I hadn't been to Cafe Calamari since I was in college, we were recently visiting on a family vacation and I thought it would be nice to grab some pasta here. Â The food was OK, the service was fine, the problem I have is that they do not have a kid menu. Â I have been to plenty of restaurants that don't have one but usually I will have my 2 kids split a plate since plates for adults usually work for the both of them. Â When our bill came and we had a $7.95 split plate fee added to the cost I questioned it. Â I was told that becuase they dont' have a kids menu and they split a plate I had to pay the fee. This is not a fee they waive for 5 year old kids, even when I told her we didn't need a second salad. Â So I'm pretty sure there are lots of other places you can go for pasta with a family and I would say this is the last place. Â We could have gone to so many other nicer places for what we paid to eat there.
Review Source:We went for dinner on New Year's Eve and everything about the experience was wonderful. Our steaks were fantastic and reasonably priced all this considered, and the service was great. Unfortunately I don't remember our server's name but he was fantastic and we saw our him slinging drinks next door at Harpoon Willie's once his shift at Cafe Calamari was over. Would definitely return for a nice occasion.
Review Source:John and I love this place from the ambiance to the great food. Â This is where we eat when we stay in Lake Geneva and we are never disappointed.
We had an appetizer made w/phyllo dough, tomato sauce infused w/fennel delicious. Â As another review said the house salad is fresh and prepared table side. Â I had a pasta dish with the same sauce so good. Â John had the sea bass prepared to perfection.
The owner seated us I asked to sit where it would be warm and he offered to turn up the heat...he came back to make sure I was comfortable. Â
Disregard the old reviews and give Cafe Calamari a go!
Honestly, I am very surprised at some of the reviews about this place. I just went there last week and thought everything was phenomenal. We had a reservation but the place was packed so our group had to wait about 10 minutes, no big deal. We got our first round of drinks at the bar, which were a bit pricey but comparable to any other restaurant along the same tier. My house vodka & sprite was only $4.
Our table was clean and the server came out right away to visit us. She was great and gave us all the time we needed to order but started us with bread right away. The entrees are pricey. I had the chicken portobella which was one of the lowest priced and it was $17. It does include soup or salad, of course with I think $2 more for Caesar. The meal was awesome. The chicken was perfect and the sauce was delicious. Of course I tried everyone else's food and I can say that the tortellini was also done well and they know how to cook a scallop.
I really enjoyed our meal here. It was relaxed and pleasant, with good drinks and great food. The only reason I wouldn't come back every time I'm in the area would be the price.
We just went last night to Cafe Calamari and we had a wonderful experience. I am shocked that people have not rated it higher; from the  friendly hostess, to the owners, to our extremely nice waiter. We chose two signature pasta dishes that we enjoyed, but the best thing we had was the homemade tiramisu. We will be back.
Review Source:My Hubby and I are new residents of Williams Bay..and although we are not part of the more prominent locals( we rent..lol)...We decided to check this place out..I will be honest and say I thought it was very pricey!! We ordered a bottle of wine (white-their house wine) and we thought it was delicious..The waiter was very pleasant ,helpful and had some fun conversation with us...The decor is very pretty and great for a romantic dinner.
I ordered a chicken alfredo(with broccoli) I hated the sauce! I ended up just picking at it and brought it home..good late night after to much wine-need something to nibble on-food)
I do have to say the house salad was delicious!
My hubby hade a seafood and pasta(shrimp-mussels-calamar-ect on linguine with a red wine type sauce)(this seems to be a regular thing for him..will have to get him to be more open minded..)lol
The dish smelled so fishy when it came I almost couldnt eat my own food. He enjoyed it..but was dissapointed with the limited amount of actual seafood for the price.I believe around 25 bucks..Although I really enjoyed the ambiance and the waiter and the footsey we played after a couple glasses of wine..the salad was the best part food wise. Their is no smoking so I was suprised to read a prior review that there was..There is an adjacent bar and screened in patio-but you cant acsess the patio from the resturaunt wich really disapointed me..Overall..i might go back just for wine on the patio and pass on the food
Thanks to <a href="/redir?url=http%3A%2F%2Frestaurant.com&s=c5fe485af4df376130bee54f875814d79c4d7913e1258123b1206d2bdbf4873b" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">http://restaurant.com</a> for bringing us here the other night. I went here before I read the reviews because I believe sometimes you just gotta try things on your own first.
The problem is, I just don't know what to say. Our server was wonderful, very nice, no rushing, polite, offered to bring the SO soup when he didn't like the salad. Very nice guy.
The bathrooms, very clean, very warm. Considering they sat us by the windows and the wind picked up off the lake, we were kinda freezing.
The place was decorated cute for the holiday season, there was a huge crowd at the bar.
But the food, the food really wasn't that good. Honestly. Its sad to say but everything honestly was over priced for the quality. I would have been happy to pay $70 if I walked out of there thinking that was the best Italian food I had ever had but....it wasn't.
The bread was the best part.
