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!!

The only reason I didn't give this restaurant five stars was the check-in process, which could use…read moresignificant improvement. At first, I didn't feel like a valued customer. Fortunately, those concerns disappeared once we were seated. Parking can also be a bit challenging. That said, the food was outstanding. The pizzas and appetizers were top-notch, and the ice cream was an excellent way to end the meal. Once we were seated, the service was attentive and very good. The restaurant was bustling, creating a lively atmosphere. We ended up eating outside since it was the first seating available, and we enjoyed our meal there.

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!

Wanted to love G Love, but it didn't hit the mark for us. We had reservations on a Friday evening,…read moreand were glad we had one since it was pretty packed. The energy was bustling and ambiance felt pretty good to start, but quickly got awkward. Within a minute of placing our order a waiter brought over a bowl of potatoes and dip saying "these are for you". Huh, strange given we didn't order potatoes but maybe it was on the house? We tried looking around to see if we could ask but also saw every table had them so thought maybe it was just something nice for the night so we started eating. Then, I noticed we started getting a lot of stares from the wait staff who started whispering, which is when I realized we may have identified ourselves as the latest spud-nappers. Within another minute, a plate of halibut came out. Also strange, we did order halibut but typically we'd expect our salads/smaller dishes to come out first but okay. Before we could take a bite, our waiter came back and swooped that plate up saying "this doesn't belong here" --no apology, no clarification, just poof. We could see the expo getting frustrated, trying to explain the table numbers to the wait staff so maybe it was just a new set of trainees? The table next to us also asked the waiter to hold off on firing the next few plates to give them time to digest, but unfortunately their next plate also came out within 2 minutes lol. I get the frustration, but the full (volume) meltdown that occurred right after just made it uncomfortable for everyone around. Getting to the actual food, we got the stone fruit salad which my husband loved and I thought was pretty good, the ensalata bomba which I really liked, the pork belly skewers which we both liked and the scallop skewers which we both haaaated. They tasted like borderline rotten briny boba, and I had to give mine to my husband to eat because I almost vomited from it and I normally love scallops. Do not get those! We also got the fried chicken and the halibut. The fried chicken was fine but I didn't walk away blown away. It tasted like it really wanted to be like its Japanese cousin karaage, but the breading was too thick and there were chunks that were purely batter. Needed a wedge of lime to brighten things up. The halibut was ok too, we liked the pickled cherries but the whole dish didn't come together in the way we wished the flavors would. Overall, I'd say the food was a 6.5/10 and wait staff confusion was a 4/10. Midway thru our meal our waiter asked if we wanted dessert before we wrapped up and we were confused because we still had half our dishes and he just walked away. Then at the end it took several attempts to flag someone down to pay our bill, which added another 15 minutes next to meltdown Mariah next to us which felt like an eternity. For the amount we spent, I definitely think you could get a better meal elsewhere.

Dolly Olive has been a favourite of ours since we lived in the Pearl, and now that we're out in the…read moresuburbs, it's still one of the places we make a point of going back to regularly. Tucked into the corner of SW 12th and Alder in the West End, the space is warm and comfortable with wood accents, soft leather banquettes, and just the right amount of energy. The Dolly Focaccia with roasted garlic and olive oil, the Roasted Carrot & Farro Salad and the Grilled Heirloom Carrots are all simple and delicious. On the pasta side, the Tagliatelle al Burro is perfect, and the Black Kale Pesto Mafaldine with roasted mushroom and the Braised Short Rib Arancini with pecorino aioli and honey are equally good choices if you're after something a little more complex. The folks who work here are knowledgeable and attentive, never intrusive. Even with the drive in now, it's worth it every time. Highly recommend, whether it's a special occasion or just a reason to head back downtown.

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.