Howards Grotto Steakhouse

The décor is dated but the food is excellent. My wife had the Prime Rib, it was cooked exactly as she wanted and delicious. I had the Pasta and Meatball, (one giant meatball) it was great.
Customer service is top notch.

When we first walked into this restaurant we thought it was very breakfast Diner-​ish, however all of the food we had was delicious we both had rib eye steak, side salad and veg. The steak was cooked to perfection the bread was very tasty we all enjoyed our meal. Please don’t be put off by the first impression image. Our waitress worked very hard to make sure we were happy with every thing. Next time we are in town we will definitely be coming back thank you very much for a lovely meal.

This Restuarant offers the best of both worlds to me, it’s a big square split in half, One side is a quiet relaxing side with a soup and salad bar and the other side is a full on sport’s bar with TV’s! I chose to sit at the bar, watch the game and order me some thick cut prime rib!
I loved it here! The prime rib with Rare and thick, Just how i like it! The horseradish was great! The prime rib came with a baked potato and some vegetable side that wasn’t very good. The potato was great and the meat was delicious! The only thing i would change is having actual sour cream for the baked potato, They have the scooped sour cream, which i wasn’t a fan of.
The customer service was fantastic! I’m pretty sure the bartender i had was also the owner. Drink prices are decent and pours are generous!
I will be coming back to try more of the menu.

First, the positive. The waitress/​server was excellent. The atmosphere and the food was terrible. Whoever wrote everything on the salad bar and the vegetables on the plate were canned, is correct. Very expensive; no alcohol or drinks of any kind and the bill was $ 50.00 out the door. I had the petite prime rib with some terrible soup, canned green beans, an old potato and reheated prime rib. As mentioned previously almost ALL of the entrees are in the $ 20.00 range and up.
Chef Ramsey, please help this restaurant. I live in Clearlake, CA.

What makes a five-​star place? Fancy lighting? No. Haute atmosphere? No.
in this case what makes Howard’s Grotto a five-​star experience is that every single time I go in there it is consistently good. The service is terrific, the food is reliably great and the place is clean and well run.
The staff are very, very friendly and you can see that by the number of regulars that patronize the establishment. Go there a few times and you’re being treated like a friend of the family. Howard, in particular, is a great guy.
The food has never disappointed me and the quality is there and there is lots of food with every serving. With the dinners you get a nice salad bar, soup and even dessert. Our car club meets there on Mondays and it’s always a good time.
This most recent visit I had a special on the menu, pork ribs. They were really good (although I prefer mine without barbecue sauce on them) and very plentiful. Add their salad bar, cream of chicken soup and then spumoni ice cream for dessert all for under $ 20 and you see the value. Plus, this huge meal was both dinner and lunch the next day with the rib bones for the dogs. So two meals plus two happy dogs.
Howard is run like any local restaurant should be. They’re clean, efficient and the food is completely reliably good. I never hesitate to go there or recommend that others do. And what’s more five-​star than that?

This was my 2^nd time at HG… wont return as their expensive food is mediocre at best… 4 of us went for dinner and two of us came out dissapointed (the 2 that ordered Filet Mignon and the NY steaks) …service was good and friendly, it is clean and has a modest décor but not much of an atmosphere unless you count their loud patrons at their connected bar area… Best to save ur $ and eat at a BK!

Haven’t been to the Grotto in over 15 years. The restaurant is bright and appears clean but the tables are a bit worn and shabby. The menu is average food for average prices. We went to lunch.
The service is adequate but the server seemed distracted and with average food for lunch, I’ll probably not go back for a while. Seems like several regulars came in for lunch and obviously they’re satisfied with the quality. We have such a small selection of places to eat that we settle for average.

Food was so good had French dip sandwich made out of prime rib. Delish. my husband had the club very big with soup. Definitely eat here

Needs to update hours of operation on Unilocal.The resturant fliers from our hotel listed howarda closing at 10 on weekends, at 920 on a saturday the resturant was already closed and the person on the phone sounded very irritated.

This place is such a good surprise! If you blink, you might miss it from the road. So glad I didn’t! Prime rib is amazing. Pricing awesome. Super fun and friendly service.
A special stop will be made each time I’m up this way from this point forward!

A classic sign out of the ‘60s features a martini glass. A nondescript but well-​maintained exterior and a squad of pick-​up trucks in the front scream, «pool hall», leading my wife and son to loudly opt for the local Chinese restaurant instead. But Clear Lake is nothing if not a lesson that you cannot judge a book by its cover. Inside was a clean and well-​lit interior, suitable for the Rotary Club meetings that are held here each month.
And the food matches that theme — good food, but nothing fancy, derived from a long tradition of basic American eateries. Howard’s is a steak and seafood restaurant, with selections of steaks, seafood and fish available. Our party had the rib-​eye steak, a french dip sandwich, the king salmon and soup and salad bar. Warm sourdough bread (with packets of real butter) started the meal. All meals include soup *and* one trip to the salad bar, with choice of starch (baked potato, french fries, pilaf), steamed vegetables and a scope of ice cream for dessert. The King Salmon was grilled simply (blackened is an option) and mild in taste, but prepared correctly. The salad bar features mixed greens, and the usual toppings (onions, garbanzo beans, corn, onions, green peppers, pickle slides, sliced egg, beets, sunflower seeds, croutons). Baked potatoes were okay, though judged «not fluffy». Steak was not too thick, but neither under nor overcooked. The soup — a minestrone — was flavorful and full of vegetables, but had been thickened with a corn starch (not usual for minestrone). Cauliflower soup was good. We did not ask nor was it obvious if the soup was made on the premises.
For drinks, a full service bar is available, and my current favorite, Blue Moon beer on draft, was available.
Service was attentive, and seemed patient with us as we dallied over what to order.
I’m not a huge steak fan, so I’m unlikely to return. But if you like a simple «steak and potato» type meal, you may enjoy Howards.

