The Lakefront - MAMMOTH LAKES

Great food, great service, and great friendly people...we will return next year

We visited this charming restaurant for our anniversary and had a wonderful experience. The food was excellent— creative and delicious; service was attentive. We loved the duck and the halibut. Flourless chocolate cake was amazing!

One doesn 't really come here just to get something to eat. You come here to celebrate something special, in our case, the last night of a great 3 day getaway which was my wife 's first time in Mammoth. Having previously stayed at Tamarack Lodge some years ago on Sierra Club cross country ski trips, I was looking forward to re visiting the Lakefront Restaurant with my wife, and the experience did not disappoint. Here, you don 't just get a bowl of soup you get a wonderfully unique round ceramic frame for the puree which is poured tableside and which was delicious. Main courses are beautifully presented and showcase unique preparations and flavors (I had the Elk Strip steak, prepared rare at chef 's suggestion with charred squash and risotto, rather than the potatoes one might expect. The portions seem small by American standards, but not by European: we enjoyed and finished every morsel on our plates, and yet felt totally satisfied. One should not judge value based upon the weight of your doggie bag of leftovers. Dessert was incredible: a passion fruit and blood orange tart that exhibited flavors that I 've never experienced before. Speaking of value, prices here are high, but I suppose within fine dining standards. I typically order a glass of wine with my meals, and the wine list at this small restaurant is impressively extensive with sommelier recommendations in all categories. Overall, a memorable meal.

Overall, I’m not sure that I’d return. The menu was small and my entree, halibut, didn’t seem cooked completely. Service was also completely slow. We had to request Beltran because we were starving. The waitress said we could get it once we placed our orders. What????? My daughter had the kids steak filet. That was amazing.

Tamarack is a classic mountain lodge with a lot of wood, stone, history and ambiance. Service is great however, the food was not as good as I remember it 10+ years ago. Good but not great.