You could actually take a complete order instead of taking half of a drink order and walking off to seat another table. If you don't want people at your restaurant, don't seat them. Plenty of other places on the lake. Most of them want your business. Another suggestion... when you take a food order, bring the food that was ordered. Don't bring some other random item of your choosing. Never again. read more

Probably my favorite restaurant of all that we tried during our week at Smith Mountain Lake. We opted to sit outside on what had been a mostly cloudy day... then the sun came out and it got a little toasty during dinner. Our server was attentive, and kept all our drinks topped off throughout dinner. I asked her about the paninis and she recommended the blackened tuna panini. Definitely a good choice! (Next time, I may opt for the wasabi aioli on the side, though.) Would definitely eat here again! read more

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Great little lake vibe. Owner and staff are phenomenal. The blackened tuna panini was amazing. The fish and chips cooked perfectly, very tasty. Great outdoor seating. read more

Such a great place to pull up to either in your boat or on jet ski. The food is delish, the staff is always friendly and their drinks are pretty good as well. I'm a little sad they've closed for a week, while I understand they need a wee break from the summer rush. Can't wait for them to reopen with their off season hours. The fried green tomatoes are calling my name!! read more

This marvelous family-run restaurant has been operated by the same owners for the past 19 years. The emphasis is on quality offerings and personal service with a local, family touch. If you're tired of corporate chain restaurants, you'll love this place. Jakes' Place is the only restaurant built over the waters of Smith Mountain Lake that offers a true waterside and over-the-water dining experience. The price-performance ratio is excellent. Prices are reasonable, service is superb, offerings are expansive and varied, and the location is unique and notable for Smith Mountain Lake. Our party of six was thrilled by the extensive menu, offering everything from pizza to seafood, vegetarian to traditional American dishes. This diverse range ensures that there's something for everyone, making it a perfect choice for groups with varying tastes and dietary needs. Go and enjoy! p.s. Don't leave without trying one or more of their specialty desserts. Many of our party of six grappled over the Key Lime Pie, so much so that we asked to interview the staff member of this tasty delight to find out the secret recipe. **Apologies. Our group was so busy savoring the food and chatting with friends we forgot to snap photos. Try the Island and Summer salads! read more

I came to this restaurant for the first time since I was out of town vacationing at the lake and to say this place is mediocre at best, is saying a lot. We were sat inside for dinner since it was pretty hot when we came. We were wedged between to large tables of families, which is totally fine anywhere else. The tables sat were so disruptive to any and all customers. Running in and out of the restaurant and then doing spit balls at the table. Classy move. We saw our waitress once, when we placed our order and to when our appetizers arrived. We waited 45 minutes for our appetizer to even come out. We ordered the potato wedges...burnt, dry mess. They were probably under heat lamps while we waited and waited at the table. Our food came and it was just regular food. Nothing spectacular. Nothing leaving a lasting impression about. We saw our waitress one more time for drinks refills and then at the end when she was giving the check. I will say the only thing that I was happy to see when waiting for our table was that they had ice water and cups outside for folks waiting. I thought that was a nice touch. Find anywhere else to eat in this small town. read more

Nice island vibe. Probably better outside when the weather is a little warmer and the wind is not howling. Inside, things are nice. Decent menu selection including pizza. Beer list is extensive, but heavily weighted with IPAs. If that's your thing then you're good. If you're mot into IPAs, there are still a few selections. Bourbon list is not large but does have so good things. Food was very good. Enjoyed my two visits. read more

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Stopped in to have a few drinks with friends, got the fried green tomatoes, were amazing, and a side salad! Great service and reasonably priced! read more

Nice waterfront restaurant nestled in with an RV park, rental cabins and a very large marina. You can sit inside or outside, it was 90plus and humid so we ate inside. The place is clean and bright with great views of the lake and boats. We arrived at 5:15 and were immediately seated. The waitress was very friendly and knowledgeable. She made a dinner recommendation that my wife took and enjoyed. She had the fish and chips and I had a NY strip steak. Both meals were served hot and were delicious. We had peel and eat shrimp appetizer with house margaritas which were also delicious. For dessert we had what they advertised as a "deconstructed pie", basically a nice slice of key lime pie served in a mason jar. It was very good and served so uniquely. Overall we enjoyed the experience and the meal. read more

