Shoreline Lake American Bistro

Food is ok to good. I had a salmon plate and it was good for $ 15. They have fresh orange juice for $ 5/​$ 6.
The best part is the lake view which is awesome. You can escape from traffic there and it’s just 10 min of driving from Palo Alto.
Duck come right to the café. Wind is not a problem since there are high glass windshields.

They aren’t open for business at 7:15pm when Unilocal and google say they’re open till 7:30pm. No service was given during business hours for no official reason. The people inside just ignored me.

Freshly squeezed orange juice moist atlantic salmon with cilantro rice should be enjoyed dining alfresco with the warm California weather!!! Always a pleasure coming to this place!!!

Love the food and scenery here. Best hot chocolate in the region. Outdoor seating area makes it a perfect place to meet friends for lunch.

They stood in front of be behind the counter and talking about how I needed to be asked to leave because I was eating outside food. My mother in-​law who was in my party purchased pastry and a kite from the reataurant so I didn’t think it would be a problem for me to be eating my food and sitting inside with my 1 month old baby especially when its cold outside. One of the ladies who works here with brown curly hair told me that they don’t allow outside food in the restaurant. But since it was cold outside I could stay inside with my baby. I really appreciate her being polite and courteous to me. I wish you trained the rest of your staff to be as courteous. Oh, and if you want people to order food from your restaurant MAKE BETTER FOOD. My mother in-​law ended up throwing away what she ordered because it was so bad.

This restaurant gets a star for the view only. The food is awful. Came here for breakfast on a weekend and should have known to worry because the place was completely empty. Should have known when the service started out «strange». We asked the guy at the counter if there was table service and he launched into a joke about how the service works there. Something along the line of, you order at the counter, you give him your money, someone brings the food out to the table he forgets that you exist. Charming.
The eggs were grey and tasted strange. We decided to not eat them and didn’t feel comfortable complaining to the very non-​welcoming customer service. The breakfast potatoes were just a pile of mashed potatoes basically, not the crispy breakfast potatoes that everyone deserves. The bacon was ok. The fruit salad was past its prime.
The sad part about this restaurant is that the space is nice, the view is nice… but the food sucks, the service sucks. Get rid of the service and the cooks and this place could be great. It should be packed. It’s not hard to find a cook that can make an edible breakfast or service that isn’t rude and unwelcoming.

Pricey, but you’re paying for that location. The food is generally pretty darn good. However, I’m writing this review today because the apple pie is absolutely horrid. The crust and the apples together are nothing but mush. The suggestion I would make to them is that they take a look at the episode on apple pie by Alton Brown of the food network to learn how you make a proper crust and the apples you should select for the pie.

Good breakfasts (eggs benedict, veggie fritatta), delicious coffee, nice open inside dining room decorated for holiday season. Wish there was an option for dairy free hot cocoa… perhaps on an expanded future menu? Location is awesome as the trails lead here for lake/​shoreline walking and attached Reignstroff (sp?) historic house tour.

Beautiful view. Smells like burgers. Food is nice. The only real issue is the long wait time to order drinks or food over the weekend (took me 15 minutes of standing in line).
Advice to owner: consider improving the ordering process, I am sure many people just give up.

Obviously the location was very nice right by the lake. Very good breakfast options. The Orange bun was really good and so was the coffee

Got a yummy little meal here, not sure if it was lunch or dinner, but it was just right.
The soup was pretty good, the chicken salad = B, the fish and chips = A and the mediteranean salad = B. I wish I had saved room to try the desserts since the chocolate cake looked so amazing! But overall everything was good and after we rented a paddle boat.
I really liked the setting, and it is unusual to have such a nice view overlooking a lake :)

A-​okay for lunch. I got the egg salad sandwich and that was pretty good. However my fiancé got the corn beef hash and it was oily and not so great. I’d probably give it another chance the next time we head to the lake.

The food is pretty good, but they could have a better queuing system. Kinda of chaotic at the register. It’s a nice place, and it’s got a great atmosphere with the lake right outside. You can spend the weekend afternoon eating a good sandwich with a glass of wine and watching the sailboats.

I would definitely come back here again. The view is gorgeous on a nice sunny day — I went there under that circumstance when I came here with my girlfriends on a Sunday brunch two weekends ago. Their chocolate cake is delicious but a perfect size for sharing (I had to take it home to my roommate). I ordered the pulled pork sandwich and while it wasn’t the best thing I’ve ever had, it was decently delicious too (aka I think I’ll probably try something else on the menu the next time I’m there). It’s one of those places where it’s versatile enough for a date (like I said, the view is gorgeous) but is also family-​friendly and was certainly girlfriends-​friendly. Oh, and servers there are cute too.

The view is amazing! I came here for lunch during the weekday after a job interview in Mountain View and ordered the Crissy burger/​sandwich. The description of the burger sounds great, but the flavor was nothing like I expected. The chicken was a bit overcooked and was lacking greatly in flavor, but it was edible. What I do recommend is their lattes and homemade pastries. I got the almond croissant and it was delicious! It paired perfectly with my latte :) What I loved the most, however, was the view and atmosphere of the surrounding areas. It was nice to take a stroll around the lake and explore the area after eating at the café. I will definitely be back during a weekend for breakfast!

