Le Rendez-Vous

We had dinner at Le Rendez-​Vous last weekend. The food was amazing!!! We will definitely be back!

We had a coupon for $ 5 off so tried it for dinner tonight. The waitress was pleasant enough until we showed the coupon, then spent the next several minutes explaining we had to buy entrees, couldn’t buy only appetizers or burgers, but had to be sure to spend enough. Very offensive approach. We intended to order full meals, which we did, but the service throughout the rest of the meal was cold at best. Food was decent but we won’t go back due to poor service.

Physically couldn’t eat my meal. The crawfish was rubbery and the «dirty» rice was more than fit for a dogs bowl. The ratatouille had the consistency of baby food and the sauce tastes like a child’s first experiment with the spice jars.

My husband and I were there last Friday.
We had a cocktail (martini was great) and two apps. The escargot and a caramelized onion tart. Both were very good and they were served with a baguette that was also scrumptious. We will definitely return. The bartenders, Corie and Craig were a great part of a nice evening there.
Marian and Stephen

Our experience was average. We were a party of four; we ordered appetizers and entrées.
Our appetizers consisted of escargot and baked brie. Both were good and we even ordered a second escargot.
We all had French onion soup and it was tasty.
Our entrées were filet mignon, seared tuna, halibut, and shrimp/​crawfish étouffée. The filet was cooked as ordered but was nothing special. The tuna was over cooked despite being described as «rare». The halibut was bland, they should have served it with a lemon wedge. The étouffée was okay but far from great, also the crawfish were very small.
If we return it would be only for drinks and appetizers.

Decide what you want to be. The bartender was in shorts. It was 18 degrees out.
The wait staff wore tee shirts and a variety of fleece jackets. We brought guests and were embarreses because we thought up it was more up scale. The food was good, notice I didn’t say great. Our waitress was very professional. So as you see, a very mixed review. We will try again.

Wow. Seems this place has found its way. Server (Brian) was awesome and made great recommendations. Food was sooo good. French inspired dishes using local ingredients … plus steak, burgers, fish fry for those that want «Wisconsin» staples. Something for everyone! And yet it still feels like lake country in a good way. Low key, jeans are fine kind of place. Overall … charming, good food, great service, friendly and attentive bartender (thanks Greg or Gregg)!

Given all the glowing reviews, I was expecting a fantastic experience. Instead I got excellent service and just ok food.
I had the filet which came with mashed potatoes and asparagus. My standard for steak is if I can make it better at home, it’s not worth the price to order it out. .. and I definitely could have made a better filet at home. I ordered it medium. It came out rare. It was still a tender piece of meat but not what I ordered. I needed to add salt to make it semi-​acceptable.
I knew I was not alone with the lack of taste as the table next to me had a filet and the gentleman asked for steak sauce after he was about halfway through his steak.
The mashed potatoes were ok but needed salt. The asparagus was cooked well and was the best part of the dish.
Again, not bad, just average, but for $ 100+ bill I expect more than just average.
In the end I’m still debating whether to go back. .. maybe a bad night?

Food was good not great. It had mostly to do with the seasoning. I felt everything needed just a little salt or just a little sugar aka the dessert. But everything was prepared and cooked through extremely well. I saw on the menu there’s a lot of gluten free so perhaps this is trying to be a more healthy cooking French style restaurant with LESS butter salt sugar etc… The problem with that though is then the food overall is just LESS memorable. Price tag was great and so was our service… waiter was lovely and pace of our appetizer, soup and entrée was fantastic. … overall though food was not the best I’ve had… but decent for the price points… still not enough oomph for us to return… if you like subtle seasoning, then I encourage you to try it on your own and judge… for us, the food was just too flat /​bland

Little gem in Lake country. Looks like a bar/​pizza joint nothing reminds you of French besides Eiffel tower décor. Soup trio has good flavor especially the one with turtle and black bean. Charcuterie plate is delightful with 2 different pâtés prosciutto, salami, pickle & grain mustard. Escargot in parsley garlic butter sauce is very tasty. Mussels in shallot cream sauce is great, especially the cream sauce. The best part is they all served with warm, real crusted French baguette that soaks up all the sauce perfectly. King crab legs are fresh and cooked perfectly. Seared diver scallops in orange ginger beurre blanc cooked perfectly as well. My personal favorite is the duck confit. The duck was cooked perfectly with meat falling apart by slight touch of the fork, Grand Marnier sauce is the perfect companion. All entrée come with house salad — too much iceberg lettuce and barely any other greens, endive is the only good part in it.
Will definitely go back again!
Did I mention that they have real crusted French baguette?
Wine list is very limited which is quite a disappointment. Need good wine to go with delicious food!

