Decoy Dockside
Brunch Sunday 8am-2pm
Lunch Monday-Saturday 11am-2pm
Dinner Sunday-Thursday 5pm-9pm and Friday-Saturday 5pm-10pm
DOCK BAR downstairs dining : casual dining on the lake level with an all day menu
Monday - Friday 2pm - Close
Saturday & Sunday 10am-Close
Menu
Decoy is a solid 4 star experience. Food is good not great, service is usually good, but not perfect, the prices are not too high, but there are reasonable items on the menu too, and Wednesday’s are half price bottles of wine. There are a lot of reasons to go here. The facility and lake view are very nice.
Decoy Dockside is a hidden gem on Lake San Marcos! Outdoor dining right on the marina. Food was excellent and pretty much in line with other restaurants of this type. If you dine there, they offer a free boat ride tour of the lake. Just fill up a glass of wine and have fun!
We were there to celebrate our anniversary. The hostess greeted us and wished us a happy anniversary. That was it for the rest of the evening. The large parties in the room seemed to have great service. (There were two parties) There was plenty of staff attending those tables. It was a very slow evening. We waited to be greeted after being seated. Waited to be served. Waited to have our plates cleared. We decided to leave and have dessert somewhere else.
Note: Chipped plates shouldn’t be used. Menu pages were stained and worn. Today’s date is July 10th. I was expecting a summer menu not the fall menu that was in place the last time we came to visit.
My trout was over cooked but still good. The sauce was much heavier than I expected.
The food was good, not great. For example I had an excellent piece. of cod on a bed of lentils supposedly with leeks, mushrooms and radish. Unfortunately they must have run out of the leeks, mushrooms and radishes so just left cod on lentils. Ambience is nice but it was a very hot day and their air conditioner was not able to keep a comfortable temperature. Service was friendly and attentive but slow.
It was really nice, the food was good the service was fine but the outside overlooking the lake is THE BEST!
The food was overpriced for the quality. The meat was a little dry
First time visitor. Everything lived up to what I was told. Will recommend to my friends.
Best service in north county. However, it seems like the menu has not changed in a year and quality of the dishes has decreased since its opening.
We have been here at least 20 times and the food and drink never disappoint. The problem is very slow service even with there wine dinners which we have done 5. We just don't get it and this last time was the worst service possible. We have been taken care of by Margarito and he is the exception there, everyone else over the years, could use some training.
Very Nice restaurant Have lived in Carlsbad Didn't know about this place
Excellent food and scenery
Great service ! Great food . You can’t beat the view
I finally made it to Decoy. My husband and I never go out but it was my Birthday. I was searching for a place and many of my Pilates clients recommended Decoy and some had heard it was great. The hostesses were on top of it and very sweet. The view is great. Huge place and nice decor. Oysters were good and pricey, but what's new. My husband enjoyed his Braised Beef. My girlfriends and I shared the Lobster Mac and Cheese and were pleased. Drinks were good. Service wasn't bad. It could have been a bit better since she wasn't busy. All in all, I would highly recommend Decoy and I'm pretty picky since I was in the business many moons ago.
We had a wonderful dinner with friends. Some issues - I called in the afternoon to confirm that there were gluten free choices for one of our party of four. Had to leave a voice mail. Never received a call back. Don't expect to be seated at your reservation time - we waited 20 minutes beyond. Some of the entrees were not hot when they arrived at the table, but they were at least warm. When you end up paying $100 per person (including tax and tip) you do not expect to encounter these issues. All that aside, we enjoyed our experience. Our server, Pierre, was a highlight of our experience. We will return and hope for a better experience.
Place is super nice and we had great expectations but the food just sucked. The menus looked great and we ordered two apps, 3 entrees and 2 deserts. With very good item, there was something off. Really disappointed.
Nice place, food always predictably good, very, very noisy!
Our waiter was extremely nice, but poorly trained.
I will try it again before I recommend it. The meal was not good enough to recommend.
Me and my husband went to play golf nearby golf course and stayed at the resort.
This restaurant was the perfect choice for the dinning.
We loved the environment , friendly service, happy hour and most of all food was delicious!!!
This restaurant have it all.
I would love to visit again and recommend to the others.
The view, the service and the meat were outstanding, but the veggies looked and tasted like leftovers.
We had outstanding service and enjoyed a delicious birthday dinner for my husband, starting with whipped goat cheese/butternut squash w/pita bread and Foley-Johnson Chardonnay - he devoured his huge serving of pork Tomahawk chops and I loved the moist and tender Salmon entree. Delightful setting and great view. This is our 3rd visit and look forward to many more, as well as bringing family/friends to enjoy it along with us!
Beautiful restaurant, with good ambiance. The food was pretty good and the server was friendly
Bartender - made really good cocktails, but took forever to give us a cocktail menu
Waiter - Very nice, but super slow service. I think it was the kitchen that was behind but it took over 30mins to bring just the bread to our table. We were in a rush, but if you came here with young kids, you would be very frustrated.
Appetizer (crab and spinach/artichoke dip) was cold in places, even though the server has warned us the iron skillet is came in was hot.
Wine list was good
Cute light show over the lake, our table had a great view.
Really nice visit to Decoy. Love the view and ambiance. Service was most excellent. Food was interesting and well prepared.
Went for Father’s Day brunch. Nice spread but multiple stations were missing utensils, making it hard to serve food.
We had to request things like coffee, creamer and water from the waitress several times.
What a surprise, we did not expect such an elegant building and decor. The food was really good but the service was very, very slow. It was the Saturday before Father's day and they appeared to be under staffed. Otherwise and excellent meal and nice ambiance.
Ryan was a wonderful waiter. Food was excellent.
