Lake Views and Towering Gooeys at Dockside

A Gooey arriving at the table is not a shy dessert. Dockside’s signature ice-cream creations come tall, colorful and loaded with extras, the sort of finale that makes a group pause dinner conversation long enough to decide who gets the first spoonful.

The restaurant pairs that fun with a more polished setting: large picture windows look across the lake from the tables and booths, with sunset bringing an especially handsome change of scenery. Inside, the room is bright, clean and comfortable, with upholstered booth seating and soft chairs that make a lingering dinner feel entirely reasonable.

Dockside works equally well for a full evening out and for the more specific mission of going somewhere for dessert. A couple can settle in with cocktails and a lake view; a family can order a spread of familiar favorites; a birthday table can make the dramatic dessert delivery the evening’s main event.

The menu ranges widely enough that no one has to negotiate too hard. There are steaks, seafood, chicken, burgers, sandwiches, soups, salads and family-friendly choices, so a table can mix a serious entrée with fish and chips or mac and cheese without making it an odd order.

Among the named dishes, shrimp scampi, Coeur d’Alene chicken, Salmon Oscar, calamari and steak and mac and cheese give the menu a hearty, classic American restaurant center. Clam chowder has been a recurring favorite, a useful option for someone who wants to start modestly before turning attention toward dessert.

The French dip is another practical choice for a relaxed lunch or dinner. It has been noted for staying intact rather than turning soggy by the time it reaches the last bite, which is a small detail but a welcome one in a sandwich meant for dipping.

For a burger with a more upscale backstory, Dockside’s Icon Burger has been made with ground filet mignon. It was introduced as a 40th-anniversary burger, giving an otherwise familiar menu category a little occasion-worthy flourish.

The salad bar is substantial enough to deserve more than a quick pass on the way to an entrée. It includes two kinds of lettuce, tomatoes, cucumbers, garbanzo beans, peas, red onions, shredded carrots, cheeses, hard-boiled eggs, olives and beets.

There are also pasta salads, cottage cheese and pistachio-pineapple cream salad, the pleasantly old-school sort of side that can be unexpectedly tempting beside a bowl of greens. Six dressings, plus oil and vinegar, give the bar a few different routes, and the vegetables have been noted for looking fresh rather than tired.

A salad-bar plate and chowder can make a complete lighter meal, while a more hungry table can use the bar as an opening act before steak, seafood or a sandwich. Given what comes later, leaving a little room is not a bad strategy.

Dockside is particularly known for its Gooeys, oversized ice-cream desserts designed to be seen before they are eaten. They are generally generous enough for two or three people to share after dinner, and they arrive with enough height, color and toppings to turn the table into a brief dessert committee.

Flavors and themes can change, but past Gooey variations have included Magical Unicorn, Butterfinger and a seasonal apple-pie version. The apple-pie edition brought together pie filling, crunchy bites, caramel, donut bites, vanilla ice cream and cinnamon ice cream—more like a dessert counter’s worth of good ideas than a single scoop.

The point is not restraint. A Gooey is well suited to passing spoons around after a full meal, and its presentation gives a celebration dinner a little extra flourish without needing a separate production.

The dessert list has more going on than the Gooeys. A skillet cookie offers a warm-and-cold contrast for the table, while mountain berry cobbler, huckleberry cobbler and blueberry cobbler take a more Northwest-friendly route.

The huckleberry cobbler is notably substantial and another sensible choice for sharing. A cotton-candy hot-fudge sundae goes in the opposite direction, bringing some carnival-color playfulness to the end of dinner.

These are desserts worth ordering with a little deliberation. One shared cobbler or Gooey after an entrée is usually plenty; ordering several makes more sense for a larger group with firm opinions and a willingness to sample.

The lake-facing windows give cocktails a natural place in the evening. Dockside serves craft cocktails, with huckleberry lemonade offering a fruit-forward option and a brown-sugar Old Fashioned providing a darker, more traditional choice.

The drink menu can be a nice way to slow down before dinner, especially as the water outside picks up the changing evening light. Servers are known for attentive check-ins and drink refills, keeping the meal moving without making it feel rushed.

Dockside is not limited to dinner standards. Breakfast possibilities have included lemon-berry pancakes, bubble crepes and falafel Benedict, an unusually varied trio that ranges from sweet and familiar to something more unexpected.

Tablet menus with food photographs can be particularly helpful on a menu this broad. Seeing a dish before ordering takes some of the guesswork out of choosing between a comfort-food staple, a more elaborate entrée or a dessert that may need reinforcements.

The room can accommodate a casual meal, a date night, a family outing or a larger celebratory dinner without asking every party to use the restaurant in the same way. Families and children may be part of the dining room mix, so the energy can vary by time and seating area.

Birthday and anniversary meals sometimes include a small celebratory dessert, though that detail can change. The bigger, more dependable celebration move is simply ordering a Gooey or cobbler for the table and letting the dessert do its work.

Dockside is open to people who are not staying at the associated hotel. Dinner and special-occasion reservations are commonly recommended, while valet parking and a paid garage have both been associated with the property; arrangements can vary.