Palate

Reviews 3

MI

Michael Jay

Farm to Table?.. I dont think so 06/27/14 Edit Diner from Detroit • chef • c 1 review Some of you might see this as sour grapes, but Im not trying to be a disgruntled Ex employee. You deserve to know what really goes on at The Palate. I was the Executive Chef last year, until the first day of Milford Memories. When I arrived to take over the kitchen, the menu was uninspiring, and mostly fish & pasta based. The owner Joe & Bristol are stubborn about modern practices, & food trends, and would not allow me to change the majority of dishes. The Mac & cheese for instance.... Its bow tie pasta (dried) with Alfredo.... Joe or Bristols niece likes it, so therefore it stays on the menu. Likewise, with the turkey.... Its Jenny O turkey tenders (you can find these in your local supermarket(Look at the chemicals in that product) Veggy burgers are frozen crap you can buy from a supermarket. When I first started, you had Beef tenderloin sandwich on the menu. Firstly, This wasnt tenderloin.. Secondly, it was a pre cooked rib from a plastic wrapper.... Although the bread comes from Great Harvest, it falls apart, It has no taste, the horseradish came from a pre made jar. I feel I changed a lot of things, including adding BBQ ribs, Pulled Pork, Slow roasted brisket, our own BBQ sauce, Piri Piri, Curry, along with countless other dishes that were modern, and calorie conscious. Brunch is another screw up... who in their right mind starts serving brunch for the first time on Mothers day? I used to get to work at 5.30-6.00am every day, and customers always saw me still there at 9-10pm every day. I did get Mondays off, but spent that day going to Eastern Market to buy the best products, as they werent available through our distributor. Why as it taken me so long to post this?... There was a legal issue that I had to refrain from posting any comments. Joe is a bully. He intimidates all of his staff. While I was working there, two whole kitchen crews walked out through bounced paychecks, and intimidation. I rebuilt the kitchen team, to one of the best crews Ive worked with in nearly 40 years of working in kitchens. One by one they left also through bounced checks, lack of respect from Joe, and his inhumane treatment of people. I refused to be bullied. I stood up for my staff. I respected their efforts, and led them through encouragement. Joe on the other hand was menacing in his approach to his staff, and you will never see a black person working there. I cant put his comments about that subject on here, likewise his open views on Muslims, Jews etc..... NEWS FLASH JOE.... Im Jewish.... You are a bigot, who should go back to Canada. An owner of any business who doesnt frequent his own restaurant except to drink, has no place owning or running a restaurant. I hope this gives you the tools to vote with your feet!

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Lisa Ewers

We went to Palate last night with a group of 13 people. I only had a reservation for 12, but instead of giving us options on how to solve the problem with the 1 additional person, our waitress just acted annoyed and not helpful at all. I do not recommend this for larger groups, the tables cannot be pushed together as they are bolted to the ground. When asking if we cant just add a chair at the head of one of the tables I was told we cannot move the tables (unfortunately she completely did not listen to my questions several times). After asking for a chair for a couple of times the guests at the neighboring table (who happen to hear everything), were so polite to let us have their chair - only after the waitress repeatedly did not seem to find a solution to our request. We were actually really surprised to not get the tables that actually move (in the middle of the restaurant). Why, if you come with such a large group, would you be placed at tables that do not move? The tables in the middle could be moved and even in the other room the tables could have been joined to one big table. When you come with such a large group it should be obvious that you actually want to sit together. And we already made the reservation almost a week in advance, which should have been enough time to organize a group. We then ordered appetizers (bread sticks), which took forever to come to the table. The actual quality of the food was good, but it just took very long. Special request for dietary / health restrictions were taken only with comments from the waitress. The order for the main course was taken for some people, but others, further down the tables had to find the waitress constantly to place an order. Every order or question seemed to bother and annoy her. She was very hectic and not exactly friendly. The main course was given out to some people of the group, who were already done while half of the group was still waiting for their food. Some had dietary restrictions and when asking for some adjustments the waitress made a face and a big fuss about it instead od just checking if its possible. It was very loud and you could only talk to the person immediately sitting next to you. It was very full last night and you could feel that in the service. The service or better: friendliness improved towards the end, when it was time for the check and therefore the tip. Such a shame that I have to give a bad review, because the food was actually really good and very tasty. But the service was just not good and we did not feel welcome as guests. and: no we did not ask for the manager, because the waitress did not make us feel very comfortable with asking for anything.

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Erika G

The restaurant in itself is wonderful, the food never disappoints. However the hostesses are incredibly rude. My husband and I wanted to be seated outside when we were told of a wait period of possibly 30/45 min. Which is fine and understandable but before my husband could answer the hostess rudely told the other girl working to just seat us at section (?), thinking we were headed outside we were suddenly seated in the middle of every commotion possible for a restaurant. I dont understand why you would want to ruin such a wonderful place with such cheap seating in the middle of the floor inches from the tables next to you. Then before we could even open the menu servers were balancing food on trays over our heads and passing us extremely close. Bothered by the non sense and unprofessionalisim we got up and asked to be seated outside again. The hostess acted like it would again be an outrageous wait that we again werent opposed to being patient. We sat ourselves at the bar and before I received my cocktail the hostess came to us and said a table was ready on the patio.. frustrated at this point my husband followed the hostess outside and I waited for my drink. Surprisingly after I received my drink I found my husband standing behind me to take me outside. When we finally got to the table he explained that after sitting the hostess hardly showed him to the table, walking 10 ft in front the entire time, then she tossed the menus down and walked away. Nothing said as he caught up to her and sat at our table. For this type of a restaurant I wouldnt hire such snobby girls to greet customers and place them accordingly. After the first 20minutes the rest of our time was fine.