Howie's on the Lake - Akron

This visit was my first time at Howie's and I was initially a bit confused on where to check in. I spoke with the bartender who told me just to grab a table anywhere so we did. We took a seat by the water. The music was good, the scenery of the lake is great, and the service was good. My wife had their veggie burger and fries, which she said were amazing and I had three different tacos (chorizo, Caribbean jerk, and fish). We also split their guacamole and chips. We were pleasantly surprised by this place and we'll definitely come back again.

Mine will be the contrarian review. A Facebook friend posted he ate lunch here the other day. So, despite some of the Yelp reviews, I trusted Mike's appetite and taste. We visited that evening for dinner. Once we discovered Howie's, tucked back in a residential neighborhood, we parked in the gravel parking lot and made our way down the steps to the patio. There were several open picnic tables and we chose one closest to the water. There was an interesting mix of guests. Quite a few people had arrived via boat. Our waitress came over and greeted us and was genuinely excited it was our first time visiting Howie's. She explained the menu and specials. She returned with our drinks and took our order. The patio was about 75% full and there were a number of people inside. I was expecting a longer wait for our food, but we were pleasantly surprised how quickly our order came out. We shared a salad and a couple tacos. We thought everything was really good. Even the wine we had was good and this doesn't look like a fine wine type of place. I remembered a review mentioning the loaded sauerkraut balls, so we finished our meal with an appetizer. They were awesome! We'll be back. It was a very positive experience.

I rarely post one star reviews, but this place earned it. We got there on a Sunday afternoon around 2pm, and the place was crawling with people. Normally, that's a good sign! It was a partly sunny afternoon, and in the low 80's; perfect for a meal sitting outside, next to the lake. The problem, was that about 75% of the people milling around this place were doing so, because there wasn't a single person in sight directing traffic to tables. No hostess. No servers. No managers. No anyone. Is this a self service restaurant? Are there servers? Do you seat yourself? Is there a list? Hello?!? Is anyone out there? After almost ten minutes of sitting at a little picnic style table, and not seeing a single representative from the establishment, we (and a good number of other people) walked back up the steps and drove off to find a new place for lunch (which actually was a blessing, see review after this one). Is their food good? Maybe! I'll never know. If there's one thing that drives me more crazy than anything else at a restaurant, it's non-existent management. This place could write the book on that. Maybe this is just one of those PLX places that has their 15 regulars, and they are just fine with that. Maybe they don't want new business. I really have no idea. I've just never seen such chaos and confusion at a place like this. (Take this review with a grain of salt, as a lot of the other reviews make it sound like this place is actually pretty good. The whole reason we sought to go there, was because of other Yelp reviews)

I would give 2 1/2 stars if I could. The good: Great view, Great location, nice patio. The waitresses was attentive and pretty on top of things. Drinks were ok, pretty much what you would expect at a dive bar. The food was horrible...... the tacos had potential but were over loaded with toppings, poorly constructed and as a result were soggy and not very well done, I think if it were the right mixture of ingredients it may have turn out all right. The coconut shrimp was under cooked and poor quality. The burger meat was very low quality and as a result it was a below average burger. Chicken tenders were pretty much what you would expect. Honestly the food was pretty crappy, I wish someone on the lake would put out decent food. Probably going to pack a lunch from here on out until someone steps up there game. If you want a nice view with average drinks this could fit the bill, but honestly I would not go here hungry as the food is crappy. Chef Dick should be ashamed to have his name attached.

I did not have a good experience!! I went on a double date and quickly gathered that this was not an inclusive restaurant for minorities. We were stared at and received looks from other customers. When one of my friends went to play music from the juke box, the volume was quickly lowered and then shut off before the song was over. Needless to say we left without eating dinner. We will never return.