So I’ve been to cooking school, grew up in a food family, even had a family owned 4 star restaurant in the lake country. Max the chef and owner is a gift to the lake country. I’ve never had a bite of food, sauce, bread, appetizer that wasn’t outstanding. And it doesn’t matter if it’s his burger and muscles or the lamb shank. He also makes a better filet than Palmers or Wards. The wine selection is outstanding and unheard of value. Go here. I write this because I love this mans food but am scared it will get too busy. Service was rough when they opened until they found a reliable staff but now it’s outstanding.

We’ve been here many times. Every single time, we’ve been pleased with the prices, the quality of the food and the excellent and friendly service.
Some people have mentioned the look of the place. I haven’t really noticed the gambling machines, and the overall «look» of the inside isn’t what I initially expected of a French restaurant.
However, I can say that the restaurant has always looked very nice, polished and clean.
So, on to dinner…
The first time we ever came, we came for the fish fry. It contained a good portion of fish (we both ordered the battered lake perch), and the batter was excellent! It was light and crispy with a hint of beer — as any good beer batter should have, of course. The fries were also very good, and the price was reasonable.
Not long after, we came back for an ‘actual’ dinner.
To start the meal off, we ordered the caramelized onion tart. It was a little small, but is absolutely packed with flavor. It had caramelized onions, bacon, gruyère cheese and some herbs and spices in a delicious, slightly sweet-​tasting pastry shell/​crust. Imagine a small quiche — but this was no quiche; this was way better.
I ordered the steak frites, which was cooked exactly as ordered and sliced in to 4 or 5 strips. They topped it with a small dollop of herbed butter. It melted over the steak, and what a delicious flavor it gave! The fries, as always, were very good.
My girlfriend ordered the Chicken Dijon. I’ve had plenty of chicken in my day, and this may have been the most tender, delicious chicken I can ever remember having.
The chicken came with a side of veggies and fluffy mashed potatoes. Best of all, however, was the sauce! It was a cream sauce with strong flavors of white wine and lemon, with hints of garlic and mustard. Really, really delicious flavor.
The next time we ate here, we both ordered the aforementioned Chicken Dijon, the caramelized onion tart and a new (for us) appetizer — the Prince Edward Island mussels. This might be our new favorite!
The mussels tasted very fresh and were swimming in one of the most delicious sauces I can remember having in a long time (after that of the Chicken Dijon’s, of course). The fantastic sauce was comprised of garlic, cream, shallots, tomato and Pernod for a slightly anise-​like flavor, which complemented the mussels perfectly.
* Pro tip: Be sure to have plenty of bread on hand when you order the mussels, so that you can dip it in the sauce.
Just like every other time here, the service was great. Our waitress was attentive, friendly and knowledgeable, and this just added to what was a truly excellent meal.
Ever since, we’ve been back several more times, and have yet to be disappointed in the slightest. There’s something to be said for such consistency — both in service and the food itself.
This is really one of our favorite restaurants, and for very good reason. I really can’t say enough about this place, but I will close by saying that we’ll be coming back time and time again.

The food was excellent. My scallops were the best meal I’ve eaten in Wisconsin in years. Service was good. Only complaint… they need curtains and other sound deadening devices as the waiters felt they had to scream which made it hard to talk above their shouting.

I have never had a bad bite of food here. The sauces, preparation, and presentation of the food is the best in the area. The filet, perfectly cooked. Bouillabaisse, amazing. the scallops perfectly seared. Max, the chef, is a French-​trained chef. The wine matches the food options, well-​priced, and always good. The wait staff and bartenders are great. We have become regulars on Wednesdays for ½ price bottles of wine night. I have told many friends to go here and would recommend Le Rendez-​Vous as the best food in Lake Country. I would love to brand and market this restaurant to tell their story.

We read a review in the Milwaukee Journal-​Sentinel which gave Le Rendezvous-​Vous 2 ½ stars. It sounded promising so we gave it a try recently. I read all of the reviews here which seem amazingly inconsistent.
We were pleasantly surprised. First of all, the older the review here, the more you can ignore it. Apparently it has undergone a couple of changes in ownership. So I will concentrate on the present.
The restaurant has been recently painted and is very attractive. It sits on the edge of a narrow section of Okauchee Lake, with an outdoor patio overlooking the lake. The evening we were here was warm, so we sat on the patio.
We were immediately approached by a pleasant waitress and asked about drinks. We asked for a wine list which she returned with immediately. The wine list, while limited in size, had a decent selection at very reasonable prices.
We ordered two appetizers– the clump crab cakes and the mussels. Both were plentiful. While the crab cakes could have used a little more crab, they were tasty. The mussels were very good, and served with a nice baguette.
For entrees I had the pork chop and my wife the sea scallops. The pork chop was high quality and cooked perfectly. It’s serves on a bed of mashed potatoes and baby asparagus. My wife loved the scallops on a bed of puréed sweet potatoes. A large enough helping that she took a doggy bag.
We wondered about the gambling machines. We didn’t notice them until we left in the room on the other side of the bar, far from the two pleasantly decorated dining rooms. I wouldn’t concern myself with them.
All in all, a very good meal and a nice evening. Recommended.