Awesome service, excellent food, incredible view with atmosphere. I would recommend the bottle caps (delicious)

PB&J CRUSH $9 SKREWBALL PEANUT BUTTER WHISKEY, FRESH SQUEEZED OJ & CRANBERRY JUICE *I only tasted the OJ and cranberry juice, the pb whiskey wasn't present CUCUMBER MINT SPRITZ $11 HENDRICKS GIN, MINT, CUCUMBERS & FRESH LIME JUICE, TOPPED WITH CLUB SODA *fairly certain I didn't get Hendricks gin which has a very distinct cucumber flavor, it tasted like rail because all I tasted was club soda and lime juice MUSSELS $11.99 A pound of mussels sauteed in white wine, butter & garlic, served w/toasted baguette. *extremely chewy, flavorless and the white wine was not cooked off so this was pretty disgusting we sent this dish back it was inedible SEAFOOD SALAD $16.99 Romaine lettuce, tomato and cucumber topped with grilled shrimp, pan-seared scallops and lump crabmeat. *salad was fresh and crispy but the 5 shrimp was about the size of quarters, scallops were also very small, lump crab was more like bits SHRIMP TACOS $12.99 Tacos filled w/blackened shrimp, slaw, pickled red onion & jalapenos, topped with a spicy aioli. *small portion of shrimp, overwhelmingly pickled from both the onion and jalapeños, ordered onion rings as the side which was the best part of dinner Both drinks and food were pretty awful but our server was very nice. Also found it very odd that the extensive drink menu did not have any prices. I would never come back. read more

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Busy place. Had to wait 15 minutes for table on a Thursday night. Nice staff, everyone friendly. Good alcoholic drink menu. Food menu has something for everyone. My wife ordered the Crab and Avocado Panini sandwich which she said was great. My son-in-law ordered the Apollo Burger that has peanut butter on it and was pleasantly surprised how good all the ingredients blended together. I ordered the Tuna Tacos with onion rings. There was lots of tuna cooked to my request in three flour tortillas. I thought the onion rings were good, as they are thick cut with medium breading. Our waitress was very attentive. There is good boat docking if arriving by water. read more

Jake's Place - Docks - New American Near Me - Moneta, Virginia

Awesome pretzel bites and great service! Nice location as well with the dock and such.

The food here s fantastic! I had the "Blackened tuna panini. Best sandwich within a 50 mile radius. The beer is a true conesiurs menu. Rare and hard to find IPAS and other high gravity brews. The service, is the best on the lake, and all around. Mike the owner will chat at length about food and beer, both of which he is passionate about. It right on the water of a marina on SML. Restaurant is clean, and has plenty of outdoor seating as well. This is my pick for best place to eat and drink on SML. read more

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1 star for the chicken wings $15.99 for 10. I don't mind paying for good tasty wings. These we super dry and chewy because it was dry inside. Good freshly made wings are juicy and tasty. The view here is really nice and chill. You can also bring your dog. It's a nice place on the lake but just skip the wings . They did discount my order 20% $3.20 From 15.99. read more

Jake's Place - Super dry wings for $15.99 took the rest home for the stray cat - New American Near Me - Moneta, Virginia

It's sad that the attitude of the management is ruining this place. The food is overpriced and if your order comes out incorrect, you have to just deal with it because here, the customer is always wrong. read more

We have been to Jake's Place on multiple occasions. The good: Friendly staff and atmosphere, service is typically fine. Dining on dock next to water always pleasant. The burgers are decent and I had the strip steak that was surprisingly good. The bad: Drinks and some entrees are over priced and underwhelming to say the least. Crab Cakes for $31 that do not contain jumbo crab meat, sprinkled with strange spices and tiny. At best this would be a below average appetizer at $20. My wife ordered coconut shrimp and they were not good. My daughter tried the shrimp as well and agreed. I have had fish & chips during a prior visit and it was just OK My advice is stick to beer & sandwiches, while enjoying being on the water. read more

Good food and service combined with a fun waterfront vibe. The photos speak for themselves. Can't wait to come back for vacation read more

