Cafe Calamari

What a gem of a place, with an excellent variety of selections! Our request for a 'Casamigos Reposado Tequila Old-fashioned' didn't raise eyebrows or throw our servers or the Mixologist at all. And boy, did they do a fantastic job! They also have a solid selection of quality wines by the glass. Zack and our server team were friendly, available, and knowledgeable and offered some great suggestions. Never hovering but not absent. Their Friday special started with a Brie en croûte with raspberry sauce (completely devoured) followed by their Sicilian-crusted Prime Rib, it was huge and cooked perfectly. They only had 4 left when we were seated at 6:30, so if you want to try it, come earlier as I hear it sells out every Friday. Pasta Diavolo - Excellent with choices of pasta shapes and protein toppings. Their desserts are flown in from Italy, including their GELATO! The lemoncello gelato was the perfect ending to a wonderful dining experience. Refreshing, sweet/tart coolness. Delightful! The interior is also well appointed for an immersive Tuscan vibe, a kind of Florentine, classy-cozy... There is also a nice outdoor seating area when weather permits. View of Lake Geneva right across the street. We will absolutely go back. Credit cards accepted, reservations recommended.

Love, Cafe Calamari restaurant in Williams Bay, WI … whether indoors/outdoor patio has an ambiance atmosphere you’ll want to dine -in & experience this beautiful view of the lake/inside by the fireplace w/lights. The food is delicious too!

We've eaten here a couple of times while visiting friends in Lake Geneva. Service was great, food was delicious. Always a nice dinner!

Dinner for my love was exceptionally well. Our waiter recommended an old fashioned despite my indecisiveness. We made a reservation, the table setting was very romantic and the dinner was PHENOMENAL! The rib eye dinner was the best rib eye I've ever had. The potatoes had more flavor than i could comment on. The filet mignon was cooked to the perfect temperature and the scallops..... amazing

Great food, great service. Nice atmosphere for a romantic dinner. When in town again we definitely will be back.

Delicious! Delicious! Delicious! Definitely recommend this restaurant! The calamari was exquisite! My pesto primavera was amazing as well!

Lived in the area for 28 years and have never been to Cafe Calamari. Absolutely lived this resturant. Great atmosphere along with a creative menu for seafood and steaks. We started with the Calamari appetizer which was delicious. I had the 16. Oz Bone in Veal Chop special and my wife had the Crab encrusted Chilean Sea Bass with Lobster Cream Sauce. Both entries were outstanding. We finished the meal with Taramisu and Espresso Gelloto. I'm giving this best meal of 2022...

My wife and I honeymoon and we went to Cafe Calamari for our honeymoon dinner. We Sat outside on the patio and had the most incredible waitress Lana .. Great customer service, great vibes made our dining experience a 1000 x the pleasure. We already have decided to come back for our 1 year anniversary. Thank you to the cook for that delicious steak. Mr.and Mrs Farid Shabazz

The food is really good. They have gluten free pasta which is great. They can even make the calamari gluten free and it's pretty good that way. The staff is very friendly and the service is great. We've been there twice so far.

Outstanding meal and service. A bit crowded but that is because it is so good of a dining experience

Nice place good selection of GF food. I had the filet mignon which was very nice. Wine and appetizers PEI was in a marinara sauce and was a nice change to the white wine. If I had a complaint the cappuccino was a little off. I would go back.

Calamari is are delicious. And I’m from Spain, I know what I’m saying. It is not very expensive, and the atmosphere and decoration is awesome. Very kind people. They gave us time to enjoy the meal and the conversation. No rushing

Great location, delicious food and a great server Kelsey. Well done guys! :) Must check it out!

We haven’t been here in years, and they immediately lived up to and exceeded our expectations in every way possible! There were new additions to old favorites. The place was absolutely spotless. And even with the place packed, our food was delivered insanely fast! Highly recommend the sea food diavolo if you’re looking for something with a kick! I personally don’t like cheesecake, but the creme brûlée cheese cake was phenomenal! I just wish I had the foresight to take pictures before we devoured everything!

Nice relaxing atmosphere. Food was very good and waited continued to ask if we needed anything else.

My wife and I went to Cafe Calamari for our 25th wedding anniversary dinner. Everything was excellent! Definitely will go back! I would recommend making a reservation.

