Kanu

This review is for Kanu restaurant, not the whiteface lodge. We stayed at the lodge (absolutely wonderful) and decided to eat here one night due to the freezing temps. It is VERY pricey. The portions are regular and the food is good (⁸⁄₁₀) but there are so many other places in Lake Placid that can serve you the same and if not better food for ½ the price. Also, limited menu. The drinks next door at the lounge are unique and delicious and the bartenders are wonderful.

For what you’re going to pay, absolutely not worth it. Too many places in Lake Placid are capable of serving up a delicious meal with beautiful ambience. While the Lodge itself is quintessential Adirondack that’s about all I have to say.
I came in with a party last night of myself and nine others for a family holiday gathering, and needless to say, we all left disappointed.
In order:
1. No Riesling, no Moscato, terrible Cosmos at the bar
2. Server who was disinterested, at best, while serving our table. Only came around asking for drinks when we were initially seated. Wanted a glass of wine with your dinner? Too bad.
3. Holy limited menu. Probably a choice of seven appetizers and six entrees. I’m not picky, but it’s nice to have options when you’re out and spending 35 – 45 dollars a plate for your entrée. Also, nothing was particularly impressive in terms of creativity. People at our table had the chicken (okay), venison stew (one of the stews only had four pieces of meat, but an entire carrot with the root still on), steak (marginal, with at least three of the six steaks full of gristle, and not at all tender, you could probably do better on a cut at Price Chopper), and the pork chop (I was probably the winner, it was good, not great, but good).
4. Dessert was a waste. We had two plates of the brownie ice cream sandwich and the cookie was dry, to the point where the texture was chalky.
Overall, mediocre service, boring menu, poor execution. Pretty backdrop to take some pictures though. Would only ever be back if we heard they had either new management or a new chef.

Beautiful atmosphere/​décor but the previous negative reviews are spot on in stating that that’s where the quality stops.
My wife and I came for brunch but were served three plates of cold food after a long wait. Service staff appeared disorganized, out of sync, confused, and generally inattentive and indifferent.
We had to track down our server to inform him that our food was cold. We also had to have him track down the manager who was nowhere to be found.
Although we were compensated our meal, it was clear the manager was unsympathetic to our experience and that little if anything would be done to adjust their way of doing business.
Overall poor experience and do not recommend to anyone at all. We will not be back.

Beautiful ambiance and very welcoming and accommodating service. Lovely. Pricey but a wonderful experience. Enjoy.

A nice restaurant, but didn’t really live up to our hopes, or the prices they ask.
Kanu is in a pretty high-​end hotel, the Whiteface Lodge (not to be confused with the significantly higher end and more genuinely lovely Lake Placid Lodge, which is further down the same road), and it aspires to be similarly pretty high-​end.
A Caesar salad appetizer was nice — un-​cut hearts of romaine with a good dressing drizzled over (I thought it a little under-​dressed, personally), and excellent croutons (they tasted fresh-​made). Though they did not include anchovies (at the request of the dining companion with whom I was splitting the salad), there was some anchovie in the dressing — a nice touch.
The tri-​tip sirloin steak entrée — meh. There were three of us, and two people ordered this dish, both requested medium rare. Upon arrival, one was, and one wasn’t — a lack of consistency is never a good sign in a restaurant charging these kind of prices. The steak was tasty, but nothing overly special.
An order of cassoulet — normally an appetizer, but doubled in size (and price) to make it an entrée — was tasty. It was really their own take — served in a small iron skillet, with less brothiness and more crunchiness than I normally associate with a cassoulet — it was tasty and enjoyable, but also nothing overly special.
We had two desserts — a brownie ice cream sandwich, and a chocolate truffle wedge. Everyone liked the brownie ice cream sandwich — what’s not to like? Though there was nothing really distinctive about it – but the chocolate truffle wedge went unfinished.
Wine list was pretty good.
All in all, more a 3.5 star restaurant. I don’t think we’d go back, preferring either the Lake Placid Lodge for its really high end food and really lovely dining room (Kanu was nice, but less authentic — and certainly much less intimate and charming — than the restaurant at the Lake Placid Lodge) or the Mirror Lake Inn for its somewhat lower prices, very good food, and quiet professionalism.

My wife and I sat in the bar by the fireplace and had a few drinks with the truffle oil fries — outstanding! Zach was great behind the bar and with service

This is an outstanding restaurant. It has a beautiful log interior, Adirondack style, of course. The service is excellent (I counted five different people tending to me), food was very nicely presented and perfectly prepared, and the wine list was well thought out, managed by an on-​site sommelier, with a good by-​the-​glass list and also a good half bottle selection, as well a fairly comprehensive selection of surprisingly affordable Bordeaux wines. The lounge menu items were also available.

My family and I visited Kanu the Saturday of Memorial Day weekend. The setting was nice. The waiter and service were good. For 730pm though it was pretty much empty and I now understand why. The food was very good (pork, chicken, halibut) but very expensive for what is was. The pork was cooked perfectly but was just arranged on a few diced sweet potatoes. The menu said that it was also served with brussel sprouts but they were not on the plate. Nothing was substituted. For $ 36 I thought this was unacceptable. Scallop appetizer was good but $ 16 for 2 average size scallops. My guess is that they don’t get many repeat customers. The meal for 5 people (no drinks, 3 appetizers, no dessert) including tip was $ 275. We have spent that much on meals before and have never felt the disappointment that we did after Kanu. We would not return except maybe to Kanu lounge across the lobby where the menu looked good and the prices reasonable.

