Lake View Restaurant — Restaurant in Virginia

1.0 star rating 4/7/2018 This restaurant is not the same as it was when it received good reviews. I live just a few miles from Lakeview, for decades it had been a great place to eat. However, that is no longer the case. I stopped in a couple of weeks ago to find that it had really changed. It reminded me of a vacant building where there was cooking. Apparently, all of the "atmosphere" had been removed and replaced with white paint. Empty shelves where local artisans once sold goods, no homemade jams, no local honey. No newspaper left on the counter from that morning. No postcards announcing your visit to the Fancy Gap area. I tried pancakes and bacon, it was ok, the coffee was good. I had business in the area this evening so I decided to try it for supper. I was thinking on the way there we would be lucky to find a parking spot, the weekends were always busy. Was I ever wrong....three cars there. We ordered flounder/shrimp combo. I quickly came to the realization that it WAS NOT the grand ol' diner it had once been. Our flounder was prebreaded right out of the freezer bag, usually, with this order, you receive popcorn shrimp now it was five medium shrimp straight out of another freezer bag. Both were overcooked until the shrimp had a nice rubber feel. The instant potatoes were ok had they been above room temperature. The server brought me freshly microwaved ones ummmmm! The cole slaw had a slightly gray look, was shredded and tasted like.....nothing. I really mean nothing. My man said his fries were good and so was the coffee. Counting the tip this experience cost $30. The older lady at the register asked the perfunctory question "Was everything ok?" I said "Nope," she says "Are you the one with the mashed potatoes?" I said "Yep" She sort of curled her lip up(that is when I decided she was also the cook!) and said the waitress should have checked to see if they were hot before she brought them out! I guess the girl should have stuck her finger in for a temp check!!! But,like I said the...

Good friendly people trying to make it in todays world and struggling with inflation and barely getting by. My time work and riding around burning gas on credit card it course I can’t work at what I’ve done most my adult life cause of someone I don’t know or think I don’t know. I’ve seen so many small businesses closed or about to cause they can not afford to pay help and afford food. There so much cattle I’ve seen, and so many farmers that is giving up family buisness cause they can’t afford to feed them pay for the help and can’t not go up on things. Talked to a manager of an auto part store tried asking him for a job but he said he could only pay like 10.00/hr but yet kids at McDonald’s are making 14 dollars an hour to give you an empty bag of of food and this isn’t a joke. It was like here’s your sign I got an empty wrapper for a McDouble but least my milk shake was almost full. It’s time to give back to the community and the hard working people of this earth. The rich keeps getting richer the poor keeps getting poorer. Electronics have ruined our kids but in the same sense I think a few of them are very intelligent kids and familer faces remind me there is a God and it’s time to do what we need to to save this country. Small buisness need to break. Someone whoever is playing god sign the darn paperwork to give them what they need and start using our oil sources again. But not through the internet do it by official offices till the hacking cloned bs is fixed. Too many people I’ve seen has took advantage of the Covid crises and I feel it is over. God bless America and the entire world he loves all his children. Thank you Lake view restaurant. Exit 8 fancy gap off hwy 52 for a...

Stopped here for breakfast. The place is dark and dingy and pretty dirty. Waitresses are nice. They try. Tables without cloths are dirty, a little sticky, and the booth we sat in was full of food crumbs, especially in the back part of the seat. Floors look like they haven't been mopped in years and swept in weeks. Food was meh. The coffee cup was plastic and had chips all around the rim. We had apples (from a can - not fresh) as a side, and they were served in styrofoam bowls. Not sure why. We thought that was odd. We travel often, across many states, many hole in the wall mom n pop places, which are getting to be fewer and more far between, unfortunately. What I miss the most about those places is the love and passion the owners and workers would put into them. It shown in the quality of the food, the cleanliness of the place, and the work ethic of the employees. Now, every restaurant in the US uses prepackaged food most of the time, delivered by US Foods or Sysco. Subpar at best, and when you leave, you just really want to drink something if only to wash the lingering after-taste from your mouth.

To any and all restaurateurs: If you're wanting to be in the restaurant business, make sure you genuinely care about serving others and you sincerely care about and appreciate their experience, along with their presence, their time, and their money they're giving you. If you don't feel passionately about the service industry, just don't even bother. We work hard for the money we have, and I hate to give it away to establishments that just...