The food is great!!!!! The drink needs to be worked on . For example bloody marry they have the right amount of liquor but the flavor to compensate not so much...... get some flavor and put passion in it the will be booming. read more

Pokegama Lakeside Cantina - Dogs - Mexican Near Me - Chetek, Wisconsin

The current owners have really done a lot of work to make the restaurant very nice...new patio, boat docks, and significant renovations inside. During our most recent visit we ordered top-shelf margaritas, a quesadilla with shrimp, and shrimp ceviche. Everything was delicious and more than enough to be a meal for the two of us. read more

Pokegama Lakeside Cantina - Shrimp quesadilla, shrimp ceviche, and top shelf margarita. Delish!!!! - Mexican Near Me - Chetek, Wisconsin

We were out on the water and stopped in for lunch. Large selection of offerings. I had the canoe burrito which was very good. If I am in the area, I will be back. read more

See all

Very good service; fish sandwich was dry ( overcooked?); shrimp tacos were good but could have used more pico or side of sauce. Prices moderately high. Nice atmosphere. (Definitely better than FireAway...which doesn't take much, given how bad they are!) read more

We came for dinner, the waitress, Marisa, was absolutely phenomenal. some of the best service i have received in Chetek. We had amazing time, the reason for less than 5 stars is the pricing.... this is not a $20-$40 per plate place. read more

What a disappointment. Food is terrible and prices are rediculous. One star and that is for the view only.

Food 3 stars. The fish tacos were just ok. For haddock it was a bit "fishy". The queso dip was great. My wife had beef float as and they were better than my tacos. Service 5 stars. Cali was attentive. Food came out quickly. Ambiance 5 stars. We sat out in the deck. There was a guitar player rocking out, Carlos Santana style. Full bar. Docks for boats. Nice place. Other than a couple of cafés, all Chetek really has to offer is bar and grill food so this is a bit of a breath of fresh air read more

Pokegama Lakeside Cantina - Flautas - Mexican Near Me - Chetek, Wisconsin

See all

Terrible food. Horrible service. Margaritas from a machine, no tequila. Priced uncompetitive. Never to return. Ambiance was good. Location was easy and ample parking. read more

Best place on the Chetek Chain of Lakes. Authentic Mexican food, excellent American options and great kids menu. read more

See all

Food is decent and service is usually acceptable, but geez, they surely took the inflation boom of 2024 to the extreme - a burrito is $23. Add a beer, tax, and tip, and you're easily at $40 per person...for a burrito. Good lord read more

The food was great today. The mole and cheese sauce was so good. I was not sure about getting my margaritas in a plastic glass, but they were good and I could take it with. The waitress, Mallory was really nice. read more

Wow, what a nice surprise in Chetek. The menu is very traditional Mexican food and the flavor of our meals were delicious! The service is first rate and our waitress was delightful. We felt this was the best food we had all week in Chetek! We will definitely return many times next summer! read more

Food was fair but did not meet price expectations. Average dish was around $20. Most likely would not return!!

Pokegama has finally brought Mexican Cuisine to Chetek! What better way to spend a warm summer night than parking the boat and sipping margaritas on their new expanded patio overlooking Pokegama lake? We have been visiting since they opened and the food and service gets better every single time. Friendly staff greet and seat you and give you delicious warm chips and salsa. Drinks come quick from the extensive bar including some top tier tequilas and interesting margaritas. Food selection is typical Mexican fare with a few twists. Everything we have tried is delicious and generous portions. They also do Friday fish fry (Wisconsin tradition) and burgers on Saturdays for the gringos. Can't say how great it is to have something in Chetek besides the typical bar food nearly every other place offers. read more

See all

Food is over priced for Mexican food. Prices are higher than the Twin Cities. On top of the high prices they now charge extra if you use a credit card! Food portions are large but bland. Would take smaller portions with lower prices. Service was good. read more

