Rafter's Restaurant

Overall experience at the lodge and this restaurant. Great place to go if you want to hike, bike, boat and so on but before you do, here's my overview of the experience: "I spent over 500$ for two nights and the best meal of the trip was in the local pizza establishment about 10 minutes from the lodge, the room was priced for a 4 star rating and they were not the cleanest or quietest. Had to deal with some resonant vibrations from some type of equipment hidden away in the bowels of the lodge. Wasn't our AC unit since it continued well after the AC had shut down. The balcony's were covered with dead bugs, acceptable to some degree given the lodge is out in the woods but wouldn't hurt for the staff to dust away the carcasses prior to the next guest arriving. Speaking of the staff; best described as not too friendly, luke-warm at best. Even the bartender in the lounge was more interested in yacking it up with the locals than she was in acknowledging a guest at the bar. I will give it to the lifeguards at the pool. At least the one young man there was very friendly. I understand the challenges such businesses have with the aftermath of the COVID mess but at no time did I ever see anyone that looked like a manager or a person in charge, step in and try to assist his youthful team of employees and ensure that the paying guests were getting the service they paid for. (Oh and yes, we paid for the breakfast, and it was basically a continental breakfast that most Motel 6's offer for free. It's a beautiful park but recommend you pack a tent and a few meals to grill out."

Went here for Mother's Day, the menu was lunch special sandwich & fries, only, we thought we could have dinner menu. Waitress was helpful, she was the only one serving and told us only had one chef in the kitchen. Should have a special meal for Mother's Day or a buffet style, was very upset, should have more help, waitress and chef's. My husband and I have been going there for years for anniversary. Atmosphere is delightful. You really need to plan for these special days.

Rafters restaurant at Deer Creek Lodge. When I Pay extra for Breakfast and on the weekend not given a choice.So I cant just get an omlet for $8.95 --you have to get the buffet.The coupon was good for 12.00---the buffet was 11.95.the first day OK fine all even.The second day the girls says---oh you have to pay for the Cofee and the juice---What? they charged us $6.00 ---. What a rip off. So I paid to make my own Waffles---

My wife and I tried to have breakfast at Rafter's this morning, but we were told that during weekends all breakfast customers have to have the buffet. Orders from the menu aren't allowed. All we wanted was two cups of coffee and the "hiker's breakfast" of granola and yogurt that we had ordered a few weeks before, but no, we had to order the $11.95 buffet. We went elsewhere.

The experience My family had at rafters was kind of a train wreck. There are so many bad things to talk about, where to begin?We went for their all you can eat fish fry. Except they ran out of fish. The fish we actually got to eat was good. It wasn't til after our dinner was eaten that we realized we were never given any rolls, so we asked and some were brought out. I'm 98.5% sure they were Sister Schuberts brand rolls that you can buy in the freezer section at Kroger.I ordered the veggie burger, and the description sounded delicious. House-made this, fresh that....Liars. Once again, this tasted like something I could buy in the freezer section at the grocery store and the ingredients absolutely did not match up with what was on the menu. I don't have anything against a grocery store veggie burger, but if what you are serving me is not what is on your menu, I'd like to know that before placing my order.I won't begin to dive into how bad the service was. Use your imagination. The view of the lake WAS gorgeous though.

We stayed at the lodge and had dinner the first night and breakfast (with the purchase of a B&B package) at the restaurant. The view is awesome! Great prices considering the beauty of the location, but we felt that the entire lodge was affordable in every way, from gift shop items to room rates. Very pleased!I do have one comment about customer service in the restaurant because it really put me in a bad mood when I had a conversation with the manager at our table.We ordered 2 strawberry shortcake desserts to share, our family's favorite. It was their seasonal special. It was very disappointing. Tasted exactly like frozen Sara Lee pound cake and it was sitting in a pool of thick strawberry jam. Really unappealing. Had one bite and let the kids finish it. This woman, presumably the manager, approached our table and asked how we like the strawberry shortcakes. I wasn't going to say anything, BUT SHE ASKED. I replied, "Well, kinda disappointed to be honest. I wouldn't call this 'shortcake' because isn't it just frozen pound cake sliced up? And the jam on the plate....not a fan."She went all scowly-faced and got angry. Insisted that it was freshly-made and hand-selected from the farmer's market in town. She was pissed. You know, if you're not prepared for customers to occasionally not be 100% pleased with their meals, then DON'T ASK. I smiled politely, complimented the strawberries (they were really good) and refrained from informing her that I was familiar with the farmer's market; we had purposely arrived early in town to visit it on Saturday and it was so crappy we didn't even bother to get out of the car.Breakfast the next morning was excellent! Biscuits and gravy from heaven! We plan on returning soon and we'll eat in the restaurant again, but I hope this manager can learn to be a little more friendly and less defensive and abrasive. Really ruined my evening. Sorry I didn't love your strawberry shortcake, lady, but it was TERRIBLE. And guess what? I'm entitled to my opinion. Acknowledging that I have a right to not like something I'm PAYING FOR....maybe even offering something else or taking one of them off the bill is how good restaurants do things. BTW, our bill was well over $150 with all of us having prime rib and a couple cocktails, so taking $4 off wouldn't have hurt anybody and would have gone a long way toward inspiring me to rate this place higher.

First, let me note that the restaurant iFirst, let me note that the restaurant is reviewed a few time within the general reviews for Deer Creek Lodge.We decided to check this place out for a Christmas Eve dinner. The service was very very slow, and our waitress did apologize. Perhaps the slow service was because of Christmas Eve and not very telling of other visits.The views and the atmosphere are pretty much unbeatable as one might expect.The flavor and preparation of the dishes (we had a group of 5) was really good. The chef seemed professionally trained. The 3 humus dips we received seemed prepared just for us and were really good.In addition to the slowness (I think we spent about 2 hours from walking in to leaving) there were two issues:1) The waitress not only asked for temperature preparation of my steak, but also my wife's salmon, and my daughter's chicken. Perhaps I am wrong and this is just unusual rather than wrong. I've certainly been schooled to think chick must always be cooked thoroughly if not also for salmon.2) Everyone received their meal but my youngest son who ordered a simple cheese burger with fries. All of us finished our meals and we finally had to stop the waitress and tell her to take the burger off of our bill.There is sometimes a fine line on whether or not a restaurant made the grade. For the reasons mentioned, I think Rafter's fell onto the wrong side of the line for our visit. I really think they deserve between a 2 and a 3. They could easily be a 4 or 5 by fixing some simple problems.The website states that: "Reservations are not required but are certainly appreciated", but no phone number (as of 1/13/2014) is provided to the restaurant. The number I provided above is the "General Inquiries" to the Lodge itself.s reviewed a few time within the general reviews for Deer Creek Lodge.

Whether you are staying at the resort or the campground do not waste your money. The pizza was awful, our order was wrong. It was $32 for pizza, fries, coke and bud light bottle.

don't eat at this restaurant! we camped at the state park, and decided to eat supper at the lodge, We waited over an hour to get our food, there was no air-conditioning, there were no lights in the dining hall, our drinks were not refilled, and our food was cold when it finally showed up. When the manager asked how we liked our food, we told her our complaints and she did not offer to comp. the meal.

Awesome food waitress and chef are awesome. Pizza is delicious Highly recommend lodge is under construction but had a great time