The Waterfront Grille

The staff was nice and the food was ok (nothing special) but I got very sick and had to deal all nite and next day. Made for a very long drive back to Denver. I was staying in the hotel and told the front desk but they did not offer any kind of refund or anything.

I came here with my boyfriend for valentines dinner. We thought we would need a reservation because nice places tend to get booked up but this place was not very crowded and I don’t think it was full the entire time we were there.
Anyway, we started with a drink at the bar. We both ordered cocktails, I had an Italian stallion and my boyfriend had a Moscow mule. Both were great.
On to dinner. Both of us looked at the menu before going so we had an idea of what we wanted to order and we were excited about it. Come to find out, there was a price fixe menu that night and nothing we were interested in was on it and the only other option we had was to order the pub food from the bar. I wish they would have told us when we made the reservation, especially since it was $ 60 a person! At that point there is no way we could get in anywhere else unless we wanted to be all dressed up at McDonald’s. Also the table they sat us at was basically a booth but the height of our table was at or below our knees. It was uncomfortable and not really conducive to eating a meal.
The food was good, I will give them that. It was an odd menu though. First course was a choice between some seared fish or gnocchi in vodka sauce. Second was roast quail or ostrich, third was wild boar chops or steak (I don’t remember the cut) and lastly crème brûlée or tiramisu. We ended up ordering one of each so we could taste a bit of everything. They were out of tiramisu and so we had cheesecake instead which was fine with us. Like I said the food was tasty, it was not what we would have ordered had we been given a choice though. It was a ton of meat, good thing neither of us are vegetarians.
Our server was such an awkward person and I cringed every time he came to our table because it was just an awkward exchange between us. The service was also incredibly slow. I expect a little longer dinner on special nights but the place was not that crowded and we were there for almost two and a half hours. Also, at the end of our meal when our server brought the bill he knelt down and proceeded to do a card trick. More awkward.
Since we ordered wine our meal was about $ 200. I don’t think our experience was worth such a hefty bill. I will be back to the hotel but not to the restaurant unless it is just for drinks.

We stayed at the resort and ate breakfast there in their restaurant. We were blown away at the presentation and portions of food we ordered! Taste did not disappoint they’ve had the same chef for over ten years. The view of frozen Lake Estes was amazing.

At first, we were really enjoying our dinner at this restaurant, while we were guests in the hotel for the weekend. We were there celebrating our wedding anniversary (a sweet surprise getaway from my hubby!) The food and drink were pretty delicious.
However, after bringing us the check and taking our credit card, the waiter came back with a bill over $ 20 more than the original ticket, and already charged our card the higher price because another server told him to put another table’s drinks on our ticket! It was a really poor ending to an actually pleasant dinner… a shame. They apologized for what happened and told us they voided the higher amount, but after checking our credit card this week, we saw they actually charged us the higher amount! Very shady… we of course will dispute this charge with our credit card company. And they didn’t even offer to take anything off our check to make up for this that night either… which in fancier restaurants like this, I would expect them to.
As I said in my review of the hotel itself, we still enjoyed ourselves because we are so thankful to be able to afford and try new restaurants like this one. However, I would not recommend this restaurant (or hotel) to friends or family.

Excellent food. Beautiful views and bar. Very friendly wait staff. Get the calamari appetizer!

Great experience. My wife and I had been here years ago. Tonight we came in to the bar about 5 pm and sat at a high top table. Casey… the bartender took care of us. I ordered a draft beer which was flat… he took it off the bill immediately… and got me a different one. Spinach artichoke dip heavy on spinach, which my wife enjoyed. Elk medallions were mouth watering. Cheesecake was outstanding.
As a side note… if you get a chance to talk to Cam… you won’t regret it… history walking.

Views of mountains are awesome. The waiter was awesome. The food was mediocre. I had a NY strip. It was dry and not very appealing. My wife had the beef stroganoff. It was actually pretty good. Over priced for mediocre in my opinion. I’d skip this place and eat at one of the many places in town.

We stopped here for our anniversary dinner. The views are beautiful. And that really is about it. We sat for almost an hour on a slow Sunday night to only receive our drink order. Two of the items (appetizer: elk kabobs, entrée: halibut) they were out of. We knew about the kabobs sort-​of off the bat (waitress took a while to come to our table); but did not know about the fish until way after the fact. We ordered salads but never saw them, after waiting for as long as we did, we got up and left. Maybe the food is good? But there is no way it’s good enough to offset the horrible service. Definitely skip this one, unless maybe you’re just going to have a few drinks and look out over the lake.