I hate to write this review, but I have been doing restaurant reviews for years. Remember, as I write this I live in this small lakeside town with only thoughts on how to improve the food and experience. This review is only from a customers experience. BTW, owner needs to update YELP website and personal website on menu offerings. All online info is from old owners and does not reflect recent opening of jus about a month ago. We asked for an outside table due to COVID. She pointed down a hall and said "wait in the bar we will call you". There were 3 tables on deck open and clear. Only about 5 tables as 4 tops in dining room. Went to bar, bartender( long dark brown pony) was pleasant and asked for our drink order. I really wanted a real Mexican margarita, but they only had the kid that comes out of a slushy machine. No fresh fruit options either. Bar was very busy and we thought we would get a drink and wait for a table. While at bar, no chips or salsa. We saw others get some but there were 6 servers/busters/waiters behind the bar. There was a lot of confusion on food coming out of kitchen on what went to who. Observed dusty old " log cabin" attire in this newly purchased Mexican cantina. Really no change from last poor ownership. Never saw at all any servers, bartenders wash hands or use sanitizer. Watched servers/ busters bus table with touching tops of cans and bottles, turn around and pick up menus and then seat someone, then watched them make drinks with bare hands in drink toppings like lemons and limes. Not one time did they wash hands. Ick......did this restaurant forget we have COVID around or basic sanitizing protocol? I'm only stating the obvious as there is plenty of room for improvement. Take feedback as an opportunity to improve and serve the locals like us who live here year round. 20 mins later, we decide to ask for a menu and eat at bar. Right after we ordered, hostess called. Too late. Menu was very disappointing and confusion as bartender tried to explain to us. There were items "highlighted" in brown marker over print to point out that several items were not available due to order constriction per bartender. Lots of crossed out items and hand written written price changes. Poor, small selection for an authentic Mexican restaurant. No verdes, no moles, polo loco, no taco salads or Mexican street tacos...... sad and disappointing. I ordered , what it said was a shredded chicken chimichanga with a white cheese sauce, and fixings alongside. Hubby ordered Pokegama burrito( steak, chicken and shrimp altogether.) We waited another 10 mins and asked if we could get chips and salsa, we now had a new server. He went to get some and bartender had left bar to get us some. Our food came out 3 mins later. I just ate my first chip. I'm thinking, "how does a deep fried chimichanga get made that fast?" Yup, because it was not. I even questioned if the plate ( that was delivered yet by a different server), was correct? I so wished I would have taken a picture....!!!! I was more baffled as I took a bite. My chimichanga had a good portion of luke warm bland chicken rolled in a tortilla and dunked for 30 secs in oil. Not crispy, not browned, no cheese, no flavor , just soggy, oily chimichanga topped with a tomatoe soup based bland sauce. There was 1 teaspoon of lettuce, chopped tomato and sour cream. Rice and beans were not touched as it looked unappealing. I asked server that on menu it said this was to be deep fried with a cheese sauce, his explanation was "oh, the sauce was changed and it's chicken based." No offer of " can I make it the way it is described on menu?" Bartender stops by and asks up how food was, I told her what I told server and she just shrugged her shoulders and said sorry. Really digging deep to say something positive but couldn't find anything good in front of me except for cheese sauce I ordered on side. Only ate 1/2 of chimichanga .... too dry chicken was hard to swallow. Chips were tasteless, cold and bland. The salsa.... oh the salsa! That should be the base of any good Mexican cantina. Another disappointment. It needed flavor. Tasted like canned tomatoes with no salt, garlic, onion, lime juice or cilantro. No flavor at all. Hubby said his burrito had no flavor or heat to it. He said he would rather eat my Mexican at home instead of paying for this luxury of going out. The restaurant was sadly a disappointment to this small community that was looking forward to having instead of Chetek bar food..... they all serve the same menu throughout town. Sad. Hopefully the restaurant owner can take this feed back as an opportunity to improve his business. Fingers crossed! read more

