Lago del Pino Review

Very disappointed. Ive has dinner here in the past 10yrs ago loved it. As most reviewers stated great venue beautiful surroundings. But the lack of attention to detail was disappointing. We had less guess then we had planned for and still ran out of food. When you pay 30 a plate for bbq plus 180 for dessert which was two 13x13 cobblers there should be plenty. No one watched the buffet to make sure all the guess had plenty to eat and restock when items ran low. The lack of professionalism was everywhere. No staff uniforms what might have been staff was sitting around on their phones.
I think with better management this could be a great place for special occasions again. But believe the reviews. I didn t

Very limited menu choices, excessive prices for quality and quantity of food. I will never return. Many better places to spend my dinning dollars. BTW, the band was atrocious. I suppose people who think this restaurant gives them a continental feel but have never traveled much, if any, in Europe will regularly gyrate to this place. Go to Texas Roadhouse for a better steak and fixin's for less money.

Not very impressed with this restaurant. The food was no where near worth what we paid. We sat near a corner that was covered from floor to ceiling with spider webs and spiders. The men's restroom was filthy - multiple holes in the walls with insulation coming out. There were no hand towels in the men's restrooms - they instead had a roll of toilet paper. The two stars are for the back patio, views of the pond, and nice live music.

Visited this place today for a wedding shower. It was a great enviornment. I felt like it was my own place.

This is the first negative review I have ever given an establishment. When making a reservation a week prior to my birthday I was assured we would be able to sit outside to watch the band, no table outside upon arrival despite reservation , food was cold and ridiculously overpriced for the quality, and it took forever to arrive. The only saving grace was our sweet server. First and only time we will go to this establishment.

It is a perfect place to have dinner. At night it turns into a club.

The food was good. The waiter mind was somewhere else. The waiter didn't come back to see if we needed anything. He just didn't want to work. But he still got a big tip. Just because someone else is having a bad night it doesn't mean you have to have one. Still had laughter and fun.

Very disappointed. Beautiful dining area, but Open Face Poblano dinner was obviously prepared some time earlier and warmed to barely above room temp. Cheese was stringy like cold pizza cheese. Sad to waste the ambiance on poor food.

Had a great time with family and friends food was delicious

I have never been and looks we won t we were going to go but after reading the reviews changed our minds. The main reason the management responded to none of the reviews good or bad that says a lot about the establishment . managers don t care employees won t care

Good food and great service, along with amazing scenery.

. lago is an awesome place to sit outside . Enjoy the view of the lake. The lights and most of the time. Great bands.
It's nice to have something like that so close

The food is good too... drinks are a Lil much. But it's all worth it !!!!
Get some friends . Grab a few 20'$ and enjoy.
Even when it's cold out. They have huge heaters and a great fire place.
Going on Saturday !!!!!

Update : we went last night and had reservation for 4. It started out great . But the service was so slow we had to keep going inside to get our drinks from the bar. I'd like to say she had a reason for not coming over as a server should. But she rly didnt. She had 3 tables outside.
I will keep going . But stick with getting my own drinks ..

this place is amazing great atmosphere even better food if your looking for something special or want to feel pampered and spoiled this is the place to go

Service was below par. Food was bland. Not what u expect from such a nice place.

Valentine s Day dinner. No hostess to be seen. SEVERAL people standing around waiting to be seated. Had reservation for 7:30. Did not get seated until 8:30. Waited 20 minutes, no waiter in sight. Flagged down someone and finally ordered drinks. Saw the waiter only to ask us what we wanted after an hour of being seated then when the food was delivered. Had to flag down another waiter just to get our check. The filet was TERRIBLE. Absolutely horrible. The worst dining experience I have ever had.

Great atmosphere and great location, but the average service with average food with not much flavor makes for a less then desirable outcome. Doubt I would go back based on the food $$$$ and the service.

The prime rib stuffed poblano pepper was really good. The rice served with it could have been cooked longer. Drinks were over priced and not very good. They also had 3 very different types of music coming from 3 different locations in the restaurant. You could hear them all very clearly from where we were sitting, which was very unpleasant.. will probably not be returning.

Food has some great flavor, the queso is outstanding, not to busy on Wed during the week if you are looking for some good food with social distancing as well

Very poor service, great view, great food Needs all new Staff

Good omelettes, otherwise just an ok buffet, disappointing service, great views

Went there for Easter thought I would give this place another try. Wrong The food they had was like leftovers from the week before nothing went with anything on the buffet it was lousy bacon was burnt macaroni and cheese was like glue the sweet rolls were so hard like cement strawberries had no taste terrible service check this place off my list

Beautiful place! The bar needs attention during dance nights. They're very unorganized. A small crowd means lots of wait time

Had a blast but bar ran out of Patron....which is allowed but disappointing. Giving positive vibes cause next day felt great and not hung over! Cheers

Part 1 Desperately needs a management revamp

Friends and I celebrated my birthday at Lago several years ago and it was an amazing experience.

