Hoak's Lakeshore Restaurant — Restaurant in Town of Hamburg

Hoak’s is a Buffalo Area Tradition!.

Good food and an incredible atmosphere with views of Lake Erie that are unsurpassed.

The service is excellent, and the staff is friendly.

The bar is great and you can also enjoy dining and drink outside on the patio literally a couple of feet from Lake Erie.

FEEDBACK

Two IMPORTANT pieces of feedback, and one that’s very IMPORTANT, which are definitely meant to be helpful in making Hoak’s a way better experience that it is.

The men’s room is literally one of the worst smelling men’s rooms I’ve ever entered in any restaurant or bar - and I go to Hoak’s all the time. It always smells really bad and the smell of urine pours out into the bar area.

The restroom itself is basically clean, however, it has lots of old wood in there on the walls, stalls, baseboards and the dividers between the urinals (which are also very tight).

As a result, decades of urine-soaked wood is something that you really can’t do much about, no matter what you do to clean it. It just plain smells really bad. Almost makes you gag.

It’s the first thing you smell, even when you just walk past the door and go into the back dining room - and it’s like that all the time. You can also smell it from the end of the bar.

I’ve even seen women walking past there saying how “bad it smells of pee.” It’s not just a one-time thing. It’s all the time, and maybe those who work there and the owners don’t notice it. But the customers do. I am a customer, and I actually almost feel sick going in there from the urine smell. Customers even talk about - it and you can hear them as they go by!

Tear out all of that old, urine-soaked wood in there and just make a modern restroom - and add some light in there so people don’t “miss.” It’s very dark, which adds to the creepy feeling - and the stink…

Also, the saloon doors on the toilet stall need to go. Some guy was in there today when another guy tried to go in and pushed open the saloon doors and smashed the guy who was “sitting” in there. There’s not a latch nor a way of preventing that from happening when somebody goes in there. I’ve seen that a few times. Not a men’s room expert, but like I say, I go there and when you sit at the bar for a couple of drinks or have dinner, you definitely have to go in there.

Was in there in the bar for a beer, a couple of nights ago, and there were just a handful of people at the bar who were trying to have a conversation. The music was cranked so loud that it was really distorted and the people were yelling just to try to have a conversation. To order a drink and have them hear you, you had to scream, and I have no idea why the bartenders wouldn’t kind of figure that out. Watched as a few “30-somethings”decided they couldn’t talk in there, and said “let’s go outside. It’s so &$*#%ng loud in here, it’s ridiculous.”

Don’t let this scare you away from going to this great restaurant and bar. BUT… just something that needs to be taken care of by the owners, and since I also eat there a lot, I know the smell is consistent - and it’s time to fix the problem.

The patio and the outdoor bar are the best!

Beginning and ending on a good note!

Hoak’s is a great place, and whenever people come in from out of town, I like to take them there. They just can’t believe that we have something like that here and they are always surprised how cool Western New...

I think the big attraction for this restaurant is it's location as it sits right on the waters of Lake Erie. We arrived near closing & sunset time. Beautiful sunset, but also blinding. I ordered the Haddock fish fry, a big favorite on Fridays in this part of the country. They did not get my order right, as I asked for a baked potatoe, & instead got fries. The server immediately was going to switch it, but I decided to stay with the fries. They were delicious! The whole meal was exceptional! The fish was breaded and I have never had such a crispy, light coating - there was no bad oil aftertaste, and the fish was light & cooked perfectly. Yum! The coleslaw had a creamy, slightly sweet dressing in just the right amount to not smother the cabbage. Perfect! And the fries - what can you say about fries? They we're cooked just right, and plain (no coating or seasonings as some restaurants like to do). Malt vinegar was on the table. Two big drawbacks here (certainly not the food!), parking & noise. Because we came at a popular time, the adjacent lot was full. There is an overflow lot across the (very busy) highway, but I had to drop my elderly, unsteady companion at the door for her to fend for herself, & then I had a very long walk back to the restaurant. And leaving, I had to leave my companion at the table until I could walk back to the car, find a closer parking space, park, & return to the restaurant to escort her out. Inside, the acoustics are such that the noise from the bar made conversation in the dining room impossible without yelling. Hard to hear your server, too. I hate that. Unfortunately, those 2 items will preclude me from ever visiting this restaurant again. Kudos to the kitchen staff for an excellent fish fry, and service was good also. But, for me, it wasn't worth the work, & I don't care for...

Hoak’s takes the cake for one of the top worst experiences I’ve had to this date. The 45 minute wait, place hours before closing, sure understandable. In reality, waiting over an hour to get the text that the table is ready, understandable. However, walking up to the hostess stand just for the bartender to yell across the restaurant to the hostess that the kitchen is closed, unprofessional and very dive-hole-bar esc. Standing at the hostess stand while the bartenders looked at one another and shook their heads, was at the least unwelcoming. After the waitress checked with the kitchen staff, and told us the kitchen was okay with serving us, we were finally seated outside on the patio. I couldn’t help but think walking to our seats and questioning why I’m going to support this place, but at the expense of being in a not so normal state of affairs I figured I’d give it the benefit of the doubt. After waiting a few moments, the waitress came to us and told us the kitchen would be closing and we needed to put our orders in right there and then. We promptly left and we’re told have a good night in a sarcastic tone.

I will absolutely never be back to Hoak’s and will leave it to their usuals to enjoy it for what it’s worth. Rarely have I experienced this degree of unprofessionalism and lack of care in a service based setting. After an hour and 10 minute wait to be seated, being treated like a marginalized person and being rushed out and soon as sitting down, it’s safe to say any form of service is absent.

I must admit the hostess was nice, especially being the lack of care that travels through the entire establishment. Or maybe I’m being naive and it’s solely because they hire mainly teenagers that lack experience and are just nice to compensate for their lack of...