There's a reason Ken's is so popular. Several reasons actually. It's damned delicious, the service…read moreis wonderful, and the vibes are immaculate!! When we arrived after 7 pm on a Saturday night, I expected the place to be jumping, which it was. However, the dining gods showered favor upon us, because we walked in, were immediately greeted by a friendly front-of-house staffer, and shown to a perfect shady outdoor table for two. (And given that Portland is currently experiencing an unprecedented heatwave and it was nearly 90° today, it was appreciated!!) Our drinks and an order of Caesar salad arrived promptly by our very kind server. The salad was everything you want in a Caesar- creamy dressing, sweet lettuce, crispy but not dense croutons, and plenty of yummy shaved Parmesan cheese. We decided on the Mushroom pie and the Mortadella/Pistachio pie. Both were piping hot and delicious with a perfectly crisp/blackened crust. I will admit the only flaw in my mortadella pizza was that I found it really oily. I loved Boyfriend's mushroom pizza though!! We had plenty to take home for another meal. The outdoor ambiance was a distillation of everything I loved about Portland: sitting under shady trees, a cooling breeze, and amazing people-watching from our sidewalk spot. We were even treated to a random bike parade of fabulous sparkly queer bicyclists blasting cool disco tunes as we ate! Just learned that it's an annual summer event called Pedalpalooza and I am HERE FOR IT!! Thanks for a great capper to our couple of days in Portland, Ken's!!

Fantastic food! Terrible service…read more Ken's doesn't take reservations so you show up and hope you don't have a long wait. Luckily it it is usually just a 5-10 minute wait before we have been seated inside at our table. But once we were seated... then no one came to us, not even a greeting from a server or water service for MORE than 20 minutes, which was insane. No one paid any attention to us, including what turned out to be our server who had been back multiple times to serve the table right next to us! We finally had to get up out of our seats and flagged down the host to let them know that no one has acknowledged us and we don't even have any water! FINALLY our server came to greet us and give us water, and she didn't apologize at all. I honestly expected to get something comped or a freebie or something but she didn't even acknowledge the wait the ignoring. Food took a really long time to come out during this dining experience. I guess overall pro tip: don't dine on a Friday night unless you want slow, terrible service. Such a disappointment regarding the service the last time we dined here. But the food is really delicious!

This is a familiar type of place for Portland - not inexpensive, but great food. It's small,…read moreshareable plates. A friend brought me here and we split 8 plates and each had a dessert. One drink and the "Employee Health" charge of an additional 5% made the bill $163.80 before tip. Okay, so that's the not inexpensive part. As for the food, there were several great dishes. I was not wild about the salad we got, The Crunchmaster Crisp, the my friend said a different one she had previously was really good. We got the Crusty Avocado - seeds coat the outside and inside the avocado is filled with Ahi tuna. That was a good dish. We also had Garden Peas which were pretty good. The trout was excellent, the Fried Chicken was unique, and quite good. We got a couple of the skewers (they're small!), the pork belly and the steak and both were great. I could have ordered several and made a meal out of those! The Milk Chocolate dessert was good, but I wasn't a big fan of the "baby popcorn". The Whip-a-licious was well liked by my friend. It was better than I thought it would be because I'm not a big passion fruit fan. Our service was excellent. All together, I definitely recommend for the food, atmosphere, and service. Just be prepared for an expensive night out!

Please check your receipt carefully…read more I noticed a 5% "Employee Health Fee" added to my bill. When I called the restaurant, they explained that the fee is disclosed on the menu. However, many customers may not read every line of fine print on the menu and may be surprised to see an additional charge added to the bill. In my opinion, employee health-related expenses should be covered by the business rather than passed directly to customers through an extra fee. I would have preferred the menu prices to reflect the actual cost upfront rather than having a separate surcharge added at checkout. Just sharing this so future customers can review their receipts carefully and be aware of the additional fee.

This was my only other scheduled meal…read more I wanted to treat my friends to a meal on our friend's wedding day. Figured it would be the best way to kick off our day. Luckily, I was able to secure a reservation. The walk over was under 10 minutes for both of us. It gave me just the perfect amount of time to kill a j. I was ready to drink all the things. Sure enough, my hydration station had 3 options. Limoncello spritz for the fun category, water for hydration and Americano soda for the caffeine. The spritz was perfection. We started off with an order of the arancini. As we were unsure if we would like it, we got one then got another one as soon as we got our first bite. That was followed by the donuts. We were all in agreement that some type of dipping sauce would be a nice touch. My suggestion is dulce de leche. We then went to town on the broccoli &! Italian sausage, hash and tagliatelle. When I tell you - I was in food heaven. That tagliatelle was IT. My friends were kind enough to let me finish the rest. I gave way to the other two. Despite being ridiculous full, we still managed to make room for dessert. We got the cookie and lemon pound cake. Bro that pound cake can get it. The mascarpone whip on top made me tingle on the inside after I got a taste. My gawd I wanted to eat the whole thing. The biggest compliment came at the end of the night when my friend told me I chose the perfect spot and picked all the right dishes. Big thanks to Mike for taking such great care of us. He had the best response to my answer when he asked if we had allergy restrictions. I can't wait to come back the next time I'm in town.

Really enjoyed this place. The dirty martinis were incredible, and the food -- served family style…read morefor sharing -- was creative, flavorful, and surprisingly filling. Honestly, we almost ordered too much because everything sounded so good. This place definitely has a cool vibe... maybe even a little too cool for me. The friends who invited me are probably more stylish than I am, but either way I felt comfortable and had a great time. The food came out at a really nice pace, the setting was clean and comfortable, and the whole experience just worked. Definitely a spot I'd recommend if you're looking for a fun night out with great drinks and memorable food.