The Croque Monssieur was really really good. But that’s about it. Service was unreliable, food was way over cooked. Maybe it was just an off day, but a Saturday afternoon, shouldn’t be this bad. Food also took a really long time. Good news is, there’s room for improvement.

We were staying at the Estes Park Hotel for a few nights and this is the hotel restaurant there. For convenience’s sake, we knew we’d eat here at least once and, honestly, we were not expecting much at all as it’s a hotel restaurant.
Our first experience with the WG was with room service. I was pleasantly surprised by the food. Almost shocked even! We ordered a few sandwiches for lunch. My husband had the reuben which he really liked, applauded even. I had the Mediterranean BLT which has a pesto sauce on it – holy, yum! That is a good sandwich. I let my husband taste a little of it, and he liked it even more than the reuben he was raving about! (I must note, though, that on another occasion when we dined in the restaurant, I ordered this sandwich again and it wasn’t prepared correctly. Luckily, I noticed the mistake and the chef apologized and corrected the order immediately.)
The servers here were fantastic for the duration of our stay. On a few of the mornings, Amanda was our server. She was very accommodating and knowledgeable about the menu and food. She even facilitated a few special orders that weren’t listed on the menu which was very nice considering our toddler doesn’t have the same appetite as a 12 year old ordering from the children’s menu. Our evening server on a few occasions was Russel and he really goes above and beyond here. He came off a little strong to my MIL at first, but she warmed up to him eventually. He really makes an effort to make you feel comfortable; he’s more like a host than a waiter. He recognized our party by site and even referred to us as «his people» to other waitstaff. Russel definitely took care of us while we were there there — this guy deserves 5 stars on his own! (My husband commented that his one regret was that he didn’t go out drinking with Russel while we were here — ha!)
The food was definitely above our expectations… way above for a hotel restaurant. The servers here are excellent too. The prices are competitive, but I do agree they can be pricey for the dinner menu. I’d recommend checking out the lunch menu here… or enjoy a splurge lakeside at dinnertime!

Weird place. We got right in. The views of the lake and mountains are awesome. The food is very ordinary and the prices are astronomical. This seems like a place that wants to be fancy but doesn’t know how. The «Fried Drumettes» appetizer is basically six chicken wings with 3 slices of celery and carrot. The «Heirloom Tomato Salad» is a couple of baby tomatoes and yellow tomatoes sliced and piled on top of each other, with some vinegar dripped on top. And so on.
Our waitress talked to us like we didn’t speak English or had never ordered food off a menu before, which was kind of bizarre.
We were the only ones in the dining room, but expect slow service anyway as the waiters and waitresses make room service runs in between waiting their tables. I would go again if not for the price, but virtually everything on the menu is $ 30+ and none of it is of that quality.

Fantastic breakfast with a view of the lake and mountains. I had the California omelette and my wife had the French Ham & Gruyère Croque Madame, both excellent. Also great options for our 3 kids. Jennifer was our server and did a great job taking care of us!

I’m not generally one to write negative reviews, but I felt I needed to speak up after our experience last night. We are staying in the Estes Park Resort hotel, in which this restaurant is located and we thought why not give it a shot. We were sat quickly and initially impressed with the menu options.
However things took a turn south as soon as we ordered. Our waiter disappeared and was not to be seen again for over half an hour. When he did walk close enough to be beckoned over we inquired how things were coming with our meals. He said they were very busy, which seemed odd to me as less than half the tables were filled. Another 30 minutes later our food finally arrived and there were some issues there too. Asparagus had run out, and was substituted for another vegetable without any notice. A steak that was ordered came out very dry as if it had been waiting under a heat lamp for some time. A bowl of soup seemed much more like a cup. Two other meals ordered were tasty.
Again the waiter disappeared and had to be hunted down for the check so we could pay up and leave. I think he could tell service had been poor and was avoiding us. I give two stars because the food wasn’t aweful, but I would avoid until new management gets things figured out.