For this reason, I chose it for my husband's birthday gathering last night.

Our experience was night and day from my original one.

Pros -
Unique decor and setting. Though off the beaten path, the venue is truly one of a kind. The backdrop of their outdoor seating overlooks a large pond with a lighted water feature. Beautiful!

The venue's design and decor are high end, though visibly rundown since my previous visit.

EXCELLENT music and entertainment. Both visits we enjoyed the Tuxedo Cats Band. So good; they made the eve!

Last night, there was also an excellent DJ who played after the band left. My hubby and I danced for hours between both talents!

That's about it for the "pros."

CONS:
I made our reservation nearly a week in advance. Party of 8 near the music at 7PM.

When I called, I got a voicemail, left a message and was called the next day by Jeremy who confirmed our reservation. Great, all was set!

Nope. There was no reservation for us. They were completely unprepared (and a bit unwilling) to remedy the situation.

The area where they placed the band was much different from before.

This time, the band was oddly situated in a narrow room where people were either standing or seated in vicarious arrangements that made little sense.

Awkward set up that it was, we were still confident the staff would figure something out for us.

After a long wait, the hostess finally said our table was ready and led us to a back room far away from the music, the main reason we chose the venue.

Once I realized what she was doing, I reminded her we thought we'd be close to the music. She, unsympathetically, said, "We don't have space for you near the music."

By now, we are half an hour in. I said, "May I speak with your manager?" The hostess looked at me with a blank, unaffected stare.

I explained again, "When I made our reservation, I was told we'd be near the music. Surely, you can work out a way for us to at least get close enough to hear it."

She said she'd see what she could do and walked away, leaving us standing in the middle of the restaurant.

Not wanting the other patrons to feel uncomfortable, we went back to the waiting area where we waited quite a while yet again.

See Part 2

Went on a Saturday night with a group that had a reservation. Band was great BUT the service was truly terrible. It took over 1 1/2 hours to get our food, the orders were nearly all wrong, some had to go to the bar for refills or do without. It's really a shame for such a nice location.

Part 2 Desperately needs a management revamp



Thankfully, we were with a group of amazing and fun people who made the most of it all, the music (though awkwardly placed) was impeccable and we wound up having a great time celebrating my hubby.

The restaurant did bring my husband a complementary "Birthday dessert," but only after I asked if they did anything special for Birthday patrons.





Funnily enough, the bottom of the brownie was so burnt (dried out?) that it was nearly inedible. It was a generous size, though, and had a nice looking topping (which I didn't try), but we passed it around the table and it did get eaten.

As the evening progressed, our friends departed for their homes, but my husband and I remained to enjoy more music and dancing.

The later it got, the more Rave-style bar feel the venue became.

The clientele switched from dinner attire to ripped jeans and thug-like wear with foul, loud talk, at which time we ended our evening.

In the parking lot, we were uneasy about getting to our car. For example, three cars from where we were parked was LOUD, rap-like music coming from an SUV and a woman twerking in its headlights among other rowdy parking-lot happenings.

Needless to say, as great a time as we wound up having together last night, we all agreed we'd likely never again return to that venue.

What was once an upscale, nice restaurant, has become a surprising disappointment. Too bad, it is truly a beautiful place.

Food was not good. And definitely not worth the price.

Miserable dining experience. Incredibly noisy. Can't even have a conversation. A Chuckee Cheese experience at 5 times the price.

Good atmosphere, great brunch! Oh yeah, great Bloody Mary to

Very nice atmosphere. I was with a group. The food was served hot. I had the fajitas and they were delicious. Looking forward to our next visit.

Very beautiful place, very good service the waitress very friendly, very rich food,