I went to dinner here with my friend before beginning my trip home the following day. I finally got my prime rib and it was very good. The warm sourdough bread was excellent and worth noting, The salad bar was not something I would write home about.

Totally loved Howard’s! We were on a mini-​getaway at Clearlake, and wanted steak for dinner one night. This place was not too far from where we were staying, so we decided to check them out. Well, they were about to close when we got there, but Howard still welcomed us. We sat at one of the tables at the bar because my boyfriend wanted to watch the Giants game. Lots of TVs at the bar, and from what it looked like, lots of locals also frequent the place.
Service was fast and REALLY friendly. Plus, it’s a lot cheaper than city restaurants. You get a 3 course meal for about $ 20, and that’s a steak dinner! Salad bar has a great selection, and the Ribeye was tender and good.
Howard saw me using my phone and he came up to our table and asked if I was using the internet. Then he said, «Use my free wi-​fi!» then proceeded to give me the password.
You can say we were very satisfied with the food and service.
We loved their food so much that we decided to go back for brunch the next morning. I loved their Eggs Benedict! Really good brunch menu. Howard said, «I guess we didn’t feed you guys enough last night that you came back for more!» LOL
Gotta love the small town hospitality. The restaurant had a nice ambiance in the dining area, a great sports bar, nice and friendly staff/​owner… I’ll definitely go back there if and when I go back to Clearlake. =)

Great place. The food is awesome and the staff is very friendly. Very clean and a nice atmosphere to grab a bite to eat or enjoy a drink. Highly recommend the wings

Talk About FAST FOOD! I’ve had brunch, lunch & dinner here plenty of times, (love their menu) and while waiting a very short time for our meal to be served, enjoyed nice quiet conversation with my hubby or group, n the friendly atmosphere and attractive décor. But the other day we were out and about when sudden hunger pangs sent us scurrying for something quick, when I remembered their great salad bar, soup & hot bread & butter. VOILA! We were back shopping in no time at all– happy, full and totally satisfied!

I love the old school style food with a yummy salad bar, the service, and there is a full service bar. You can have soup or salad with bread or sandwich style lunches or full course meals for dinner. They have an Asian and American menu which is kind of fun. It used to be solely American style dinners but times change so you have more choices. There is something that is keeping me from giving it a five, can’t put my finger on it but it has to do with the management. So far everything we have had there is good. I would recommend it, if you are looking for somewhere nice to go in the evening or a casual lunch. They also have a meeting room venue on the other side of the bar to use if you need it for your organization. It is not loud where regular dining is served.

Here is what I like on the menu
Prime rib melt
Red snapper fish and chips
Chinese special (Thursday lunch)
Spicy chicken sandwich
But there are alot of good choices on the menu, locally owned by a great family that has been in clearlake forever. From out of town? Want to know somthing about clearlake? Or just shoot the do do with a funny guy? Go in the bar and talk to the owner/​bartender Howard! Very good staff great salad bar and breakfast till 2pm with breakfast specials on the weekend!

I was staying the night and wanted to find a Outback Steak house. We ran across this on Unilocal and went in.
The food is served with a salad bar, soup and desert. The amount of food in Sacramento would have been $ 15 more easy.
Great service and food.
Tony

This place was the surprise of our trip to Clearlake. It was recommended by the folks at Zephyr Zen Antiques across the street so we decided to make this our dinner destination of the night.
It was a good choice. I was a bit dubious at first because the place looked a bit.. .cheap on the interior. But this dissolved as I tried the food. My hamburger was tasty and my wife loved her seafood platter. Service was careful, friendly, and attentive. They are sticklers about how many times you can go to the salad bar, but if you are content with this, you’ll like the food and be satisfied by the time the check comes.
I’m still working on my list of recommendable restaurants in the Clearlake area. Things have been hit or miss, but Howard’s Grotto will make the cut.

This restaurant is in a ghost town located in Clear Lake and for what they have in this town I would say the food was GREAT! The service was good especially with only 2 servers at a packed restaurant. We ordered Prime rib, Steak and the Red Snapper which were all very tasty. The meals came with a complimentary salad bar and soup of the day and ice cream for desert for an affordable price.
I would definitely recommend this place if you ever have to be in this area.