We went there for my daughter’s birthday last night!!! Everyone wished her a happy birthday right as we were seated which made her feel so special! It was so welcoming! The ambience, the lighting and music in the restaurant was so cozy! Our server, Robbie, was amazing! So friendly, so funny and so knowledgeable about the menu! We got the meals he recommended and they were so good!!! The calamari was so good! The Chilean sea bass was perfectly cooked! The filet melted in your mouth! The cheesecake was so rich tasting! The drinks were expertly made! The whole experience was the best dining experience we’ve had in a long time! We can’t wait to go back!

Went here to celebrate anniversary with my wife. The staff were very friendly, attentive, and didn't hesitate to answer all of our questions. Food and drinks were great; higher priced, but well worth the quality and portion size. They were even very nice at helping us celebrate our anniversary. Great experience all around!

I was there on my birthday recently. We had a great time and the food was delicious. Our server, Robert, was friendly. He brought me out a slice of Tiramisu with a candle.

Excellent food. The fried calamari was perfectly tender and lightly breaded. I had the Friday special of King cut prime rib which tasted delicious along side creamy horseradish sauce and garlic mashed potatoes. My water cup never went empty.

Great place for catching up with friends. The bar chicken was very tasty.

Amazingly delicious food served by lovely people in a beautiful environment. I absolutely adore this café. It is wonderful and the people that work. They are warm and welcoming and go above and beat and their duty as being helpful and feels like family when you're far from home. Every meal i've had there has been delight, tantalizing on the taste buds, warm in the tummy. I highly recommend going there and eating anything. The desserts are a "Chef's Kiss" magnificent!! I adore everything about this warm and cozy sophisticated cafe. It feels like home.

We started with great Calamari (of course). The scallops were prepared perfectly... Some of the best I've ever had! Finished with a decadent flourless chocolate cake that was melt-in-my-mouth amazing.

Went here for a memorial dinner. Made reservations online. I highly recommend you do! Sat on the patio! Beautiful view of Lake Geneva on Williams Bay! The food was excellent and so we're the appetizers. We only went there one time but I'm impressed enough to go back next week. It's a popular spot with the locals!

It's the restaurant is located in there one of the best parts of town, right in front of the lake. The food is excellent. I hardly highly recommended chicken piccata in the house salad. This salad was so good we had to order two. The waiter and waitresses in the bus boys were very nice. The service was a little disorganized. We really didn't know who our waiter was. Everything took longer to get to the table. If the service gets fixed is definitely a five star restaurant.

A very busy restaurant, strongly recommend making a reservation. They have a wonderful outdoor seating area. Great service. We ordered the pasta bolognese, it was good, but short on sauce. The cheese strudel was delish. We ordered Tito lemon drop martinis, they were short filled, good, but for $13.50 each to fill the glass half way was ridiculous. I would return, but won't order martinis again.

Café Calamari is a culinary gem that consistently delivers an exceptional dining experience. From the moment you step through the door, you're greeted with a warm and inviting atmosphere that sets the stage for an unforgettable meal. With each visit, I've been consistently impressed by the outstanding quality and flavor of every dish I've tried. One of my absolute favorites is the chicken Vesuvio, a classic Italian dish done to perfection at Café Calamari. The tender chicken, seasoned to perfection and served alongside perfectly roasted potatoes and vibrant green peas, is a true delight for the taste buds. Every bite is a symphony of flavors that transport you straight to the heart of Italy. But it's not just the chicken Vesuvio that shines at Café Calamari; every dish on the menu is a testament to the skill and dedication of the chefs. Whether you're craving pasta, seafood, or a hearty steak, you can rest assured that each dish is crafted with care and attention to detail. Beyond the delicious food, the service at Café Calamari is always top-notch. The staff is friendly, attentive, and eager to ensure that every guest has a fantastic dining experience. Whether you're a regular or a first-time visitor, you're made to feel welcome and valued from the moment you walk in. Overall, Café Calamari is more than just a restaurant—it's a destination for food lovers seeking an authentic taste of Italy right here in [insert location]. With its consistently excellent food, warm atmosphere, and impeccable service, it's no wonder that Café Calamari has become my go-to spot for a memorable dining experience time and time again. If you're looking for good quality and authentic Italian cuisine, look no further than Café Calamari.

Very nice here. Great for a high-ish end night out. Food was really tasty. Service was nice. Atmosphere was warm. I personally didn’t care for the tablets they use instead of a traditional menu, but all and all a good experience.

