Bar Loon — Restaurant in Portland

Love the way the bar is decorated, the vibe, the patio all wonderful.

Order at the bar, can close tab or leave open.

The good: cauliflower was amazing and the grilled chicken with romesco was cooked to perfection and delicious. I enjoyed the grilled bread as the bread was like a brioche and slightly sweet. Staff was very friendly.

The not as good: my partner and I found both the pork tenderloin and Nicoise way too salty. At $25-30 per entree I sadly did not enjoy either of these dishes. A staff member recommended both and maybe we are just salt sensitive but we did not enjoy these dishes. The pork tenderloin was way too mustard-y and too salty. A small amount of the relish would have gone a long way but there was so much of it on the plate. The pork itself was cooked well. The relish was overpowering so we scraped most of it off. The nicoise was also incredibly salty. The potatoes in this were potato wedges and certain pieces were so salty it was inedible. I’ve typically had nicoise with boiled potatoes and fresh tomatoes. I believe the tomato was like a sauce or relish in this - also very salty and not very refreshing. The olives in this made this dish even more salty. The jammy egg and the sauce and the tuna were good in this. I didn’t realize the nicoise didn’t have lettuce/wasn’t a salad or that the potatoes were the fried wedges; else I wouldn’t have gotten it as the dish felt very heavy on its own and was too salty.

Overall I liked the vibe and decor. Food was a mixed bag - certain dishes were so delicious; others so salty it made the food almost inedible or...

Really disappointing experience. Was excited to check this place out as I had a good time at their sister restaurant Bellweather Bar, but something feels lost here. I get that it’s self-service so you order food/drinks at the bar, but with a larger group like what we had the concept feels lazy, it was really cumbersome to keep getting out of the booth to go up for the littlest things, I made 3 trips to get water while the staff chatted behind the bar and if you’re going to put a $52 steak on the menu there should at least be a quality check from the staff but all they did was nonchalantly clear plates. The food was a huge disappointment, the Grilled Broccoli was actually rotten, I was aghast that they could serve what was clearly yellow, wilted expired broccoli for $13. Thankfully we opted for the smaller portion of the steak because that was not good either, it had a grey color and tasted like it was sous-vide or something without the proper sear. The cocktails thankfully was better than the food. Very...

Let me lead with I don’t think it’s fair to compare this bar to Sweet. It’s a completely different business. Are we comparing H Mart to Zupans? No people we are not.

Anyways, food was pretty good. Spendy but high quality ingredients. Not a ton of vegan options (imperative to the PDX bar scene). The burger was messy and delish and the Brussel sprouts were crispy with a good sauce. Drinks were good, I had the mini martini, I like that they offer smaller drink sizes.

Where I’m going to say it lacked was the service. Walk up to the bar, bartender tells you to take a menu and get cozy. THEN come back up to the bar to order. In that time I lose my seat, a line forms whatever. They gave the kind of spiel that took as long as it would have taken me to make a drink decision. Once you do order (a drink) they don’t make it and give it you, you have to then go BACK to hopefully the table you first sat at and wait for it. At that rate they may want to do...