Drifter's Restaurant & Lounge: A Poor Pretender

Occasionally my wife and I try a new restaurant just to be adventurous. Such was the case this weekend. We had plans for Saturday night that involved attending a gig for my wife's cousin's significant other's band at a local tavern in Portage, Indiana.

Wanting to make a weekend of pampering out of it, we got a room with a whirlpool tub, those fancy cable stations we don't get at home, and a chance to try a restaurant that we hadn't patronized in the past.

So we checked in and asked if there were any recommendations for decent dining experiences. The clerk indicated that the restaurant directly in front of the hotel was "very good." Now we are ordinarily suspicious of recommendations coming from people who are native to this part of the country. It seems that there are so few good places to eat, other than hot dog stands and pizza joints, that what people around here call "good" would not pass for "fair" in most other places.

We have managed to find a few good places out this way, including "Eat At Moes" (a "Mediterranean" restaurant in Michigan City), "Billy Jack's Cafe" (an eclectic combination of Italian, Southwestern and Steak fare in Valparaiso), "Pumps On 12" (a road house style cafe with a Route 66 feel and theme on Rte 12 heading into Michigan City) and a few others. But a lot of places recommended in the area fail to meet our standards, including "Wagner's Ribs" in Chesterton (way too expensive and only fair quality), "Lucrezia" in Chesterton (good food but way over-priced and claustrophobic seating arrangements), "Pestos" in Valparaiso (some of the worst pasta dishes I have ever eaten for that price), not to mention not being able to find a decent Chinese joint in all of Porter County.

But we chose to take the clerk's advice and tried our luck at Drifter's Restaurant and Lounge on Route 20 in Portage. It has the appearance of a large tavern from the outside. Upon entering the division between the bar and the restaurant is quite obvious. The bar side has pool tables, a decent jukebox, video games and a decent size bar. The bar caters to a combination of locals and the many truckers that roll through this region and use the four or five hotels or motels located within a stone's throw from the front doors.

The restaurant side of the house was poorly decorated in the fashion of a New York Italian eatery, only with beige vinyl table cloths, rocking off-balanced tables, chairs that went out of style in the 1960s and a floor that looked in need of new tiles. Our waitress was very young, very nervous and very new to waiting tables. We later learned that this was her third time working as a waitress and ordinarily worked as either a bus girl or the hostess.

The menu had a wide selection with moderately high prices--at least for this area. We looked at a lot of items on the menu. I was tempted by the description of roasted lamb chops described as a "special," until I found that the "special" was nothing more than the same item listed in the back of the menu at the same price. There were a number of seafood items, including crab cakes, fried pollock, tilapia (the new craze in seafood for the Mid-West), orange roughy and such.

But we were in the mood for steak. The menu described the steaks as "hand cut" and aged for 21 days on the premises. Entrees were served with a choice of salad or soup, vegetable of the day, choice of potato, and rolls and whipped butter. There was a litany of appetizers as well.

My wife passed on the appetizer, but I chose the special on "Saganaki." For those unfamiliar with Saganaki (it is rumored to be a Chicago area original), it is an Americanized Greek dish that places Kasseri cheese on a piping hot plate, pours brandy or brandy extract on it, sets it aflame, and douses it with freshly squeezed lemon juice. Most places that serve Saganaki offer very small servings for a large amount of money. Drifter's version offered a significant amount of cheese, but the alcohol used to flambe the cheese was something other than brandy and missed the mark in terms of imparting flavor. Although it wasn't a horrible appetizer, and it was a large portion, it was only "good" rather than sensational.

We both ordered the rib eye steaks. My wife ordered hers "medium well" and I ordered my "medium rare." Medium well should be cooked until just a hint of pink remains in the center of the meat. Medium rare should be cooked until the outer portion on both sides is cooked but a significant portion of the center remains rare, but not bleeding.

When our steaks were served we were quite surprised in terms of the serving. These were some of the biggest steaks I have seen served in the area... in fact, in the Mid-West. However, our first cut into the steaks revealed that the person cooking the steaks had no clue regarding the "doneness" of the cooking of meat. My steak was practically walking in the fields, and so was that served to my wife. I used to eat all my beef dishes in various stages of "rare," so it did not bother me. My steak was significantly thick, so I understood that misjudging the "doneness" was an easy mistake. However, my wife's steak was not excessively thick and there was no way to excuse or rationalize the error on her steak.

So, we sent them back. The waitress did not keep the steaks in order, so we were handed the wrong steaks back. My wife received my steak and I received hers. It was indicated that the steak originally served to me was now "medium well" and the steak originally served to my wife was "medium rare" (which says something about the way they were originally served). However, the steak now in front of my wife barely met the "medium rare" standard and the steak in front of me barely met the "medium" standard, and was not even close to the "medium well" she ordered. We switched plates without a lot of discourse.

Now, giving credit where credit is due, and despite the errors regarding how we wanted our steaks prepared, these steaks were of the highest quality beef. They were tender, well-marbled, not excessively fatty, and tasted like steaks should taste, especially when paying $18 for them.

But then the rest of the meal was so disappointing. The soup was supposed to be chicken rice. There was a very real danger of going blind looking for the chicken. The vegetables in the soup were mushy and flavorless. The base of the soup was equally flavorless. The rice was unappealing and the whole experience was salty (and when I complain of something being salty, it is excessive). The rolls served were nice, but they were not homemade... obviously coming from a heat and serve package. The whipped butter served with the rolls was also salty, almost as if salted butter had more salt added in the whipping process.

My wife ordered mashed potatoes, which she had to send back because they were salty, cold and tasted like instant potatoes made with an inadequate amount of liquid. She asked for a "twice-baked" potato instead. The twice-baked potato was so dry, so bland and so poorly done that it tasted worse than those available in the freezer section of a grocery. The vegetable of the day was corn. This corn was so obviously from a can that you could see the brine in which it was packed.

The steak was served covered in mushroom slices that were slightly undercooked and acidic in a way that turned my wife off (I didn't find it objectionable, but definitely undercooked). The so-called "garlic bread" served with the steak was a barely toasted hot dog bun covered with salt, Parmesan cheese, parsley and powdered garlic.

The thing of it is that for the kind of money spent on this meal, one would expect mush higher quality preparation and service. The three other places we might have gone for a comparable menu selection would have served a hell of a lot better meal. Perhaps the quality of the steak was a cut above what might be available elsewhere, but that is a matter of butchering and meat selection. Obviously, the post-butchering preparation was "butchered."

The waitress explained to us that the "chef" was working short-staffed in the kitchen, has experienced a lot of turnover in regard to prep cooks, and apologized for all that went wrong. Since the waitress was obviously new, nervous and not very well-trained for the job, we could get past her inexperience. However, short-staffed or not, the preparation and service of the meal lacked the professionalism and pride that even a moderately good home cook would have offered if we had dropped by on a surprise visit. Given the lack of quality and attention to the meal, other than the quality of the steak itself, and the errors in preparation, plating and service, the price for this meal was outrageous. The overall experience was not only disappointing, but a waste of our time and energy.

Drifter's Restaurant and Lounge is a poor pretender for a decent dining experience.