I've never been at a loss for words in reviewing a restaurant because this place has been here forever and its always busy. I don't get it.
Alright, lets break it down.
Calamari and Bruchetta for the appetizer says the Calamari was great. I'm not a fan of calamari so I went with the bruchetta. Bruchetta...eh, it was ok.
House salads, too much dressing. I think if they layed off the dressing, it would be more flavorful.
Chicken Parmesan -- yes, the SO got a lot but again no flavor.
Tortellini -- Decent but again too much sauce.
I can't say I'll be running back to Cafe Calamari soon if ever but thanks to <a href="/redir?url=http%3A%2F%2Frestaurant.com&s=c5fe485af4df376130bee54f875814d79c4d7913e1258123b1206d2bdbf4873b" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">http://restaurant.com</a> for giving us this opportunity.
Ate there two weeks ago and am going back this weekend. Â Enjoyed new drink Dark and Stormy (on the rocks) and fish and salad was excellent. Â Give it a try. Â We were there early around 5 and I think that made a difference in having good service.
Went back the second time and service was not as good and salad was warm not cold. Â Still worth it at least once. Â Had a good crowd.
Bottom line: it's definitely worth a try.
Try to get a seat outside just after sunset. Â Caprese salad and bruschetta were excellent. Â Entres were typical country Italian--nothing over the top or amazing, but good, nonetheless.
Wine list is typical for the distributor in the area with an emphasis on--you guessed it--Italian selections. Â Italian wines are not my forte, but I did find a bottle that did the trick and wasn't outrageous.
As far as pricing, sure, some may consider menu items to be a tad ambitious, but in my opinion, it's worth the price of admission just get away from places like Popeye's, etc. Â (No slam on Popeye's here, as it certainly has its place.)
Service was fine by me. Â I'm more of a casual, take-my-time diner, so snap-to-it-on-my-elbow-ready-to-go service isn't something I'm generally looking for. Â We never felt like we were waiting around for anything.
Wow, there are a lot of haters out there! Â While I wasn't blown away by any means, Cafe Calamari was a nice change from what we've seen in our limited lake area dining experiences. Â It's certainly one of the nicest restaurants we've been to on the lake--nice in terms of clean cut and not grease-laden. Â It's hard to find places around the lake with much more than a glorified bar menu to begin with.
Yes, the parking lot has a lot of luxury cars parked in it. Â Recall that restaurants in the city often have valet parking, and many people take cabs, so you might not notice what the clientele drives while dining downtown. Â At least I wasn't worried about getting my doors dinged.
Would it survive in Chicago? Â Probably not for long given all the would-be competition, but it's just fine for the Lake Geneva area, and one of the better places we found at that. Â My. $.02.
Had a very nice New Years Eve dinner here. Â The service was wonderful. Â Drinks were good, bread was fresh, salad was super. Â I ordered lobster risotto and the risotto was very undercooked and rather skimpy on the lobster--not what I'd expect from such a nice place and the price of the dish. Â My husband's steak was done well though.
Review Source:over priced pasta....sorry to have to say, because the location and the actual restaurant wants you to like it more....too expensive (esp for SoWi) and not good enough food to get us to go back....it is an old established place but really seems to have slipped....if this was in Chicago, it would close because so many places are better....and more reasonably priced...
Review Source:Were there after we read all the praising reviews at <a href="/redir?url=http%3A%2F%2FUrbanSpoon.com&s=de50c4544e03c3249c06fda66a90b1d1aea12de031eeae7a303fcba8cb955046" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">http://UrbanSpoon.com</a>. The place has a nice interior and the staff is very friendly as well. the food is mediocre. Especially the pasta dishes are absolutely overpriced and awful. The marinara sauce tastes like the $1,99 jar from JewelOsco and you'd expect something better from a pasta dish around $20 a plate. The PEI mussels were also dry and chewy. we will avoid this place in the future.
Review Source:I was soooo flippin' disappointed with this place. Â
I looked at the Yelp reviews, and some of them looked fishy....So, I thought I'd give it a shot and find out for myself.
Outside, the parking lot was lined with Range Rovers, Mercedes, BMW's and the like.... Â Definitely a money crowd. Â Looked like a nice, inviting atmosphere across the street from the lake.
Inside, it was busy with a buzz of activity. Â Seemed nice inside too.
We ordered a couple of Martinis at around $9 each. Â Both were delicious. Â I had the Gin and Sin and my man had the Apple. Â Yummy strong liquor. Â We met my folks there, and my mom had the Victoria Secret Martini, also very good. Â Drinks score an A+.
Basically, the night started out amazingly awesome and dwindled into blegh disappointment. Â Had I stopped at the appetizers, bread, and salad and ignored the entree--this place would've been a 4-5 star.
Bruschetta was about a 3.5.
Shrimp Cocktail -- ginormous shrimp (3) --tasty sauce  4.5
Some cheezy pocket something or other (lol)--- greaaaattt. Â 4.5
Warm bread. Â Yum. Â Homemade signature salad. Â Super tasty. Â Happy and loving it.
