Cooley Lake Inn

Worst place ever. And i mean that. I would give it less than a 1 if i could. Bad food, worse service. They offered all you can eat breakfast and didn’t refill anything after the first pan was gone. You can wait up to 45 minutes for a second drink. The place smells of sewage. It’s a shame that the locals don’t have a better establishment. Bad, bad, bad. Change owners or close the doors. The owner should be ashamed.

This place appears to have chewed up another owner and spat him out. Good luck to the next poor sucker who tries to make it here. Maybe the best solution would be to take a wrecking ball to this place and put it out of it’s misery.

Stopped in yesterday with a friend for lunch. No cooks, they walked out when they didn’t get paid again. Bartender was beside herself. No phone, no TV, no Wi-​Fi. All because Sam Haider, the owner, didn’t pay the bill. I left a review on Facebook only to be sent a nasty message by the owner himself. This place used to be great, maybe it will be again under different owner.

Sam is still bouncing checks to the entertainers who perform there. The latest example was two bounced checks to the same youth band. What kind of slime ball bounces checks to a bunch of kids? The kind of slime ball named Sam Haider, that’s who.

I’ve been here a couple of times this year with my husband, small child and dog (they allow dogs on their patio! So rare.). The beer specials are always decent, the food is pretty good and the service has always been good. Don’t kid yourself — this is a standard bar with standard bar fare… but when you want a decent burger and a beer, you just can’t beat the outdoor seating overlooking the lake and the value of this place.

One of the worst bars around! Between the horrific food, bad attitudes from staff, hours of operation are never consistent, bar fights, mice and the sewage smell inside the building, and the fact that they do not pay their employees their money after they leave the establishment; I personally know of two people Sam will not pay. I strongly believe they should close the doors for good, they do not deserve to have that bar open.

I have seen this establishment change many owners. This new owner has gone way to far. My husband and I went for drinks to feel like we were in a strip club. Seeing 2 girls with panties showing and grinding each other in this community is truly disgusting. I hope other people will come forward to the township. this is a reflection of our town and I as one do not want anything reflecting a strip club around us.

This place has never been the same since It was Kodiak. Every time I go back to give it another try, it’s worse. Nice location and good Looking restaraunt is what gives it a star. The draft beer tasted over carbonated and the burger my spouse ordered was sent back twice because they don’t know
how to cook it. To top it off, after not eating the burger and telling them to forget it since even after the second time sending it back to the kitchen, the waitress still put it on the bill! She argued saying it was replaced by a second burger and cooked fine. She did end up taking it off the bill but I’m disappointed she argued. I hate to see this restaurant go under, but I can’t see it lasting unless Gordon Ramsey visits and gives them an ear full. They need a new kitchen and bartending staff. Also train their waitresses to not argue with the customers.

I ordered the wings tonight — based on a recommendation — and they were terrible.
Michelle, the bartender who was very friendly and sweet, said that she’d never heard they were bad before…
Nice environment, enjoy the cozy feel across from the water, food is bad.

I wouldn’t recommend coming here. Service was terrible, it was a 2 Hour ordeal start to finish because every little thing took forever. We ordered the fish and chips and rueben. Neither were tasty or prepared decently. (the fish and chips had waay too much breading– very little fish, yuck. Rueben had 2 thin pieces of meat) We both ended up sick in bed at 8pm that night.

Watch your wallet!
Nice looking place, good music, fair food, lousy service and awful management.
Food took forever to arrive, several dishes meant for other tables were left on ours for 10 – 15 minutes. Then when the bill came we were charged for two extra beers that we did not order, receive, or (obviously) drink. When I brought it to the waitresses attention she proceeded to argue that we indeed did order them, left for 10 minutes, came back and argued some more, left again, back 10 minutes later and said the manager would remove one of them. I was horrified! Why would I agree to pay for anything extra that I did not order or receive? And why would they expect me to do so? After refusing their «generous» offer the manager came over to argue, explain their «system» how the beer gets poured and placed on the counter when added to the bill, blah, blah, blah, as if somehow that would prevent a braindead waitress from putting beers on the wrong tab and delivering them elsewhere. Management did finally capitulate but not until they totally destroyed any desire for me to ever return.
«The customer is always right» is certainly not their motto, even when the customer really is right.

Ill start by saying that this place has the worst smelling mens bathroom i have ever expirenced. I dont think its been cleaned since the building was called Kodiak creek. Iv been here a few times for dinner and a few times just to get a drink. The food for the most part was not good. Once i ordered a philly cheesesteak and there were burnt black bits leftover from other orders mixed throughout. Clean your flattop! The wings are nothing but breaded gfs bagged garbage (no wonder they sell them for $ 0.25 some nights). Looking around at other peoples food you can tell that the cooks either dont know what they’re doing or dont care. Probably both.
I can say that the fish and chips were not bad the one time i ordered them, and the service has always been good. The drinks are very cheap. The bar is massive and looks ridiculous. Hopefully when this place closes down the next person knows what there are doing with this great location.

