Pine Isle Lodge — Restaurant in Town of Three Lakes

Well, just when you think it cannot get any worse....it has!

So, I have been to the NEW Pine Isle about 4-5 times this year....wait...4 times and one more time for about 5 minutes. Anyway, the reason we go there is not for the food because it sucks. You would have thought with new management/owner that they would have improved the food but nope! Not one bit! Now, I will give the new owner kudos on getting new docks. That was a great first step...but it ends there.

So, if the food sucks why go back 4-5 times? Well, it is a convenience factor. Since the Pine Isle basically has a monopoly for on the water restaurants/bars, it make them basically the only option on the Three Lakes chain. Sure you have Sunset Grille on the water and also a few other places within walking distance of the water but the honest to god only place to pull you boat up grab a bite and a drink is Pine Isle.

So...with that you would think the Pine Isle would be a gold mine. Well...not sure that is the case.

In the 4-5 times this year the food and service has sucked. Do not even get me started on the square cheese curds that taste nothing like a cheese curd. We stopped in for dinner one night and wanted to sit outside. NOPE! No food service outside for dinner. Really? YOU ARE ON THE WATER! Why would you stop food service outside on a beautiful day? Well, we found out why when we went inside to eat and it took 1.5 hours to get our food. ONE server for the entire restaurant. ONE! Seriously? I know their is a service shortage in the north woods but ONE server? Holy lord.

Well, that night we had our food (they were out of half the items on the menu) and most of our group left never wanting to come back.

Fast forward to a recent weekend. My wife, daughter and I stopped into the Pine Isle for lunch. It was a beautiful day around 12:15 PM and we were the only boat at the docks. Please note it is 12:15 and we are the only boat. Heck, we were the only people there besides the bartender and server...maybe a cook.

So while I got the boat tied up my wife went up and grabbed a table in the sun since it was a gorgeous day. The server came out with a sign and a marker and made a sign saying Drinks (to the left) & Dining (to the right). Wait....we cannot get food service at the table we chose, we have to sit at the tables on the right in the shade to get service? YES and not only that, we cannot order from the bar and sit at the table in the sun either. WTF?

Remember...we are the ONLY PEOPLE THERE! Also the server never even came up to us to explain the situation. Just made her sign and went along her way. When confronted she told us "thats the policy." So the policy is to tell family that comes in almost every weekend that we have to sit in the cold, shaded, and bug infested area to eat crappy food? No thank you.

If the place was booming, i might have understood but it was noon on a Saturday and you were dead and the reason is clear...the combo of bad food with even worse service.

It is funny because last weekend we went and ate lunch at Sunset grille and they were slammed packed because they have good food and great service. On our ride over there we looked at Pine Isle and they had 1 boat parked there. Makes you laugh.

Sorry Pine Isle. Until you get your 5th owner in the last 5 years you have lost our weekly business. Such a shame because it could be such a...

I feel really bad for the owner. He seems to need to gain experience in hospitality and running a business. We walked in with a party of 10 (with kids) and ahead of us was a party of 10. So, we expected some delays but never did I expect what we got out of it. We ordered our first round of drinks with the waitress and the rest we had to go to the bar ourselves. Then we ordered our food, and they didn't have what was on the menu, so we had to deviate. Then, after the order was in, we were told once again what we ordered wasn't available, so we had to change our order again. Part of our table received their order. Mostly fish tacos. The tacos were sad with a fish stick-sized piece of fish on the taco. Some meals arrived without fries. Then we were told our pizza was given to another table, so it would be a longer wait for them to remake it. At this point, we asked for a manager to find out what was happening. The manager came over, and we found out it was the owner. I was shocked by his response to our concerns. We didn't have one issue. We had many, and when the head of our table was firm by saying the service was awful, the owner said, "I'm not dealing with this attitude" and tried to walk away. I had to stop him and say wait, you are the owner. You should want to listen to our feedback. We are paying customers and no one is being rude here. We are telling you we aren't getting what we are paying for, and it's been 2 hours since we ordered, and we can't get our food. The tables around us, including those who came after us, were well gone. That's a problem. He did calm down and started to understand our concerns. He did comp the plate and pizza that took 2 hours to get. But I wouldn't recommend going here until the owner can understand how to run a business and treat his customers. It was disappointing on all levels I hope to see it improve. Our waitress, Danelle, was super sweet and tried the best she could, but she would thrive with better leadership. ** Update to the owner - your response is disappointing. The man in the corner was far from disruptive. He made one comment about the poor service and his wife even yelled at him for the comment which I felt nor did your server feel was offensive. He was embarrassed that he took us there and the dinning experience was poor. Your response to put the blame on upset man in the corner proves my point. I hope you can truly take this as a learning experience and wish you the best of luck in your journey as...

UPDATE March 2025 Well the current owner is now the prior owner! Looks like Pine Isle is shut down currently, but reopening for summer under NEW OWNERSHIP!! Will be hoping to give a positive update when the new Ownership comes in and reopens!

Update 8/2024 Something has gone wrong. Sounds like there has been a change in ownership, and this place has gone down hill to say the least. Almost all the staff has changed over, the service is no longer where it used to be, oftentimes the food is a complete miss or they simply don't have it. Really sorry to say this place is no longer the Pikes Pine Isle. Still the only place to really go by boat on the lower chain, but don't expect much. Truly kinda sad.

This is literally the best place on the entire chain to go for for food and fun by boat, car, or sled! Great bar atmosphere, and really phenomenal food. Their pizza is a square Detroit style with almost a croissant style crust--really unique and super tasty. Friday fish fry, Saturday prime rib, taco Tuesdays. During the summer its the best lawn on the lake to play some bags or volleyball, they usually have the outside grill fired up to get a quick brat, hot dog, or hamburger. The place is really well run, the staff is great, just can't say enough...