The Lake Chalet Seafood Bar and Grill Review

Relaxed atmosphere and good food. It's a great place to take the kids to when you also want an "adult" dinner out.

This Restaurant is Amazing, it sits overlooking Lake Merritt in Oakland California, you can watch people in canoes going pass on the lake, the restaurant is located next to the Rowing Club, it Also offers Romantic rides on a Gondalor, they have a gorgeous area to have weddings. I had their Fish and Chips with seasoned Fries, My Son had Mary's Farm 1/2 Chicken that sat on a bed of spinach, Mashed Potatoes and a succulent gravy. Sounds Delicious my son said that it was. It will be worth your while to go for treat.

Hit or miss with the food and service. First time I came, we all had a wonderful time. The outdoor seating in the summer during happy hour is the jam. But the second time we came, our server was rude, and the food was cold, even the French fries.

Decent food, great drinks and atmosphere. Great service also,

Great service and I love the outdoor seating on a hot non breezy day.

I was here on a weekend where they had a beautiful wedding on the deck. It was pretty awesome. The food could be better but overall I had a good experience. Nice friendly staff and reasonable priced food. Just one bad thing. I am as served beer in a dirty beer glass so I'm on the fence about their cleanliness.

We took the Gondola ride. The experience was good. The lake Merritte is a neat and clean place with lot of places for walking, jogging and childrens play area. A good place to spend an evening

WHAT A MAGICAL PLACE! We had a WONDERFUL dinner with our son and his fiancee on Friday evening after we arrived from Seattle. The food is exquisite, the staff are very accommodating and friendly, and the ambiance is magnificent! Next time we're in town, we are definitely coming back!

A little pricy but lovely outside seating and delicious food and drink. A "sometimes" splurge. Great wait staff as well.

Brunch was great. Super selection. Very tasty. Service was also excellent. The view is wonderful. Great for special occasions.

Had a fantastic time with friends for the taco specials on Tuesday. I had a margarita, and to tacos. Such a great deal! Honestly it was our server Amber that made our visit the best. She was so friendly and warm, made great suggestions, was super patient as I was stuck in traffic as the rest of the party was already seated. By the end of our meal we all felt like she was an old friend. She even tracked down or friend's credit card he left at the lower back but had closed already and they or it in the lost and found. Albert is a gem and whole this was my first visit, because of her, it won't be my last!

Came here for their Thanksgiving buffet and the food was terrific. The wait was almost an hour despite having reservations but the buffet itself was fantastic. Stone crab claws, fantastic turkey, and amazing grilled brussel sprouts. It's pricey but worth it. And the view over lake Merritt was gorgeous. Would definitely come here again.

You can't beat the deck on a nice afternoon. The drinks leave something to be desired and the food is so-so but that's not the draw. Just chill on the lake and have a beer.

Really nice place. I d like to go agin and try other items from the menu.

Great location, really pleasant outside seating and the calamari was great.

Such a terrific location. We ate outside and without heaters it was a bit too breezy. Service was good but the food a bit underwhelming. I had the Shrimp Louis salad. It was nothing but shredded iceberg lettuce with a few small shrimp that tasted like they had just come out of a bag a few minutes earlier. My friends were not excited by anything they ordered except the Brussel Sprouts which were good...albeit a bit sweet for my taste. Get drinks and sit by the fire...

Place has the best view and location but lacks variety on menu and quality of food is mediocre. I only come here for drinks, bartenders are pleasant. If you want to have drinks overlooking the lake then this is your spot.

I'm not going to go back but the manager did make up for not having any of the meals we wanted on the menu. The owner comped us a bottle of champagne.

It was fine, the server was hilarious, but honestly the food was just ok. A Wednesday lunch service that had 20% of the menu unavailable is disappointing. The lemonades are awful. So so sweet. Even waiting for the ice to melt didn't help.

We would have rated Lake Chalet higher, but my wife's food and drink order was mis-handled. She wanted her burger medium-well done, but received a burger medium- rare. Also, her drink was not what she wanted. I should also note that we arrived prior to the early evening meal rush, and the wait time from being seated to having our order taken was about 25 minutes. It was approximately the same amount of time before we were served our meal. I will add that the wait and serving staff were impeccably attentive and did every thing to make our experience a more positive one despite the circumstances.

Excellent views
Excellent service & food
Valet car park a bit pricey

Excellent food, service and view at reasonable prices

Had a great Ramos Gin Fizz today! Brunch generally rocks. Haven't had dinner since shortly after they opened, so i can't comment on that.

Great view! And that's about it. Food is mediocre at best and service is below subpar.

We were Out of Towners on an off day. Still, we found service to be very good and the food choices and quality also very good. The biggest plus: grand location, location, location!

food is always fresh and made from scratch. great service and staff

Was an amazing experience here.
Everything is so good.

Great Happy Hour prices and choices with a great view

Perfect place for drinks on the lake. Live music when we were there. We didn't eat anything though.

Delicious food in a very nice setting. They have valet parking. It is hard to park if you try to do so on your own. The neighborhood is hoody, and I wouldn t walk alone there at night.

Awesome place, the view was the best our dinner and overlooking Lake Merritt. We enjoyed meals and wine. I impressed service and staff.

Nice place, nice atmosphere overlooking the lake; I prefer it more during the day, but they also attend at night). Good bar and large lounge. The food is good and abundant. The attention once located is good, until they accommodate you it depends on who is at the door (in general they are not very gentle)

More great fried calamari, walk the lake then go eat, thank me later!

Immensely disappointing :( We came here with high hopes since the reviews were so good. They close the dock seating a bit after 7 (at least in summer) so we instead sat at the bar. We at least had a nice view out the window which was good because it took us 10+ minutes to place our order and another 40+ minutes to get our food.

