We chose to host our wedding reception in Lake Chalet's Gondola Room, which is a private dining room that can seat between 90 to 120 (depending on how many tables in your floor plan). It has nearly 360 degree views of the lake through its beautiful windows, and after a recent light revamp they've got chiavari chairs as well!

Tiffany, the event coordinator, was very responsive to my e-mails and answered all of my tiny, detailed little questions from how many hors d'oeuvres I should order for my guests to whether the ahi tuna crudo could be made gluten-free. I swear, I sent this woman a list of 50 questions and she answered all of them promptly and kindly. Thanks so much!

The process of planning is very organized, as Tiffany provides an event order and a floor plan layout to work from, which makes it really easy to to collaborate and see what is covered in the contract, as well as an estimate of your final bill.

On the day of, the manager on duty, the wait staff, and the bartender were excellent. Many of my guests told me that the wait staff was prompt and friendly, and the bartender did a fantastic job with our signature drinks. Everyone was delighted with the food as well. My husband and I had gone to the Lake Chalet for lunch prior to booking the venue and felt that their food was good, but they really stepped it up a notch for our wedding. Thank you so much for that!

Thank you again for making our wedding day unforgettable. We are so glad we chose Lake Chalet for our reception!

We hosted an intimate wedding reception at Lake Chalet gondola room last month. The space is beautiful - full of natural light, lots of windows showing a panoramic view of Lake Merritt, a balcony to step out on for fresh air. The Gondola room has its own private bar and bathroom.

We were planning with event staff for months. Communication was hit or miss; sometimes it would take a while to get a response or not at all. Despite asking for it weeks before, we were not given a layout of the event until 2 days before and even then there was confusion about whether or not they would be able to fit everyone. The event coordinator numbered the tables arbitrarily without asking us but luckily the day-of event staff helped correct this before the event started. In general, it seems there was poor communication between the coordinator and all parties involved. They also seemed understaffed. We were told there would be 2 bartenders but there was only 1 out serving drinks and it started late. They didn’t know what beers they had at first and had to print out drink menus at the last minute. However, the event staff there did try to make up for it and for the most part, guests did not notice the lack of coordination.

Parking is not great and we feel that the hosts of such a large event should not have to pay for the valet parking.

It was a beautiful venue. The event coordinator was really great and super organized. But we did have multiple customer service issues with the staff on the day of my wedding.

I think my biggest issue was that we caught the bartenders charging people for drinks that we had already paid for (we had the option of buying an unlimited drink package for the event.)

I had also requested to take home some of my wedding cake so I could freeze it and we could eat it on our one year anniversary. But I was told that we didn't have anymore. We had actually bought two cakes (enough for 120) and only had 100 guests. So there definitely should have been some left over. I later saw some of the bartenders sneaking cake behind the bar. Which I thought was a little unprofessional, considering they had already told me that there was none left.

The lady who organizes everything isn't actually at the venue on weekends, which I think is part of the reason why things didn't run very smoothly on the day off.

There was a manager there, who was great, but he had to manage the restaurant portion as well (we rented their private event room) so he wasn't actually present during the whole event.

I did bring this all up to the event coordinator, and she ended up giving me a generous gift card for the service we received.

One of our guests had their car broken into. He parked on the street, and his date had wedged her purse under the seat. Keep in mind that although the restaurant is beautiful, it's still Oakland. There is a very small parking lot. All those spots ended up going to people that had to be there early (DJs and some relatives) and everyone else had the option of valet. It's $8 for valet, which you can cover or just have the guests pay on their own. The restaurant rents out a private lot big enough to hold everyone in your group. I would recommend that if you book here, you encourage your guests to use the valet service.