Bluto's — Restaurant in Portland

Bluto's is a work in progress.

On the plus side: decor is simple and modern, vibe chill, kitchen is open and chef theatre of the wood-fire grill is not intentionally performative nor pretentious.

Service is efficient and friendly.

Foodwise: My partner, who is NOT known for superlatives, called the beet and bulgur salad "sublime" and "crave-worthy". Incredibly high praise. You should listen.

They remind you to not forget the bread, and their pita/flatbread is truly transcendent.

The regular hummus is quite good. Not the best I've ever had, but definitely a notch above. Creamy, well-seasoned, excellent presentation and ample portion.

Everything is a la carte.

Didn't try the Greek fries, but as they don't have rice on the menu, if I go back, I'll likely try the patates for a side.

On the minus side:

The meat skewers (why you go there) were disappointing.

Portions decent, and quality high, I'm sure.

I ordered 2 chicken skewers ($6 ea) and a lamb skewer ($9).

This chicken is thigh meat. Not mentioned on the menu. I don't expect thigh meat at a "greek-insipred" place, and I'm not really a fan of dark meat. That said, I found the marinade uninspiring and underseasoned. Which is a shame because I really wanted to like it.

The lamb, well, sadly it was inedible. The lamb is served on a skewer as a single large piece lengthwise instead.of pre-cut bites. I cut an end piece with my knife, truly delicious and why I might go back. Sadly, the rest, well, there's rare, tartar, and raw. 80% of my piece was raw, and I'm talking fresh salmon from a tin pink and just as cold raw.

To their credit the front of the house staff immediately apologised, informed the kitchen, and offered to refire a skewer or refund me without my asking them to do so. By then I was over the whole experience.

I understand that grilling over wood fire is tricky and variable, but when that is your whole reason for being, you should have it down. They don't, yet. And excuses does not a meal make.

I'll likely give them another try when my partner craves another beet and bulgur salad, the lamb I was able to taste was really lovely, I just hope I can get a fully cooked skewer next time. I'll skip the...

This restaurant has an enamelware problem. I grabbed a water cup from the counter, filled it up, sat down, and then I noticed a speck of something sitting right on the rim of the cup. I picked up the speck and took a look at it in my fingers (while taking my one and only sip of water) and realized that the speck was hard with ragged edges and was probably a chip of enamel from the cups all being stacked on top of each other. I told an employee, and she said, "Oh yeah I think that's the enamel chipping, let me tell my manager!" The manager took a look and said "Yeah, I'll take a look at all the cups and pick out any chips and make sure they're all in good condition." I said, "Well I think you need to buy all new cups." The manager said, "I'm not going to buy new cups." As he was walking away I told him, "It could've been a kid who got this cup instead of me." Obviously there's an issue with all of the cups if so many of them are chipping. I'm in shock that everyone there seems to think this is okay. I took a look at Falcon Enamelware's website and even they said it's ok to use chipped dishes. Yeah sure, it's ok to use them after they've chipped--as long as you hopefully don't end up with the chip in your mouth. There was literally a kid at the restaurant and she could have gotten that cup, put her mouth up to the rim without looking, and have swallowed that little piece of enamel. Maybe the detergent they use is too harsh - I don't know - but I'm in shock that they were already aware of this problem and chose not to do anything about it. It really feels like a lawsuit waiting to happen and I sincerely hope nobody ends up cutting their throat with a...

My partner and I went to Bluto's yesterday and thoroughly enjoyed our experience! Everyone we interacted with was so kind and had great energy. We ordered a vegetable souvlaki, chicken souvlaki, hummus and pita, greek fries, and soft serve. Everything was extremely delicious! We even got to try the corn soup since the kitchen prepared an extra one accidentally. We highly recommend!

My only disappointment was that the soft serve is only served in disposable cups with a disposable spoon. We were eating on-site, so I really wish there was a better set up to put it in a real bowl with a real spoon. If I had known that was the case when we ordered it, I would have cut it from the order. The person behind the counter tried her best to help, telling me the cups were recyclable (the paper ones she pointed to definitely were not, and even if they were, they wouldn't be when soiled with ice cream). She finally agreed to put it in a reusable water cup for me, which I really appreciated, but I still ended up with a spoon that I assume was made from a "compostable" bio-plastic, which is not actually compostable or recyclable in Portland.

I'd love to see an option for using real cups and spoons for the soft serve…or even a cone! As a customer, it seems like it could be quite easy to enact with all the other reusables you have available. The soft serve was fantastic, I loved the chocolate tahini magic shell, and I hope to be back soon and see reusables being offered so I can...