I ordered the seafood linguine, which I was expecting to be like a fancier linguine and clams, one of my favorites. The sauce it came in was red instead of white and creamy, and very salty but otherwise bland. The seafood tasted like seafood, not delicious and succulent but very briny and otherwise tasteless! It reminded me of ordering clam chowder expecting Boston chowder and getting Manhattan chowder. Blech!

My partner ordered the miso glazed salmon. It was also relatively flavorless, and the mushrooms on the side were essentially dehydrated. The potato was mediocre, but far better than the salmon. The only thing on the plate that was actually enjoyable to eat were the brussel sprouts, which were very thin but at least had good flavor.

After spending over 2 hours at this establishment (it took at least 30 more minutes to get our check handled), I can firmly say I won't come back, and that our experience was not worth $40 each (after tax and tip). I will say that the interactions we did have with the staff were generally positive and at worst neutral, but they were too infrequent for the experience we were paying for.

The food was awesome!!!
We were party of 7 with a 2 yr old and seated nicely..we did have a good fam time

Great food and atmosphere. Still sub five-star though.

The view from the second floor is great. Great for big birthday dinners

We sat at the bar and had a drink and an appetizer. The bar itself was just ok. It was very long and seemed hard for the bartender to properly tend to all the customers. The bar itself wasn't the cleanest either. The food though, was great. We got the brussel sprouts and they were delicious. I would go back and try dinner though.

Service sucked, scared of a table full of well educated black Women, staff was very intimidated by our group

Our small group of 4 grabbed a seat outside in the patio for happy hour. You make your way into the outside patio and find an empty table and seat yourself. It was a warm day to enjoy the outside eating. The 3-6-9 menu ranged from a few bite size appetizers ($3 section) to full size bar plates ($9). We settled down with our drinks, and started off with Crab and Shrimp Deviled Eggs, Sweet Potato Fries, Onion Rings, and Fried Calamari. We had no intentions of filling up there, just meeting for drinks. We were more than half full at that point and decided to get a few more dishes, mainly because we saw the table next to us get the fish and chips and it looked good. So an order of fish and chips and sticky ribs. We enjoyed everything we ordered and was fuller than we thought possible.

Our waiter was pleasant and checked up on us to make sure we didn't need any more happy hour priced drinks or food before the 6pm deadline. The food came quick, but the staff was slow at clearing away dishes. At one point, one of the guys refused to take our dirty plates as they brought us more food and there was no room left on the table. My friend handed him the plates and wouldn't take no as an answer. Down side, that stupid white linen napkins left white lint all over our clothes.

Amazing food and a spectacular view. Try the roasted trout or the fried chicken sandwich. Oh, and the seafood deviled eggs!

Beautiful atmosphere great weather delicious food what more do you want!

A little expensive but good for special days and celebrations.

One of the best Lake Merritt restaurants! Great food and drinks with a can't beat it view. Staff is great and prices are not crazy expensive.

The fish was terrible, the burger was cold, the view was great.

Great views to remind you of the beauty of Oakland!

Was there in Taco Tuesday. 45 min wait for table on the dock. We walked around the lake to pass time. There was only one server so service was pretty slow at first. Drinks took a long time and food trickled out. But, we will go back because once you relax and enjoy the view the food and ambiance made it worth while. We asked for extra crispy fries and they came extra crispy with the server checking back to ensure they were crispy enough. Tacos and ceveche were surprisingly good.

Great view at the lake, but food is so so, service is below average, and pricy.

Food has improved in the last year. Service left something to be desired as after spending $400 we were asked to close our check because the servers were changing. No problem. They failed to open a new check the manager came over and tried to kick us out of our seats before or new waitress had shown up. We ordered more wine and oysters totalling another $300 but before they showed up more confusion and we were again approached and asked to leave our table. Just as he got the words out of his mouth the order arrived. Then no one came back for hours. Finally I went up to ask the hostess for a check and to give payment. She asked what table we were at and when I looked back people were being seated. So a waiter brought me a closed check to hey stand for payment. My wife and I (just the two of us) were there all day to see a friend play in the featured band. Apparently getting there early enough to score said table and then ordering and paying for copious amounts of food and drink isn't enough to keep your seat. Won't be back soon. There's too many great places in the immediate area to give more money to people who don't seem to value it. Hope you have a better time.

I like this place. Very nice staff and plenty of room so you can avoid being an unwanted member of your neighboring tables conversation. I had the fish and chips which was tasty! Lovely views of the lake!

Views are great on the water for brunch. If you sit outside reservations are not available.

Excellent food, beautiful setting (at the lake), service very much below: the SMS reservation system does not work if you have a GSM outside the US host host not very welcoming contemptuous limit ....

Only restaurant on the shore of lake merrit. Lots of space indoors and out and they have a great happy hour.

There is no doubt that you come to Lake Chalet for the view of Lake Merritt. I haven't always been a big fan of the food, but I thoroughly enjoyed the ribs and caesar salad. Very good! The bartenders, like Luis, are nice and very attentive.

Good food, specifically the short ribs. Drink service was very slow.

I sooooo want this place to be better. But the food always falls flat. I've been there about 10-15 times since they opened and the service has never improved (especially on taco Tuesdays). The service is polite but disorganized and the food is usually cold or room temperature.
But the view is superb and the drinks are tasty. I just wish the kitchen would get it together :-(

Best use of this former city admin lbs. The water staff have a marathon serving the out door diners.
Great job and great food.

Food and service here is fantastic.
Can get cold at the outside dining area.

Great ambience on the pier on a sunny day, but always crowded. Drinks are decent, food is only okay.