Traditions Restaurant & Bar — Restaurant in South Bend

Our server was super nice and was able to recommend places to visit while we are in town. Unfortunately, the food was a serious disappointment.

To say it lacked flavor would be an understatement. I was under the impression that the peach salad would be enough for dinner but was shocked when a petite pile of spinach came out. Thankfully, I added salmon to it, so it had some substance. I had not realized that peaches could be so lacking in favor, yet somehow, a meek serving of flavorless fleshy fruit graced my plate. I would definitely recommend cooking them with a little salt to bring out any flavor. The only saving grace were the toasted almonds and grated cheese, although they were few and far in between.

As I tried the chicken Marsala, I could feel all the moisture leaving my body as the salt overpowered all other flavors in the meal. Please find some other seasoning besides salt and black pepper because it isn't doing any good for these dishes.

The Brussel sprouts were sad and wet, once again without flavor. I'm not sure what the sad excuse of a sauce they were sitting in, but it is working. These should be roasted till crispy with a light seasoning or even tossed like a chicken wing.

I admit that the pork chop was delicious and tender. I guess I should have ordered something with red meat, but if this restaurant hopes to make it any further than two stars, they better find a way to diversify, add flavor, and watch the salt because salt doesn't add flavor it is supposed to enhance the flavor that is...

Going to start with positives.... Staff was great. Attentive, accurate, knowledgeable and patient. Took them less than 30 seconds to come to our table and greet us, really top notch there. Atmosphere is ok, nothing wow, nothing bad. Good place to sit, have good conversations and move along. Now the food.... OH BOY.... my family ordered the Italian Meatballs for starters, a burger and wings, super simple stuff, extremely hard to get wrong, or so we thought. Meatballs came first, the bread was piping hot (which is never bad) but the meatballs were stone cold, so we opened them and yes, they were RAW. We sent them back and order our food (burger and wings) After a reasonable time, our food comes first before the meatballs, so we dig in.... Wings were mediocre at best, with a strange after taste on the rub they use for them. Burger on the other hand, it was not even close. Ordered it medium-well, it came in dry as a rock. Patty was CLEARLY frozen, probably a couple of days old if it was even made fresh at some point. You know your burger needs help when they have to salamander/torch your cheese to make it melt (which for american cheese it means destroying all flavor) the garlic parm fries were ok, but they need a better way of balancing flavors on it. In the end, it won't be a place I would ever visit again, and if you want a good or great burger you are better of with Five Guys or Bru Burger...

Read through all the reviews and was really excited for good food that was conveniently located inside the hotel we were staying at. They said family friendly, so we brought our 3 children. The menu online is pretty different from the menu that was handed to us, which changed what we had planned to order. It took almost 20 minutes for the server to come and ask us what we would like to drink. Another 10 minutes to come back with the drinks. The kids (4 and 2) ordered the pasta with marinara sauce. It was tomato sauce with half a char of black pepper sprinkled with jalapenos. My kids couldn't eat it. They kept drinking the water because it was so spicy! I was shocked that this would be served to children. I wanted something quick so I ordered a burger. She asked how I wanted it cooked, which I said medium (husband ordered a chicken sandwich). 30 minutes later, the food arrived. Overcooked burger, which I didn't complain about. I just wanted my kids fed and happy. They didn't eat the dry burger and they didn't eat the spicy pasta. Server didn't give us refills on the waters that my kids drank. This place is a waste of time and money. Don't bother coming here. You can get better food for half the cost if you walk 5-10 minutes around the block. $75 for 2 hours of below...