Portside Restaurant — Restaurant in Oregon

My family have always had meals at the Portside, since I was a child. We took visitors there and for birthday and graduation celebrations, etc...In fact, it was where I had my celebratory dinner for my 50th Birthday. This review is not about the food, or the service, per se, both of which were fine. This is about having a bad experience while dining with my registered and CLEARLY marked Service Dog (See Photos). As I mentioned, I had my birthday dinner at the Portside last October, and had my Service Dog with me then and they seated me in the Main Dining room with other guests, no problem. This time, however, they seated me in the OUTSIDE dining area (where it was rather chilly and spartan!), when there was PLENTY of room for me and my Service Dog in the Main Dining room! By LAW, people with Service Dogs are not to be "sequestered" or removed in any way from the general public in restaurants or other establishments! The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) law, makes that quite clear. That is a form of discrimination.

Even though it angered me, embarrassed me, made me feel shunned (I was the only person in that dining area and was in full view of all the other patrons!) and basically ruined what was otherwise a good meal, I decided not to make a scene, which I am not above making if I am being discriminated against, believe me! I decided that I would write a review about my experience. Hopefully, this will eventually be seen by the proprietors of the Portside Restaurant and they will realize the error of their ways (and look up their responsibilities as Proprietors under the ADA!), but also bring this situation to the attention of other restaurant proprietors and hopefully they will learn from it. I'm not sure that I will EVER return to the Portside after that experience, I am still angry about it almost 2 weeks later. It took me 2 weeks to calm down enough to be able to write a measured review and not resort to four letter expletives! If I do decide to return to the Portside in the future and I am treated as I was this time, I WILL be confronting the proprietor or manager and making a scene, and I WON'T be accepting being sequestered from the general public, and, although I am not a litigious man, if I receive any push back, I will take it to the next step and lodge a complaint with the U.S. Department of Justice, who administer the ADA law.

My warning to other Disabled individuals with registered Service Dogs is, if you are treated like I was, DO something about it. It is DISCRIMINATION, plain and simple, and attitudes and how we are treated won't change if we just lay down and accept being discriminated against. Like I stated before, this is NOT about the food or the server who served me. The food was quite good and the server was friendly and helpful, even though by that time I was in a surly mood. This is about the person who seated me and my Service Dog, who was CLEARLY marked as a Service Dog, in the OUTSIDE dining area when we arrived, which is AGAINST ADA Law. If I decide to return to the Portside, I will write another review of that...

Update 2/2022: Do not recommend visiting for holidays. Will likely not be returning at all. They had a specific holiday menu, which wasn't the problem in itself. The problem was that they didn't disclose that while making the reservation, causing us to go with a specific dish in mind that we were unable to get, and were even aware until after we were seated. Secondly, of this specific menu, half of it was Prime Rib/options and after we were seated and ready to order is when they told us the Prime Rib was out. They offered a NY Strip in its place and still charged $65 for the dish, including a 4oz undercooked lobster tail. I was without a drink for roughly half of the meal (35ish minutes). The first drink brought was completely incorrect and it was another 10 minutes before the waitress made a round when I was able to request an alternative. At that point, we were told it would be removed from the bill and it was not. I got an alternative drink later on which was much cheaper, they didn't add that price on, but they kept the much more expensive drink that they didn even have on the bill. We got desert to go as it was included in the meal, and it was essentially just a dense biscuit topped with whipped cream and a maraschino cherry. Fit the quality if the meal, but not the price. After everything while we were checking out, the waitress told us it was incredibly quiet for what they were prepared for. They anticipated 200 reservations and had 30.

In total, the service was awful, the food was overpriced (Over $100 for 2 people and honestly mediocre food that I could and have made at home), and they did not follow through on their promises. I will not be going back. There are better alternatives in the area with much better service and food.

Prior review : The food was actually really incredible. We ordered the Spicy Seafood Gumbo and the Stuffed Petrale. The gumbo had a really great balance of various seafood, and rice. My only wish would've been to have like steamed vegetables on the side to refresh your palate. The stuffed petrale was really incredible. It was our first time trying it, and it had a wonderful nutty and almost sweet flavor to it. With the cheese baked on top and the rice and little shrimp underneath it was rich and delicious.

My only complaint from the meal was that our waitress was pretty poor on timing for the check. We were finished for quite a while before we finally had to get up and ask for boxes and then had to ask for our check separately afterwards. She was very friendly and dealing with a rather stubborn table above us, so it was understandable to...

I would like to take a moment to clear something up......there is a review stating some very untrue, harmful, hateful comments. Joe Tang is far from crooked, he has been an upstanding pillar of the community for many many years. The same goes for Kimberly Strickland and myself, we are far, far,far,from being crooked!! Our business is being harassed by a person who is upset because we have decided after several chances, not to let this person back in to our establishment. Of course I won't go into detail, but I will say that the phone calls, emails,text messages and the physical stalking and taunting, has led to police interaction. I only put this out there to explain the ludacrist accusation that was made as a review. Please let me invite each and everyone of you reading this to come in and see for yourselves what an amazing staff that Joe, Alex, and myself have personally chosen to represent the Portside. ( which I would like to add.... most of the staff have been there 10 years or more, and the rest have been with us for 2-3 years now, on their way to more! ) Please mention this post and ask for Carrie.... I would love to meet you and personally thank you for coming out to beautiful Charleston to enjoy the outstanding view from our restaurant! You will have a performance of Nature at some of its best with random birds, sea lions, fishing vessels, happy families clam digging, weather being whatever Mother Nature has decided on, sunsets, a view of a full moon when the timing is right and usually a chorus by the playful sea lions that can be heard as soon as you cross the bridge... We provide, wonderful food, an inviting atmosphere, and a staff waiting to wow you and your guests!!! Joe, Alex, myself, and the rest of the Portside staff would like to thank you for taking the time to read this post. We look forward to many many more years of providing some of the freshest seafood, and other amazing dishes, appetizers, and handmade desserts..... an outstanding view from our dining room or our beautiful dining lounge ( which offers a large variety of liquors, cocktail specials, micro brews ~ domestic beers on tap or in a bottle, as well as fine wines in all different price ranges, and live music Friday and Saturday night's ) and hospitality that will bring you back for more...