Lake View Restaurant

For a JW Marriott and resort prices you get slow service & high prices & very crispy english muffins! I went for a Sat morning, 8:45 breakfast, no crowds at all. Not Impressed !

This place was amazing but its no longer there… so sad! We loved eating breakfast here.

Everyone in our party had the buffet for dinner. It definitely seemed to be the best value. I was craving pasta and they had a pasta station! Perfect! They also had crab legs, shrimp and a whole lot of other stuff that doesn’t stick out in my mind because it just blended all together on my plate into one delicious blob (yep, that’s how I do it at a buffet). The dessert choices were pretty decent. I think I had at least 4 different things.
As a Vegas resident with wayyyy too much buffet experience, I must admit that it is much smaller than what you might think of when it comes to the idea of a buffet, but, as a food-​lover, I will say, it did NOT disappoint!

Our second night at the JW we choose the LakeView restaurant for dinner. We had a late night reservation at 9:30 and after a long day of Cinco festivities at the pool we were really looking forward to a relaxing meal. The adorable boats took awhile so we were a little late for our reservation but it wasn’t a problem. The outside seating looked magical and romantic. It appealed to us (five girls) so we asked to be seated there… after a bit of a wait there still wasn’t a table outside opening up so we sat in the main dining room instead.
The décor seemed a bit dated to me and the five of us were seated at a huge table for eight. We all felt kind of lonesome and practically needed megaphones to talk to each other from our individual places. Our server brought menus and waters and we settled in to review it.
I didn’t see the buffet anywhere on the menu? Our server didn’t mention it at all! (although he did list several of the more expensive entrees) There is range of dishes on the menu so, oblivious to the loads of prime rib hiding on the elusive secret buffet in the back of the restaurant, we ordered a la carte.
I decided on a house salad that featured a fruit vinaigrette to start and then the shrimp linguine. The salad was tasty, but the waiter scolded his runner in front of us for bringing it on the wrong plate? It set a tone for the meal unfortunately. Although the food was good and our server tried to provide attentive service, even brought out a new bigger salad, I was kind of soured by the look on the poor runners face.
While our entrees cooked a couple wandered to the table next to us with plates piled high… what the hell? A BUFFET? Awww man! Judging from the other reviews it seems like this woulda been the better decision. If we had ONLY KNOWN!
Our entrees arrived, all were good, especially the lobster ravioli. (Delish but beware: The portion sized would have pissed off a hungry man, 4 raviolis for almost 30 bucks… and they have the nerve to offer a half order on the menu, TWO raviolis? oh geez) Again, good effort, but now we were bummed about the runner AND the buffet, Sigh.
Three stars, decent food, decent service, but when there is a buffet, ya betta tell somebody!

Expensive breakfast, but worth it. Ours was included in the room, but I think the buffet is about 25/​person. Large selection of everything, omelet station, waffle station, etc. Ate all 3 days we were here.

I’ve been to this restaurant twice and had very different experiencs. The first time we were seated at a crappy table even though we had a reservation, they didn’t bring me anything for my birthday even though we told them it was my birthday, and the lobster ravioli was $ 26 and consisted of 4 pieces of pasta.
We went back a second time for the buffet. That is the way to go! Don’t even bother with the menu. The buffet has salad, a pasta station, meat, shrimp, and amazing crab legs. And then there is the dessert side… oh my god. The chocolate mousse is to die for. Everything comes in little individual cups so you can get a bunch of different stuff to try. I can’t wait to go back… yum!

Wow!

Service was great, food wonderful, and a nice view too. I had their Seared Ahi Tuna which was one of the best I’ve ever had! I know eating fish in the desert is a bit weird but seriously it was a great salad! For dessert I highly recommend their tiramisu. It was oh so good! I think they need a remodel in the restaurant. And also they need to face their window tables in the other direction so both people can see out. (hope you’re readying this Lake View, I do this for a living, take my advice!!!)

We did the seafood buffet on a Saturday night and were pleasantly surprised. Loads of crab legs and shrimp, properly cooked roast beef and a terrific crêpe bar and dessert spread. For $ 30.00 it was excellent meal.
Since at least one of us ordered off the menu we were able to judge the service from the waiter which not particularly good. The waiter kept disappearing, forgot to bring coffee twice, tried to pretend he didn’t hear the request and finished by over charging on one item and including an 18% service charge which would have been fine if it didn’t actually calculate to 26%. Based on the service, I had him correct both ASAP. Not what I expect in the way of service from the Marriott but at least the other staff including the buffet staff were good.

This is a review by a vegetarian
Amateur hour service makes for a bad mood enough to ruin any level of food and any quality view. A dining companion looked like a dog trying to rip apart the tough brisket in one of his trio of sliders.

This restaurant is located in a Marriott resort hotel. It is a beautiful setting, with a large reflecting pool that extends from outside into the building. Very nice, with boats that take customers to the teppanyaki restaurant.
The Lakview is located on the bottom floor next to the pool. We had three meals there. The first was a light lunch. I had a great vegetable sandwich that came with a large funnel-​shaped cup of fries. It was very good, but the cost was far too high.
For dinner, I had the Pizza Primivera. It appeared to have been baked in a stone oven with goat cheese and fresh vegetables. Again, very good but not worth the price.
Finally, my wife, son, and I sat down for their Christmas champagne brunch. The quantity, quality, and diversity of food on the buffet was fantastic. It addition to all you could drink champagne, there was also a very good quality all you could eat sushi bar. This was actually the first meal we had in the Lakeview that was worth the price.
The service was good and the view fantastic. But unless you want the view while you eat, spend your money elsewhere. There are better places to eat in Palm Desert for less or the same cost.