This place made me so angry. the service was terrible! a group of friends and I went in a month or two ago on a Monday night for their $ 0.25 wings– which were the only good thing about this experience, by the way.
First, we were seated and told our waitress would be with us in a few moments as she was tied up with things. Okay, no big deal, we werent in a rush. However, we werent even told her name, so after 30 minutes of waiting, I went up to the server station where two waitresses were lounging around and I didn’t even know who to ask for. Turns out, one of the waitresses I had approached was the one who was supposedly going to be taking care of us. She got snippy with me and said she would be with us as soon as possible. Well… okay then.
The hostess had given us glasses of water when she sat us, but was one glass short, and told us the waitress would bring the other glass. An HOUR AND A HALF LATER, we still didn’t have that freaking glass of water and the rest of us had been waiting on a refill for our own waters for forty five minutes.
When our waitress finally– FINALLY acknowledged us after an entire hour of waiting, she was short and rude with us, as if we were burdening her. We had already decided to give her the simplest of orders, cause we were fed up. we all got pretty much the same thing… yet the orders were all screwy when they finally came out. Not only that, but everything was cold. It took twenty five minutes for CHICKEN WINGS to come out. They take maybe three minutes in the fryer, and then they probably sat in the window for another twenty. Disgusting.
When were finally eating, she then had absolutely no problem with pushing the bill onto us, as if we were being coerced to hurry up. We paid quickly though, not wanting to have her leave for another hour and be stuck there waiting to pay for our terrible experience. Then, when she brought our cards/​change back, we had begun stacking a tiny pile for a tip– she didnt deserve much more for her rude comments and awful service– and then she leaned over all of us and scooped up her tip, right in front of us. Seriously?
I wish I could remember her name, so that management could see this and fire her. Oh well. We won’t be eating here ever again.

We expected a good meal, but did not get one. The black & blue steak bits were chewy, and the sides not very good. The cheeseburger pita was tasteless.
Our server was very polite and attentive (Mariah), and we liked her.
However, the meal was sub-​standard, and we will not eat here again.

We like the Cooley Lake Inn. Good food & drinks at a fair price. Entertainment has been very good. For whatever reason service can be hit or miss. Parking is limited. I would suggest you give it a try or two.

A solid 3 stars. Went with the BF and kid. Wasn’t sure how accommodating CLI would be on the child front, but there was one in a high chair at another table when we sat down. We had a JB Dollar Stretcher coupon that had the On The Waterfront name (as per the sign outside when we rolled up), but they are apparently Cooley Lake Inn now. They still honored it.
Ordered up fries and a water for the child. His water came in a capped child-​size cup with a bar mixing straw. Fries were good, large, salted and hot. We got the shrimp cocktail to start ($ 9). It came with 6 big cold shrimp and kinda spicy cocktail sauce. It was GOOD. BF ordered the 8 oz. sirloin with the onions and mushrooms ($ 14). He forgot to them tell plain as they come standard. It was cooked his specifications (rare) and he deemed it Good. His baked potato was cut jaggedly on purpose vs. straight down the middle which looked cool. The vegetable were the frozen mixed seasonal kind. They were Meh, as was expected. I ordered the Black and Blue Cheese Steak Tip salad ($ 12). It was a pretty big salad with cucumbers, red onion, romaine, lettuce, cherry tomatoes and hunks of blue cheese and good chunks of steak requested cooked medium. The steak was pretty tender and flavorful, but I was expecting a bit hotter temperature than how it arrived. I ordered the balsamic vinegar and oil dressing and it went well together. I think Italian dressing would have worked well too. Overall the salad was Good. We got the hot brownie dessert with ice cream topping and that was good as well though we did not finish the whole thing as the bottom got a little soggy from the ice cream. You could definitely share that between 2 people, though I would request an extra scoop to go with it. That was $ 4. With 3 drinks we hit just under $ 50 for the bill before the tip and JB coupon.
We went around Halloween and the staff was in full costume. Place was nearly full and sizable with a large vaulted ceiling. Noticed daily dinner and lunch specials (wanna try the $ 6 Monday Taco Bar in time). There was an activity board with many events listed. Ladies nights consisted of Pampered Chef, candle party and other such ‘fun’ stuff. I guess having alcohol immediately accessible makes the sales pitch tolerable and the purchasing judgment looser. The décor was mixed. Sorta cabin-​y with things like a big Kramer/​Seinfeld painting way up on the wall. Our server, Samantha, was not super friendly, but accommodating enough and efficient. She brought every single thing we asked for in a timely manner. The ambiance is very casual and laid back, There are 2 pool tables, a larger bar area, tables and booths, lots of TV’s and a band area. It currently bills itself as a destination for live music based on their internal literature. There was a band there tuning up to get ready about the time we left a little after 8PM. We will definitely be back to try Cooley Lake Inn again. They have an active Facebook page if you wanna check in on the latest and greatest.

Formerly on the waterfront aka Kodak speedboat or Duffys. They added a much bigger bar much better food and great staff. Keep it up and I will become a regular.