Pier 290, Williams Bay WI (on Lake Geneva)

I really wanted to like this place, after seeing a pic of a wonderful duck dish LAZ posted on Facebook.
So when my sister-in-law said she'd made a reservation for my mother-in-law's birthday, I was quite enthusiastic about our annual birthday present (which involves cleaning up or rehabbing her summer cabin just a couple miles from the restaurant).

Sadly, the place did not meet our expectations. There's some great potential there, and with the Geneva Lake area's supply of one-percenters, it shouldn't go under, but it's got to shape up.

Service was the main issue: our reservation for 5:30 stretched to 6, bread was not brought to the table without asking, huge delays in receiving our meal, the dessert menu, our coffee (which came with only artificial sweeteners and a little pitcher with about a tablespoon of cream for four coffee drinkers). Small uptick for bringing out a slice of flourless chocolate cake for the birthday girl, but it was too late at that point (especially when that cake arrived before giving us a chance to order coffee and other desserts).

The much-lauded duck was ordered by three at our table (including two teenaged nephews, who thought there was too much veg, not enough meat), and SueF proclaimed good, but not as tender as would be expected. Other dishes included my slow-cooked pork shoulder with yuca fries and a Cuban mojo (nice mix of Mr Brown and Mrs white, but it could have been chopped a little finer, and the yuca fries should have been shoestrings, they're a little tough when they're big, and they were very big), the scallops, a couple mahi-mahi's, a fettucine, and a trout. There were a couple apps we'd ordered (potato chips with an onion dip; spiced marcona almonds with manchego slices, salads, soups).

Our general attitude is that we probably wouldn't come back without hearing about others having significantly better experiences than we did. For an average entree pushing $30 a la carte, service and finesse on the food should have been a couple notches higher.

My friends and I ended up at Pier 290 for dinner on Monday night. As with a lot of businesses these days, many restaurants in the area are not open every night as they may have been previously. The covered outdoor area was hopping. Two of us ordered the pork chop dinner (house cut and smoked bone-in 12oz pork chop served with chipotle cream cheese sauce, potato mash and seasonal vegetables). The other two ordered the pan fried walleye (lightly flour dusted for a delicate crispy coating, served with roasted potatoes and seasonal vegetables) I thought the pork chop was delicious. It was flavorful and moist. My friends were disappointed with the walleye -- they found it lacking in flavor. Service was earnest. My comment was that Pier 290 had a lock on many of the high school and college staff in the area. There seemed to be a lot of them. Echoing Joel's OP from 2013, prices were high. Didn't seem to warrant it.

https://www.pier290.com/