DO NOT EAT HERE IF YOU HAVE ALLERGIES. I was really excited to see a restaurant in this location again, but I don't think i'll be coming back at all. We were a walk in table of nine, but we're okay with being split into two separate tables or 4 and 5. There were 4 Hostesses. None of them new what was going on and they seemed to ignore the fact that we were willing to be split up. We had to tell them 3 times it was ok to split us up. The server comes over, she's very nice! We order appetizers and meals. The appetizers were delicious, gigantic onion rings, but very salty batter. Then comes the dinner. When I ordered I wanted the Buffalo chicken wrap. I very specifically said that I could not eat bleu cheese because it will make me sick before leaving the building. The server assured me she will let the kitchen know. I ask for a side of ranch. Food comes very slowly but it was a friday night so that's a little expected. I get my wrap and eat half of it. I didn't see any bleu cheese so I dumped some ranch into it and ate it. I go to pick up the second half and behind a piece of chicken I see what I think is bleu cheese. I open up he wrap and chunks and chunks of bleu cheese come out. The server is nowhere to be found until everyone at my table is done eating and by then my stomach is flip flopping because there was bleu cheese in my food and do in fact get sick before leaving the restaurant. I showed the server the bleu cheese and asked her to show the kitchen and told her I didn't want anything else because it will make me sick. The kicker? They didn't even take the messed up food off the bill. I'm going to be sick the rest of the night and I'm not giving this place a second chance. Not worth the risk. Edit: I was also informed that the hostesses were also talking shit about us while we were being seated. No thanks. read more

Pokegama Lakeside Cantina - Buffalo Chicken wrap with the Bleu Cheese I can't eat. - Mexican Near Me - Chetek, Wisconsin

Once again! Great service and food! Love this place on the lake! So glad they became a Mexican Restaurant! Owners always friendly! We will be back again and again! read more

Hey everyplace is short staffed be patient! Very friendly and yummy food! Get the spicy margarita it was only $6!

Another wonderful meal at the Lakeside Cantina. My only complaint is there are so many wonderful entrees, it is difficult to choose just one! Every meal has been outstanding. The service is second to none. I love the atmosphere and the hosts Dave and Monica are the best of the best! read more

walked in didn't get a "Welcoming" instead got a there's a waiting tables. Then when asked to order to go the waitresses said the kitchen is backed up too. Yeah horrible service read more

We had the Adult MAC & Cheese and it was excellent. We also had a Mushroom & Swiss Burger (home made it appeared) that was great. The price was responsible. Appeared to very clean and recently renovated. Waitresses used electronic tablets instead of pen and paper (nice touch). Staff was friendly and very accommodating. read more

See all

Great food and excellent customer service after our 2nd visit, looking forward to our next visit. Stay tuned...hoping they continue their great standing. Very welcoming environment. read more

Great, authentic Mexican cuisine, great staff, beautiful setting. I'd definitely recommend this restaurant year-round!

Now that it's Lakeside it's great. This restaurant has been through many owners in the last 10 years and now there is someone who knows what they are doing! We had awesome service by Brenda, she was wonderful and made our dining experience. The food was excellent and some of the best around. We were also very happy they had the MLB games so we could watch the Twins in the play offs. They also have a great patio that welcomes pets, and many docks for summertime. read more

Fantastic in every respect. Have traveled south of the border several times and appreciate having this excellent authenticity and great service in NW Wisconsin. read more

Service was terrible. Sat there for 20 mins no one even came over to our table till we went up to bar and asked. Orders a pizza waited over 1 1/2 hours no pizza went back up to ask where are food was no one turned the slip in was the 1st Excuse then 45 mins later pizza came out wrong pizza then we were told the pizza cook did not show up. What a disaster read more

The food was ok. The salsa was terrible and the fajitas were bland. Our waitress was rude as well as the owner of the restaurant. I love Mexican food, but I would highly recommend trying a different place if you want good food and friendly service. Won't be back! If you want great food with friendly service take a short south drive South to Eau Claire and try Casa Margarita you won't be disappointed! read more

Came for the Friday Fish Fry, just wasn't impressed. The plate was hotter than the food. The Gouda mashed were the highlight of the meal. Not sure why they have cinnamon butter, doesn't seem to go with the fish meal, for the biscuit. The broiled fish was just ok, the fried was better, which was surprising to me. Service lacking, she was nice but didn't give us water, had to ask for a drink refill and several things multiple times. read more

