The Statehouse

A little too stuffy for my taste & the food was pretty underwhelming for the price. The service was great but other than the staff, nothing really stands out to me about this place. Our cheese board was sparse, my flatbread was good but not great and the desserts were rather disappointing too. The water view is very nice but the actual atmosphere of the restaurant felt outdated.

I was so excited to eat here again because I knew if would be excellent. Not this time unfortunately. The NY Strip was a dollar size steak and I could only eat about a half dollar size in the end because the grizzle, ligaments/tendons were so prevalent and even the marbling in the best part of the steak was not edible. Even my husband had to spit out a few bites. So disappointed. Enjoyed the drinks at the bar ahead of time.

We came during my Epic trip to celebrate our wedding anniversary and enjoyed a view of the sun setting over the lake throughout dinner. The service was friendly and quick, and we were seated at a table by the window with a great view of Lake Mendota. The food was quite delicious. We started with the Seared Tuna Tatake and the Spanish Octopus, and both were excellent. We then had the Statehouse Filet and the Grilled NY strip. The Filet was excellently grilled, so soft, and at perfect temperature. The grilled NY Strip in comparison was quite the workout to cut honestly, but it was still a nice medium rare. The reason I dropped a star is cause the cocktails are in need of improvement. They do not taste bad, but at the same time, they do not taste great either. Come here for the food, and have drinks at one of the unique bars on State St. after.

Four of us came here for breakfast and the outstanding experience started with our server, Jamarie. Incredibly attentive but not too much, and very helpful/knowledgeable with suggestions. The food was amazing. We had the country steak Benedict (SO GOOD), brioche French toast, heuvos rancheros, and ham and cheese omelette. I can’t wait to return here! I thought to take a picture of my Benedict too late so it’s half-eaten.

Such a disappointing experience tonight when we attempted to go to the Statehouse for dinner. We arrived 5 minutes before our reservation and were seated promptly. Most of the restaurant bodes gorgeous views except for one side of the dining room. The structure of the building on the right side of the room creates an obstructed view of the gorgeous lake and sunset. So FYI, if you’re going for the ambiance, I recommend requesting to sit elsewhere. Which is what we did eventually after no one came to our table for over 10 minutes. The hostess moved us to the outdoor patio which has a beautiful view of the water and told us she’d send someone right away. But we waited another 10 minutes until a server finally came. No drink menu was given, and the server had to leave once again to get that. When he returned, he finally took our drink order and we put in for an appetizer. My husbands drink arrived and was wrong, and the server dashed off without giving us a chance to ask him to fix it or taking our dinner order. In the meantime, the table next to us was sat, greeted by a different server, ordered drinks, appetizers, recieved both of those and ordered their dinner before we even got our appetizer. Over 45 minutes past our arrival, our server finally asked us for our dinner order. At that point we decided to close out and leave, because at this price point the service should be so much better. This clearly isn’t a reflection on all the servers as the one serving the table next to us was on her game. And I will say the butter board we ordered for our appetizer was outstanding. But we’ve personally never received such poor service at a restaurant. So just something to beware of if you dine here!!

Our service was incredibly slow all night. I Waited 20 minutes to get a glass of wine with dinner. Wanted to order a special drink from their menu, our server had ZERO CLUE what we were even talking about, spent 15 minutes trying the figure it out, we put in our order for the fancy drink, 10 minutes later, were told the bartender is just having trouble figuring out the drink and we were presented with the check with no offer of desert. Overall just felt blatantly ignored all night. Food great, service less than dismal. For the price and what I expected, this fell beyond short and I’m incredibly disappointed. Would not recommend.

Everyone at our table had a great time and really enjoyed the food, drinks and great service from Jamarie, our waiter. It was busy and he was very accommodating and made sure we had a great experience. The hostess also helped get us a second round of drinks (can't remember her name) but she was also great. Thank you again! We look forward to going back again soon.