Harvest Restaurant At Mountain Lake Lodge

This place has lots of atmosphere as it is located in the old 1930s Stone Hotel building that replaced an even older wooden building from a century before. These days the resort is pretty quiet, but is known as the film location of the movie Dirty Dancing. Some tables also have a nice view of the surrounding resort in mountainside and what's left of mountain lake. I say, what remains of the lake because the lake disappeared about a decade ago and now there's only a large puddle at the far end of the valley. I can't blame the restaurant of the resort for that since it was a natural event that drain the lake. We've been coming here for decades and the place has changed management several times. I'd say the both the quality and quantity of food has gone down in the past couple of years. The menu is pretty static with only a few choices. I found the portions to be very small and the cooking to be less than gourmet. That said, the crab dip was quite delicious. The service was slow and not very experienced. For example I ordered a seafood soup dish that came without a soup spoon. I made do with a teaspoon. Several years ago they did away with a fabulous weekend buffet that was really delicious and worth making a long trip for. I'm helping they bring that back as well as larger portions, maybe find a better chef, and expand the menu. I understand that the higher prices are probably a necessity, if they should strive to give the public their money's worth.

Ever since my wife was a kid, she always loved Dirty Dancing. When she found out that a portion was filmed at the restaurant and lodge, she always wanted to go. The nice thing is that we didn't have to be guests of the to eat there. Which made it easy as we were passing through.

First, on a high note, our waitress was absolutely the best. She was friendly and was on top of everything.

As far as the food, this place was a mixed bag for us. My corned beef sandwich was really good with nice cuts of meat. The bread was also nice and buttery. The fries were undercooked where they were nearly raw potatoes and were overly greasy. I tried eating them so as not to take away from my wife's experience or disappoint our stellar waitress. However, my wife, who never complains, was not a fan of the salad and barely touched it. It may have been that it was not her preference of taste, not that there was anything erong in preparation. The fried green tomatoes were interesting. They looked like an art piece. We thought they were mini loaded potato skins, They're not your grandma's fried green tomatoes by any means. These were different, but it wasn't bad. You won't get that crispy breading. If anything, it was very soggy. The sauce was more of a tomato paste taste that was overly dominant. I would use less as it voided out anything else. They also had bacon on it, which was really good, savory, and perfectly cooked. It almost worked, but the sauce was too potent.

The atmosphere feels historic and has a nice charm with it. The guests are spaced out that it feels more spacious. The prices were comparable to most standard restaurants, especially for the service and the atmosphere.

Overall, I'm going to say it was a decent experience with a few quirks. If someone you know loves Dirty Dancing, it's worth a visit. We sat at the same location of the filming.

BIG quantity; heavy on the meat. Spouse's pork chop 'best he has ever had'. I ordered way too much dinner; two 'small plates' would have worked for me. Trails around lake bed in good shape.

Atmosphere: 5

Food: 4

Service: 5

What a treat! The food was not only delicious but we had live music while eating. It was just the right volume too so we could still talk at the table. Carrie waited on us and was a delight! She added so much to our experience at Harvest. We will definitely be back when we are in the area.

Atmosphere: 5

Food: 5

Service: 5

We went there for lunch on a Sunday and the place was almost empty. We were wasted on the patio by the windows and had a beautiful view to enjoy. Service was very attentive and food very good. Our favorite was the tomato soup with croutons and the mushrooms burger.

The Buffet was served that day as I understand it. They do buffet instead of à la cart, depending on the amount of registrations at the lodge that day. It was delicious. I highly recommend the biscuits and gravy. The staff is very friendly and the service was excellent. The only reason I did not give a five of five In all areas is because the website said we had to have a reservation and could choose where we would like to be seated. When we got there, no reservation was needed. It was first come first serve so neither day did we get to sit on the porch as requested. Maybe in the future, they will fix it for those that took the time to make a reservation to ensure to reserve them a table In the area requested.

We dined at Harvest for dinner and breakfast. Both our waitresses were attentive and helped make the experience pleasant. The food was delicious and the warm rolls were an extra treat. The menu is perfect for a lodge atmosphere. The wild game stew and wild boar squash soup were both excellent. Portions were generous.

We have been customers since our honeymoon in 1993. Frequent visitors. We had a party of 6 with reservations for 12 noon on Saturday to celebrate my 70th birthday. There were no other customers in the main room but us; there was one group out on the screened porch. Our orders were taken and beverages provided by 12:15. Then a large (20+) Team Building Group came in and were seated in large side room at 12:30p. They were served immediately. They ate and left about 1p. We were still waiting! We were told about 1:10p that our orders would be served in a moment or two; and that they were sorry but out of lobster bisque soup. We were served about 1:15p. We were told that they DID have lobster bisque so that was good news, and overall the food was very good. We especially liked the burgers. This was the first time the other 2 couples with us had ever been to Mountain Lake or eaten there; so they (and we) were not impressed with the l-o-n-g wait. The stafff were nice and friendly.

Limited menu due to weekend festival.

Atmosphere: 5

Food: 3

Service: 5

Recommended dishes: Hamburger with French Fries

Elk stroganoff was enjoyable; fresh whole trout was tasty; appys yummy. Good value; good air circulation. Campy view. Lake dried up 4 years ago. Apparently it happens every 400 years.

First meal was lunch- ordered the sausage which was over loaded with some sort of in house spice concocution..overbearing ....second meal was dinner - ordered the bison burger- specifically asked for plan -no salt or spice- this too still arrived coated with the secret in house spice mix. Send it back ? Well we waited long over an hour to receive our food and by this point we just wanted out of there. P.S we canceled breakfast...Bon Appetit

We ordered 2 burger and one cheese plate. It took 1 hour 30 to get served. The restaurant wasn't even full. The burger was cold and not cooked medium rare. The service was aweful. Lots of server running around but not paying attention. I would really not recommend this restaurant. If I could give 0 I would do it.

Atmosphere: 1

Food: 1

Service: 1

This place is just so good! Everytime I visit Mountain Lake, I look forward to visiting the Harvest. Great food for good price and the Dirty Dancing atmosphere is a great feeling.

Atmosphere: 5

Food: 5

Service: 5

It took 1 1/4 hours to get our meals for 6. Several groups that came after us received meals before us. Once we asked about our meals they were served instantly. That seemed really odd. Beautiful place though

We were hoping for fine dining and wonderful views. The food was good but average. The views were obscured by too many large trees that were not needed on the property. It is a fun casual atmosphere and a fun place to visit vs fine dining. The main lodge is still intriguing and fun to behold. We would visit again for their brunches and outdoor atmosphere vs fine dining. Ps: plug the lake leak...