Bertie Lou's Cafe — Restaurant in Portland

We stumbled upon Bertie Lou's while looking for a brunch place near to where we had a nearby event later in the morning, and we're very glad we did! Not only were the two entrées we ordered both fantastic (although with a minor nitpick on one), but my wife and I saw several other interesting items on the menu that will most assuredly have us coming back for more!

We were immediately seated upon arrival at 11am on a Saturday, which seems close to impossible in Portland these days. I went with the Oaks Bottom Omelet, and my wife had the Bertie Cristo, with a side order of biscuits and gravy to split and share with our toddler son. Being generally not a fan of Hollandaise, I was very pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed my omelet; the sweet notes harmonized well with the bacon, garlic and tomato in a way I had not anticipated. Would definitely order again!

On the other end of the table, my wife also loved her Bertie Cristo, but found it to be a tad burned; this apparently is a common complaint here, and its the only reason I docked a star from this review, as it seems to be either intentional, or simply an reoccurring oversight on the part of the cook. It doesn't ruin the dish, but it does detract from it slightly. The biscuits and gravy, however, were above reproach, and enjoyed by all in equal measure!

Fantastic home-style greasy spoon cooking like this is a real treat, especially when there's a unique spin on a dish to make it stand out from the rest. Bertie Lou's Cafe has this quality in spades, and has one of the most compelling brunch menus I've seen in a café in a long while, and will likely take several return visits to explore them all. Hopefully, they'll dial back the burner a bit before...

If I could give this spot a half star I would... the food is good, can’t even speak down on it...BUT the customer service here is so bad. I have been here 2 times and won’t come back strictly off the fact that the employees are straight punks with bad attitudes. Grown men who act as if it is a hassle to help customers or answer questions customers have. I usually don’t go out my way to post reviews especially bad ones because I know how bad of a look it is for a company especially to a hole in the wall shop. But these employees... and I mean all of them especially the older server with a full set of gray hair are nothing but a hassle to deal with. They make you feel unwelcome as if your presence in there establishment is a problem.

Would love to come back here but honestly the employees are so mean and horrible that I couldn’t see myself returning no matter how good the food is.

Absolutely disgraceful customer service and this is coming from a business owner... I watched multiple interactions with customers not just my personal interaction and both visits left me with a bad taste in my mouth.

You’re better off hitting a McDonald’s drive thru... at least at McDonald’s you will get treated with the bare minimum respect a customer deserves.

These employees are shamefully disgracing what otherwise could be one of Portland’s better...

The food is not worth being made to feel unwelcome.

I met a couple friends at Bertie Lou’s a few weeks ago for brunch on a Sunday. The food was decent, but nothing special—there are plenty of better spots in town. The reason I’m giving two stars, though, was the service. Our server was polite enough, but multiple times over the course of our meal an employee came over and asked if they could clear our plates when there was clearly food still on the plate and we were still eating. None of us are particularly slow eaters, either—it’s not like we’d been there long. Immediately after we had finished our food and our plates had been removed, another employee (not our server) came over, tapped the bill and asked us if we could go ahead and “take care of it” because “we have a lot of people waiting.” We were still finishing the drinks we had paid for! It’s not like we were sitting there yammering away at an empty table! I get it, it’s a tiny restaurant, but would it kill them to have some tact? We paid and left without finishing our drinks since it was clear they wanted us gone. We were there for a total of ~45 mins.

Little Griddle on NE 42nd is equally tiny and I’ve never been treated like a nuisance there—the small number of tables is not an excuse. If you enjoy being treated like a burden instead of a guest, try...