Starting Gate Restaurant — Restaurant in Auburn

I have never had such horrible service at a restaurant in my life. My family and I came in for breakfast on a Sunday morning, and I used to be a waitress so I completely understand that it gets busy. First off, we didn't get a waitress to our table for about 10 minutes of us being there. She was friendly and took the time to take 5 people's orders. The food did not come for another 20-25 minutes. 2 out of the 5 people I was with did not get their drinks. When we finally got the food, again 3 of the 5 people did not get their entire order. Small things were missing, like toast, butter and syrup. We were not seen again by the waitress for another 15 minutes. When we reminded her of the drinks and food missing, she said she would 've grabbing them. She refilled the waters as everyone was finishing up, and She did not refill the 2 coffees on the table until all but 2 plates were on the table. Still did not have our entire orders. I pulled her to our table and tried to tell her that the pancakes I had ordered did not taste right. They tasted like a cleaner or soap. She proceeded to walk away from our table as i was mid sentence and take the order of the group next to us, and walked away. She brought the toast that I paid extra for when she came back again another 10 minutes later, when all but my plate was off the table, at which time she filled our coffees. The toast had clearly been sitting, waiting for God only knows how long. It was cold, hard and burnt.

I asked the only other waitress working to speak to a manager when we went up to pay. Her response was "well she is really busy right now...how can I help". I told her I need to speak to management about the food and service. Her response to me again was "Well she is really busy, we are jammed" I walked away and told my waitress who was ringing us up that I would wait. I then told our waitress I did not want to pay for my meal that I was not able to eat as it tasted like soap. She responded with "Well, I took the toast off your bill." Instead of arguing, I unfortunately paid the bill, with every intention to speak to the manager.

The management is not any better. I waited, and waited....and waited. I was told to go back to the kitchen to alert the manager I was waiting. The manager, and owner mind you, looked at me and said "we are really busy, what's going on". I responded to her that I wanted to speak to someone about the food and service. Her response again to me was "well I am really busy, can you wait by the door". So I waited, and waited...and waited. I yelled to her that I was going to be waiting for her outside. She never cam out. By this time I had been just waiting for her for about 45 minutes. My Fiance went in to get our receipt so that I can come back and speak to her later. She finally came out to speak to my fiance. He told her that now we wanted all of our money back, not just for my meal, to which she responded "I don't want to give you your money back, we are busy". My Fiance began explaining, again what happened, and she then turned around, walked away back into the kitchen and continued cooking. Walked away mid conversation as my fiance was speaking. I went to the front counter to get my receipt and order check, to which the waitress who went through them to get it huffed and puffed and said "are you serious....this is ridiculous". I was told to come back at between 1 and 1:30 pm to speak to the manager.

I will never, ever give my money to this establishment again. If management not only allows their employees to be rude, but is also rude themselves, that is not a restaurant I think anyone...

4/24/24, mid-late afternoon visit.

The server was wearing gloves I'll give her that. But after clearing tables and dealing with your dishes she didn't bother to wash her hands or put on a new pair of gloves when she started handling food or resetting the tables.

She went right from dropping the dirty dishes off to grabbing silverware. Not once did I see her wash her hands the entire time we were there.

Apparently asking a couple of questions made her very annoyed. Let's just say she's not good at hiding her emotions. I can understand if it was really busy but it wasn't.

I find it absolutely ridiculous that you have options of choices on some meals (sandwiches/burgers) but not all of them. That makes no sense whatsoever. How about just a slight upcharge to flip something out?

And not being able to sub something that is low carb instead of hash browns for people that are on a dietary restrictions? You are literally the only restaurant we've ever been to that refuses to do that.

Again, charge another $1 or 2 and flip hash browns out for tomatoes, cottage cheese or applesauce..whatever..but not being able to sub at all is horrible.

Also thinking about the people that have certain allergies like myself to green peppers. Not being able to flip stuff out if you have an allergy is also really bad business.

We've given you a restaurant a shot a handful of times now and we're done....

The food was good, but I was disappointed by the restaurant’s strict no-substitution policy. I visited on a Saturday morning for breakfast and asked if they had turkey bacon, but the server told me they did not, which I understood. However, when I asked if I could substitute something else in its place, I was informed that substitutions were not allowed on anything, and the server couldn’t explain why.

This seemed unnecessarily rigid, especially considering that some people may not eat pork for religious or dietary reasons. It would have been nice if they had at least offered an alternative, such as fresh fruit or another protein option. The lack of flexibility made the dining experience feel a bit unwelcoming.

That being said, the food itself was decent. The chicken fried steak, for example, was flavorful and cooked well, though not the best I’ve had. However, the French toast was underwhelming—it seemed like it was just dipped in batter and quickly fried, making it very basic and lacking the richness or depth of flavor that good French toast should have.

Overall, while the food was passable, the lack of menu flexibility and unwillingness to accommodate simple requests left a negative impression. I’m not sure if I’d return, especially when there are other breakfast spots that offer both good food and better...