Tebo’s Restaurant

My 3^rd time here. The shortcake was marvelous just as advertised. The fries were on point. I heard several custys compliment wait staff on them. I did not get waited on by female waitresses at ALL. My bf had to travell across the cafeteria, hand our shortcake to a female, just to get our ice cream. This was sad to me since It was obvious that this is not proper procedure. The server who took us our meal was nice. Next time ILL hand the tip to him since tips deserve to go to good service and even though Tebos is basically self serve, I felt ignored and I was looking forward to coming here for a week, my visits are sporadic. Overall, I know what to expect for my next visit and Id reccomend this place to people wanting dessert.

Cool americana /​twilight zone /​bathtub opera vibe. The kids working were very nice and everyone seemed to enjoy their meal. I bought a burger not knowing you have to dress your own burger, and so it was bland. But then I got another one and dress it up. Delicious!

The service was good but this food is literally the same as retirement home food. The inside even smells like a retirement home dining room and kitchen. On top of that, over half the menu cost too much for what you’re getting. 5pm on Wednesday and the crowd was 95% seniors. I mean the food isn’t BAD but it is not good. Maybe only their desserts are decent.
Pass.

The Strawberry Shortcake is delicious! The strawberries are real, and delicious. I always get mine with whipped cream, and my nana gets it plain. I reccomend the strawberry shortcake above anything else!

food was ok, a little pricey. milkshake was great

Putting the stamp on Nostalgia!
So here I find myself at Tebo’s, with the parents, and a wave of days gone by drifts slowly past like a parade. Old school cool cats and hot diggity dogs, families swapping stories, a local yokel wearing a Greg Oden jersey, an angry senior berating a hard working teenager, and seated in a well worn chair looking around the dining area I smile. I make it here a couple times a year, as this was one of my Grandma’s favorite places, so there’s always a nice memory attached to each visit.
Tebo’s is in Cooperstown as far as I’m concerned. You’ll still hear people refer to it as Gene and Joe’s which it hasn’t been since 1962!!! Been through a few incarnations since 1954, but still going strong, truckin’ through even the lean years because they mastered the art of casual family dining long ago. Put a new coat of paint and fresh carpeting every 10 – 15 years but apart from that, it’s been a «give the people what they want» place, and a reliable after school job for many a Rex Putnam and Gladstone High School student.
On this visit I ordered my usual, Garden burger and fries, and it did the job. Tebo’s offers what’s considered unique by today’s dining standards. You grab a tray, order at the grill, and it’s cooked to order generally by the time you pay at the register. Along the ‘tray line’ you have several items on offer. Classic salads like carrot raisin, potato, and macaroni await, along with a good 40 options for pies and cakes. The grill gives you the various burger options, hot turkey sandwiches, steaks, and fresh cut house fries. They have a burger bar which lets you dress it anyway you like it with veggies, pickles, and condiments at the ready.
It’s always been a step above fast food. Friendly smiles in white shirts and pants greet you as a regular and they throw your burger bun on the grill to get it a good toasting as well. There’s a no fuss feeling here. The menu has hardly changed in 50 years, and apart from a gluten free bun and a few diabetic sugar free deserts, it’s reliable staples all the way.
Quality is pretty consistent, and that’s hard to do when you’re cooking fresh and there’s a line of white haired folks that got the drop off from Vineyard Plaza down the street at 4pm for the dinner rush! It’s certainly worth trying one of their famous strawberry shortcakes in the summer, and still serves up one of the best milkshakes around. Value-​wise it’s so-​so, as prices have gone way up, so getting out for under $ 10 – 12 is tough.
Overall, it’s super clean and tidy, employees are very friendly and caring. All the while you look out the window pondering the changes that have occurred outside these windows, inside it’s the same. While customers will likely be driving a Prius versus a Thunderbird, it leaves you with the old question…“Where were you in ’62?”

Always so sweet and helpful. Food is fresh and doesn’t take long at all. This place is well known for their strawberry shortcake.
I go often and our kids look forward to it. I’m a fan of their cheeseburgers!

My fiancé and I went here for a quick bite. We had plans to go somewhere else but thought we might give Tebo’s a try. From outside appearance we weren’t prepared for the cafeteria style ordering inside.
We checked out the menu and we both decided on Cobb salads. The salads looked fresh and appealing but came without dressing. They do have a table of condiments to add dressing but the ranch ruined the salad. The salad was overpriced for a small cereal size bowl of iceberg lettuce and slivers of ham and turkey. The dressing seemed to have a Miracle Whip flavor which was disgusting and stomach turning. I’m amazed this place has so many stars. All in all the food there looks and tastes disgusting.

