harder it can be to get in to their tight "Customer Parking" area for boats. Especially if you're driving a pontoon! Their boat parking for the public, just like when it was Capt. Jack's sucks - they still haven't learned! You're lucky if you can park 12 boats!! Their only shining stars out there are their dock boys, they are very attentive and good at their job when you arrive by boat (and there's room!) so be sure to tip them nicely (with cash!) when you leave! As for the counter parking - The "Car Parking" it is just as bad, but they can't control that even with the "Valet Parking." I just hope that the owners improve on these things in the near future. We'll be back and actually have been, the off season as usual seems more our style. :-)

Pictured Eats that we Really Like: Breakfast - Huevos Rancheros - The Bloody Mary is Charlie's signature Bloody that comes with a deep fried dill pickle. Shrimp Po'boy (sadly discontinued) w/ Hand Cut Fries, Thai Chicken Lettuce Wraps, Fried Avocados, Angry Burger (sadly discontinued) w/ Fries, Loaded Beef Nachos, Walleye Sandwich, Mushroom Burger w/ Slaw, a Steak Sandwich with Anjou Sauce, (By-the-Pound) 7-8 Dry Rub Jerk Chicken Wings w/ Bleu Cheese.

Update: Granted I've eaten here many times since they've opened. Still a great fun place that is family/beach/lake oriented. Anyway...my Mom & I had a late lunch here last weeks (8/5/22). It was quiet, not a lot of people and you could hear yourself talk (it can get pretty loud inside)! LOL! She had the BBQ Burrito Bowl with Beef Brisket. It looked delicious and she found it to be very flavorful however... Over half of her beef brisket was fat (hence the reason why I didn't take a photo of it)! Our sweet young server completely understood the dilemma, quickly rectifying the situation with several perfect slices of beef brisket. Which of course my mom ate with great pleasure! She said the meat was tender, perfectly seasoned and smoked. I ordered the Jalapeno Popper Burger with a side of their Gouda Hash Browns. Yum! Their hash browns are the bomb! As for the popper burger, which I never had before was perfectly cooked. Just the way I ordered it - Med/Med Rare - which you can see in the photos I posted. I will admit that it was milder then I had expected... yet juicy, well seasoned and the perfect amount of cream cheese, shredded lettuce and tomato. I can't wait to try their Fried Calamari, new on the...

Upon arrival it was pretty confusing on where the host stand was outside, after waiting and looking around for 2 minutes a host greeted us to walk us to our table.

She sat us down on a high top where we sat. I felt something on my leg, to find a large piece of spider web. I thought maybe it was just the one chair so I decided to move to another open table, which was also covered in spider webs...

I kept looking around for a table and was unsuccessful finding a single table or char without sider webs. I finally picked the one with the least amount.

It took a while for the server to greet us and it appeared there was no one assigned to us or to anyone for that matter. People sit outside and you wait for someone to come out and they ask if someone's been helped. This creates a lot of disorganization.

I ordered the fried avocado which was not impressive... The food tasted so salty. It didn't taste like anything a professional chief would cook.

I also ordered a cheese pizza. It tasted okay, but again way over salted. It tasted like a mix of garlic bread and pizza. Unfortunately, the lack of culinary knowledge in the kitchen, this pizza wasn't just over salted but it also was too greasy and oily, it actually got me sick. This is pretty standard knowledged for culinary arts.

Greasy foods can cause bloating, nausea, stomach pain, and diarrhea. And overly salted food is really bad for your health too.

The ambiance would have been great, because it's on the lake, but because of all the spider webs it really took from the scene. It's like having a really nice looking dinner and having pieces only hair on it. Yeah it looks great but this thing just ruined it.

It doesn't take long to wipe off spiderwebs, this is just a lack of cleanliness and absolutely disgusting. If there was 1 spiderweb I would expect that, but there is absolutely no excuse for there to be webs on all tables and chairs. Clearly this management doesn't care. You can wipe off all the webs in less than a hour,but instead management has allowed this to pipe up for a while.

It doesn't surprise me they have cleanliness issues and serve food that makes you sick. I'm seriously debating reporting this company for safety issues.

I would not come back here....

Here are just some of the images of the spider webs...

The only thing I'm eating a 3 is the service. It took a long time for someone to greet me, the server didn't seem to know we were there, the host didn't greet us right away, but the server was just okay... Nothing about them impressed me.

I took screen shot images so you can see close ups. It's hard to see webs in photographs...

I seriously hope management decides to clean up this place. It's...

Aug 13, 2024 Went for lunch, ordered. Three other couples came in and reordered after us and received food before us. Ended up there was a communication snafu in the kitchen. The manager apologized and compensated us generously. Love the food and atmosphere, will always go back.

Dec 8, 2019 @ 2:30. Went for late lunch to watch Vikings game, not busy, seat yourself. We waited.....waited, about 6-7 minutes without being acknowledged. Very surprised for Charlie's, we felt invisible. We left.

June 1 2019, we went for a birthday celebration, 7 guests, were seated in a timely manner on the deck. We did have one meal come late. The management compensated/ accommodated us appropriately. Waitress Emily P. was great! Support your local restaurant!

May 30, 2019, went for dinner, said wait was for 30 min, only waited 10 min. Definitely register your phone number for deals. Our server was Colleen C., very good, ranking as high as Amy. The walleye was awesome! Support your local restaurant!

May 16, 2019, awesome service by Amy. Best burger I have had, razorback burger. We sat on upper deck and enjoyed a nice sunset. I thank God that we have a restaurant on Prior Lake!

Revised 071418, went to Charlie's a couple times in the last two weeks, unfortunately, really slow food delivery. Our server was great, go AMY! So I don't know if they don't have enough cooks or what. Hope it gets better.

Revised 081217, we have been going to the restaurant all summer. On numerous occasions they had "run out" of the item we wanted to order. No compensations was made to us for having to order something else as we have had done at other restaurants. I would think that based on the experience of the owners they would have foresight of what needs to be kept on hand. C'mon, let's keep the customer happy. Previous Nice, new, and good food. Our first time there we could barely hear each other. I know management said they would install sounds panels, they did, however not enough. It is still difficult to be in conversation inside. Love the outside design. I think it could have been bigger, and parking, as we know, could have been better. Well...