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Since 1969, restaurant, hotel, travel & other witty reviews by a handpicked, worldwide team of discerning professionals—and your views, too.

Chalet Suzanne Country Inn & Restaurant

Chalet Suzanne Country Inn
3800 Chalet Suzanne Dr. Send to Phone
Lake Wales, FL 33853
863-676-6011 | Make Restaurant Reservations | Menu
chaletsuzanne.com
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Elegant dinner in a tucked-away country inn.

Cuisine

Open

Brunch, Lunch & Dinner Tues.-Sun.

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Dining room at Chalet Suzanne Country Inn & Restaurant, Lake Wales, FL

Chalet Suzanne Country Inn & Restaurant Restaurant Review

: If you're celebrating a special occasion, this restaurant in Lake Wales, Fla., is a good destination. We recommend booking a room in the inn, because packages include dinner and a lovely breakfast, and it's a long stretch of highway from there to anywhere. The charming resort with its own airstrip was built by a family over seven decades, with antiques gathered from around the world to create a fairytale village ambience. Five quaint dining rooms are done with stained glass windows, old lamps, and mismatched silver and china. We recommend the classic five-course dinner that always starts with a broiled grapefruit topped with sautéed organic chicken liver, an odd but surprisingly good combination. Chalet Suzanne's romaine soup and Caesar salad are next. Many entrées are old-fashioned --- a half chicken with creamy velouté sauce, lobster Newburg, a filet with béarnaise sauce --- but tasty. More adventurous selections include curry and saffron shrimp and pan-seared sea bass with sesame seaweed salad. You can also order à la carte --- appetizers include crab cakes and escargots. We've had better meals, but the setting is romantic and magical. Ask for a tour of the restaurant's wine cellar, a modest collection of about 300 selections.

User Ratings & Reviews for Chalet Suzanne Country Inn & Restaurant
Average rating    1
Reviews 1 - 1 of 11
AVOID
by daGriffin on Sun Dec 05, 2010 4:56 pm
 
We booked this for a romantic getaway but found it nothing of the sort, not even relaxing...to the contrary. as another reviewer said it best "looking for old world charm, found thrift-qality disservice and looks". the place is literally dilapidated, w/our "french" room located in a narrow maze up a shaky stairwell, with holes on the floor, a bad accent of minimal pseudo-french decor (read: plastic stained windows and a copy of a copy of a poster), shoddy plumbing, and not much privacy (not much insulation, creaky and stained bed-ware, and staff intrusiveness, twice entering w/out forewarning or permission to provide 'surprise' welcome candy). None of the accommodations actually overlooked Lake Wales; and the 'pool' was smack open next to the front office, also next to the dining lounge!

Biting the bullet and the expectations, despite the price (more expensive rooms than at The Standard in N Miami or The Hard Rock), we had nonetheless booked reservations, going for the full experience, at the 'renowned' restaurant. Talk about a joke...we had an 'option' of 6 main all-meat courses (even Olive Garden has a vegetarian menu, never mind gluten free), w/only one salad as purely meat free. Did we mention the spider webs? The server's response was that the emphasis was on the 30-people party in another area of the restaurant; so, when we reluctantly asked for ANYTHING vegetarian, the chef suggested stuffed eggplant to our surprise. We both agreed on this delightfully described alternative only to find that the chef could actually accommodate just one portion, b/c of said larger party. Again, we gave in, agreeing to one stuffed eggplant and that one salad, finding our again to our dismay that the eggplant must have gone bad (or perhaps just really needed for the larger party). Did we mention that the main course prices ranged from $42 to $67? And we were willing to pay for that, and a five course meal even, but not when we weren't even offered an apology...nor a grilled cheese sandwich.

We naturally left (at 8pm, when in Lake Wales almost everything else closes between 7pm and 9pm; this out and about in the middle of nowhere, on our anniversary), much disappointed that despite the website assurances of the perfect getaway (was our anniversary, and the administration was aware). The owner, whom we asked to speak with, over the phone (b/c apparently was joining a conference at 8pm on Saturday?!), very non-chalantly, allayed our concerns to nothing more of our own overbearing expectations (yeah, right, city slickers), sticking up for the chef and front desk that not only had they done nothing wrong, that they didn't think anything was appropriate for them to offer, even had we asked...not sure where or when this is service (forget 'good' service).
 
Reviews 1 - 1 of 11



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