Lost Lake Cafe and Lounge

Great diner diner with lots of space. There’s a bar side and a regular diner side. The bar side has louder music, lower lights, and movies playing on the TVs. We sat on the bar side. It got crowded quickly, but we were able to move to a different section to sit near the fireplace, which was quite a nice touch.
I tried two of their cocktails, which I enjoyed. I also had a few bites of their Mexican chocolate pie, which was quite good with a tiny bit of a spicy kick.
This is a fun place to go at strange times of day and to stop in while bar hopping. They were playing Harry Potter on the TV when I showed up, which was a fun touch.

First time here and w guests from out of town. Toni, our waitress was AWESOME and gets an A ++. She was fast, polite and professional yet took the time to talk with us which is unheard of these days.
The food was tasty and the portions were very generous. The Chicken Fried steak was an enormous portion and my dogs loved the leftovers.
I highly recommend this café for a great casual spot w good food I’ll be making it one of my «regulars» spots for dining

I would give zero stars for this restaurant. My husband ordered just the regular bread breakfast with eggs, toast and bacon. I ordered for myself A chicken fried steak dinner which is supposed to be the best according to the menu. My chicken fried steak was overcooked it was very hard to chew and eat. My husband’s food was over done as well. They also leave their food in the kitchen for 20 minutes. I would not suggest to eat here even though they claim it’s the best. I will never be coming back here ever it was very expensive for overdone food.

The slowest. Go somewhere else. The servers didn’t acknowledge an entire lineup of people. I don’t even want to waste any more time writing this post it was so bad…

Came here for dinner before New Years. The BLT was super good and we also ordered fried pickles as an appetizer. Super tasty!
Chill atmosphere, clean venue, friendly waitstaff. Our waitress was gracious about have to split checks between five people. I know that’s a pain but she handled it really well. Although we did find that when she brought back our money (we paid in cash) she didn’t bring back the coin change. I’m not too particular about this but one of my friends was. Just a heads up. Otherwise it was all smooth sailing. Everyone loved their food, between all of us, the macaroni, eggs Benedict and French toast were absolutely delicious.

I’m from Olympia and I love a good dive diner. Lost Lake perfectly captures that spirit each and every time my husband and I stop by for brunch.
Sometimes service can be a bit slow, but again, we are visiting during peak weekend brunch hours. I do miss the smaller, crispier Rosemary potato wedges they used to serve, but the food has always been excellent overall.

For breakfasts, they let me sub out the hash browns for tater tots. Which is ideal, as tater tots are awesome little pillows of fried perfection. I much prefer tater tots to soggy hash browns.
Plus, they have decaf drip coffee that’s very, very tasty. As long as I can continue to get tots with my eggs, I shall be very happy here indeed.

I’m a fan that this is a 24 hour diner and walking distance from my apt none the less. The food is what you would expect– typical diner food. A little over priced for that though, which is probably my only complaint. Love their bloody marys, grilled cheese, fries and onion rings! Not a fan of their nachos. The cheese is never melted! Avoid that. Otherwise I like the chill vibe of this place.

There’s something oddly alluring about that public restroom off to the back right on the diner side. Its feels like you’re in Kubrik’s 2001 Space Odyssey. It’s a hauntingly isolated place.
French toast was nice.

It was good. Really liked the décor. The food was alright nothing to brag home about, but hey if it isn’t homemade from scratch at home then to me it will do. But honestly the service was good and the food was actually good. Just one real complaint and this includes a lot of restaurants. People with bad eye sight cannot read your menus do to poor lighting and dark menus with dark writings.
I would return, but during happy hour which I can imagine would be busy due to a burger and fries for 2.99. Say what? Yes you heard me right 2.99! What a deal.
Ok seriously just stop by and give this place a try. Really a nice place to visit with good service. Oh it’s locally owned.
So please support the local business and the local economy…

It’s always a toss up between a Seattle dog and Lost Lake when choosing late night grub on the Hill. Okay there’s Big Mario’s too so it’s a three way munchie battle royale!
Either way, I have yet to be disappointed with the food or atmosphere at Lost Lake. I’ve taken multiple friends here as a must see stop on the Hill, and my moms bought some swag cause they liked it so much. The waiter at the time even have them some of the cool stickers to take home to Arkansas.
The food is exactly what I need sometimes. Open 24 hours a day, with a super solid chicken friend steak?! I’m sold. Their Philly and Benedict’s are worth a try too. Also, the hash browns are PERFECT! When I need to eat something that reminds me of all the comfort food from back home, this is where I go.
Personally, a 4 star review makes me feel a little weird cause this is a place I really do enjoy once I get the food. the trouble is, I have (like others on this platform) have had a fair amount of poor experiences when it comes to service here. It’s almost always easily justified as either it being super slammed during after-​bar rush or under staffed, and it’s gotta be hard to predict the business these days with the change in demographic down there. But the point is that sometimes you may end up having to wait a while to actually get waitstaff to talk to you. I’ve seen some awesome staff in there providing outstanding service for sure. But by and large it feels awkward to stop someone and ask them to take your order and that’s what you may have to do here. If I had a few visits in a row where the staff was quick to at least acknowledge my, even just to say «I’ll be right with you», and have just a bit more training in how to be welcoming to customers, it’d be 5 hands down.
So be prepared for maybe having to reach out to your waiter. With that foresight you can focus on the great comfort food and hot coffee.

