Lost Lake Lodge

My «fair» rating stems from NOT a comparison of Lost Lake Lodge to other resorts in the area, but from what Lost Lake Lodge USED to be, prior to 2015. My family enjoyed a week at LLL every summer for seven years. It’s safe to say that it had become a cherished family tradition, and a core part of my kids’ childhood memories. LLL the way we knew it, and loved it, is gone.
What LLL used to be, 2014 and before:
*fresh baked cookies upon check in
*being known by name with employees and staff
*cabins that reflected growing up in the lakes area — knotty pine and kitschy carpet with a walleye print, no phones and no TVs. Glorious!
*baskets of assortments of homemade bread, made on site in the resort’s grist mill
*farm-​to-​table gourmet meals with a northern Minnesota flair (pan fried walleye, wild rice soup, steak, etc.)
*a menu that was all-​inclusive (other than alcohol)
*fishing clinics in the mornings for the kids, held by long – time local Harry
*kids’ camp twice per day, every day
*parent dinner night during which the kids enjoyed pizza on the beach with campfire s’mores and activities hosted by staff, while the adults enjoyed a date night
*the surroundings of very few cabins on a quiet, calm resort in between Gull and Lost Lake
*breakfast each morning off a menu of more homemade creations, including their famous sticky buns/​cinnamon rolls, which my kids looked forward to each summer
*a loyalty program where frequent or annual guests like us could apply a portion of our incidentals toward a discount on our future stay. And we were always invited back the next year!
*lots of thank yous, you’re welcomes, and an attitude of being eager to please.
LLL did not have all of the amenities of neighboring resorts, but those who visited for years preferred it that way. It was quiet, small, not at all busy, and the staff took care of you with delicious homemade meals and provided an atmosphere where we were encouraged to truly play outside and spend time in the water and in the woods.
What LLL became in 2015:
*no fresh baked cookies upon check in
*no one knowing our names or that we had spent thousands of dollars there over the years.
*all cabins are being upgraded to appear like little more than a modern suburban home with some cabin décor — complete with phones and TVs. So much for «no screen time.»
*No grist mill, no homemade bread.
*A menu of global cuisine from a particular region, that remains unchanged for the entire season. During our visit, we were locked into Asian and Hawaiian cuisine… for the entire week! My kids weren’t a fan of it, nor were we.
*A kids’ menu that included macaroni and cheese. But, it’s not homemade. It’s Kraft… from a box. We were paying top dollar to eat local gourmet home cooked meals, and paid those prices for sure — but for processed crap.
*a menu that cites up charges for certain menu items — no longer «all inclusive.»
*no fishing clinics. No Harry. In fact, when I asked the front desk what happened to Harry, they didn’t even know who he was. Even though the resort recreation center is named «Harry’s Garage.»
*No kids’ camp.
*No parent dinner night. No kids’ night on the beach.
*Plans to build more cabins, closer together, and sell them to private owners. A sales pitch was included with our stay!
*A very limited breakfast buffet, that included cheap store-​bought pastries from a package.
*No loyalty program.
*Upon check out, we were not even invited to make a reservation for the following summer!
*Few thank yous, few you’re welcomes, and just very little regard for us at all.
My 9-​year-​old kids, my husband and I were so disappointed with what had become of our very favorite place — Northern Minnesota’s best-​kept secret — that I wrote an email noting my feelings above. I RECEIVED NO RESPONSE.
Do not be fooled. Lost Lake Lodge as it was once known does not exist anymore. It is so sad. And they do not care. They are going to make it more packed, more modern, run the restaurant under separate ownership that features one type of global cuisine per season, and cut corners to save money in whatever ways they feel necessary. For the prices they charge, you’d get more mileage from your dollars by actually staying at one of the larger resorts in the area. Lost Lake Lodge is gone.

Lost Lake Lodge got its groove back! Went there last night for dinner. Everything was awesome! Starting with the hot and spicy soup. So excellent, fresh, and delicious. Don’t miss it! The starter salad of lightly grilled lettuce and tomatoes was also outstanding. For entrees, all of them were as good as you can get in the area. The waitress (who was very friendly and helpful, as was the entire staff… including the young girl pouring water and helping out… so nice) recommended the chicken curry. I am glad I listened to her. Outstanding! Spicy and fresh, with delicious rice. The lamb chops? Perfectly cooked. My mother in law got the seafood and stir fried rice. Huge portions and unusual and delicious. We were all VERY pleased. Even all the sides were delicious, although they didn’t quite go with the entrees, but so what. The bad? They no longer serve lunch, which was always one of our favorite spots to eat outside with a beautiful view. They also no longer have the butterscotch ice cream dessert that we were all dying for. Oh well, bring back that dessert and lunch, and Lost Lake Lodge would be perfect. I highly recommend it.

