Lake Burger Tavern — Restaurant in Portage

The food was outstanding! But our service was not great. We (my husband and 3 year old son) Went in and saw that it was seat yourself, we tried to look for a high chair or booster seat but couldn’t find any so we asked someone who was on an IPad drinking at the bar who seemed like maybe the manger because all the employees kept talking to her, the “maybe manager” said that we should just help ourselves, but we told her we didn’t know where the high chair or booster seats were so we couldn’t help ourselves… she pointed to the corner…they were hidden behind some equipment, a waiter handed us the highchair then we went to our table. We sat down but our server did not come until about 10 mins after we had sat down… at this point there are 3 servers and the restaurant is not busy…however all the servers are hanging out behind the bar talking with the IPad lady. Our server only gave us two menus, failing to acknowledge our 3 year old needing a kids menu. We assumed they didn’t have kids menus but when we began to order my husband asked if they had kids menus… they did. So then our server brought us the menu and crayons (why not earlier?). All in all, our server seemed uninterested and not very thoughtful. A lot of her time was spent talking to the maybe manager on the iPad drinking at the bar…the only time she checked on us was 30 seconds after our food was delivered. Before we even had a chance to take a bite she asked how our food was. My husband had to get up in order to ask for multiple things because she would not come to check on us. The kids menu comes with a drink but she never asked what our son wanted to drink so my husband had to go up to the bar and ask for a chocolate milk. Our son’s chocolate milk was also spoiled (tasted terrible), like they used lemonade instead of milk to make it… 🤢 our server said that the milk expired 7/30… still had two days, but she took our word for it and thankfully she made him a new one. The whole evening was strange and the service was very lacking. The food, however, was so good!! Really can’t stress this enough…OUTSTANDING taste. We had the burger and chicken sandwich. Thankfully Lake Burger has a 2nd location that is only takeout so that’s just what we will do...

We went here for an early dinner on a Tues. Unfortunately, right off the bat we weren't impressed with the very loud music, with speakers above your head everywhere so there really isn't anywhere quiet to get away from it. This is a tavern like place, where the menu is on the wall and you order from the counter and they bring it out. The menu looked amazing, so we had high hopes for the food and we were both very hungry. My husband ordered the cod and I ordered the bacon burger, we split the green chili fries. He had a beer, I had a martini. The martini wasn't horrible, but the olives were stuffed with something very weird, if it was supposed to be cheese, they failed. I will be honest, my husband said it was the best cod he's ever had at a restaurant, and he orders it a lot. Unfortunately the fries (both his on his plate and the green chili fries) were overly salted. My burger, the bun was not fresh, but had been slightly grilled (or nuked). I was really looking forward to a big patty of meat, we love Carlson Farms meat. It was very thin, and cooked unevenly (they never asked me how I wanted it which seems strange since they specialize in burgers). The bacon was okay, the bbq sauce was terrible. The crispy onions again, overly salty. I like salt, obviously I ordered a burger with bacon and blue cheese on it and fries with cheese, but this was ridiculous. The chili fries were good, but too much salt. We were never asked if everything was okay, never asked if we wanted water, and could barely talk to each other over the music. Another thing that was suspicious? The food came out super fast, way to fast for things to have been cooked fresh. So, Lake Burger, do you want to be a bar or do you want to be a restaurant. We were just lucky there were only a few people in there so we didn't have to compete with 20 other people talking loudly to each other...

I have been here a few different times and everytime it was awesome. The last time we came it was about 2 or 3 months ago. Today we went and I noticed right away that Lake Burger flipped the script. Why the change? It was awesome before...you would go in, order at the counter, pay, go fill your drinks, sit down and wait for your food. I wish you would have left it like that. Now, it's like a regular restaurant where you go in sit down and WAIT for a server :-/ That isn't all... so the food wasn't as good as it usually WAS. and I didn't get what I asked for. Instead of bringing out fries for each meal, they brought me a side of truffle fries. Right away, I told the person bringing them out, that we wanted fires for everyone not a side. She just kinda looked at me and said, "well if it's not enough let us know". No apology, no "we'll make it right" or no "we'll get those going for you right away" no care in the world. The fries were soggy and limp, kinda cold. And our sandwiches were not as they have been in the past. Ugh...this makes me sad because I LOVED the way Lake Burger used to be. I would make my husband take us to get lunch their after our boy's haircut at Jude's because we all agreed they were the best. But we probably won't be back again. Sorry Lake Burger, "if it ain't broke, don't...