You have to root for a restaurant that tries as hard to please as does the newly-opened Lake House Grill in Prior Lake.

"We police the lot, align the wood chips and make sure there are no weeds out front," said owner Stuart Erickson. "When you come in, we open the front door for you."

Opened June 12, Lake House Grill is striving to be a family-friendly restaurant featuring excellent food, excellent service and prices that won't make you take out a second mortgage on the old homestead.
From positive early word-of-mouth – followed by an initial visit – they're succeeding nicely on all fronts.

Lake House Grill serves up a tasty selection of offerings. But the striking thing about this restaurant is the staff's devotion to good service. From the owner and managers to the servers, treating the customer right seems to be a priority.

Broad background

Erickson, executive chef Adam Rust and front of the restaurant manager/wine director Carleton Smee have a lot of years of restaurant experience between them, in venues of haute cuisine, and definitely un-haute cuisine.

The trio has worked in a galaxy of establishments ranging from Schumacher's, Enjoy! and the Loring Café to Granite City, Subway and Gung-Ho.
Now they've joined forces to give Prior Lake a much needed new destination restaurant.
"Our goal is to cater to families," said Smee. "There's a niche in Prior Lake for a family-oriented restaurant."

To achieve their goal of being family-friendly, Lake House Grill offers a good kid's menu, serves no hard liquor and is non-smoking.

Lake House Grill is on the site formerly occupied by Pomodori Italian Café. It's tucked off Highway 13 just north of downtown Prior Lake next to a fish and bait shop in a building that's easy to drive by. But hungry diners making the stop will find it well worth their decision.

Like the outside, there's little fancy or pretentious about the choices offered at Lake House Grill. The restaurant serves a nice selection of classic American casual fare. But up and down a still-evolving menu is a series of choices where both preparation and presentation are first rate.

Price is right

It's a wallet-friendly price as well. With the exception of the $16.95 top sirloin, none of the dinners are priced more than $12.95.
"You've got to give people a good deal, or they won't come back," said Erickson.
There are two distinct menus at Lake House Grill. The lunch menu is heavy on salads, sandwiches, burgers and pizza. The dinner menu has a longer list of appetizers, entrees and pastas. There's also a kid's menu with the usual suspects of pizza, mac and cheese, hamburgers and chicken strips.

Treating the customer right is another priority for Lake House Grill staff.
"They made the effort to come see us," said Erickson. "We owe them good food and good service."

The dinner choices are not extensive (seven entrees, plus four pastas and five kinds of pizza), but adequate. There's also a nice selection of appetizers, sandwiches, soups, salads and burgers available at both lunch and dinner.
Lake House Grill staff said the best appetizer on the menu is probably the crab cakes ($6.95), which are served with a nice combination of lemon aioli, cocktail sauce and roasted red pepper tartar sauce. It's not easy soup weather, but the French Onion soup made with homemade beef stock is also very tasty.

All of the entrees sampled were well done, including the beef medallions ($12.95), barbeque pork drummie ($10.95), pan-seared salmon ($11.95) and spiced battered walleye ($11.95).
The beef medallions are served with a Portobello mushroom sauce, garlic mashed potatoes and green beans. "It's a real demiglace," said Erickson. "But the usual comment is ‘wow, good gravy.'"

Good gravy not withstanding, the top entree selection may just be the pork drummies, which are really slow-cooked pork shanks doused in a lip-smacking barbecue sauce and properly falling off the bone.

Sweet potato skills

One of the more unusual things on the menu is the Lake House Grill's fondness for sweet potatoes. You can get them as fries tossed with Cajun spices, mashed with the roast chicken or barbecued pork or whipped with the walleye. Surprisingly, the sweet potatoes complement both the sweet pork and the spicy walleye equally. And they're definitely a nice change of pace from the usual potato choices.

The desserts – at least at present – are about the only items on the menu not made from scratch at the restaurant. The fudge ganache with raspberry puree ($4.95) is certainly worth trying to satisfy your sweet tooth.
Acceding to customer demand, the restaurant will soon begin offering breakfast from 6 to 10:30 a.m.
The restaurant serves wine and beer, but no hard liquor. No smoking is permitted. That may turn off some potential diners, Erickson agreed, but the trade-off is worth it, he said.

"We want to be known for our food," Erickson said. "We want to be a place where everyone can feel welcome. I feel this restaurant is my house, and I don't want people to feel uncomfortable in my house."

Lake House Grill
Location: 15750 Highway 13 S., Prior Lake
Information: Call (952) 212-1385.