Update 7/30/22 This is/was one of my favorite restaurants. Now that we have such inflation the prices are even higher. I was sort of disappointed that how they are combatting the inflation is not including anything with your meal meaning - your soup or salad is additional to, in our case a $49 entree. So, we had the special - $60 for a smaller piece of sea bass with lobster sauce - it wasn't lobster sauce it was the lobster bisque soup, a few tablespoons and a scoop of garlic mashed potatoes (my husband liked but were too garlicky for me and a bowl of lobster bisque. We also enjoyed immensely the oysters Rockefeller- well worth what ever they cost ( I think over $20). Total bill last night $212.00 with the tip. 1 appetizer, 2 glasses of wine, 2 entrees, 1 lobster bisque and one salad, oh and 1 dessert. So now I upgrade to $$$$$$ For me it has become less of a value. In my opinion a $49 "special" can include a few leaves of lettuce. They were packed so it hasn't slowed them down. With this review I am taking one star away. Update: 4/3/21- This place!!! I don't think you can have a better dining experience. Tonight we had 2 phenomenal meals - lemon salmon and Ahi tuna (special). We also enjoyed the parmeson encrusted shrimp for an appetizer which had a delicious little mescale salad/balsamic reduction along with the shrimp, and lobster bisque. Server Tony 5*. Once again Don in the bar area - a 5*delight. Im going to be repetitive here by saying - It doesn't get better than perfect folks. Make a reservation. 😉 It doesn't get better than perfect. Treated beautifully, we did not have a reservation on a Saturday night, but they whisked us in with a smile, George our server was great. House salad delicious, both entrees- out of this world /incredible. Several choices of scotch. Great atmosphere. $$$

The flavor bus didn't quite make it all the way to Williams Bay. Don't be shy. Utilize the seasoning and profile descriptions in the menu. Calamari was tender and delicious but, the cocktail sauce could have been a little more aggressive. A solid "GOOD" meal is what I would say. Could have been great.

Good atmosphere and good food. One of my Pet peeves when dining out, is when you are spending $20+ on a meal and they charge you full price for soda refills, and don’t even mention it. 😳☺️ That really happened and I didn't like it. I would have given them a four star rating had my pet peeve not been realized.

Was early for a reservation and was immediately seated. Friendly staff. Dining room was filled and very loud. Was hard to hear our table conversation. Food was decent. Could have used more flavor. Pasta dishes were sort of bland. Best dish was the Calamari appetizer. Very tasty and a good sized portion. Good thing since its the restaurant's name.

This used to be one of our favorite restaurants. Saturday nite was very disappointing and we had four guests along for the disappointment. The restaurant has removed some of our favorite dinner selections from the menu. Trying to resurrect my favorite pasta I ordered the Alasandria dish with chicken added. It was not the creamy pasta with veggies like before plus the chicken was very dry with no temperature. A guest ordered the filet which was not seasoned or topped with the advertised herb butter nor was it medium rare! Besides no juiciness It also had no temperature. Guest speculated since Cafe Calamari was quite busy that perhaps meats are precooked and sitting in the warmer waiting...and a pricey steak becomes a lukewarm well done cut In the process... definitely not right off a grill. Same for the chicken! The atmosphere outside used to be lovely. Saturday six of us were squeezed into a small round table on a pillar (we had reservations) the same size that twosomes and foursomes we seated at. Dinner for six was above $345, two who did not have drinks.

Guess we disagree with the masses on this place. I say skip the meal here, eat your Italian dinner at Tuscan Tavern & Grill and come here after for the salted caramel cheesecake, which was out of this world. Everyone talks about the lake view, but really could not see it. We sat in the patio, which was adorable. The salads were nice starter and I was hopeful. However, the entree's were so disappointing. My husband had the salmon and it was tasteless - no sear and it smelled in my opinion. I had the red sauce with the sausages. The sauce tasted like it came straight out of a can and was really thick and really lousy. The sausage had a strange taste to it in my opinion. The waitstaff was nice. The highlight was the salted caramel dessert - which was truly amazing. And, the restaurant gave it to us for free since our dinners took so long. I thought that was really classy. But, overall it is about the meal. We had two nights there and wanted a great dinner each night and really feel like we wasted this opportunity. We had lunch at Tuscan the next day and it was like 10 times better!