Where do I start? First off, we have tried countless times to get ahold of a manager through facebook messenger (which we can tell has been read and received but no reply) and phone to no help at all. Gave plenty of opportunity to make their wrongs right- wonder why they don't have a rating spot on their facebook?.... Google reviews seem to be an indication why that's not available!
We visited for the first time on our 16th wedding anniversary. Friday night and it was pretty quiet at first. We were seated outside in a dark corner at a shaky tall table (so dark that we couldn't even see the menu they placed in front of us). Sat for a while without being approached, so we moved ourselves to the next table. We ordered the bisque and crab cakes for appetizer and also drinks. My drink was delicious, and helped take the edge off a little of how bad the service was. Bisque came out after our dinner, and was COLD. Sent back and it came back out COLD again. Decided to just pack it up and take home to heat up in our microwave next day. Husbands steak was not cooked correctly. After waiting on our server, we finally catch the hostess and she nicely moves us to a better spot where hopefully we won't be forgotten (and we could actually see our food!). Still didn't help the service. Finally our server brings the check, we let her know how the meal was and there was no offer to bring the manager or to fix anything. We decided to pay out and leave completely disappointed and just in awe of how such a beautiful place that has such amazing potential and it just ruined our anniversary....you get one day a year to celebrate that date and there we were- just dismayed. With all of the options that Tyler has to eat out and celebrate, we will never recommend Lago Del Pino!
Save yourself the time and money and go somewhere else.

I don't usually fall for fads and I Will Not try an establishment without trusted info but, since I do like to give fledgling a chance in hell I tried this novice eatery much to my disappointment. If they get more business it's mainly from First Time diners. Tyler and east texas has so many residents so it Will exhaust itself, eventually and this wannabe Will surely go down in smoke. Luck they are near an open body of water. Summing up. It's a huge whole lot of Nothing. Food is digestible at best and tricycle bartenders need schooling. Want not to be disappointed.....Have a bud light.

Very beautiful ambiance, but nothing special about the menu options.

Really......mac and cheese and meat loaf on buffet. Horrible food and ran out of food at 1:15 and didn't bother to replace any after that even though they were still seating parties until 2:00. Do not recommend.

Great service and the food was excellent. We had the chipotle hummus, which by the way I want that recipe to start with. My husband had Le pork chop which he enjoyed greatly and I had the shrimp and grits that was amazing. The wait staff did an excellent job. They were very attentive and courteous. We had a very enjoyable experience. Great job guys.

Good place to listen to music
Excessive prices on small portions of food

Change prices at the last minute from Latin night
When the rule is to consume in order to get in free for the night
Never returning to this place

Nicer upscale restaurant great for couples or a group beautiful patio for sunset dining ....live music on weekend

We made the mistake of having our engagement party on prom night. (We didn't know it was prom night).
Took 2+ hours to receive our cold, and incorrectly made meals. A number of items didn't even make it. We seemed to be the only table being ignored despite the crowd. The manager came to our table joke about the problems rather than apologize.
If you cannot opperate, do not open your doors. Our special night was ruined. You need to hire more people. We will never be back.

Went on Wednesday evening to eat before a cookie icing event being held there. Everything we ordered they were out of but we didn't get informed until they brought our food & a very long way for that. They put a piece of pear in our pear & walnut salad but it was supposed to be poached & soaked in merlot. I guess they thot we wouldn't notice. Out of salad dressing. The shrimp I ordered in my salad was delicious but that was all I had. The manager blamed the kitchen staff & our waitress did the same. This is the first nite they're open & should be better prepared. Beautiful place but terrible service. Never offered something they did have to replace what we didn't get.

The children running the front are not good at what they are doing. They're nice enough, but the professionalism I would expect from a venue like this, we'll, it just isn't there. Too many non-uniform children employees. I didn't know who to ask for help, so many ignored me. Place has potential, I bet drinks by the lake are great. Food tasted ok, but many elements of the restaurant were off. I hope they get some better employees and direct the better.

Was super excited to have date night here but sadly disappointed. We were not greeted when we arrived and had to ask for service and let them know we had reservations.. we arrived at 830 and the place was a ghost town.. every table around us was dirty and our waitress didn t really seem to care about our experience.. the food was the only decent part of the evening but i still don t think I ll go back. This was our first time here (we let our server know) and i was hoping someone would explain how the music/food/ and what goes on with the club but no one ever did. Upon leaving there were 4 hostess/servers sitting down by the door.. no one even attempted to open the door or tell us to have a good evening or thanks for coming.. such a beautiful place but because of the dirty restaurant/bathrooms/patio we probably won t go back.. hopefully this helps improve things.

First time customers. The food was not hot and it s taste wasn t worth the high price. Service was lacking. We probably won t try this place again and will not recommend it to others. Bad first impression.

Excellent atmosphere and great tasting food. Service was a little slow but not too bad.

Very beautiful place
Excellent live music service

Brought my family here for Father s Day brunch and we had a great time. I had the shrimp and grits and will definitely order it again.

Last time we go there , limited menu
.nice place but needs better management not enough waiters . salmon was good.

So beautiful! And the food is amazing. I've already made reservations for next weekend

Very small portions and overly priced! Was not impressed at all!!