Have you been to a buffet and eaten too much snow crab and shrimp? This is one of those spots. Popular with Palm Desert residents or regulars this place has prime rib, made to order pasta and a wonderful selection of desserts.
The best ting is that a family of 11 ca be easily accommodated on the busy Thanksgiving weekend. If you like entrée dishes you will find a chicken, salmon and other entrée dishes. There’s a salad bar too.
This isn’t the best, not the worst buffet. I like that they didn’t try to do too many countries’ cuisine and stayed with the familiar.

Ate at this restaurant while staying at the Marriott. They have a buffet on Friday and Saturday nights. I wasn’t planning on having it, until they said there was a crêpe bar. Um yes, I would pay $ 20 just for the crêpe bar.
I ate to my hearts content. I’m not a seafood eater, so I skipped that. I did indulge in prime rib, pork, enchiladas, the pasta bar, macaroni and cheese, curly fries, and chicken fingers. I topped it off with a pretty good crêpe and 4 other desserts.
Too bad my stomach was killing me later. probably my fault though.

I was just saying to my friend, «Finally, our last meal in Palm Desert is our best meal!»
After a scrumptious plate of frittata (ok, 2 plates since I had to have seconds, it was THAT GOOD), fresh yogurt parfait, lox, I was relieved that our culinary tour of the Palm Springs area had not been a disaster.
Then, the eggs benedict. Gobs of salt were left on my spinach and canadian bacon. At least that’s how my tongue explained it to me. The hollendaise sauce was perfect.
In my entire life of eating everything in sight, I’ve never complained about the food directly to the staff.
This resturant set a new precedent for me. I told the waitress to check in with the chef. Everything else was so wonderfully perfect, did they lose the cap on the salt shaker?
Get the breakfast buffet but ask em to hold the salt! I’m a girl that can lick fish sauce of it’s bottle (if for no other reason than to get a reaction from my mom) so you know I like saltiness.

Sunday brunch buffet was very good. Not cheap at $ 39, but if you want to sit for a few hours with unlimited champagne, sushi, oysters and ALL sorts of other breakfast and lunch food, then it is definitely worth it!!!

We went there for the Mother’s Day Brunch for $ 55. The hotel lobby, atrium and view are really spectacular. The boat ride to the restaurant was uniquely fun. The food and service at the buffet was good. Basically I would give the restaurant ³¹⁄₂ stars and the lobby and boat ride a 4.
Exc — Boat Ride, Lobby
Good — Food, service
Ave — None
Poor — None

Friday and Saturday night prime rib and king crab leg buffet for $ 29. This was a pretty good deal. We came here on Friday night because we were too hot /​lazy to venture outside the hotel on our first night in town.
We decided to do the prime rib /​crab leg buffet. The crab legs were pretty fresh and good, the big bowl kept getting refilled. The prime rib was decent too, but some cuts were a little more done than I would have liked.
The dessert buffet was very impressive and plentiful. I tried a few choices which were hit or miss. Surprisingly, the bread pudding was good.
Everything else in the buffet was gross, so we just loaded up on the prime rib, crab legs, and a few desserts.
Our server was nice and our water glasses were always full.
If you go to Lakeview, try the crab legs since they are basically the only tasty thing from their Fri /​Sat night buffets.

Came here for lunch during my stay and this place is one of the many downfalls of restaurants in hotels. The concept of bad restaurants in average hotels make hotels look worse. Great restaurants in average hotels make hotels look better.
The food is more acceptable at a poolside café versus a dine in restaurant. The chicken caesar salad with dried cherry tomatoes was awful. The chicken was cold and the plate was warm. How can the chicken be cooler than the plate. The dried cherry tomatoes were stale. My friend had the mushroom cheese burger with fries. That was ok. The whole vibe in here feels like an 80’s restaurant that is reaching it’s life expectancy.

Talk about a place taking a nose-​dive during today’s down-​turn.
I was so ready to love JW’s Desert Springs (and all of its wonderful restaurants/​bars) that this was a huge disappointment. The lobby felt completely deserted and out-​dated in its décor. On the plus side, the lobby-​bar looked great with a side sushi area that looked promising as did the over-​all lounge area, but this was the highlight of the whole resort… which is pretty sad considering how opulent this place is portrayed on Marriott’s website. Mikado’s (their well known and very highly rated Japanese restaurant was closed) and there was another restaurant that was seasonal, closed for the summer. Their touted boat ride to the restaurants is highly over-rated…nice but very very short.
Now for the restaurant: do not stop. do not pass Go. do not spend $ 200. and definitely do not order the calamari. They are trying so desperately to cut costs and it is showing. From the limited wait staff, to the «seasonal» veggies, the low grade meat, the store bought frozen calamari to the two decades-​ago décor, etc, etc. The ambiance sucked to say the least.
Too much over head, not enough money and a lotta, lotta pressure from shareholders to cut costs is bringing what could be a potentially awesome resort… down, down, down.
Sorry Desert Springs, I really really wanted to give you two-​thumbs up!

This place was spectacular! It’s in the middle of a golf resort, surrounded by a big lake filled with flamingos and black swans.
Need I say more? Oh, yeah– then there’s the food.
I had a perfectly grilled piece of mahi mahi with a nice citrusy salsa-​caper type topping accompanied by a lovely field greens salad and *beautiful* roasted veggies with a nice herb sauce. Lovely parmesean cracker on the side. Dessert was a selection petit fours, including a mini crème brûlée, a mini panna cotta, half a dark chocolate truffle and a one-​inch cube of perfect bread pudding.
It was rather busy, but the ambiance was still intact. The waitstaff was very friendly and attentive– a good thing when you’re guzzling water by the glass trying to rehydrate from the 93-​degree heat outside. This is Palm Springs, you know.