Main St. Pub — Restaurant in Portage

I've been going to Main Street (West Main and Westnedge locations) for over thirty years now. I have a lot of great memories. Unfortunately this last visit is only a bad memory. Food wasn't as good as it used to be. The waitress was extremely friendly but several times drinks were ordered and never came out. When we said something the drinks promptly arrived, however at the end of the night we saw on the bill that we were charged twice - once for the missing drink and once for the one that arrived. Mistakes happen and I could look past this one, unfortunately that wasn't the only problem.

There is a sign on the mirror in the bathroom saying they now charge 4% for credit cards. This info is not on the menu and never was told to any of us, even when we produced credit cards to pay the bill. Most cards charge less than 3% to the business so Main Street is profiting off of this. That is just wrong. If they can't handle credit card fees then they shouldn't accept credit cards.

The biggest problem of the night, and the reason we won't be back, was the music volume. It was LOUD! There were five of us and we all complained we couldn't hear each other talking. Several times the waitress turned it down just to have the manager turn the volume back up! Main Street is not a nightclub, it wasn't that busy and had a few families eating dinner. Nobody came for blaring music. We complained to the waitress and she confirmed the manager was the problem and said they had been fighting all night about it. She turned the volume back down and shortly after my wife saw the manager berating the waitress behind the bar. He went and turned the volume back up and we told him directly it was too loud. He turned it down a tiny bit then disappeared behind the bar. No excuse for this. If I want blaring music I'll go to a club. I wanted to catch up with some old friends, have a few drinks...

Today was my last visit here. Seems like all of the main streets have taken a serious downturn. I’ve been frequenting most of their locations for over 20 years, but no more. There is zero consistency between restaurants with the EXACT SAME menus. Tonight, we ordered two of the chicken tender baskets and their special of “creamy” pesto pasta with blackened chicken (was shrimp but we traded proteins).

The “new” chicken tender breading was UNBELIEVABLY salty—to the point that after three small pieces it was burning my tongue! We threw more than a full order away and didn’t even want the fries because of the overwhelming salt.

The creamy pesto would be better described as “water pesto”! Zero flavor, nearly certain there was NO cream or any kind of cheese, it was SO BAD.

I informed the server and told her that I didn’t want any changes, but after leaving and realizing we paid over $70 with tip, appetizer and one beer, I feel completely shafted. None of us ate more than half of the meals and we ALL ate again when we got home. I will be calling tomorrow to request a refund. I felt bad because our server was training a girl, but that shouldn’t be my concern. My children could cook better as toddlers, and most of our food was FRIED BAR FOOD! Zero stars if I could!

Please stop letting new cooks be the excuse and train them before letting them cook for the public. It’s been like that last 15 or so visits that nothing has been good. I can only trust the...

Upon entering this eatery I was greeted by a sign that said please wait to be seated. For approx ten minutes I waited and eventually had to ask the bartender for a host.

The young man that came out of the kitchen to assist me told me to sit wherever. (Would have been great to do that ten minutes prior).

Pretzel bites were warm but a bit burnt and crunchy though the turkey club on the pretzel bun was spectacular! The fountain soda was refreshing as well.

There were several female servers who were very attentive with drink refills and taking my lunch order after the appetizer arrived but again the male server who “seated me” was absent and seemed to check in only as I placed another bite of food in my mouth.

There were nine other customers in the building by my count. So the lack of service to be seated in an appropriate amount of time and the quality of service by my Server was lacking in every way possible and wasn’t likely caused by a “lunch rush”. It seemed like he was absent when I needed him especially when time for my check. Which was a hassle and made me question “do these people even want my money or business?”

In this time of Covid restrictions and eateries wanting patrons I found myself feeling as if it were a mistake to come to Main Street Pub Portage today instead of one of the many other local options.

In recap: tasty sandwich, lackluster pretzel bites and a complete fail in regards to service. Is this what can be expected from...