Really good food considering you are in a landlocked state. Had scallops and ahi tuna. Nice place, service could more polished, but I’m sure dinner was better than what we saw at the Stanley hotel.
They need to up their game on desserts to get higher rating.

My husband and I were staying at the hotel here and decided to have our anniversary dinner at The Waterfront Grille. We started with a Caesar salad, which was quite good. We both really enjoyed it. I got some pineapple curry fish dish (I think it was halibut). It was just ok. A bit on the dry side. My husband got the bison burger, which he enjoyed.
For the price, I was expecting better tasting food. Our server (I wish I knew her name) was excellent.

3.5 stars
After touring the Stanley, my fiancé and I were starving, so I quickly looked up some nearby restaurants on Unilocal to see what was good. The Waterfront Grille had a solid rating (though I’ll admit, I didn’t read other reviews first) and was close, so it seemed like a good choice.
We walked in, and were immediately seated outside on patio. First of all, what an incredible view. There was a wedding going on downstairs that wasn’t too noisy, but the views of the mountains and the lake were just beautiful. Anyway, so the waitress leaves us with menus, and promises to return with waters and to take our order.
After about 10 minutes, no waters had been delivered, and I had picked out what I wanted to order (shockingly, as it usually takes me forever to decided). So, I decided to cut her a break, figuring she must be busy, and give her 5 more minutes while we took in the view. Nothing after 5 minutes, so I went in to find her.
When I returned to the main dining room, there was only one other party in there, and not a waiter or waitress in sight. So, I stood by the bar for about 5 minutes waiting for anyone who may work here to come around. Finally, our server pops out of the kitchen. When I ask if she was coming out to take our order, she admits that she had completely forgotten about us. I know we were out on the patio, and I appreciate the honesty, but really? There was only one other party.. .
So we placed our order, finally. Caesar salad for me, buffalo burger for the fiancé. I must say, the prices were a little on the high side. My fiancé went with the build your own burger, which was $ 14, as was my salad. If I wanted chicken, it was an additional $ 4, so I decided to pass on that.
My Caesar was good, though nothing special. For the price, the croutons didn’t even taste homemade, and there was really too much dressing on my salad. I had a bite of my fiances burger, which was tasty, but again I felt quite a bit overpriced.
When the bill came, the waitress explained she had taken off 10% plus my fiances soda, as she felt very bad. Again, appreciate the thought, but really, there’s no excuse for such slow service when the restaurant is empty.

First time here.
Been seated 20ish minutes and don’t have any drinks at our table. People have been seated after us and have waters and other drinks. Poor service at its finest! I don’t even care how the food tastes, I won’t come back at all.
Wrote this review and still haven’t been checked on… Over it. Never come
We had to call down a different waiter to help us.

When we arrived to the host stand there was an odd silence throughout the restaurant, whispers and clinking of dinnerware. I think they could definitely benefit with some more music. Our server was very friendly and went on quite a quest to turn on some soft music for the atmosphere.
I LOVE lamb and was so disappointed. The meat was very fatty and basically we paid around $ 32 for FOUR OUNCES OF MEAT?
I would definitely come back on a summer evening to sip on wine by the lake but that is about it.

Terrible food. Sambal ribs were completely tough and there were burnt potatoes hidden under the good ones on my husband’s plate. I can get over things like the complete lack of salt on any of the food (some may prefer that), but plating burnt food is simply unacceptable at any restaurant.
Service was spotty at best, and although we told the waitress that the ribs weren’t good (she asked), she didn’t offer to take off the charge (which you would expect at these prices). She instead offered to get me a steak knife, or order something else (at my expense).
We’re not going back, to say the least.

My love/​hate relationship with Unilocal.
I love using Unilocal to find great restaurants. And with great reviews the better the chance I will give a restaurant a go.
But sometimes negative reviews can lead me to miss out on a gem. This is might be one of those times.
We had the half rack sambal ribs (spicy), calamari, and ribeye. All delicious and went well with the Estes Park stout they had on tap. We ate with our 8 month old. But if it was just me and my wife we’d sit outside on the deck. See picture for reference.
Btw there were two weddings there and neither of them were loud or super intoxicated. We had a nice dinner with them bouncin’ to dancing queen.
Prices are what you’d expect at a restaurant with such a view. Which by the way wasn’t much more than dinner in Dillon restaurants without the nice view or live piano music.