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The restaurant is tucked in a cove and a little tricky to find, but worth the exploration! We went on Father's Day and the restaurant was packed! We had to wait about 30 minutes. Luckily they have a lot of guest boat parking available so we hung out on the dock. A nice touch was that they had ice water available for those waiting. They welcomed dogs on the back deck and when they saw we had our pup they brought us his personal dog bowl with ice water! They even have a menu just for your pups!! I got a mojito, a burger and fries. The mojito hit the spot and was very refreshing . The fries were fantastic and very fresh. The view of SML at Jake's was a great way to spend our Father's Day. read more

This is our second visit. Aside from being able to dock the boat out front, this place is awful. Hardly worth waiting almost 2 hours. Host is rude. Maybe understaffed and underpaid? Regardless, your job is to answer questions and provide updates. The wait was unpleasant. There is undefined waiting area and kids can't go in bar area. People just took over empty tables. You can sit next to people smoking cigarettes while enjoying your dunks for 1.5 hours Speaking of drinks, theirs are terrible. Stick with beers or basic highballs. The mixed drinks are your crappy bottle mixes that are sickening sweet. Bartender seemed unable to make anything not spelled out on menu. Just go home and heat up frozen dinners rather than waiting for this food. Pizza was nothing better than a frozen pizza and fried shrimp and fish were over cooked. Our waitress was sweet and we tipped her well in spite of everything else. read more

He Said: We came by for some beers and lunch and didn't notice the stickers on the bar until we got, what turned out to be, our only beer. I can't comment on the food and the beer selection is nice, but I'm not going to an establishment that is unnecessarily hostile to the majority of the people in the country. She Said: We won't be back, but if you come for the beers, I hope you like big IPAs! Potty Points: No trip to the potty for me. I wonder what the stickers in there would say... read more

Great atmosphere and food was delicious! Rave reviews on their burgers from my dad and Jenna told me her fav was the crab cake & avocado sandwich & she didn't steer me wrong, it was fantastic! Speaking of Jenna, she was speedy and has a great personality! We will definitely come back! We returned to Jake's for the second time during our vacation and it was just as good as the first time! My dad had a burger again and loved it, my mom had a jacked chicken sandwich and she said it was delicious, and I had shrimp tacos and they were really good. Service was excellent once again, thank you Brianna, we will be back! read more

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Very good experience: good food, friendly staff, upbeat ambiance. All the things that allow you to enjoy yourself are here. I bought the T-shirt, I just wish they had a better selection of sizes, not everybody is S and M. Whether you eat indoors (plenty of room) or outdoors (great view of the water), you'll have great food served hot in a timely fashion. Oh, and try the "Sex on The Lake" drink. read more

Our party of 8 arrived on a Saturday night around 7:00 and were seated in 15 minutes. We sat outside, the patio was packed. Our server Caitlin rocked it! Quick with drinks, checked on us multiple times - food came out in a reasonable amount of time. And, she split our tab up (correctly) without batting an eyelash - she was a superstar. Everyone in our party was very happy with their choices: cocktails, beers, apps (soft pretzel, fried pickles) and our meals: fish & chips, burgers, wings, crab & avocado panini. Buns were on point, fries/onion rings crispy but not greasy. ZERO to complain about - we'll be back! read more

Lovely experience at Jake's Place!! Great service, LOVED the smash burger! Beautiful views too, will definitely be coming back.

I was extremely disappointed in this establishment. Have never been and decided to take the boat out for a ride over to try it out. didn't even make it into the door before I was rudely confronted by some power hungry gentleman claiming that my footwear was inappropriate. Meanwhile people are wearing sandles everywhere and the hostess seemed confused. Hope he was happy to loose a party of 8 for life. Much rather avoid the windy no wake zone anyway. read more

Just an "okay" place to grab food right on the water. We ordered the jacked up chicken with hasbrown casserole, the crab and avocado panini with mac & cheese, and 2 mocktails. The crab panini was absolutely delicious and is a 5/5 on its own but the rest of the food brought the rating down. The jerk chicken was flattened to a pulp...I'm talking about less than a quarter of an inch thick and it was absolutely murdered on the grill. It was so dry it was borderline inedible. The hashbrown casserole was not good...mashed potatoes with hashbrowns on top is not a casserole and mac and cheese was just sad. The only cheesy thing about it was the top part where it was burnt - the macaroni noodles underneath were pale and had zero sauce or cheese. It 100% was just buttered macaroni noodles with crusty cheese. The mocktails were good but all sugary drinks are. Definitely a bummer of an outing. read more

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Love this Moneta staple. Grab some drinks and amazing food in a laid back atmosphere right on the water. You won't regret it.