Every part of the meal was amazing. From wine to appetizers to entrees to side dishes to dessert! Wine specialist was a great touch and ended up with a perfect wine paired with dinner. Walking through the hotel to the restaurant was absolutely beautiful– so much attention paid to detail. I would definitely come back and recommend to anyone.

Server chatting casually/​personal conversation with neighboring table while we waited to order; was generally inattentive. Veggie burger inedible — just ate the tomatoes and pickles. Lettuce consisted of very wilted old greens — again, totally inedible. When ordering, we had specifically requested that the fries be crispy — they were not at all, but ate then anyway because we were hungry (see above: burger inedible). Served with annoying little bottles of ketchup and mustard that were sealed/​unopened; we had to use our teeth and table knives (literally) to open, while food was getting cold. Mussels were small and tasteless, and broth was salty; not served with crostini, usually used to sop up good broth (which was not the case anyway). ‘Molten’ chocolate dessert was not at all ‘molten’ — it was hard and dry — again, extremely disappointing. Staying for a week but will eat elsewhere.

This place really let me down. We had reservations for our table of 5 at 7:30pm and were seated within 5 minutes of arriving. The restaurant was about half full. The kitchen food pass is across from the hostess stand and I heard and saw the expediter. She was a bit frazzled. I knew we were in for a rough night.
We ordered from the VERY limited menu which was very highly priced. They were already out of the special. The waitress warned us there was a bit of a back up. She had a very brisk attitude. We said no worries we weren’t in a rush. She was so out of sorts that she would still be talking to us about options when she had turned around, was walking away, and turning the corner for the next room. And she would just toss things on the table and run away to do something else. Gee thanks for the service.
Then 1.5 hours later, we got our appetizers. That means we were sitting there until 9pm waiting for any food. AWFUL. We had no idea we had that long of a wait to endure. They told us the risottos were holding things up. My salad was held up 90 minutes because of a rice dish that takes less than 10 minutes? Then they fired the mains when we got our appetizers. So then we felt very rushed all of a sudden. She said she didn’t want us waiting again for our mains.
Finally the main dishes came. Very disappointing. Out of the 4 different dishes we had at the table, only one was good. The pork was really good. Get that. The rest was very lacking. Especially as each one was $ 30+.
No one plans to go back. Instead go to the bar across from the entrance of this place. They have a bar menu with very good flat bread pizzas ~$ 10, good drinks, and live music. Awesome place. Much better than this overpriced awful place.

Gorgeous hotel, disappointing restaurant. Food was good but not out of this world, prices were high for what they served up. Wouldn’t go back — convenient for people staying here I suppose.

Beautiful décor, with a very pleasant ambiance. Experts on wine assist customers with pairing each dish.
I ordered the risotto for an appetizer and the chicken breast for my entrée. First off the risotto lacked any flavor, it was completely bland and just terrible. After the whole table took a taste we decided it was inedible. I brought it up to the waitress and she later came back and said that she took it off the bill because people had been complaining about it. Why would any chef continue to serve food that has been sent back and complained about in multiple instances? Not to mention it wasn’t a cheap appetizer. at this restaurant you are expecting amazing flavors for the price you pay.
My entrée after an hour wait, less than mediocre. It was lukewarm and the flavors were just so, strange, and did not work. Nothing should taste funny for 28 $. My father ordered a venison shank dish and it came off the bone. His was delicious but the preparations were strange, and it easily could have been veal.
Also the waitress made me return to my room in the middle of a dinner with my family to get my ID after ordering a glass of wine. She was extremely rude. Even if I was underaged in New York State it’s completely legal to drink with the permission of your parents so there really was no need to inconvenience me anyways.
Overall terrible, if you want a wonderful eating experience go down the street to the lake placid lodge.

Nice ambiance. Fun music. If you are actually hungry on a Saturday night, kitchen is incredibly slow. I can’t recommend it for dinner. Maybe good for drinks. Waited 50 minutes for a hamburger to arrive.

Burger night used to be $ 12 for a burger and a beer. This year it’s $ 16.
Boooooo.

The food was good. Service was good. Nice ambiance. However, I was rather disappointed when we were seated in the abandoned section of the restaurant by the fairly unpleasant host. When we asked if we could sit in a better seat, he said that could not be arranged. This seemed quite strange to me since there was barely a soul in the large restaurant at the time. There was not much of a view where we were (great views elsewhere) and nobody seated anywhere near us for the first 45 minutes of the meal. When we left, there were still empty tables in the heart of the restaurant, so we would have been done before it even filled up. If you are going there, I would ask about the seating when you make a reservation. If it sounds like you will be in the ‘nosebleed’ section, I would go elsewhere.

In both the bar and Dining Room, KANU exceeded our expectations. An ADK theme lodge setting, the staff were engaged and completely service oriented. Travel Zoo and other offers will make your stay there spectacular I promise you.
Recommend the special drink offered from Scott the sommelier served at the bar, we had a blast help inventing one. General manager Chris is at your service if any problems arise. The best review of all was over hearing a couple rave about KANU and all the other activities after dinner (fire pit, bar, etc.) to the bartender at the stuffy View bar downtown. highly recommend the rack of lamb, staler chicken, steaks, mouse. Oh and for Kids .mom and dad can dine in side rooms with couches near by with Cartoon network on … thought that was smart thinking.