The Pier & Back Porch

Service was excellent. Prompt and pleasant. Ordered a chicken Caesar salad which was delicious. Scratch made dressing and the chicken was grilled to perfection. $ 12.
Fantastic dinner and wonderful view of the lake.
Will be returning!
2^nd review:
Ordered the Duck and Andouille gumbo ($ 5). It wasn’t much to look at but it was DELISH! Slightly spicy, well seasoned, soupy with rice on the bottom and topped with fresh scallion. Obviously homemade and well made. Not your typical gumbo but fantastic nonetheless.

Had a wonderful dining experience here. Had mussels, and crème brûlée. Was looking for my old summer camp from 1972 3 4, but it had been turned into a condo complex. Totally found this place by accident, and what a great place. The bread is baked inhouse, and is some of the best I have ever had. I will revisit this place again, and will review it again.

Best food in the lake. A real restaurant & menu. Very comfortable. A simple menu but all great options. The salads are each amazing. Siracha Caesar & Arugula with apple cider vinaigrette and beets!!! Yum!

4^th time here since it’s re-​opened and it’s a solid option in the limited dining of Syracuse area. Great ambiance all around, food is above average, good drink selection.

Their burgers are simply amazing!!! Me and my boyfriend had the BBQ burger and it was mind blowing! Wasn’t dry, cooked to perfection, and very fulfilling!!! It’s a must have

Wonderful location with a great view. Waitress was very nice and attentive. Food was great… we had the appetizer mussels and they were some of the best I’ve ever had! I had the soft crab sandwich and my wife had the seared ahi tuna salad… both really good and we left full and satisfied. We would definitely come back again.
I’ve seen some reviews of their limited menu and it’s true. it’s not huge but I felt there were plenty of options and I would rather they do some things great instead of a lot just mediocre. Full bar plus a decent craft beer selection

Bartenders were top-​notch and funny! Waitress didn’t know the specials for the day. The steak was terrific and paired nicely with the Gouda whipped potatoes and broccoli.

Staff at the restaurant:
Please be aware that you have a fly problem in your main dinning room. Also we have had some excellent dining experiences at your restaurant, but Sunday the 16^th was not one of them. The steak that I had was a really bad cut and didnt have much flavor… I actually considered asking for steak sauce. :) my wife had the blackened snapper and it was overcooked. I hope you are able to take this input and improve… It wasnt worth the 100 dollars that we spent.
Thank you.

The food here is slightly upscale. It tastes good but is kinda expensive. We had a meat and cheese tray to share for a meal and it was great! They are doing a great job with this place. Come try it! Service was awesome!!!

We had a great meal at Oakwood tonight. A local spot with great drinks and food. We tried the crab-​cakes, beef tacos and beef & scallops. Everything we had tasted great. The service was awesome and our waitress was very tentative with our drinks and meal. Not a very large menu to choose from, but overall a great experience.

Mediocre food, hot concrete, and plastic dishes that are not reused. Not an environmentally friendly business.

We weren’t very hungry but still enjoyed our meal, high praise indeed. We walked in without reservations close to noon on a Sunday. We were cordially greeted by the staff and taken to a nice window table with a great view of Wawasee.
Drinks were great, mimosa for me, bloody mary for my husband. Lunch for me was an appetizer, mussels in a garlic wine sauce, one of my favorites and these were some of the best I’ve had. My husband had the crabcakes appetizer, two generous crabcakes that seemed almost all crab and very fresh.
Our waitress was wonderful, casual but not overly familiar, nice level of service.
We look forward to going back when it’s warm enough to be on their patio by the lake.

I have to say that the recent staff and service level seemed to have improved quite a bit over the last two years, maybe now they are hitting their stride. I read the previous 2 star and below reviews before posting this and I can say that as of 3÷27÷15 none of those issues exist.
The food at the pier is delicious and the service while being young, seem to have the proper direction nearby to help and guide them.
We had the mussels and kabob for appetizers and were «wowed» by the tender meat and great sauce on the mushrooms. The mussels too were tasty, a light (white wine based) sauce was a nice compliment, not too heavy.
I had the sirloin and shrimp and scallop entrée which I can honestly say were the best scallops I have ever had (sorry to all the coastal restaurants I’ve been to) this place has great chefs who are proud of their craft.
Rick, who appeared to be the manager has his staff in good form, keep it up and we’ll always come back! Thanks for the great food and for making our visit incredible! Special thanks to Haley, she took great care of us during breakfast! I wish I could remember the rest of our great servers names but thank you!

