Bare Bones Cafe & Bar — Restaurant in Portland

I hate to post negative reviews, but my experience was just not good. I'll add specifics, but I can really boil it down to one issue: the food was bad.

The menu on the walls is huge which seems nice at first until you go to order. I asked if it was possible to get my sandwich on a different bread than the multigrain listed, the server told me the sandwich I wanted didn't come on multigrain and said it like I should know, even though the menu clearly said differently. That by itself might have been fine, miscommunications happen and I certainly couldn't memorize a menu of that size and variety, but then the food itself was bad. My "grilled cheese" came with so much mustard it was dripping off of every side and there was hardly any cheese in it. My partner's sandwich had scalding hot bread and lukewarm fillings, it had clearly been microwaved, which might have been fine for another sandwich, but this one had greens on it. The greens were sour and bitter and made the sandwich basically inedible, they took two bites and left the rest.

I was there during an off time, so I'm sure that was a contributing factor, but for our food to be so bad, I don't imagine it could possibly improve enough between lunch service and dinner that I would ever want to go back and risk it.

The worst part is I got the grilled cheese because I thought it would be impossible to mess up.

I think this is a classic case of an understaffed place with absent management and overworked staff. If they simplified the menu, focused on dishes that could be reliably reproduced in a delicious way every time, and supported their staff better, I would go back. Until then, if my friends ask if I want to eat here I will beg to go anywhere else.

An edit for the owner, since it's unclear how they want me to respond to them: First, the menu clearly stated that the grilled cheese would have mustard on it, it's part of why I ordered it, I just didn't expect there to be that much. I added a screenshot of your menu from your website to show that I am remembering correctly. The Ham and Gouda Grilled Cheese comes with stone ground mustard. Second, I feel uncomfortable giving more details about my experience so that you can chastise your staff when clearly you do not even know your own menu. My service was not bad, your staff was helpful and did their jobs. The food was just bad and it's not something that could be fixed easily. I understand that negative reviews aren't good for your business which is why I dislike giving them, but I also think people deserve to know when a place is no longer delivering on the promise of good food. I could see your staff were working hard, so the fact that the food was bad is indicative of some larger issue and, given the few opportunities people have these days to go out and eat, I think we'd all prefer to support businesses that support their staff and...

I would give zero stars if I could. Absolutely zero respect for disabled humans.

I came into your establishment last night. My friend was buying art at the market in your cafe. We went to the bar next door to grab a drink.

I looked up at the screen menu on the was only their tap list. I’m not a drinker, so I asked for a menu. The bar tender responded telling me to use the QR code. I don’t have the ability to do that on my phone, and as a neurodivergent person with learning disabilities, I struggle with technology immensely.

I said out loud that I’m not able to view that menu. And all I got was a dismissive “oh sorry.” And the bartender moved on to taking my friend’s beer order. She looked at me and asked “do you know what you want?” “Well no, I haven’t been able to look at a menu.” “Sorry.” She walks away to get my friend’s beer.

I turn to my friend and say “this is one of the most classist and ableist ways to view a menu that I have ever seen.” At this point I’m bubbling with anxiety and close to an autistic meltdown inside a bar. The bartender got back with the friend’s beer. The friend asked if they had any French fries (I was hungry… and again… sober.). “No we have like chips.”

I responded with “forget it. I don’t need anything.” As they were wrapping up the beer purchase… I asked if there was free soda for sober drivers at this bar. “What do you want? Actually, I don’t think I should give you anything with how rude you’ve been.” “I haven’t been rude to you, I’m direct and autistic.” Bartender doubles down on not being willing to serve me now… and I threw up my hands being so done with this disrespectful young woman.

This was a young (20’s maybe) thin white passing presumably cis woman. Short bob hair maybe. I think their was some green dye involved.

I left the bar heartbroken and seeing in yet another establishment that I won’t be respected unless I wear a placard around my neck.

I do intend to come back in today once the bar is open and speak with a manager now that I’m not having a neurodivergent meltdown based on your employee’s behavior. This is truly putting an autistic person through a...

This place could be cool, came at the wrong time. Two stars is for everything there, the lack of three stars is for poor service. To be fair, I came in around 2:30--after traffic dies down. Medium coffee was warm and dripping, dark coffee was legit cold and dripping. I told the gal that the medium coffee was lukewarm and asked if she could replace it. She kindly said yes and disappeared into the kitchen. After 20 minutes, I asked a new girl managing the front if she could replace the coffee. She proceeded to charge me, but I told her I already paid. She nodded. After 15 minutes, I asked her again. She asked if I was getting more. I told her that the coffee was out. She said okay. After 10 more minutes I proceeded to lean through the door of the kitchen, "I just want coffee." She brought it out promptly smiling. I don't care why it took 45 minutes, it was just plain ol poor service. Garden burger is tasty, but not gardeny (brown patty on white bun with lettuce). Salad was leaves and dressing. The...