Rainbow Cafe — Restaurant in Pendleton

The vibe is awesome! The waitress in the back was great! I think her name was Saleesa (sp) sorry if I got that wrong…Girl, You were on it! The food was great!

The bartender in front was awful! She literally told us to move in order to get waited on by a different person. After ignoring us for 20 minutes to even tell us that. After we ate I walked up front to buy some t-shirts and a hat for my husband (oldest bar in Oregon)….I made eye contact with the front bartender so I knew she saw me, then I stood and waited at the bar while she filled the well with ice (2 trips), waited on a different customer and completely ignored me. I think I stood there for 10-15 minutes before I gave up and left (without any souvenirs). Older gal with a raspy voice was the worst bartender/customer service I’ve experienced in years. Total bummer, I really wanted that cute tee-shirt! Not enough to stand there and be ignored though…

For such a landmark and such a cool place, I’d want the first person that has contact with the public to be welcoming and not straight up ignore new customers…HUGE FAIL….and lost about $200 in sales…. …first trip to Pendleton for a week where I’ve got time to see the city while my husband works…maybe someday we’ll visit the Rainbow again…..

UPDATE: stopped in on our way out of town in the daytime and had a completely different (great) experience! Bartender was exactly what you’d expect; welcoming, friendly, happy and available. Sad I can’t remember her name, but cute gal, dark hair, drives in from Hermiston…KILLIN IT!!! “Thanks for turning our experience of this cool place around! Sorry about the bump on your head getting my...

So, it's historic restaurant, the oldest in Oregon. You've would think that during the Pendleton Roundup Week they would welcome customers. My wife and I walked into the doorway and even though at least 3 waitress made eye contact , not one of the said, "just a second" or wave a hand or said "I will be right there". Nope, nothing. It wasn't until a young man...who worked there came from the back of the restaurant to tell us you can take any seat. WTH.? Once we were seated, there was a waitress helping a 4 other patrons, who was right behind us and she did not offer us coffee, a good morning,glad your here, nothing. She had green hair. One of the men working the grill finally came to us and offered us coffee and even we whre close to grill it took over 10 minutes to have some take our order. Service is not on the menu.

When we finally, got the menu sheet, it was dirty and crunchy. Not a good look.

The food was OK, cowboy food, which would have been better on my palate had the service been better. The coffee was weak and in a paper cup with paper plates and plastic utensils.

So if you like camp food in a historic restaurant with bad service, and so so food, knock yourself out. Can't recommend it, when there's better in Pendleton Oregon.

One good thing... the...

We were traveling through the area and we were starving when we stopped for lunch. After we were seated it took about 10 minutes before anyone even greeted us and she brought us some glasses of water. She brought us our drinks and took our order and we waited and waited and waited. It was very obvious that they were taking care of the locals while we were ignored. Finally the lady that brought us our drinks said that our food would be arriving shortly that they had staffing problems that day. So we waited more and when we though our meal was coming it was for another party who had arrived after us. Then my husband noticed that a couple who had come in after us had been served, ate, paid and left and we were still waiting. We saw the cook eating her lunch and she went by the cooler to get herself another soda. My soda was gone at this point and was never offered another. Finally after 50 minutes of waiting we threw in the towel, left money on the table for the sodas and left. We went to Shari's where we were served in 15 minutes. So much for trying to support local bussinesses. At least now I have a story to tell about what "horrible service" we received and it will always have the "Rainbow Cafe"...