Ordered Butterscotch martini, super good, perhaps too much like dessert. Â But, still. Â Liquor in a cup. Â Good times.
Then the entrees came. Â I ordered Chicken Victoria, which was supposed to be Chicken with tomatoes and artichokes in a cream sauce with a little pasta. Â It was some of the blandest sh** I've ever tasted. Â No flavor. Â And it was $22. Â Horrible entree for the price.
My dad ordered some pasta that had chicken and shrimp in it, and he also thought his was bland and unremarkable.
My fiance ordered the tilapia and said it was so plain he could barely get it down his throat. Â I tasted it and agreed. Â And that was pricey too.
I felt awful for my parents who tried taking us out to a nice meal and the food was NOT worth the price. Â Just because it's in the Lake Geneva area doesn't mean they can charge skyrocketed prices for mediocre food. Â I thought the entrees were crap in general. Â And with the price tag attached. Â Pure awful. Â
I would never return here again. Â If you are forced to, stick with the drinks and appetizers. Â On a side note, apparently the Chicken Marsala is pretty good. Â Sadly, the rest of the entrees don't meet expectations.
I've had a goo dexperience here and a kind of bad one so I'm in the middle as to which one was the "real" experience. Having read the other reviews I'm tending to think I was just lucky when I had a good experience here. I went here saturday with some girlfriends and have to say the overall experience wasn't good. First of all the waitress can only be described as "haughty" She seemed to "tsk" at every request and just appeared like she didn't really want to be there which I find hard to imagine given the options in the area to make decent money waitressing. The food itself was very bland. I had tilapia which was overly sauteed in butter over fettucine. Both had no flavor and very little sauce. My girlfriend had the salmon and said the same thing. The house salad however was yumm! I did have ravioli here once and it was good. So overall, for the price the food isn't good and the service terrible. we'll find other options next time we are in the area.
Review Source:What a huge disappointment. Â They nickel and dime you in this so-called "upscale" rated restaurant. Â The food was below average. Â Being from Chicago, I've had much better Italian food and certaintly better service. Â The worst part is they charged us for extra bread! Â What restaurant charges for extra bread?? Â After spending all we did, including a bottle of wine, they had nerve to charge us for the bread and not even tell us before hand that there was an extra charge. Â Terrible restaurant!
Review Source:I'm surprised by the previous reviews as this is one of our favorite restaurants in the area. I do feel that popularity has had a negative impact on the place over the past 3-4 years but it's still a very good place. Steaks are overpriced at most places and this place is no exception. I highly recommend the mussels appetizer. Calamari tastes like rope to me everywhere and this place does nothing to change my mind. Unlike the previous reviewers, I've only had good experiences with salmon here - and I've had it at least a dozen times - as has my wife. If you like Pork then you should try the Pork Chops - the two generously-sized chops qualify as a relative bargain here. The bread basket here is fantastic and entrees come with that as well as an above-average salad. The owner's wife is one of the friendliest folks you'll ever meet at a hostess stand but when she's not there you could run into a bit of snooty-ness. Cafe Calamari is right across the street from Geneva Lake in Williams Bay and has a nice view from the outside patio - which is a very nice place to eat or just have a cocktail before dinner.
Review Source:Nightmare Experience
This is one of the worst restaurants I have ever visited. Â
Being a Chicagoan the fact that customers were allowed to smoke in the restaurant was very disturbing to me. Â
I wanted to bring a bottle of wine however they charge a $25 uncorking fee. Â What, that is a nonsense.
The service was very below average especially when I complained about my entree. Â I ordered the salmon which arrived drowned in a bitter orange sticky sauce. Â
The house salad was terrible and they charge $5 to upgrade to the caesar salad. Â The prices were expensive about $30 for an entree. Â
Over all, I would not recommend this restaurant to anyone. Â There are far better selections in the area stay away from this rip off place and save yourself the nightmare experience.
Last week I went to Lake Geneva for vacation with my boyfriend, everything was good except we got a terrible experience in this restaurant, this place is the worst Italian place I've ever been, place smell so bad...food was bad and it was overpriced! I had the sea bass and the taste wasn't good, I only can taste the butter, fish was overcooked too. My boyfriend got a salmon with pasta and he said it's uneatable! I tried a bit of his meal and it's really taste bad, really can't find the salmon can be worst than this place! Service was bad, the waitress gave us a dirty look when my boyfriend decide to talk to the manager to complain the food and their bad service. Also, they would charge you $25 bucks if you decide to bring your own bottle of wine! I understand restaurant could charge on your bottle but I don't think it's 25 dollars, Â also another 5.95 if you wanna just share one meal, we didn't do that but I think it's really a big rip off, I've been so many nice restaurant, they wouldn't even do that!! If you wanna enjoy your vacation and have a good meal, I suggest you better stay away this place in your life!!!
Don't waste your money with bad quality of food and service, even Olive garden taste better then them!
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