The Barefoot Bar at Okoboji — Restaurant in Spirit Lake

The lake is gorgeous! But the service was not. Sure, it seems okay when you first get there: server comes to your table, asks for your drink order, takes it, and leaves. Maybe in ten or so minutes she'll come back, as that's easy to just get your drink, but then you have to go order your food in a really long line. Theres one place to order from that is small and has one person manning the register normally. On average, you wait about thirty minutes, no joke. You can choose from a couple items. I chose a burger. Mind you I didn't realize exactly what I was getting in for. Which was a bun that look as if it came straight out of a package and then had beef slapped between it. Cheese is a dollar extra and if you order just the burger it's 9 dollars. It includes the choice of potato salad or coleslaw and a bag of meal size lays chips that I had no idea I was getting. For a grilled patty you could do at home and a burger bun you can buy in the store. It has no toppings. None. To even get the food you could wait an hour, I waited for forty-five minutes. The people who were before me, and at my same table, waited an hour. One of them got a chicken quesadilla. It was pretty good, but like I said before: you could've made it at home. There was nothing special to any of their foods. Nothing you would have went back for or would have really loved. To pay for food, you pay for the meal up front at the register. To pay for the drinks... it's a little trickier. IF the waitress comes back, you pay her. If she doesn't, well you have no idea. I had finished my food and was ready to leave. It had been at least two hours and my waitress never came back. I didn't see her again and had no idea how to pay for my drink. I didn't want to just leave, I had always payed for my food at other places, it didn't feel right. So, I went up to what looked like a drink place and said that I had to pay for a drink I had before. I told him what I had and how much I was told it was. He started to make me a drink, a new one which I vehemently told him to stop and that I had already got a drink. He looked as confused as I had felt. I told him I just needed to pay for my drink and had no idea where to pay for it as my waitress didn't come back. He took my money and told me to just tell her that I already payed him if she came back and asked.

Overall, the service would suffice if it was for fifty or so people. Not the almost two hundred I saw there. They seemed undermanned and not ready for the amount of survive they had. Not to mention, the quips on the walls, were not family friendly. Many were inappropriate sayings that drunk people would laugh at. If you want to be drunk, have okay food, bad serving, and go boating at the gorgeous lake, it's the place for you. I would NOT take any children there with the miniscule supervision and overflowing tables. It was chaotic. I saw many, many young children without adult supervision which should be the parents' fault but who could keep track of their child when there's a sea of people? Not half drunk or high on life parents. Which are the majority of their customers. Not to mention how nobody else watches for them either. Everybody who saw this toddler riding on a bike, by himself, in the middle of a crowd of people with nobody watching him, parted for him and continued on. Maybe a hushed whisper, but nobody cared. If you want to pay for drinks and mediocre service, go ahead. But be buzzed before you go there so you don't really remember...

Tonight was my first time here. Came with friends and didn't have a drink on the first round. Waitress came back and got everybody's 2nd round, didn't even give me a chance to order a drink. Guess she just assumed I wouldn't want anything all night since I didn't order the first time around. Kind of bad service to assume you know what your customers want. Tables are a cluster of mess combined with a TON of kids running and riding toys around, so getting from one side of the bar to the other takes time. Didn't order any food, but I seen other people's food and I'm pretty glad I didn't order anything. Palm trees were a nice touch, but they were half dead... And if you looked away from them you could see all the normal trees just outside of the bar area and it really took away from the atmosphere. Chose not to use the restroom... As when I finally figured out which one was women's and which was men's... I realized they almost resemble poorly kept outhouse's. It's an ok place to go... But I don't really understand why so many people talk about it like it's the coolest thing they've ever seen. I haven't seen a bar like this, and I would say it's worth stopping at once, just for the experience... But hopefully your just bar hopping so you don't feel bad for not wanting to stay long. Parking lot is absolutely horrendous. Also, EVERYTHING is outdoors, so I wouldn't recommend going here when the weather is bad unless you don't mind...

Lively atmosphere. Drinks are meh. Customer service is very sub par. Couldn't buy drinks for my obviously old enough girlfriend because she forgot her ID. I can live with that. Then a waitress was sent to ID everyone at our table AGAIN shortly afterwards, including the people that weren't drinking (I was check twice within ten minutes) Harassing customers is bad business. I hope this is a one time ordeal but I will not be coming back, nor would I recommend this business to anyone else. Regardless of other qualities of a business, bad customer service can always break an otherwise decent company. For one that isn't really remarkable in any way? Must not have any competition. Not sure why they are here.

Edit: They are here because they are attached to the boat works. Girlfriends little sister's drink had no alcohol in it (yes it was supposed to) tables are clumped together. They aren't full, either time I've been here, just making it hard to get anywhere. Everything is over priced. Disgusting tables and bathrooms. Apparently their palm trees are real. So cool, real palm trees. If you're looking for the spring break in Florida feel in Iowa, with the high prices and horrid sanitary practices, but want to exchange some of the annoying college kids for little kids running wild and running into you, this...