Northwoods Falls — Restaurant in Schererville

I want to preface my review with saying the Service was excellent. Our wait person did a great job with our small group. However, the rest is a brutally honest review of the food and experience:

Parking - it's a big lot - plenty of parking to be found, even when they are super busy. Entertainment - it was a busy Friday night - there was a LIVE band starting near 9pm and it was LOUD! Tables/Chairs - the chairs had to be the most uncomfortable chairs I have ever sat in - so choose a booth for space and comfort. Atmosphere - it's a log cabin-style place, with fireplaces, super decorated for the Holiday with so much to look at. Nice job! Service - super quick, attentive, friendly, accommodating (sort of). Prices - average, I would say equivalent to dining out at Applebee's or Olive Garden, definitely not a Chipotle.

FOOD...this is where I wanted to like this so much more, but it was just terrible in my opinion. We started with some appetizers:

Cheese Curds - everyone loved these. They looked lightly breaded and fried, but I don't like fried cheese, so I passed.

Fried Pickles - these pickles tasted stale, they were still soft, lightly breaded, definitely zero taste or spice. Terrible.

Spinach/Artichoke Dip (recommended) - this was already cold when we got it. It comes with "Lodge Chips" which are made in-house, tasted stale and tough to chew. Not good. It's served in a small ramiken, but already cooled off and solidified when we received it. I've had so much better.

I asked about the main courses and was deciding between a few like the Pot Roast, Blue Gill or Walleye. Our Wait Person recommended the Walleye since it was so popular.

Walleye Dinner - comes with two sides, I chose carrots and green beans (needed my veggies) which both were perfectly fine, although the carrots were already cold. The green beans were the absolute STAR of the night - so tender and flavorful. Easy to make anyway, but it was basic and tasty enough. The Walleye - boy was this rough, very dry, but also WET - I'm sure it was frozen fish already and they thawed it out or microwaved it - fresh it is NOT. The crust on top was made with sunflower and overpowered the fish. You couldn't even taste the Walleye. I was so disappointed. And the only bad part of the service was no one asked how I liked my food, when I gave about 50% of it back on my plate because I couldn't finish it. Sadly, I'm not sure if the other fish (blue gill) would have been any better. One more note - the roll was still full of dough and NOT cooked through all the way. You should NOT serve uncooked rolls. I almost asked for another one, but never had the opportunity.

Drinks - so they have a full bar - but truly feature MORE BEER than anything else. So beer is beer, and I went for cocktails to try them. I first ordered an Old-Fashioned. I'm not sure what i got but it was NOT an Old-Fashioned. I have had hundreds of Old-Fashioned's and I was so disappointed in this one I sent it back! I never send drinks back. It was over sweet, had a strange reddish tint to it, and filled with individual ice cubes making the drink watered down by the time I got it anyway. I then asked for a Margarita...I never specified which kind (they featured at least two on the menu) and I ended up with a tall glass, salted rim, filled with some extremely strong sweet syrupy margarita mix which was still warm...the ice hadn't penetrated the drin and made it cold yet. Whatever MIX they use it terrible and they need to upgrade that for sure.

Since there were more than 6 of us we had a 20% gratuity added to the bill. Which is fine - it would have been nice to know that though somewhere and we didn't find anything listed that alerted to us that would happen, although it's pretty standard anyway.

However, when I got my bill I saw an extra dollar charge for my drink making it $9.00 - the extra dollar charge was for the "silver" tequila. I never asked for the upgrade, I guess that's what you get for sending a drink back to the bar. Stick to the BEER...

Went there this last Saturday with a group of 6. 4 on one check and 2 on another. First of all. Putting automatic gratuity on both checks was ridiculous. Since when is a check for 2 people automatic? We can guess why. Our service was horrible. She knew she did not do well never once smiled or looked at anyone. Asked are you ready if anyone hesitated one second she'd say you want me to come back then disappeared. Never paid attention to anything anyone said she was too busy looking at the other tables so we had to repeat everything. Also it was not that busy. Never even checked about refills without us asking for one. She was always in a hurry to leave our table. Half of us were in food service and never ever say a word about service. But we have never felt more rushed to hurry up and order so she could leave. We assumed she was more worried about the 12 top table next to us as a automatic gratuity would hook her up. We also had 1 order of a smash burger. 100% it wasn't one it was a bacon burger. We ordered a plain cheese only smash burger. Showed her it wasn't a smash burger and she said no it is one. I said it's the other burger with bacon. We asked for plain. She said I said plain with the order. Never apologized and took off. The cheese curds were ok. The pretzel we thought was going to be good size at the price. It was a nuked regular pretzel. Our bill was 128 dollars for the group of 4. The other bill I'm not sure. To be treated like we should hurry and get out. We would love to have seen the bands but after that we didn't even finish the AC/DC tribute. We just wanted to leave. Our group was looking forward to seeing eachother since it had been awhile and wanted a great night. A couple liked the food but all agreed after this night we would never return. One got the mac and cheese with brisket they said it was OK. The 2 check liked their pork chop and the steak was the other on the check. It was over cooked but it would never have been mentioned as most worked food service it happens. But the rest no it was enough to mention. We hope it was a fluke and it doesn't happen to anyone else. It won't be too us that was our first...

Their cuisine is traditional American and the entrees on the dinner menu range from $14 to $29. They accept reservations, serve alcohol and allow smoking in the outdoor dining area. They have lots of free live music and entertainment. In addition to a lot of rock cover bands, Northwoods Falls also hosts bar bingo, trivia nights and cocktails and canvas, amongst other events.

We went to Northwoods Falls at about 5:30pm and there was no wait for a table. We asked to sit outside and I noticed small cups of free fish food at the hostesses desk. I inquired about that and the very friendly hostess explained to us that it was there for the customers to feed the fish in their pond. She was happy to walk us through the restaurant and out to the outdoor seating area. The restaurant was clean, had a large bar with an indoor band stage and definitely gave off the comfy log cabin vibe, complete with a fireplace. She showed us around the outdoor dining area, the stocked pond and the walking path. We threw some fish food into the pond and tons of bluegill ate it up! I hope the breaded bluegill dinner on the menu is just a coincidence.

Our waiter was just as friendly and attentive as the hostess. My 7&7 was perfect and our appetizer, white cheddar curds with smokey ranch sauce, was delicious! My husband ordered the pulled pork platter and I ordered the fish and chips. Both came with a choice of soup or salad and 1 side. My husband said his beef and veggie soup was good and he liked his french fries but his pulled pork was dry. My cod was hot, fried perfectly and the ale batter was light but I did not enjoy the tartar sauce or the coleslaw. All desserts are made in house at Northwoods Falls. We ordered the Nutella Brownie A La Mode to share. While it was good, I didn’t taste any Nutella. The service was quick and efficient all night long.

I think the value for the money was fair. When all things are considered (quality of the food, service, staff, entertainment, ambiance, cleanliness and value for the money) we give it 2 thumbs up...