Was so wonderful! We’ve come here before a few times and it was good but with new management and a new chef the food is fabulous. No more fix price menus. The ala carte menu is delicious with really interesting new flavors. We will definitely be back.

Lost Lake Lodge has been our favorite dining spot in the Lakes Area for decades. Every year we look forward to our time and had even started spending two evenings there during our vacation. We loved the prix fixe menu with the wine pairings, the home-​made bread from locally ground wheat and the unbelievable dessert menu to include the home-​made butterscotch.
But all that has changed…
We arrived there this evening full of high expectations for a repeat of our previous experiences and were sorely disappointed.
In all fairness, I want to give the good as well:
1) The scallops were delicious.
2) The mushroom/​potato gratin was fabulous.
3) The coffee was good.
4) The lavender smoked salmon appetizer was very good.
5) The Kona Encrusted Filet was very tender and flavorful.
But…
1) The service was horrendous for a restaurant of this caliber. While the waitress was nice, she didn’t know her menu, didn’t know her wines (Me: What wine would you suggest with my scallops? Waitress: White.) She brought the little preappetizer while we still had menus and hadn’t yet ordered. She forgot our wine. Our water and the girls’ lemonade went empty numerous times for long periods of time. Even when we would ask for refills, it would take a long time for them to be refilled… and one time, she didn’t even get all the glasses filled! Our dishes weren’t cleared before the next course was served and they piled up on the table. We organized the dishes for them to clear. In general, there was a sense of chaos. Again… the people we encountered were nice, but not of the caliber one would expect for this type of restaurant (which wasn’t the case when we came in the past). Your wait staff desperately needs proper training and this critique could be corrected.
2) The walleye dish was horrible. I tried a bite. My initial thought was it was tasteless, but then it left an awful taste in my mouth until I could eat something else.
3) There was no potato to go with the beef other than the mushroom/​potato gratin. If you don’t happen to like mushrooms, you were out of luck except for mushy french fries.
4) You pick three side dishes for the whole table. They are all mushed together in one bowl. No side dish is paired with its respective entrée. They do a nice job with presentation of the entrees only to have to pile on the plate spoonfuls of side dish that may or may not really complement the entrée.
5) As for dessert, the strawberry short-​cake was bad; dry…
6) The bread in the bread basket was not good.
When you pay this much money for a meal, there is a standard that is much higher than we experienced tonight. We will be canceling our other reservation and unless we hear from others that it has improved dramatically, we won’t be returning. We are sad because our expectations were wholly dashed and we have lost one of our favorite restaurants.

My wife and I have been coming here for our anniversary for several years now. The past two years were disappointing, and we were going to find somewhere else to celebrate until we found out the restaurant was under new management, with a new chef. The new menu is very interesting, with obvious European, Asian and Polynesian influences. The food was amazing. This is not an inexpensive place to eat, but if you are looking for really good, adventurous food, a nice ambience, and a beautiful view of Gull Lake, this is the place.

Ok… Finally a International excellent restaurant in the woods. Chef Brian is a gem !!! We are so lucky to have this place to dine in our woods.
Every morsel of food I tasted tonight was excellent !
I’m a foodie and not easily satisfied ! Tonight was spectacular !! Service was perfect !! I’ll be back for more !
A fantastic evening !!!

Lost Lake Lodge is a gem… great setting. .great food. great service. our favorite special dinning experience. .interesting mains… family style sides. delightful desserts. .enjoy Gull Lake’s best.

The food is good, but a meal costs roughly $ 50 per person (with no cocktails, tip not included in this comment). Woodsy casual atmosphere and not even a white tablecloth. That’s about the least they can do for a hundred dollar bill — plus!
It may be a one time meal, but we don’t need to spend that much for a good mean.

This was quite frankly one of the best meals that I have ever had. From the moment we walked in the door, we were warmly greeted by the staff, who had all been extremely well-​trained. In fact, we have already booked a return visit with our same server.
The cocktail list was fabulous and not a list of how many sweet liqueurs one can pair with vodka. The wine list was exciting and while we did not choose the Château Montelena Chardonnay (which I have never seen on a wine list), we appreciated the selections.
We ordered the 6-​course chef’s tasting menu and a wine flight. The server was enthusiastic about our choice and we were even more complimented by being told that the chef was excited about serving mussels on the half shell and our portions with roe were wonderful. Each course came nicely paced was absolutely wonderful. The final course was three different desserts and the chef and server could not have known that each one fit us perfectly. Though this meal was not cheap, it was worth every single penny. We cannot wait to see what we have next time.