Review #100, oh yeah :-)
Breakfast was good, I ordered the two egg plate with sausage and hash browns. Didn’t want toast so substituted eggs. Also got a coffee. The weather was beautiful and the scenery was absolutely breathtaking.
Order at the front and they give you a table tent number and bring the order to you.
Standard American breakfast, but the view and the location are really what makes this place awesome.
I didn’t order a pastry, but from what I heard at the table, it was «butter with a little flour added to it», meaning it was decadent and worth every calorie.
Breakfast, two plates like the one I described and a pancake breakfast with an espresso and a coffee was $ 40.
There was indoor and outdoor seating, but if you go the outdoor seating is the best, because you can watch the action on the lake or a windsurfing lesson. The patio has Plexiglas wind shields so the view isn’t obstructed and you can dine w/​o wind worries.
Watch out for the birds, they’re savvy when it comes to snatching a quick crumb or going into the bus tubs (dirty dish bins that are left outside for patrons to dump their used plates into) for an easy meal. One just barely missed my head floating in for a quick snack.
I thought the coffee was good, but the $ 1 refill charge seems petty and sort of inconvenient to diners. They should either give paying customers a small carafe or leave one by the condiment area for refills. Otherwise, people need to go to the ordering counter and ask the very busy staff, who are helping people in line for a refill and pay for it. That said, I enjoyed my meal and thought it was wonderful.
Parking’s good, but you have to get there early or it’s a good roll-​around to search for a vacancy. Also the line for the paddle boats and other rentals gets busy as soon as it opens for business.

This is a great place, food is delicious, the view is gorgeous. Service from the «manager» .
Went here today for a Little Explorer’s Field trip. When we arrived we loved the view the setting of the restaurant. We did the paddle boat it was awesome. After our class was over we decided to have lunch at this Café (the food smelled delicious) so we decide to order food sit at the table. Mind us it was 6 of us mother’s with babies and toddlers. We were offered to sit in the dining area because there were bigger tables.
Once we were ready to eat the manager comes to our table, let’s us know she has a big company party event and she will have to ask us to leave because she will need the dining area to fit the company party because it started raining. Or further yet offered us to take our strollers outside or move outside to eat our lunch. This is the reason I’m giving a 2 star review. She could’ve told us from the beginning and we would’ve never ordered food here. Made us very uncomfterable. Made herself look very unprofessional, she needs more training.

Their latte was delicious. I would recommend going there just for that. The lake is nearby and lots of seating outside. There are ducks there but you can not feed them.
I ordered a sandwich and the bread was so hard. I think it was over toasted. The french toast was good. Thick pieces of bread and cooked very well. It did have too much of a lemon taste for me. (that could just be personal preference)
I often saw waiters running around lost on whose food they were delivering. The line was out of the door so perhaps that is why they were over whelmed.

Came here before going on a paddle boating date and it was delicious!
I’ve lived close to this place for years and I never knew there was a yummy café here. Sadly we missed breakfast but I definitely want to make it out for the fritattas one day.
We got the fish and chips. yummy and generous portions
and the Fettucine. SO GOOD. It was a tomato cream based sauce.
The view is awesome.
PS paddle boating is actually pretty tiring…

Cute little café with a great lake side view. Their patio is very nice. Pastries are baked in house and are very fresh. My husband got an orange morning bun and I had a chocolate croissant. We both had the Shoreline breakfast which is eggs, choice of meat, breakfast potatoes, and toast. My 4 year old had cheesy eggs. I had a latte that was on point and my husband had coffee. There is a playground right nearby, paddle boat rental, and trails for walking. You have to drive thorough a golf course (beautiful scenery!) to get to the café so it is a wonderful way to feel like your getting away from the city for a few hours.

I went to Lakeside Café with my husband and 3 year old daughter. The food was decent. The view was nice. I would have made it 4 stars given the balance of food and view. But after buying lunch for my husband at a cost of over $ 35 total, I asked for an extra plate for my 3 year old (explaining she typically eats whatever we order). They wanted to charge us $ 5 for the empty/​extra plate! When I told them to forget it then, I was irritably told that «you are costing me business».
I can be understanding if they tried to charge for a split plate if my husband and I tried to split lunch, but charging $ 5 for an extra plate for our 3 year old given how much we were spending for lunch was ridiculous and not typical of restaurants. This same person tried to turn it into a joke (e.g. he joked that he would charge me $ 5 for the straws), but given the comment about costing them business and since I didn’t get the extra plate in the end, it appears they were serious about trying to nickel and dime us for an empty plate for our toddler.
Something else to note is that if they are trying to encourage us to buy a child’s meal, they should have healthier options to make that worth the option.

How can one pass a café overlooking the café on a beautiful day after a yet another relaxing walk by the shoreline. To perfectly finish my evening all I needed was something hot and sweet. Glad I could find a delicious scone and hot Mocha Cacao. I enjoyed my snack and had a wonderful time overlooking the pond. Will definitely return to try more elaborate dishes from the menu to have a quiet self-​inspection time. ;)

Has a great little patio that looks out to the water. I don’t know what these people do, but lots of people here in the afternoon just lounging and enjoying the sun and a coffee. Something to aspire to!
Great selection of teas and sugary goods to go with them!

Our group was looking for a restaurant close to Shoreline Amphitheater as we were going to a concert there that afternoon. So, I was on the case! Thanks to Unilocal I found this restaurant. What I particularly liked was that they had a nice view of the lake & they take reservations. We made a reservation for our group of 10 with no problem.
The food was good for brunch & they serve beer & wine. I went with the club sandwich & Bellini — both were very good. Nice sized portions as well. Everyone in the group seemed happy with their food as well. Sitting outside in the sunshine on their patio was enjoyable.
It’s more of a family atmosphere as there are many recreation options. Their aquatic center offers: paddle boating, kayaking, sailing, windsurfing, paddle boarding, & yoga. Neat little spot in Mountain View for those that want some outdoor recreation & a nice brunch/​lunch afterward. I will definitely come back for one of the activities.