They have employees who are immature and misinformed. They border on rudeness when asked simple questions. I felt bad bothering her when she was at the desk eating food and texting, she made me feel like I was a major inconvenience. Lied to me about the location of the meeting twice before I asked her to call Katie (The event planner), and she refused, said she was «too busy» and went back to texting.
Due to misinformed and unfriendly staff I missed my group event and boat ride.
I am NEVER going back in that place. Beautiful venues deserve half-​way decent employees

*Long review alert, cliffs at the end*
I told myself I was going to give Oakwood time before I judged the ‘new’ Oakwood Inn. Well, it has been over a year so I feel that the time is right to pass judgment. You won’t understand this from the previous reviews on Unilocal,but Oakwood occupies a very sentimental place in many Wawasee-​ers hearts (myself included). Many of us grew up with the old Oakwood including the penny candy counter, crumbling hotel, and the traditions (good and bad). We all waited with baited breath through the renovations, financial woes, prolonged closure, and the court battle. Long story short, people on Wawasee wanted Oakwood to do well, and that is why I personally waited so long to write a review; I wanted the Back Porch to have time to get their act together so that hopefully the hotel and restaurant would earn the business I want them to deserve.
Sadly, I can’t write the review I was hoping I could. After multiple visits, I am so disappointed in the service that I just can’t go back. Simple orders for 2 burgers and a couple beers turned into 2+ hour ordeals where we would have to hound our waitress multiple times. The food, when it would eventually arrive, was always good but not good enough to justify the wait. Despite the lousy service, I took my parents for dinner (my father having grown up spending summers at Oakwood, was skeptical of the new Oakwood). Here I was hoping that the Back Porch would have improved their service… Nope, and now my parents are confirmed Oakwood skeptics and justifiably so. But even then, I was willing to try again but this time sealed Oakwood’s fate to me. I placed an order for pickup. I was told the food would be ready in 30 minutes so I boated over and docked 29 minutes later. I found the hostess, told her that I was here for pickup and she disappeared apparently to look for my order… 10 minutes later and the hostess having found something better to do, I grab a busboy and ask him for help. Again, he disappears never to be seen or heard from again. Is there a blackhole in the kitchen somewhere? I eventually walk through the restaurant to the hotel-​side where I find another hostess who has had my food sitting on her desk for the past 30 or so minutes. I grab it and head home… but when I get there, the friggin’ order isn’t even correct! So, justifiably angry, I phone the restaurant and let them know how disappointed I am. Here is the only silver lining, the manager (apparently new at Oakwood and not lazy like the rest of the crew), drove the correct order to my home across the lake including a free appetizer and dessert… and a $ 50 gift card! Even out of a bad situation comes some good. But, alas, it is not enough to get me to go back there or even recommend it to anyone else. It is only because their food is actually pretty good that they get 2 stars.
This is really sad, I wanted so badly to love the new Oakwood. I am getting married shortly and it killed me but my soon-​to-​be-​bride and I had to rule out Oakwood from possible wedding venues because there was no way on god’s green earth we were going to trust a business who can’t get a a simple dinner correct with the most important day of our lives. Oakwood would have been an ideal venue but it was 100% the crappy service level that had us rule it out right off the bat.
TL:DR: Food is good but service is so horribly, terribly, miserably, tragically abysmal as to make it not worthwhile. patronize WestMain instead to get great food and fantastic service.

We ate several meals at this terrific place, because we stayed on property at the resort for three nights. Although their menu isn’t huge, it’s comprised of a good selection of quality items!
I’ll start with the staff– professionally trained (clearly), friendly, good sense of urgency, and overall just add to the warm atmosphere this place gives off. The patio is a terrific spot for lunch or diner, with live music on the weekends and even a fire pit for those chilly nights. Between the music, the fire, and the view of the lake– you’ll take a quick vacay from the every day– just having a dinner here!
Here are some of the items we tried amongst my group:
Lobster Cakes– small portion, but DELICOUS!
Chopped/​Waldorf Salad– again, pretty small portions, but good fresh veggies!
California Burger– pretzel bun=AMAZING, generous on the avocado!
Flatbreads– tried and loved them ALL– Cajun was our fave!
Filet– gorgeous presentation, a bit over-​cooked
Cajun Pasta– outstanding! Generous portion, perfectly creamy sauce
Seafood AuGratin– the star of the show, with giant shrimp, scallops and chunks of crab!
Garlic Mashed Potatoes– what you would expect
Visit Tara in the restaurant or Andy in the bar if you can, they are ROCKSTARS!!!

Beautiful location, however, horrible service and even worse attitudes from the staff! We waited over 30 minutes for our drinks, only to find our server in the bar chatting it up with a table of guys! Food was finally delivered without flatware, waited again, and finally walked in the kitched to get it ourselves. The manager offered us free fountain drinks! Very generous for a $ 100+ bill! But then, charged us anyway for the founain drinks. Calling for a reservation was no joy either – long on hold times, and the attitude was like we were bothering them calling! Not impressed with this year’s staff.

Beautiful outdoor area! Small-​mid size menu. Has 60 boat slips to dock and flip-​flop in for lunch/​dinner and drinks. Food was decent. I ordered the Artisan Flatbread and it was too thick for my taste. Would order the hamburger next time.

I have not been to Syracuse, IN before and probably won’t be again. If my GPS had exploded, I would have no idea how to wend my way out of the small side roads let alone get home.
My destination was a meeting at the conference center. I needed a quick breakfast with some substance. The hostess gathered all that, responded and I had what i needed for my day.
I can see possibilities of a pleasant setting for dinner.
From what little I saw with this quick entry and exit, I’d say it’s a place of merit.

The back porch is a perfect gathering spot in the newly renovated Oakwood Inn at Oakwood Resort! They had 8 beers on tap consisting of their own beer brewed in the old chapel on site called «Wooden Boat». It was very similar to a summer shandy. They also had Three Floyd’s; which is hard to find in this part of the state; let alone anywhere! Great job and atmosphere Back Porch Inn! We’ll be returning!