Was looking forward to visiting the Lake on the Mountain Restaurant with my mom and 5 month old daughter, but left a bit disappointed with the overall experience.
Let's start with the positives. The view and atmosphere were lovely - the lake on the mountain is really beautiful and we and a great view from our table on the patio.
It took a while to be greeted and seated for our reservation, the hostess wasn't super attentive. Our server was polite but not overly enthusiastic about anything on the menu or anything really. When I asked her what she would recommend on the menu, she didn't sound overly excited about any of the options (should have been our first red flag).
We had ordered San Pellegrino to drink and the server asked if we would like anything else to drink. We asked her what the other non alcoholic options were and she said they had lemonade, but it was made from a powder (another red flag). I'm glad she was honest about it but I was surprised that they wouldn't have made fresh lemonade or at least had another option.
Our appetizers took a super long time to arrive. My mom decided to start with their housemade pate and I ordered the mussels, which were prepared in a garlic cream sauce that day (menu says they change their preparation for that particular dish daily). My mom said she enjoyed her pate however the mussels arrived lukewarm and the accompanying bread was burnt. Not an ideal way to enjoy this type of dish. I asked the server if she would kindly bring bread that was less charred and she said that she could bring more but it would look the exact same due to the way the chefs prepared it. Very odd. She offered to bring untoasted bread instead, so I said yes.
The mussels themselves were ok but they weren't cleaned properly and a few of them still had their beards (?) on and one was super sandy. Doesn't instill a lot of confidence in the quality of the food when there isn't care taken in the preparation. There were also a few which were slightly closed so I didn't risk eating those ones.
We were still working on our appetizers when our mains arrived (tourtiere for my mom, a burger and fries for me), the timing was too close. As other reviewers noted, this food also did not arrive hot either, but rather lukewarm. Because it was windy and we were still working on our appetizers, our entrees were borderline cold by the time we started eating them. My mom said her tortiere was just ok and so was my burger. The burger itself didn't have a lot of flavour and the fries seemed like they were likely from frozen ones.
Sadly, this place could be really awesome if the peeps running the kitchen put a bit more effort into preparation, ensuring the food is hot and using fresh local ingredients. I also read from other reviewers that the menu hasn't changed in years so perhaps an overhaul is due. In it's current state, I would not rush to return and would not recommend visiting unless perhaps coming for just a drink and maybe an appetizer. read more