Place smelled like pee. I didn’t care and wanted a drink, got the 8am eggs benidict, tasted over salted and like sourdough. I like sour dough, but settled for their perfectly crisped hash browns and 3 5 $ miamisos. While edging the mislabeled plate garnish (funky tasting benidict) i consumed enough calories from potatoes to combat their stronger drinks. I’m quite pleased, but if your looking for a killer breakfast look else where. I have to mention I didn’t use their restroom and usually include that in my views of a place to eat.
Tldr: buy drinks not food… yummy hash browns «I’ll be back»

It was late afternoon and I wanted something sweet but didnt want to get ice cream or gelato. So putting our thinking caps on we came to Lost Lake for a slice of pie and a few drinks. Perfect, it totally hit the spot! It was pretty slow in there so we were able to grab seats at the counter/​bar. Love that it is a diner place but with Capitol Hill flare.
They do have a rotation of pies from A La Mode Pies, so we decided to get a slice of the Key Lime Pie, a beer and a cocktail. It was very tasty! I forgot to take a photo because we dove right into it, or at least I did.
It was nice that we came during an off peak time, great place to relax with a drink, have a good conversation, and just enjoy a slice of pie.
Staff was fine, bartender was friendly, and played some Queen to liven the place up a bit.

I would get a better breakfast off the breakfast menu at McDonalds.
I get that it’s an easy going ambiance and diner, but the food needs to be somewhat edible. Quality and taste barely deserve 1 star, but the 2 gentlemen that helped me were nice so an extra star for you guys. But really, never again.

Eggs Benedict served with overdone eggs and no hollandaise sauce is not acceptable.
I had to get my order to go, but it was not a good foray to the Lost Lake. I really wanted to like this place, the interior feels like a David Lynch or Quentin Tarantino film. But literally nothing burns my piss more than overdone poached eggs when it comes to breakfast. Why is it so hard for people to get right? It’s on the menu, surely many people order it, so surely you must have a lot of opportunity to get it right. And if it IS on the menu, you should be able to make it. If not, just don’t have it on the menu. It wasn’t even busy, it was early on a Sunday morning. And no hollandaise? Unforgivable.

Seattle does not do breakfast very well, especially on the weekend. Coffee and a pastry may be ok in France but when you need fuel for a day of cycling, you need protein. Lots of places on Capitol Hill are open by 7 or 8 am, but they don’t serve a complete menu until 9. Downtown is even worse.
Hence my happiness at finding Lost Lake. A divey place in a divey block that hasn’t changed much in physical appearance in the last 30 years (though I’m sure rents have gone way up recently with the influx of Googlites and Amazonians.
Lost Lake serves food ²⁴⁄₇. They serve massive omelettes, three eggs each, and these delicious smashed potatoes (yukon golds baked first, then smashed and grilled). Caffe Vita coffee served as it should be (strong). Pleasant service and frequent coffee refills, plus gluten free bread if you ask.
If you’re in the mood to wake and bake, you can also have a breakfast cocktail.

Great food and service! Bf and I came during brunch on a busy, sunny Saturday morning and was surprisingly seated right away. The bartender greeted us and took our order immediately and it only was a few minutes before we got our drinks and food, which were both delicious! My mac and cheese was topped with veggies and prosciutto and was killer. Washed it down with a brass monkey (rainier beer and oj). What was most appreciated was the service– when we got our food we were asked how it was, and as we were finishing our meal we were asked if we wanted anything else and again were asked if everything was ok – why is this a surprise to me? Because lately it seems like most places just want to crank out food, take our money, and shuffle us out so the next people can sit down. Both my boyfriend and I were happy and full when we left and we will totally be back again.

I came with some friends for dinner on a weekend, and we were pleasantly surprised.
I ordered the BBQ Burger with fries and my wife ordered the breakfast egg and cheese sandwich. First off, she was grateful that they serve breakfast all day long!
My burger had lettuce, tomato, bacon, an onion ring, and BBQ sauce. It had decent flavor, and all the ingredients came together nicely. My fries were half crispy and half soggy, which was a little disappointing.
My wife’s sandwich was standard. Egg and cheese on an English muffin. She wasn’t able to eat a runny egg, so she ordered her egg medium well. When it came out, it was still too runny on the inside, so she told our waitress about it, and she quickly saw to it that a new sandwich was made.
The service was probably the most surprising part of the meal. A lot of the reviews mentioned bad service, but we had excellent service from our waitress. Not only did she quickly correct my wife’s sandwich, she was super helpful in answering our questions and making arrangements for our preferences. One of my friends even changed a part of her order after she ordered, and it was no big deal. So, contrary to other reviewers, we experienced superb service.
The ambience is a little dark and divey with a diner feel, but I think that’s what they are going for. The bathroom was a little off putting considering it’s a relatively new establishment.
While the food was not out of this world, the service made for a pleasant experience.

Open 24 hours? Even if I never want their savory bread pudding at 3am, it’s cool to know that’s an option!
Ordered a bread pudding one Friday evening to snack on. Doused it with their local (Ballard) hot sauce offerings and enjoyed every bite! It looks small but it’s pretty darn filling.
The corner window /​fireplace table is nice.

I’ve been here twice for breakfast and loved their food each time. First time was the chicken fried steak which was awesome. One of the better ones I’ve had in the greater Seattle area and the second time I ordered the French Toast which was solid, but not spectacular. One thing I like is how they focus on making classic, quality meals without trying to get all fancy or adding in unnecessary variations to what already works. Just give me a big plate of good food and I’m a happy camper.
Service here during each of my visits was above average with a slight deduction for wait times between stops for drink refills and stuff like that and I say slight deduction because odds are you are here to hang out and chat with friends just as much as you are here to eat your food so it’s nice they give you some space although a little more attention might be nice.
So far, I haven’t had to wait to be seated although I haven’t been here during any of the peak times. From what I understand, it can get pretty crowded both during the prime breakfast hours as well as late nights on the weekend. For the best dining experience here, make sure to plan ahead, bring a healthy appetite and a little bit of patience, and everything will be just fine.