My wife and I were looking for a restaurant to celebrate our 38^th wedding anniversary. We’ve been to all the other top restaurants in this area, but this one, and so decided to try it out, mainly because they had raw oysters on their menu.
We took one of our daughters with us, and all of us agreed that the meal we had was one of the best we’ve ever had. We had the Chef’s Tasting Menu, and each course was beyond our high expectations. The wait staff is very well trained, and totally focused on doing what is best for the customer.
We loved the food and service so much, that I made reservations here to celebrate my 60^th birthday in August.

I came here as a reader’s retreat guest. Author’s Julie Kramer and her husband, Joe Kimball featured their books as part of a package and lecture. A 2 nights stay included 2 dinners, and breakfast. Friday was a banquet with a set menu. The bone in breast of chicken was fried and tender, juicy, and delicious. I enjoyed everything else too. I was talking with the authors about their travels, and mentioned they have to go to the Donaldson Hotel in Fargo. She happened to have a conversion with the chef at some point, and guess where he had his training, yep the Donaldson. That explains how you’ll never get a bad meal here. The cabins are cozy, beds comfy. They actually clean and replace towels everyday. I think it’s a waste, and not necessary, and I was going to tell them not to bother after breakfast. When I got back it was already done. They are fast. It rained one day, so I got a lot of reading in. I loved driving over Hwy. 10 and doing the resort getaway. This is the smallest in the area very close to the largest. They’re actually all around. If you can’t get away on a long vacation, this is the way to go. They’re open to the public for meals in another dining area which is also good and it’s where they serve lunch.

We have been coming to lost lake lodge now for 4 years and we love it. We fish right outside our cabin (rods are included but you have to buy you’re own bait — go to S W bait show a few miles south on 371) breakfast is included as well as dinner. They have fabulous breads. The cons are that it is very expensive and the dinner menu never changes so if you are staying for multiple nights it is hard to choose new and interesting dinners. Also food is very heavy… but we have lots of wonderful memories here and hope that they will eventually add different pricing plans.

We read an article about this place in Minnesota Monthly and I wanted to quickly find a special date to go. Normally we’re in the area staying at our cabin, making savory and memorable meals on the grill overlooking our own private view of the lake. So it takes a five-​star review of a restaurant to pull us away for dinner. Not to mention the one-​season nature of the region produces a tourist industry that doesn’t support economically many knock-​your-​socks-​off-​restaurants like what we easily enjoy in the Twin Cities. The story of the bread lured me in first. The way they described their bread made from flour ground in their own grist meal caught my attention. Their attention to detail goes beyond the complimentary basket of freshly baked assortment of breads. We opted for the four course tasting menu with the wine pairings. You could select your courses from a nice selection of options at each tier. We had a rich, satisfying creamy mushroom soup to start. Next was a nice, light appetizer of walleye. Next was a generous portion of short ribs on top of hearty cooked greens. From the dessert menu, I selected a warm chocolate dessert.
Pros: The service was literally some of the best service I’ve ever had at a restaurant. The server was highly experienced, gracious, timely and listened well to our questions.
The food was high quality, good flavors, and they had a great selection to choose from so if you selected the tasting menu, you had a lot of fun mix-​and-​match options to drool over.
The view of their own lake was pretty and the décor was very nice, soothing and appropriately decorated for the area.
Cons: Because this is an all-​inclusive family resort, you might run into diners who choose to bring a 4-​yr-​old to dinner at 7pm. I don’t have kids of my own BUT I would argue that at this price point and the fact that 99% of diners after 5:45pm are adults, take a cue and don’t bring in the tots. We were there for a romantic, adult evening and by the looks of our fellow table mates, we weren’t the only ones.
I don’t really think this is a decent CON but I couldn’t not finish all of my food. The tasting menu was was SUCH a good value, I needed to bring a lot of my third course home. I hope they don’t make the portions smaller but maybe go for the three-​tasting menu option instead. My eyes were definitely bigger than my stomach!

This place is really very excellent. If you are staying, the food is included and that is a steal! We are always at our own place so we pay for the food. It is about 90 $ for 2 for dinner for 2 – 3 courses w/​o wine. The food is very good, especially compared to what else is up north. No hot dogs here. American/​home style foods, fresh ingredients, creativity. I have always been pleased and I am not easy to please. I might not be as happy paying for the meal if I was at home. But having something nice up at the lake is a treat. my suggestion is that you call ahead and make sure you like the choices for the evening however because it would be disappointing if there was not something you were looking forward to eating. It has never happened to me there but just a precaution.