Turtle Lake Tap & Grill — Restaurant in Town of Richmond

We visited Turtle Lake Tap & Grill last Saturday celebrating a friend's birthday. We don't get out this way often and our group decided the menu looked good. We arrived around 6:30pm with only 2 other tables seated in the restaurant. We figured the service, and food wouldn't take too long because of the few tables. Boy were we wrong. Once we placed our drink order, it took 15 minutes for them to arrive. We had a few children with us, so their parents ordered for them first while the rest of the table decided on their meals. It took 10 minutes for our server (Morgan S.) to see our menus have been closed and we were ready for a while. Once we placed our order, we didn't see her until the food came, 45 minutes later. I'm not sure why the food took 45 minutes when there were only 2 other smaller tables. She didn't check in on drinks or let us know why our food was taking so long to cook when we didn't order difficult dishes to cook. She was too busy chatting with her co-workers at the server station (which we could see from our seats.) Our table had to proceed up to the bar to order drinks since she wasn't checking on us. When the food finally arrived, it was absolutely terrible. My husband's bacon on his sandwich was somehow half raw and cold, not sure how this could happen when our food took so long to cook. Once again Morgan S. didn't come back to check on the table until we were finished eating, giving us our checks. I don't usually complain at restaurants because I've worked in the service industry for over 15 years as a bartender, server, and manager. But in this instance, I called the next day to speak to a manager about our experience. The woman who answered the phone asked "she wants to speak to a manager, are you the manager?" Shouldn't she know who the manager on duty is? The gentleman who came to the phone was very nice and apologetic, saying he would have the GM give me a call the next day since he doesn't have authority to issue refunds. I received a call from the GM 3 days later, I explained our experience and that after this I wanted a refund since we don't live in the area. She said she would have to call the owner, but offered me a $25 gift card, which I denied trying to explain we don't live in the area. Once she called back, I was told I wouldn't be offered a full refund as I asked, instead the $25 gift card to cover the food cost was all I was being offered. ($25 didn't cover the food cost FYI) I once again explained I don't want a gift card, I wanted a refund for this experience. I was given the owner's (Jeff) phone number but was assured he would give me a call. She couldnt get me off the phone fast enough once she gave me his number. I am still waiting on this phone call, and when I tried to call him, no answer or return of my voice mail, same goes for the GM's number I called. As a hospitality manager, if a customer came to me with this type of complaint, I wouldn't hesitate to give a full refund, as the experience we had was unacceptable. I've also served larger tables and never left them to order their own drinks at the bar while I chatted with co-workers. Maybe writing this review someone will finally call me with the solution I asked for in the first place instead of being offered a gift card I don't want and frankly doesn't even cover half...

If you are looking for a place with an amazing lake view, this is it. Great set up as they have chairs on the beach (where they can serve you too). Their outdoor dining area should definitely be expanded because it seems to pack up quick and honestly I could just sit there for hours and watch the beautiful sunset. However their menu is pretty basic and lacking in quite a few areas.

We have been here twice now. The first time we went we sat outside and just enjoyed dinner and the sunset. We ordered the cheese curds for an appetizer and they were good. For dinner my husband had the steak quesadilla and I had the crispy chicken bacon sandwich. The quesadilla was good, my husband liked the pico a lot. But they only put about 4 slices of steak on the quesadilla. For a $13 quesadilla we would expect a little more meat. My chicken sandwich was good, chicken was cooked perfectly. There was only one strip of bacon and the chicken was much smaller than the bun it was on. We always try to give places the benefit of the doubt and the staff was friendly and the atmosphere was great, so we knew we wanted to come back and give it another try.

We went here again and this time brought my parents. Again, beautiful night however no more seats left outside so we had to sit inside but luckily found seating right by the window. We order a few appetizers, the baked stuffed mushrooms and the artichoke dip. Both were tasty no complaints. I really wanted to try the pizza so I had gotten the sausage pizza ($12) and my husband got the steak au blue pizza ($15). Both our pizzas were cut in 8 slices and not even joking there was a small piece of meat on each slice of pizza. The sausage had great flavor and so did the steak but I would have much rather have had the chunk of sausage on each slice crumbled up on the whole pizza so each bit had some meat. I felt like I was eating a cheese pizza with a side of sausage. Again, for almost $30 worth of pizza I would have expected a lot more meat.

Giving three stars because the cocktails, beer, and appetizers were good. I think this is the place you go as a night cap but not for...

I am super torn about reviewing this place. The food was wonderful! The staff was great. HOWEVER, be VERY CAREFUL if you are boating up to this place to have a nice lunch or dinner. There are NO MARKED SIGNS anywhere to park your boat, apparently they have 1 GUEST spot on a pier. There's no markings or signs of any kind. I mistakenly parked my boat on the wrong part of a pier (that looked like they are spots available to the Bar/Restaurant), and in the middle of our (delicious) dinner, a boater came up near where our boat was parked obviously upset. I ran out to solve the problem, and was met with EXTREME HOSTILITY. This turned into an all out screaming match between myself and the other boater and his wife. I was parked in the wrong spot, I admit that and I wanted to rectify the situation, but the other boater was not having any of that and was extremely pissed at me. I was down in 2 minutes of this boater pulling up to their pier spot, and it took a solid 5 minutes for anyone to help me figure out if they had any guest parking. The whole fight between the resident boater and my group had us fuming as well, we just got the check immediately and left the establishment.

TURTLE LAKE TAP & GRILL -- PLEASE PUT UP A SIGN WHERE GUESTS CAN PARK THEIR BOAT TO AVOID CRAZY CONFRONTATIONS WITH THE RESIDENTS/BOAT SLIP OWNERS IN FRONT OF ALL THE DINERS.

This wasn't a good look for the restaurant and anyone eating their dinner that night, and it left us with a bad taste in our mouths from it. We won't be returning as we don't want to run into Mr. Hostile and his wife.

On the other hand -- if you are driving your car here -- Enjoy! I don't think anyone cares which parking space you take up.

Food and staff were great, just need to give the boaters a place to park. 5 stars food, great wait staff! Bad for...