The food here is absolutely fantastic, particularly the scallops with crab cake and sweet potatoes. It is a perfect combination. The only reason for 4 stars was the service. I am sure our waitress was brand new since the restaurant just opened, so hopefully this will improve over time.

I encourage you to arrive early to get the best outdoor seats available to enjoy the water’s view. Their large parking lot may be empty, but don’t be fooled. Many guests arrive by boat. I heard they’ve had a recent management/​ownership and chef change. My steak and frites were fine. My wife’s pork chop with mashed potatoes were fine. The French onion soup was very nice. The side salads were fresh, but dressed with a very bland dressing. It’s really about the view. It’s very civilized compared to some of the other Okauchee waterfront establishments visited.

I’ll keep this simple… of all the the places to ever operate in this location… this is hands down the best. Food was excellent… the chef and staff know that end of the business perfectly! I didn’t want to like because of the points below… but the food was great!
The place has a few obstacles in its way… they have same terrible bar tenders, one in particular. They need a fresh start on that end of the business… they are the weak link in the place.
The lighting is awful… florescent flood lights in ceiling fans kills the ambiance as well does the shit looking gambling machines… Seriously… did you come up with concept in a drunken stupor? What are you trying to be??? Great French restaurant with incredible view and lake access, folksie neighbour hood tap, or yet another «lets be everything so nothing all at once» Need to pick… I suggest high quality French, lake access, with fresh professional looking and acting bar staff. You will easily be the best destination in town if you do… what I had was better than anything I’ve had in lake county by a long shot!
4 stars on food only… the rest is a 2 stars so far… but they just opened so it can only get better!
Ps…keep the piers open for lake traffic… renting then out will kill access from lake residents and transients all summer long!
Create a lake resident club to encourage lake resident patronage… you need local following for people who want some where else to eat on the lake that had great food… Okauchee has enough average places (bar) that serve food…

I am pretty critical of restaurants. This was our first time here and possibly our last.
My food was good, I had the flank steak which was cooked well and flavorful. My wife had the fish special and said it was small, dry and had several bones in it. She commented that our kids would never be able to eat it because of all the bones. I don’t eat fish so was surprised it came with bones.
This restaurant is serving some of the worst water I’ve ever had. Not up to restaurant quality. You may want to purchase a filter system.
Our server was really pretty bad. She was very nice but disappeared for long periods of time, even though the restaurant was almost completely empty. I kidded that I wanted to walk around just to see what she was doing. Witnessed the other table in dining room having to wave at her to get wine refills and so did I, even though we were the only ones there.
Hoping this place makes it as I never want to see businesses close. My advice to owner, train staff or hire experienced staff. Saturday night was dead which is never a good sign for a restaurant.
Best of luck.
PS. What’s with the diner style sugar packet holders on the tables?

We visited Le Rendez-​Vous last night with high expectations for some French food near our home in Oconomowoc. The restaurant has only been open for three weeks and is still finalizing its menu, but currently serves four appetizers (2 soups), a charcuterie plate, cheese plate, some meat-​centric entrees, burgers, and a few salads. They also offer two choices of Friday fish and have three desserts on the menu.
I never visited the restaurant that was previously in this location, but i imagine the décor has not changed one bit. It looks like a sports bar, not a French restaurant. Our server Max, however, was French. They had some local beer on tap, and we chose to stick with their «Frenchiest» items. My husband and I split the small charcuterie plate as well as the cheese plate to start. The baguette was fantastic. Two out of the three cheese were phenomenal (the other was fine), and the meat plate was good as well (the duck rillete was the best, in my opinion). After finishing those two plates, we were no longer hungry for entrees (which was good, because they had begun to run out of some items). We instead opted for a cup of carrot soup. That was also delicious.
After dinner we finished our soup, we waited over 30 minutes for our check. We were patient because this is a new restaurant, and it looks like our server was also covering the growing crowd at the bar. The prices were extremely reasonable (our meal + 2 beers was less than $ 40. The food we tried was excellent, but the ambiance was lacking and the service lagged at the end. We’ll go back in a few weeks when they’ve settled on a menu — we hope to see even more truly French items.