Lord Fletcher's Old Lake Lodge — Restaurant in Spring Park

Tldr at the bottom. This is one of those places that you visit for the location and atmosphere. It's an interesting location and setup and it's nice to sit lakeside. Unfortunately the rest of the "experience" is hit or miss, trending towards misses. The deck is showing its age, rough spots and soft/sketchy boards here and there. The service varies greatly, some nights it's fine, other times you'll wait long enough to start to wonder what's up and never get a refill. They do tend to close early. I've called ahead (at 7pm) to confirm what time they close that evening (told 9pm), gotten there at 8:15ish and was told "Hey there, you can still get drinks at the bar if you want but otherwise there isn't any food since we are closing in 15 minutes." It would have been great if they told us that when I called, before we made the 45 minute drive. On the topic of food, it's a limited but decent menu. Nothing outstanding but generally good, doesn't match up to the prices. We've had the walleye sandwiches, fingers, dinner, fries, chicken strips, burgers, a variety of the wharf food over the last couple years. Unfortunately for them, Lord Fletcher's has plenty of competition. When you're looking at spending $65ish for a couple sandwiches, fries, a beer, a water, and tip you start to consider other options in that price range such as Birch's on Long Lake. We have generally had a more positive than negative experience, but we're continually feeling less inclined to return with all the other options out there. We used to visit a few times a summer, at least once a month, now once or twice a summer at most.

Tldr: Neat place to visit, things have gone somewhat downhill. Go for the place, not the food/service. Expect $50+ at minimum for two people and the food won't match up to that price point compared to other places. If it's close to you, it's still worth checking out for...

I took my family and friends out for dinner (our party size was 4) and they chose Lord Fletcher’s. The dining room was pretty empty so they did accommodate our request to sit at a different table than the host took us to. That was very nice.

The waiter came to the table and offered to serve us drinks. I ordered a Malbec by the glass because there everyone else wanted a beer. Normally I would buy a bottle. The waiter brought the drinks and unfortunately my wine had gone bad. There were two other wine drinkers at my table so they gave it to taste and agreed that it was sour. I requested a fresh bottle of wine be opened and pour me a fresh glass.

To my surprise the waiter returned to the table and told me that he and the manager agreed that the wine was just fine and they would not be opening a new “jug” to accommodate my request. For a moment I thought I was in Hicksville because I was supposedly dining at a nice restaurant. Everyone in my party was surprised by this messaging. I inquired a little further about the “jug” of wine and the waiter said “yeah for the wine by the glass we get big jugs in and serve from that.” Apparently this jug had not been opened too terribly long so I was out of luck if I wanted that Malbec.

The waiter did offer to serve me a glass of Malbec wine from a fresh bottle that the bar tender opened for another table. I am not sure why they were welcomed to fresh wine and I was not? Oh well... A little bit later another group of people were sat at the table near us. The lady was going to order a glass of Malbec. I quickly warned her about the bad “jug” they were serving from. She was grateful for the warning and ordered something else.

That evening was about $350 including gratuity. Way too much money for the experience we had. This place is WAY OVER RATED!! They can keep their “jug” of wine and snooty attitude for...

I was really disappointed, paying for a premium experience and having the food be an absolute let down is the worst feeling. We went here for my wife's birthday because they had seafood which is her favorite and every weekend they have a prime rib special.

I want to say that we had the Ahi Tuna Wonton appetizer and that was delicious and I would come back for those and to try some other things because I'm a fan of second chances for places maybe having an off night.

My wife got the seafood cioppino, personally I didn't like it but she said it was ok but wouldn't have it again. The glaring issue with this dish is the tail on shrimp just sitting in the bottom of the tomato broth. Who wants to get their hands all tomatoy when eating at a nice restaurant?

My prime rib dinner left me really a bit sad. For $45 I could've gone to a small town bar, got 3 beers and the prime rib dinner and left with a better experience. I will give them the benefits of the doubt and say it could've just been a not ideal roast they got but it also could've been the chef not knowing how to properly trim a prime rib.

The mud pie birthday dessert was pretty good, kinda like an Oreo ice cream pie and they even tried to light a candle on it for my wife although it was a bit to windy for it.

The server we had was good and the table location looked out over the water which is what we were hoping for so very...