Bergerac — Restaurant in Portland

What started out as an inexpensive neighborhood bistro now charges close to fine dining pricing. Bergerac is clearly a 5-star bistro, but when a full menu is currently $65 plus $35 for its wine paring, then it either has to return to lower pricing or be reviewed more critically. It still has the potential to be a 5-star as an upscale restaurant because of the chef's talent, but only if they address the following: 1) first and foremost, they must stop using paper napkins and cheap silverware & glassware. If a customer can now easily spend $100 per person, paper napkins are simply unacceptable. Their presentation must evolve with their pricing. At the very least they must switch to wine specific restaurant grade crystal such as the lowest Riedel line. They should get rid of their current heavy duty stemless generic all purpose glassware, even if they hold up better under commercial use. After reviewing their menu then noticing their paper napkins and inferior wine glasses, the impression I got was that they were going to get other details wrong as well, including those related to the actual food and wine. 2) Regarding the $35 pairing for approximately 10 oz total of non-luxury, improper temperature wine, I felt it was a poor value. That's why I opted for just a glass of their sauvignon blanc/semillon blend instead, but unfortunately it had a foxy fruit forward taste, and was served to me at a full chill like a sparkling wine. Acceptable for a bistro, but not for $12 for what looked like a heavy tasting pour. Proper temperature is important with wine, so I think they need to consult with a certified sommelier. They need to invest in a multi-temperature wine fridge for reds and whites, and use their regular fridge for sparkling. I don't know for sure, but I am guessing they presently keep reds at room temperature (not cellar temperature-- which must never exceed 65 F), and whites and sparkling together in a regular fridge. 3) I was given sliced bread instead of a piece of crusty baguette with my escargot, which is a head scratcher to me. And where were the snail shells as advertised prominently on their website? I know shells add to the cost, but customers pay for presentation. My escargot meat was just lazily piled on a snail plate, disregarding the indentations designed to keep shells upright. Luckily, they used actual small French helix, not a cheaper larger Asian species. 4) My crème brûlée was dry, as if they did not add enough water to sustain a bain-marie. Also, my swordfish tasted previously frozen, and it was overcooked; I think they needed a hotter searing flame over a shorter cooking cycle for my portion. 5) Finally, they should install a mirror or painting behind the bar since half the room looked spartan even with all the Christmas decorations. Overall, I thought the food was well seasoned and tasted good, but I was turned off by the establishment's general lack of ambience, paper napkins, and pricey ordinary wine served in bulky generic non-crystal stemlessware. I'm not overly critical unless I am in a bistro that is charging near fine dining pricing, so to summarize, I don't think I got my money's worth at Bergerac. I'd rather pay $125 per person at St. Jack even if its chef isn't French, since there I always feel I get value. I gave Bergerac 3 stars mainly since the staff is friendly and professional. All I've written above are just my...

May 22, 2021: 5-stars We just visited again for our anniversary. The food and service were wonderful.

We chose to request patio seating, and were seated in the temporary patio tent on the street. We were cold due to the temp and the wind. We had the sides of the tent next to and behind us blowing around and cold air blowing in from underneath the sides and the open end behind us (until it was closed).

Seat cushions and lap blankets would help with this--ask beforehand if they have any and bring your own if not.

The more sturdy patio area attached to the restaurant but outside looked more comfortable and we would be comfortable eating inside next time as the staff is all vaccinated and so are we.

Amuse bouche was a lovely slightly spicy tapenade on a 'house-made' corn chip. We shared a delicious pate plate. I ordered the roasted duck; crispy skin and moist succulent duck, served with roasted green beans in a minty sauce. My spouse enjoyed the lamb and I can attest that it was tasty although a bit fatty. I liked the toothy farro served with the lamb; there was a bit of sauce including some bacon mixed in.

This time we shared the pot au chocolate for dessert. Expecting a small 'pot' I was a surprised that it was served spread on the plate, with a mound of whipped cream, some raspberries and scribbles of chocolate sauce. It was beautifully presented as was each of the dishes we were served.

The espresso maker was broken and I ordered the decaf french press that was offered. It was pretty terrible. Don't bother ordering coffee until the machine is fixed. The 'cream' was maybe 2% milk; did not help with the coffee.

No pics; I have mixed feelings about taking food pictures when out at a nice restaurant--now wish I had, since it was all so pretty!

Recommended. Inside or on more permanent patio.

early 2020: 4-stars Mixed experience. The cheese plate was disappointing, with a few small slices of cheese, a little sliced pear, toasted bread crackers, some overpowering onion jam and some difficult to eat roasted sunflower seeds.

The kale salad and Lamb Navarin were excellent and the almond pear tart was good--more pear pie than almond and I was expecting an almond cake with pears. Next time I would order the chocolate pot for dessert.

Service was good; sometimes a bit slow as the restaurant was full.

Recommendation to Bergerac: Change cheese plate to include fresh baguette, a little more of the fresh fruit, fig or other fruit jam and finger-size nuts; hazelnuts or almonds (or...

Updated review from 08/2024:

I am updating my previous review. We came in and were super disappointed. The food was an absolute miss. The mussels were in a super watery broth (no butter or fat) and tasted like it was just a bunch of parsley (and thats it). The bread that was served with the escargot was not the same homemade bread we got last time, it was just basic store bought bread. The pork dish was probably the better of the bunch, however the beans completely lacked flavor. The duck confit was pretty dried out, which is hard to do with a confit and the hericot verts were way overcooked. Honestly, it just felt like everything appeared visually exciting, however that is all it was. Our server was not attentive and the only solution we were provided was to call back in and speak with the owner, however she said the owner would be hard to reach since they purchased a new restaurant in Oregon City that they were spending most of their time at. Perhaps this is why this went downhill so far?! Anyways, I called and left multiple messages for the owner and never heard back, so I gave up. Honeslty, L'Orange offers so much more in their dishes and they are roughly the same price. So we will not be returning to Bergerac. Some pictures are from the first time and some are from the second visit.

Review from 11/2022:

This place is a super cute little French restaurant! Complete with traditional French music, amuse-bouche and escargot. All of the food we had was fantastic and deliciously prepared. I have had great escargot before and I have had bad (there is a huge difference between the two). The escargot here was amazing and perfectly melted in your mouth. We also ordered the mushroom ragu which was perfect! The server was super friendly, professional and very attentive. Since this was our second stop of the evening, we didn't have a chance to taste through the entire menu...yet. (Typically when exploring new places, we like to go to a few in one night and try multiple things in order to determine if we would like to return for a bigger experience). We have had a hard time finding a good French restaurant in the Portland area, so we were pleasantly surprised with our experience. We will definitely will be visiting this place again. We have only been here one time (11/2022), but I will update my review on...