My friends and I paid 25$ each to get into Lago on New Years Eve because we thought they were offering more for your money on NYE (ex: fireworks, hors d'oeuvres, champange, great music). We are accustomed to Lago having slow bar services, but thought we could see past that for one night. However, the services was worse than ever! It took us over 25 minutes of waiting at the bar before we were able to get a drink each time. They only had two bartenders working both down stairs and up stairs on a busy holiday. For those of us who only wanted a beer, it would've been helpful to have a beer tub girl like they used to have to cut down on wait time. The fireworks and the band was great! It was pretty cold outside and most of the heaters they had set up on the patio were out of propane. We probably will not be back until service improves!

I'm not sure where the patrons who wrote negative comments actually went, but our experience at Lago del Pino was exemplary. The food was excellent, service was great, atmosphere incomparable. I will recommend this venue to others.

nice looking place, great view, really enjoyed sitting out side, although the chairs made it impossible for an average size person to sit normally and reach my food. Not sure what size person those chairs are designed for. Server was excruciatingly slow. Server had no enthusiasm for her job or giving us excellent service. Prices were way inflated for the size of the portions.The beer was really good. Don't know if I'd recommend.

My husband and I made dinner reservations a week in advance at 7:00 on New Year s Eve. We arrived at exactly 6:58. The hostess told us we could not have dinner because the kitchen was going to close at 7:00 so they can prepare for New Years. Luckily, we had confirmation of our reservation to show the manager. He agreed to let us in, but told us that we needed to order right away. Instead of ordering drinks first while browsing over the menu, we had to order our food with our drinks as soon as we were seated.

I ordered the tilapia that said it came with blue cheese and a sauce. I got tilapia with mushrooms, no blue cheese. My husband ordered a baked potato, but got mashed potatoes instead. We had to ask for water 4 times before it finally arrived.

We had bad service the time before this but thought it was an isolated incident. No, we will not be back.

This place was fabulous we had a blast. Celebrating my son's 30th birthday and my sister-in-law oh my goodness

It took an hour to get our food. Presentation and wait staff was great but food quality is not up to par. The only part enjoyed was the cheese cake. Wouldn't recommend this restaurant to any of my friends.

Thrive Community Church Athens leadership and Go Team gathering was wonderful. The food and service was really good. The fellowship room and the outside over looking the lake was amazing. Will see you again soon!
Thank you!

Beautiful place, nice to dance and to enjoy nature. Food needs to be improved as well as service to clients.

Beautiful location on the lake, well groomed with flowers, bridges, patio.. Good food, good service with great view.

Great atmosphere. Brian was an excellent server. The plablano plate was delicious

absolutley the worst trained staff I have ever encountered. Nice setting. Live music fair prices. But you ll get better service at a 7Eleven. Don t go here if you value service quality

First time going here, went on Saturday night after hours, definitely for the younger/ children crowd. Will try again during regular business hours. Can't speak for the food, wasn't available.

I made reservations for a prom party of 12 directly through the restaurant a month in advance. I made them direct so that there would not be mishaps. When we arrived early, we took pictures outside because the view is beautiful. We then went inside so that I could check the kids in. They were seated at time of reservations. So I then left because the group had a limo for the prom so I thought everything was taken care of. Unfortunately, an hour and a half later I got a phone call from my daughter saying that they still had not gotten their food, their drinks hadn't been refilled and they couldnt find their waitress. I wasn't happy to say the least. One, we had a limo driver sitting outside and two, if the kids are not at prom by a certain time they will not be allowed in. I was about to call to find out what the problem was. As we were about to hang up, she said wait, our food in coming now! So again, I thought everything was taken care of. WRONG!! The food arrived cold and a different waitress had taken over their table. They did say that she was trying but that she was just running in circles trying to attend to all tables around them also. Nevertheless, our limo driver even went in and complained, asking what was taking so long!? After I found all this out when another kid in the party called me telling me how terrible the food and service was AND that they charged EACH one of them a gratuity tip. I was amazed that this was happening at such a nice place?! I then called and asked for a manager. I spoke with Brian in which he claimed to be the manager. He wasn't any help and I'll NEVER darken the door of Lago del Pino again. I hope they take all those gratuity tips and hire more help!!!

What a sad place, great facility and setting being killed by poor management, untrained editors and sub par food. Hopefully a national chain will buy it and an enjoyable place. I ll come again after that happens.) l

After looking on their website today for places to go for our Anniversary dinner we drove 45 minutes to be told we had to have a reservation.... maybe 6 cars in the parking lot... yes it's New Years Eve and that's why we are there early around 6:40 before the crowds ... no exceptions... we were told no table tonight