I’ve come here a number of times with a group of friends, and we’ve always had pleasant meals here. Nothing fancy, but okay. It’s worth coming here for the strawberry shortcake. Yeah, you have to dress your own burger, and the tomatoes are never ripe, but that’s okay too. The staff is very friendly and helpful, and really, for cafeteria style food isn’t bad. There’s a good selection of desserts and salads, too.
So why the two-​star review? Well, it’s because I saw something today that was a real ewwww for me. I mean, yuk. The guy who was putting burgers and buns on the grill would frequently wipe his bare hands on his pants (they don’t wear aprons), and then immediately go back to touching the buns and putting them on the grill. Not okay in my book.
But the thing that really turned me off was that the same guy grabbed a paper towel, wiped a spill of some kind off the floor, and then immediately went back to picking up the buns (again, with his bare hands, the ones he’d just wiped up the spill with) and putting the buns on the grill.
I realize that people can be so germophobic that they keep hand sanitizer all over the place and won’t touch anything where the public’s hands have been. I’m not like that. But seeing what I saw today has definitely turned me off to Tebo’s. Call me a germophobe if you want, but I bet the health department would put the kibosh on this kind of non-​sanitary stuff.
So okay, 2 stars for the food… and I hope someone at Tebo’s reads this and makes sure things change. None of the servers there use the typical plastic gloves when they’re working with food.

Weird sort of place, this Tebo’s. I had driven by it many times and had never eaten there. I thought that, with the big parking lot, it would be the sort of place Milwaukie and «Happy Rock» blue hairs would descend on after church or locals would take their kids to after a local game. It probably is. However, what has beckoned for many years is their sign indicating that their strawberry shortcake has put them on the map. I like strawberry shortcake. So I stopped in and tried that «famous» strawberry shortcake.
Just like the parking lot, the interior is large, sort of dated, and fairly clean. There are lots of windows looking out onto McLoughlin Blvd. The strangest thing is that this place is a cafeteria and there is a huge menu of traditional comfort food items that you’d almost think you’re in a diner on the East Coast … minus the brusqueness and the sassiness. Remember, before the Californians came up, most of the locals came over on heavily traveled routes from the country’s interior and were very churched, so they don’t do brusque and sassy.
I saw some entrée type items which caught my eye that I might want to try someday. However, I’m giving Tebo’s a safe 3 stars for that strawberry shortcake I had. As for the strawberry shortcake, there are 2 sizes — regular and large. Trust me … the regular size is more than enough. The shortcake itself could have been moister but the strawberries, the glaze, and the whipped cream sort of drowned out that shortcoming. I was as happy as a rock, as opposed to a clam, that I finally tried a dessert at this place in «Happy Rock» I’d driven by for years.
Lastly, if you’re a Floridian transplant and you think this is Tebo (w)‘s and that you might find a gator burger on the menu, think again. You are roughly at the border of Milwaukie and Gladstone … Oregon, that is.

Fantastic desserts, especially the strawberry shortcake; though there is very little shortcake and a ton of strawberries. The rest of the food is blah, and VERY overpriced. The staff are young, personable and very helpful, but the method of ordering, paying etc. is confusing.
Bottom line: just have dessert.

I ended up at Tebo’s with a group of friends when the restaurant we intended to go to wasn’t open yet. By the end, we all wished we had just waited.
My fiancé and I both ordered the fish and chips — I grabbed a crème brûlée (my favorite dessert), and he got the strawberry shortcake. We stopped by the condiment bar on the way to the table which consisted of a sparse selection of dried up looking vegetables and some other condiments which most certainly came straight out of a bottle.
When our food arrived, I noticed that the fries were very greasy. After tasting one I realized that they also were unseasoned and required a fair amount of salt, pepper and napkin blotting to become even close to edible. The fish was dry and hard as a hockey puck, while simultaneously being saturated in a nauseating amount of oil. I LOVE me some fish and chips but I couldn’t eat more than a few bites of that abomination. I really wanted to believe that the crème brûlée would be delicious and make up for the dinner, but alas, it tasted like it was made with an instant pudding mix (I suspect it probably was!) and because it had been sitting out so long the topping was not crunchy and delicious but a gross gooey mess. The strawberry shortcake was alright, as in it was the only thing we ordered that anyone ended up eating, but certainly not something I’d recommend to anyone I actually liked.
All in all, we ended up paying $ 32 plus tip for two orders of fish and chips and two desserts, all of which was practically inedible. For that we could have a nice meal somewhere that didn’t involve plastic trays and communal condiments. You could not pay me to come back to this place.

