The Copper Dock — Restaurant in Village of Richfield

There are a few positive points that don't exactly make up for the negatives, but they can be used to improve upon them. On the plus side, the views of the lakeside were lovely, and it felt like the place to be for a dinner crowd. The sunset would've been wonderful, but we weren't there for that. The building seemed clean and maintained to a decent standard and had a quaint and rustic feel. This is a common finding in the region, but it still gives a certain warmth to the visit. Our server was genuinely kind, attentive, and personable, which made the experience of ordering pleasant.

On the negative side of things (of which there are more than a few). We traveled nearly two hours for an overpriced ($32.95 a person), lackluster, and limited buffet. The bar was incredibly slow. It took an exorbitant amount of time for how few tables were present, considering there were two people working behind the bar. Our reservation for 13 was known well in advance, and while our party was sat fairly quick, not even water glasses were out for each guest by the time the last of our party got there about 5-10 minutes after being sat. I can give credit that it took a second to get the waters, though. The bar drinks, on the other hand, took almost 15 minutes, and we had ordered two mimosas and a mule. To me, this would be more understandable if the dining room was fuller, there was only one bartender, or if the server took too long to put the order in, however, the server had to wait for the bartender too. Moving on to the food aspect. The salad bar was disappointing, to say the least. I wish I had taken a picture to better express the lack of selection they had across the board. Lettuce choices, gubbins (toppings and such), dressings, and even just the fruit choice had very few or even one option to choose from, the whole salad bar didn't even span 5 feet. The main food bar had a basic selection of items, and considering both the number of options and the quality of what was there, it was not worth the price. The eggs were bland and extraordinarily dry. The bacon and sausage were so salty that my fiancé actually asked me if they salted it while cooking it. The eggs benedict looked tasty, but the ham was salty, and the rest of it was so bland that there was no flavor to compensate for the salt. The French toast, waffles, and pancakes were soggy and fell apart when trying to put them on my plate. Two of the other three meat options (the ham and the beef) were salty and dry as the Sahara, and the last option (ribs) were so over-seasoned they were actually too spicy to eat. That was the entire selection we had available, and none of it justifies the price of $32.95. I could get a choice cut steak dinner with side and salad and still not have to pay that much. There were a couple of choices for dessert near the salad bar, however I did not get to try any and don't feel it right to judge a product I couldn't try.

In total, the portion of our party's bill that I paid for, had 3 adults, 2 7-year-olds, a baby, three mimosas, a mule and 2 sodas and the price was $189.71 including taxes and gratuity (which was automatically added to our bill). The next time I want a mouth full of salt, I'll take the option to drive to the ocean and it will still cost less.

Also, the restaurant opened at 10 for brunch, and when we were leaving at noon, our party of 13 was over half the number of people in the dining room. (Bit of a red flag when a "well established" restaurant can't pull a full dining room for brunch on a beautiful Sunday)

Long story short, service was good, but does not make up for the disappointing food, lack of options, and...

I dined at the copper dock for the first time last week and overall the experience was nice, but I don't know if I would be back.

Our group of four was sat on the beautiful outside deck overlooking the water. We were greeted by our server Sam who introduce yourself, gave us a specials and inquired if we were interested in any appetizers/drinks. One member of our party ordered a soup to start as she was starving and we submitted a round of drinks.

After a little while, we noticed the soup was brought out to the deck area and left on a tray jack for our server to grab. Unfortunately, our server was nowhere in sight and my friend watched and waited probably about 5 minutes for the server to come out and bring her the soup at which point we were told she was going to go grab our drinks. I thought it was odd that any food came out before our drinks were brought to the table. She later returned with the drinks and took our entree/salad orders. When it came time to bring out the salads, she brought out 2 of the 3 salads and told us she would be right back with the third. She went inside then stepped back outside with bread and wine and visited a different table. We waited for her to make another trip inside to come back with the third and final salad and wondered why we didn't get any bread. She later returned to our table with bread after we had been enjoying the salads/drinks for a little while which again seemed out of order. Overall, it just seemed like her process and flow of bringing out items was different from table to table and we waited for her longer than we anticipated on multiple occasions.

As far as the food and drink were concerned, the peach old fashioned was delicious, as was the baked French onion soup that I got to try from my friend. As far as the spinach salad with the hot bacon dressing, I wish it would have been able to eat more of it, but it was frankly drowning in dressing. My photo is after about 4-5 bites when I couldn't eat any more.

As far as entrees, I got the chicken cordon bleu which was a nice large portion along with mushroom risotto and green beans. Everything was cooked perfectly but the chicken was a little on the bland side. The chicken breast and breading were not seasoned; the taste relied heavily upon the cheese and sauce and some added salt. The green beans were seasoned very well and the mushroom risotto was the best thing on my plate, I wish I would have had more. They should offer it as an entree it was that good!

We did not end up partaking in dessert, but the display trays that the servers were bringing around looked delicious.

Overall, I just left feeling a tiny bit disappointed and with so many amazing dinner places available, not sure if we would be back to Copper Dock again. The views are hard to match but I've had better meals and better...

Great place, fabulous service by Nikki, great food & just beautiful views at the right tables. We had a patio and lake view next to the main room that was really lovely and the atmosphere was quaint, as well as the more quiet side of the restaurant which was a bonus on a busy Wed night. We'll be back again soon for that experience! The snow crab legs were plentiful, quite large & very delicious. I couldn't even finish the first round which is unusual for me. Lol They also came with a candlelit butter warmer so your butter stays hot while you eat. That was lovely. My most favorite parts of the meal were the lake view and the house salad (minus the walnuts) which included Granny Smith apple pieces with mixed spring greens and their house made lemon vinaigrette dressing..omg! I would buy a jar of that dressing & believe me, I asked the server about it, but was told no, they don't sell it, dang it. Lol However, I wasn't a fan of the green beans. They were so fresh & looked delicious, but the seasoning used on them totally overpowered the taste of the beans so I couldn't keep eating them, sadly. I would've preferred something more simple like fresh minced garlic and butter on them. Forgive me for my more simple tastes. Next, the rice pilaf looked nothing like I've ever seen before, but it still looked delicious so I tried it. It was also very strongly flavored with lots of seasoning. It tasted kind of like overseasoned mushy white rice mixed with some vegetable stew gravy and bits of carrots and celery. Plain old rice pilaf, buttered pilaf, or even chicken flavored pilaf would've been much better imo. I was just to overwhelmed with so much seasoning. Usually, people mention under seasoning and bland food, so if you like lots of seasoning with extra flavor in your food, you'll certainly enjoy the green beans and rice pilaf here. Be sure to come check out this lovely dinner destination. *Oh, and be mindful that there's a lot of different wildlife on that little road going to & from the restaurant..lots of deer, turkeys, raccoons, etc were seen by me so...