One of our lake favorites. Wonderful water location easy to get to by boat or land. Great food had coconut shrimp this week and this was very good. Highly recommend. read more

Best place at the lake, all of the food and drinks we've ordered here over several years has been very good. There is a good variety on the menu, and the food is prepared well whether is fried chicken tenders or a salad. It can be difficult to get a table at certain times but with it. read more

Always great food and service! We have had tacos, burgers and the cheese bread is awesome.

I love the food at Jakes! Service is also good. As you see from other reviews, manager (owner) and head bartender are difficult. For me, food is worth it. read more

Don't bother wasting your money. Overpriced, inconsistent mediocre frozen food with RUDE management. I cannot beleive how they treated our visiting family and I there. Unreal. read more

Don't bother. The food wasn't bad but inconsistent. Had a small issue and manager/owner was downright rude. He didn't try to make things right and basically made us feel unwelcome, staring us down at our table and as we left. We won't be back and I'm happy to share my opinion if asked. There are too many friendly places with good food where our money is better spent. read more

We had another great time at Jake's Place. Our server was wonderful. The view of the water from the restaurant is beautiful. Jim had French toast with eggs & sausage links, and his wife, Catherine, had Pancakes & bacon. Phil had Pancakes & sausage links. I had the Mother Clucker, a large scratch made biscuit, 10oz spicy fried chicken breast topped w/ provolone cheese & a honey maple sriracha syrup. It was delicious. We highly recommend Jake's Place. read more

Another great lunch at Jake's on a beautiful Saturday at the lake. Our number 1 go-to spot at the lake. The food is always great and the relaxing atmosphere is perfect for a Lake style community. As always, our service was great. read more

My husband and I went to Jakes Place as a different place to have dinner from our normal restaurants. The hostess was very sweet and we were seated quickly. The restaurant was not very busy. Most of the tables were empty. We were given silverware and menus and then we waited for our server... and waited, and waited. Four servers passed our table. A couple of them smiled at my husband. The other two never even looked at us. No one stopped to ask if we had been waited on. Another group of four were seated diagonally from us and a server stopped at their table after 5 minutes. Unbelievable! We got up and left. ABSOLUTELY THE WORST SERVICE EVER! We won't go back. read more

Don't go. Owner/manager was very rude to my wife and her friends and a flaming a--hole to me. When my wife asked if their party of 6 could have 1 of the 4 empty 8 person tables by the window, the hostess said they hold the tables for large parties...it was 5:00 and the restaurant was almost empty. When I arrived at 5:30, no one was sitting at the window tables and no one was seated there before we left at 6:40...and the restaurant was still almost emty. They seated a group of roughly 20 people with small kids in the middle of the restaurant, but when I asked him why he disrespected my wife and her friends he moved that table to the window... I told him I wouldn't be back and he started arguing and getting loud with me. read more

Always our go to place while at the lake. Boated up from Mariners Point on an amazingly warm Feb Sunday to enjoy their wonderful food. The service was spot on as always. Specifically, it seems that Jake's longevity and success as compared to the many other restaurants that come and go on the lake is due to ownership/management. They lead from the front. Always there serving and helping. Not just sitting back and hiring others to make their restaurant a success. Well done! read more

Definitely our worst experience so far in SML and I got food positioning from a different restaurant earlier this week. The host (was it Jake?!) was incredibly rude and unfriendly. It baffles me when people like that decide to work in hospitality. Having someone with that type of sour demeanor as your customer's first point of contact is truly just a bad business decision. We turned around and left, so can't even comment on the food. We were just visiting SML during this week, so if you're like us and looking for some good food and kind people, Alessandro's has been one of our favorite places at SML - for takeout and dine-in. read more