Tebo’s food is pretty decent. All their food is cooked to order and nothing is sitting under heat lamps. The ordering process has been described in detail in other reviews. It is cafeteria style. Their strawberry short cake is some of the best I’ve ever had. In fact I would go here just for the strawberry short cake.
What makes this place great is their condiments bar which has pickles, tomatoes, lettuce, as well as other toppings. Whenever I have been there the condiments bar has always been fresh. It allows for customization of whatever entrée you order.
I give this place four stars as all the food is made when you order it and the amazing strawberry shortcake. The entire restaurant is clean including the bathrooms. I have posted a picture of their inspection record. The service is fast and efficient. Never had to wait in line or very long for my food. Whenever I am in the area I always make this a place to grab lunch or dinner at.

I’ve been eating here since 1956!!! (I was 9 years old)
This place was once known as Gene and Joe’s… But it changed owners way back when. The griddle and the way they cook the beef, however remains the same and makes for a unique flavor. To me, these hamburgers are the best you can find in the Portland area.
Also, their bakery is world class… And their strawberry shortcake is to die for.
I’ll be eating here on a regular basis, till I die.

This is one of our families favorite places to go!!! I’ve been going here since I was a wee one and I still love it! Sometime I just crave Tebo’s!!! We drive over from Kalama and Vancouver to get our fix regularly…
The burgers are fresh and grilled to perfection! The fresh cut shoe string fries are really delicious too!
They have a great, very clean and fresh condiment bar! Extra ketchup, pickles, lemons — nice!
During strawberry season, they have wonderful strawberry shortcake and they will add fresh whipped cream and/​or soft serve ice cream when you’re ready. A lot of times I will just ask for a bowl full of strawberries… MMMM… They have other wonderful homemade pies and desserts too. Their salads are fresh and crunchy. Soda is refillable.
The cafeteria style restaurant is very clean and has a fire going on cool days. Tebo’s is also great for large gatherings.
Love this place so much!!!

Been going here since I was a kid! It’s always been a great place to eat. I love their burgers, fries and seasonal strawberry shortcakes! The staff is always friendly and its a great atmosphere too.

If you long for lunch at a retirement home this is place for you. I picked this place completely at random as I was passing by and ended up paying far to much for a taco salad of cafeteria quality. Not impressed. I will not be back.

Yummy patty melt! This is a cafeteria style restaurant with a lot of selections. We experienced great service, and you have to try the strawberry shortcake.

Boo Hoo. I went with my 80yr old Dad who grew up in West Linn bc he remembered when Tebo’s was still Gene and Joe’s and we felt like a retro night. Apparently, it was his little brother’s favorite back then, but we had a very different present day experience.
We were both very disappointed. I ordered a bacon burger no bun and my dad had the bacon and cheese with bun. As other reviewers have done a fine job explaining the environment and ordering process I will not describe it again.
When the burgers came to the table, they were on a small plate. Just the burger. Not even a leaf of lettuce. There is what they state is a ‘condiment bar’ for you to individually «dress» your burger, but unless you have a penchant for chopped iceberg lettuce and pale, pale tomatoes and yesterday looking white onion, don’t get your hopes up. I stuck with ketchup and mustard.
Other reviewers have said that this was a great traditional burger stop. I say, heck, go across the street to Burgerville and you will get 100x the quality of ingredients at a better value for price.
My Dad says the french fries tasted frozen although they claim to cut them fresh every day. I thought the fries were average, hot and not soggy, but not meaty. As for the pie, he simply does not believe it was made anywhere near the premises. My Dad is a diner man, so for him to not finish the pie is saying something.
Anyway, I left feeling sort of oddly unsatiated and with no desire to ever return. Honestly, I think Tebo’s has run its course. I know I will eat my burgers elsewhere. I did give it the second star bc the floor staff and line cooks are very friendly.

Excellent «All American» restaurant that offers a friendly atmosphere And all the amenities you could want for your burger, chicken sandwich, dog, and fries. Condiment Bar! And known for their cakes and Desserts that are fresh daily. Family friendly