We were on a day-trip to adorable Chetek, Wi. After a day of fishing, we decided to go out to dinner before heading back to the Twin Cities. The Pokegama didn't have too packed of a parking lot, so we thought maybe we could eat dinner without a long wait. This was a great place! They had a steak special, which I was tempted to try, but we ended up getting a salad bar trip and sharing a pizza. The salad/soup bar was amazing-fresh bread and soup, and all the deli salads were homemade. Almost too full of salad to eat pizza, but I had a piece. It was pretty good-cut in squares, with lots of toppings. We left happy. It was a hoppin' place with a nice deck on the water. They also have little cabins there, and before we left, we sat on one of their wooden swings and hung out by the water to watch the sunset. Man, I love restaurants on water!! read more

Had a hard time seating 7, worried about a party of 13 coming in within the hour. Plenty of seating. Nice decor inside. Bar area looked really nice. Good was just okay. Good root beer. Specials are a great size. Most of the food was okay at our table. Steak had a lot of grizzle on it, salad bar was sub par. Pricing was okay. Older crowd. read more

I used to love coming here as a kid and my family decided to come as there is new ownership. Terrible service, we weren't even acknowledged by any of the waitstaff after waiting for over 5 minutes. I work in a pub, I know how busy Friday's can get (Friday night fish fry) but there were several empty tables. Extremely disappointed in this experience. The lead hostess told us that it's because it was a young staff but that's no reason to not even be acknowledged. read more

This Lakeside Tavern is way more than it looks! Rustic, charming and log cabinesk, this place is fantastic! The menu is fresh, innovative and so good! Not your normal bar food but not too crazy to intimidate midwestern pallets! read more

Just left here. Ridiculous. Sat for 20 mins before we saw staff and he came over because we stopped him. Another table came in 10 mins after us and they had drinks and ordered before we saw someone. Asked waiter why so long and who our waiter was and he said he didn't know who it was supposed to be but he would do it. Order drinks and meals. 20 mins later had to ask another waiter where our drinks were. She asked who our waiter was. When we told her what happened she said oh, he was supposed to be your waiter. 5 mins later he came out with water and said drinks would be out shortly. We asked what was going on as the place was half empty and more than enough staff. He looked at us and smirked saying he didn't know. Asked to see a manager who conveniently never came out. We just got up and left. Seems like ineptitude at its finest read more

Good Sat night Prime Rib...Friendly staff...reasonably priced

After new ownership this place has changed a lot and for the worst. The food is still as great as it used to be but the service is terrible. Expect a 2 hour wait for food and a 2 hour wait to get seated. The food is good but I wouldn't say it's worth going to because of the service read more

Might not have number 1 rating or the fastest serves but it's worth it in the end. There food is classic Mexican food. It was the best I've had in a while. Can't wait for more! read more

The food was good they got some fire azz ribs bro you gotta try them worth it for the price

Placed an order for take out, went to pick it up and they didn't even have my order. Stood there for 20 minutes to get my food and they couldn't even get the order right. Got home with food and it was horrible. Never going back. read more

I'm going start this out with saying coming into a restaurant with 9 people when we emailed in our reservation and being told you didn't get it and then saying we were ok with being split up and were not rude to any of the women up front does not give them a right to talk crap about us and about how ridiculous this is. (Yes my boyfriend heard you guys complaining) once we were actually seated our server was actually very nice and worked quickly we also received our food faster then expected from looking at other reviews. The food wasn't actually bad but it wasn't over the top amazing either. They messed up my sister and I order we asked for homemade chips and both received fries instead which isn't the end of the world we told our waitress and she got us our chips quickly. What was really the worst was my other sister ordered a chicken wrap without blue cheese in it and guess what? YOU'RE RIGHT SHE GOT BLUE CHEESE she told them she was allergic multiple times and she will be very sick if they put it in, but by the time she was able to complain everyone else was almost done eating and she was already feeling sick so she didn't want it remade. They did not offer to take the plate off the bill and there for we were forced to pay for something she can't even eat. My family has been coming to Pokegama for many years since they originally opened and through all of the different owners but this is it we will not be coming back. read more