Sagebrush Cantina — Restaurant in Lake Orion

I like to rate restaurants on four factors: atmosphere, food, waitstaff, and overall experience. We chose this restaurant because it was full to the brim, so it must’ve been good. Even all the stickers in the windows from awards of past years tell me that this was a good restaurant. Unfortunately I couldn’t find one good thing with this place. Atmosphere: it was LOUD. Not just a lot of people in a small space conversing loud. It was the noise of tv commercials, the hostesses, football fans yelling, and a lot of people in a small space conversing loud. The noise was absolutely unnecessary. Even waiting in the area between the dining area and the outside was so incredibly loud. It immediately turned me off to this place and gave me such a bad headache. Food: I ordered a taco salad with beef and no olives. It’s hard to mess something up that simple but somehow they managed it. The lettuce in the salad was fresh and crisp but it had so much water from it being washed. They couldn’t have pat it dry or put it in a salad spinner? The portion size was HUGE. Maybe some people like that but when you can’t mix anything together then there is obviously a problem with your portion size. I asked for no olives but I found a couple in mine. I found it to be not a big deal since it was just because I don’t like olives but it has me concerned because what if I requested no olives because I was allergic? I didn’t complain because it was a busy Saturday night and I didn’t want to waste any bodies time over some wet lettuce and two olive slices but my boyfriend ended up getting what we assume was a quick burst of food poisoning. If they couldn’t handle a simple no olive request then it wouldn’t surprise me if they weren’t properly handling all of their food safely. Waitstaff: This one I try to be a little softer with on a Saturday night. We’re all human and nobody is perfect but our waitress didn’t even check on us once. I spent most of my meal with an empty cup and the first few minutes we spent with no silverware. We had to sit awkwardly with plates full of food before I finally walked up to the hostess station and asked for them myself. I would be okay with it but I watched as our waitress helped bag up the tables food next to us while I was required to unfold the bag myself. She was chummy with all other tables but unfortunately we were left to take care of ourselves. Overall experience: awful. Absolutely awful. Definitely will never come here again nor suggest...

The sopapillas came drowned in raspberry fructose sauce.

It is not described on the menu as coming with anything like that.

They were set down on the table and the waitress walked off.

We had to wave her over to ask to get them without the sauce. We tried them but one bite confirmed we just couldn’t eat that.

The super sweet fake fruit sauce blinded all other flavors - might as well have a bowl of the sauce and eat it with a spoon.

There were no untouched sopapillas hiding under the others to dig out.

Had to wave the waitress over to ask to get them without the sauce, because you couldn’t taste anything else.

She argued with us and said, “oh, the decoration?” Then just stood there - unconvinced, I guess?

(Um, a decoration is a garnish like parsley YOU CAN REMOVE without it entirely changing the flavor of the food that it has touched.)

I apologized and said the menu gave us no warning it would come drenched in fruit sauce.

Despite ME apologizing to HER for THEIR misrepresention on the menu she still seemed pretty annoyed and from then on she seemed to want to ignore us. It took forever to get them re-done without the fructose all-over.

She continued on in an unfriendly manner from then on until we left.

It seemed a heavy drinking place, looked like lots of big bar tables that groups were expected to sit at for hours while they get sloshed.

My husband and I didn’t order drinks so maybe she was already annoyed she’d not make a bigger tab on heavy drinkers. Maybe it wasn’t just the fact we didn’t want the fruit syrup, idk. She gave us the bill without asking if we wanted dessert. We’d had to wave her down to ask her to order more.

The non-sopapillas food was a little expensive, but good. Nonetheless I don’t think we’ll go back.

They don’t need us and we were treated as such. This review won’t hurt them. The large groups of heavy drinkers will sustain their...

Edit: Have spent probably a few thousand dollars here over the past few years. Over 50% of the time we get carry out when family is in town for pretty large orders. Sometimes we dine in. I've always thought the fish tacos were good. Actually had fish tacos at 3 or 4 places in San Diego and found that Sagebrushes were the best I could find in every aspect except for the fish. Other places can beat their fish fairly easily, but no one can touch the sauce. Recently the fish has been pretty much trash. They are much much larger pieces of cod and it just isn't good at all imho.

What I'm really frustrated about is the fact that I've been lied to countless times over the years based on the price on the menu vs what I'm actually getting charged.

For a triple item combo it states that it's $12.99. As stated, the only two items excluded from the combo prices are the "Super Burrito" and the "Carne Asada Burrito." That's fair and nice to know before ordering. What's really got me irritated beyond belief is that I have been unknowingly getting charged $16 for a triple item combo of fish tacos. Last week we ordered 4 triple combos of fish tacos amongst other things. I didn't look at the bill in the restaurant just as I have done countless other times. I got charged an extra $12 for the combos vs the price stated on the menu. Who knows how many times that's happened to me.

Last night when I went and dined in I looked at my bill and what do you know $16 for a $12.99 meal as stated on the menu. Honestly I'm done with it. It's super shady business. I asked about it and was met with some bs answer and I didn't want to take it out on the waitress who doesn't deserve it and did did an exceptional job.

TLDR - They have shady practices in place in which they charge more for meals than stated on the menu.

Gonna go give Rio On Main a chance... Have been hearing good things about...