Tate's Place — Restaurant in Portage

Today was my first time going here. It will also be my last. I ordered a chef salad, with ranch dressing. My friend ordered sweet potato fries with a side of ranch dressing. First of all the salad was $11.99, and that was with one meat on it. If I wanted more meat I would have to pay for a deluxe salad. I've never seen that before. If it's a chef salad it has a multiple types of meat. I asked for shredded cheese, they gave me big, thick strips of cheddar cheese on top. The ham was also wide long strips, and was incredibly salty. The salad was basically a bowl of lettuce with the ham a hard-boiled egg a couple of cherry tomatoes and a couple slices of cucumber. But the real spoiler came with the first bite. I knew something was off. The dressing tasted like miracle whip not ranch dressing. My friend who also had ranch dressing said the same thing. I thought about sending it back and getting another salad with a different kind of dressing, but I didn't have time to wait for another salad to be made. I ate about a quarter of the salad, and I just couldn't tolerate the taste. Miracle whip does not belong on a salad. There's also the fact that I'm a diabetic, and I chose ranch dressing because it's low carb. What I got was miracle whip; probably, maybe? I don't know. So I don't really know what that's going to do to my sugar. When the server came back she asked me if I wanted a take out box and I said no. She said "are you finished"?, and I said yes. She didn't even ask if something was wrong, which seemed odd given that I had only eaten about a quarter of my salad that I paid $13 for. I told her about the dressing, and she insisted it was hidden valley ranch dressing. My friend and I both disagreed vehemently, saying we knew what hidden valley ranch dressing tasted like. Hidden valley ranch dressing tastes vastly different from miracle whip. Miracle whip or generic miracle whip, has a vinegar taste. It also has about 4 g of added sugar. So my friend and I were both displeased with our meals because she got the sweet potato fries to go with the ranch dressing and she couldn't finish hers either because of the ranch dressing. When check came, nothing had been taken off. Apologies were made. The server speculated that perhaps they ran out of hidden valley ranch and made their own. I disagreed as did my friend. That was not an attempt at ranch dressing. That was something very different than ranch dressing. The fact that, with both people being dissatisfied with their food, nothing was taken off the check, not even a discount. Just nothing. That just rubbed me the wrong way. It left a bad taste in my mouth. I'll just add Tates place to my, "Don't go...

Food was average, service was dismissive. We dine out often and have been to some amazing breakfast places. However, our experience was not. A few in our family are vegetarians and prefer to simply substitute meat for more veggies or anything else which is Never a problem elsewhere however, during our order at Tates the server said "I'm not sure and asked the manager, then we were told "No. we only serve meat and there will be an up-charge to take out meat or make any changes" I was truly appalled and said well that's not fair. Then given an attitude like we were the inconvenience. Our family dine out often and have given rave reviews but unfortunately felt dismissed here. Another customer leaned over and whispered to us "Sorry, its because their cooks don't speak English and they don't want to confuse them, they employ illegal immigrants" Who really knows, but we're not returning. There's too many wonderful places who will substitute to our pallette with no problem or up charge. Our monies will be welcome elsewhere. Good bye Tates. Shame on the owner for being dismissive.

Update: we have passed up Tates now for two years and shared our experience with our friends. We since found other really great breakfast places. One is Pancake house down Willowcreek and Third...

Normally don't make reviews but beyond upset about the horrible customer service we just received. We called to place a to go order and specifically asked several times to clarify that the sausage in the omelet was not linked sausage with casing. As we just wanted chunked sausage. As my husband cannot have the casing due to medical issue. She kept saying it was chopped. We again said as long as its not the links chopped. When he got home and we began eating it was in fact linked sausage just cut up. So of course I call to make a complaint and ask for them to remake the order. The manager explained she was sorry for the confusion she would make another one and we can come get it then proceeded to say the total was $9 something......are you kidding me!!! They wanted me to pay for a mistake they made after we specifically explained what we wanted over and over. I get mistakes and misunderstandings happen but to make us pay for one of the meals you screwed up is absurd!! Even after explaining this wasn't like we didn't explain we clearly didn't get what we ordered. She stated cause they don't actually have an omelet with chopped sausage patties that the lady was confused....again not my fault and not what I ordered. She still expected us to pay. Will NEVER eat...