I am writing to share my family’s recent disappointing experience while dining at your Williams Bay location on Friday, July 11th. After we ordered our main entrées, our server, Tanya H, immediately followed each order with “Soup or salad?” Naturally, we assumed this was included with the entrée, as is standard practice at many fine dining establishments. However, when we received our bill, we were surprised to see that we had been charged nearly $45 extra for these items—without any advance notice that they were an additional cost. I have both dined and worked in fine dining for many years of my hospitality career, and I have never been trained—nor trained others—to handle guests this way. This tactic felt intentionally misleading and left us feeling taken advantage of. Unfortunately, we paid the bill without causing a fuss, as we live in Lake Geneva and care about supporting local businesses like yours. But this left a very negative impression on us. We also feel compelled to share this so that other diners—especially older guests who might not think to question such a routine follow-up—don’t end up paying for add-ons they didn’t knowingly agree to. We would like to know: Is this “soup or salad” upsell without disclosure part of your official service protocol, or was our server acting on her own to increase the bill in this way? Dining out should be a pleasant experience — guests should not feel they must constantly ask “Is this included?” to avoid surprise charges. We hope you take this feedback seriously and address this issue with your team to ensure future guests are treated honestly and transparently.

We save up to bring friends or family here on special occasions because the service and food and atmosphere are worth the price. After last weekend we will no longer. The service was dismal....the food eh and the atmospere lacking. There was a no water drinking ban in the area which they DID NOT inform us of when we made reservations....the waiter simply brought us room temp bottled water. This is food truck service and food at this point. Sad.

My sisters and I dined here on August 18, 2023. The atmosphere and our waiter Tony was great. I give this place 5 stars for the waiter only. Our experience with the management team was not pleasant. The image attached shows a plate with a fly on it. The plate was sent back to the kitchen to be replaced, but the same plate of food returned to us with sauce covering the area where my sister ate from. This was unacceptable. We requested to speak with the manager. The manager did not take ownership of what happened. Instead, redirected to make us at fault. I would say she did give us something off our bill. But that isn't the principle. Acknowledgment of fault would have been better. We paid our bill, thanked Tony, our waiter, and decided never to return to this establishment. Sad because it could have gained our repeated business. We hoped for a better experience. Please use caution before taking your first bite.

Waste of money. Heard about this place through family, and decided to take my girlfriend here for Valentine’s Day. Worst meal experience of my life. It’s almost criminal how overpriced the food was, for the slop I received on my plate. Started with “baked Brie”. Cold, uncooked, and sour. Seafood diavolo sauce looked like Mac and cheese with the dry powder sprinkled on top. Shrimp, mussels, and calamari were overcooked and gross. Pasta was watery and cold. Girlfriend got salmon, which was only nominally better. Felt like a blessing for something to only be bland. Service was pretty good, slow, and it took us a while to be served at all, but fine otherwise. All in all, we had a terrible food experience that cost us over $100. The reviews are highly confusing, I can’t believe so many people think this food is anywhere high quality.

ABSOLUTE WASTE OF MONEY!!! Do not trust the good reviews, I suspect that the quality has recently downgraded. The food is so bland and incredibly overpriced. The seafood diavolo makes your local elementary school cafeteria food look good. First, the pasta was seriously overcooked and watery. Then the sauce was ground in tiny chunks and had a weird color, the whole thing looked awful. The calamari was rubbery, there were 2 shrimp in the plate and the mussels were severely overcooked. The salmon lemon beurre blanc was bland and smelled fishy. There were 3 asparagus in there that also were bland and undercooked. If you don’t want to give me quality at least give me quantity, there was nothing on that plate! It was still better than the seafood diavolo though! The only good thing there was the complimentary bread, olive oil and shaved parmesan. We didn’t even get dessert cause we didn’t want to waste any more money! Service was good. And all this cost about 100 dollars! Please spend your money elsewhere.

Your manager was extremely rude to us after we paid our bill. We were not happy on the charge of 3+%tax for using a credit card! Than charging tax on this service charge… stab the customer! We frequent MANY restaurants in the Lk Geneva area and have never had a charge for using a credit card. You have a great business that has flourished for many years. Monday night was populated with clients. After your manager’s rude comments to us telling us we cheated his server out of a tip which is not true. We left very unhappy with. How we were treated. He is a detriment to your thriving business. We forgot our bag of left overs, turned around & went back to our table… bag gone! Found our server, Michael, another nice female waitress came up and pulled out our bag from the garbage underneath the coffee/ used dishes area. Thanked her, turned around to find the once again RUDE manager who repeated in a nasty tone that I cheated his server. Ugly and embarrassing. He does not know how to treat a disgruntled customer who was expressing his concern over a service charge. Never EVER want to see his face again. Please address this before this jerk removes this complaint! NOT HAPPY !!!!!