Bywater Cafe at Michigan Beach

I love this place! It is the best cafe, the food is amazing. From a cheeseburger and fresh cut fries to fish tacos and key lime pie. Top 3 places to eat out in Charlevoix! Everyone needs to experience the By Water Cafe!

ByWater Cafe is an amazing place to come get some lunch on the beach. Has a wide menu and an amazing variety of food. Vegetarian options are available. Friday night Low Country Shrimp Boils are the absoulet best! Very good service and gets very busy in the summer but is worth the wait for those great fries and homemade ice cream sandwiches. Smoothies are amazing, tropical is by far the best but each one is very very good. Everything they have to offer is great. The owner Annie Russel is a very hard working, Kind, and caring woman who knows how to run her many businesses and is very understanding. The staff is very kind and considerate and always checks up on tables, always offering refills, free ice creams after a long wait and will bring everything out to the patio when it is ready. Always ready and professionally prepared to deal with difficult situations. All in all Bywater Cafe is by far a hidden gem of Charlevoix, been there for 6 years and counting and is awaiting locals and always tourists to come down and grab some Cherry Chicken Salad, or some Fresh Whitefish Tacos, and a Green Goddess smoothie.

Absolutely love this Café. Fantastic food at great prices with a beautiful view!
What more could you ask for?

The Food is Delicious, more then you could ask for at a lakeside beach restaurant. The cafe has lovely chairs and table to enjoy your meals as you view the most beautiful scenery of Lake Michigan and the staff is top notch and very friendly and helpful

Great food and great staff! Annie has a great menu that is so much more than a beach menu. And it is so reasonable! Love this place and you can't beat the view!

We discovered this adorable little cafe on our family trip to Charlevoix while walking along the beach. The staff was very friendly, and they offer a lot of food options with very reasonable prices for familes.

The food wasn't very good. They over priced us. Are food only came to 26.88. My friend put in 20 and I put in 6, but they actually took 8 out of my car.
We asked them we were going to split it, so she gave them her 20 asked for 7 back and I was going to put in 13 on my card, but they took her full 20.
Definitely would not recommend

I can’t say enough about the Bywater Cafe. The food is excellent and the employees are awesome, especially the owner, Annie. The location is perfect and so is the ambience. 5 stars ALL DAY! Love the Bywater!!

Busy weekend in Charlevoix with the boat show. Walked up to the window to order, the woman who came to the window looked Angry almost as if me being there was an inconvenience. Their green flag that's right next to the window whipped me right in the eye and the lady didnt even apologize. I ordered a hot dog and french fries, then asked what they had to drink and the woman looks at me and points to something inside the window "they are right there ma'am" in the most condescending tone ever. I said no thanks im good because it was all Faygo drinks. The lady looks at me and says " you know what, you can leave, take your rude attitude with you". Seriously? Shes had been rude since she got to the window but refuses to serve me because I dont want your cheap soda? No way to treat paying customers. Or in my case non-paying non-customers. She even slide the window closed and walked away while I was still standing there. If this is the owner this place wont last long, dont work in a restaurant on Lake Michigan in the busiest time of year if you have no patience for how busy you will get.

Don't be fooled by the concession stand appearance of this historic stone building at the beach in Charlevoix. You can definitely get sno-cones and hotdogs, but the menu is way more extensive and includes many vegetarian options. We three had burgers, fries, and pickle chips. The burgers were meltingly tender, made with local Olson's beef. The fries were crisp on the outside and tender on the inside, just as you would expect, and look to be handcut. They come in a paper sack and are more than enough for three to share. You can eat on the patio, but we took ours to go, as there's a lovely shaded pavilion just a short walk away with a view of the pier, the beach, and the lake. I would strongly recommend a stop at this hidden gem in Charlevoix the Beautiful, particularly if you're on Park Street looking at the Mushroom Houses or standing by the channel watching the boats go in and out of Lake Michigan.