Waitress was lovely.
Hostess was not accommodating and seemed annoyed that we arrived early. We asked to sit at one of the open outside tables and she said no, not without a waitress on duty. We said we’d go to bar to get drinks but she told us we were not allowed to sit outside. Too bad. Great location.
I have only been here 4 times since their opening due to the horrible service, high prices for what you get, and so-so to not so good food. Tried it again for lunch and I will say the food was not great, but it was good, and way better than before. Server was very friendly, but service is still quite slow so not a place to go if you are on a time clock. We ate upstairs. The seating is much more comfortable upstairs inside. Hate the hard chairs outside. View was awesome! Food was much better than in the past, but still has room for improvement. I got fish and chips. Fish was pretty good, fries were just warm. My friend got a salad and a chicken pesto sandwich. She said both were just okay, not great. $40 is still too much for two lunches that you don't feel wow about, but I would go again and see how other dishes are.
Margarito was an amazing server!!!! I’ve seen mixed reviews about decoy, but we will definitely be coming back!!!! Couldn’t have asked for a better date night!
Made reservations for a Sunday morning breakfast. Didn't realize it's the brunch buffet only for $39 a head. The website does not state this. Admittedly, I'm not a huge fan of buffets and this one was "eh". Not terrible but not great. Pretty standard fare that was ok. Not worth $39. Had to ask the wait staff to put serving utensils in about half of the dishes on the dessert table that were missing them. Service was not great. Took about 10 min for a waiter to come to our table. I needed to ask a question on our bill and couldn't track the waiter down for about 15 minutes. Overall...the price does not match the quality of food and service.
Great service, very good food and the water front view and water show was awesome!
Lousy, inattentive service. You need to ask for bread as it’s made for you - but only takes about a minute to get a basket of warming bin lukewarm buns. Got the protein right for the meals, well except the medium boiled eggs with extremely runny whites. The vegetables, starches and garnishes felt like they were plated yesterday.
Though nice view overlooking an eutrophic lake
We were very hesitant about going here because a lot of the reviews were not very good but I must say we had a fabulous time a great table great food our waiter Jason was awesome everything was perfect we’d go back again. I guess you could say that you can’t always trust the reviews you read .
Great dining while staying at the Lake House Resort. Restaurant is on the water with plenty of patio and window tables. Fun light shows on the water at 8:15 and 9:15. Attentive service and excellent food. Creative menu.
We had an 11am reservation. We were seated at a lovely view table. 5 minutes later they seated 18 people right behind us. The noise level escalated. They should have seated those 18 people in the other dining area. They were set up for them, so they knew they were coming.
We ordered an appetizer, then our server disappeared. I had to go to the bar to order our wine. Our server never returned. Someone else took over. The food was decent. It is kind of difficult to mess up a salad and brussels sprouts. The decor and views are divine.
The food is great and location unique and lovely, but the kids play area right in the lounge area at the bar is super annoying. Unattended, screeching kids throwing things at the play wall is not what I’m looking for when I go out and spend that kind of money for a dining experience. Disappointing.
I've lived in Encinitas for 25 years, and driven by the location countless times, and this is the first time I've been to Lake San Marcos! Saw a writeup in Westways, and it is well worth the drive. The ambiance is fun but elegant, the views great. The food is exquisite - we were early, so got the 5-6 pm menu. Salmon was excellent, the flavors all distinct, and human - size portions, which was good because salad and desert are included. Service was friendly and patient (I was catching up with a friend). A special place in San Marcos. We will be back!
Let me start with a great THANK YOU, it is great having a REAL restaurant in San Marcos, I just hope the people in the area support it.
The menu was fine and had enough variation to pl;ease most. For teh most part the food was good not exceptional, but a step or two better than anything nearby.
Meat dishes cooked perfectly. Had a order of the creamed spinach, that was a little thin and lacked real flavor. Made me thin they might have used milk and not cream. Having two meat entrees served to our group and being told they were out of steak knives and they were being washed did not add to the experience. Server did admit that she was having a bad day may have her off her game.
I will defiantly go back and hope the service issue was an one-off.
We had a wonderful time for my husbands birthday. The food and the service were great. We really enjoyed our evening there.
Ate at Decoy for the first time last night. Maybe my expectations were too high, but I was not impressed. The restaurant itself was pretty nice and we were seated at a nice corner table overlooking the lake because I told them it was our anniversary. Water came quickly, but it was a good 10 minutes before our waiter arrived. We ordered wine and the pork belly appetizer, both of which arrived in a reasonable time. The pork belly was good, but did not live up to the high price. Once we were done with the appetizer, we waited another 15 minutes for the waiter to take our entree order. Again, the food arrived in a reasonable amount of time, but was just put down on our table by a server (not our waiter) who promptly left. I wanted another glass of wine, but no sign of our waiter. The food was again good, but not good enough to deserve the high prices. I finally flagged down another waiter who brought me a glass of wine. Once we were done, we ordered two desserts. The waiter returned with just one and had to go get another. Overall, the food was good but not good enough for the prices they charge. The service was the big downfall for me, the waiter just wasn't around enough to make our experience pleasant. I most likely won't return.
Extremely dissatisfied and disappointed!!!
Went to Decoy Dockside based on an acquaintance recommendation.
Paid $180 for an overcooked/burnt ribeye (came recommended by the server), cornbread, lobster Mac and cheese, two glasses of beer, and pork chop.
It's unbelievable that they had no shame bringing a burnt dishes to serve their customer!!
Don't waste your money, the food and view is not worth it. Never returning here again!! Shared my experience with all my friends and family so they won't make the same mistake.
#Burntfood is what you will get at #DecoyDockSide