Cadillac Cafe — Restaurant in Portland

We hadn’t been to Cadillac Cafe in a while so we went to have a birthday breakfast for my husband. We were seated quickly which was a surprise for Sunday. Get there before 10 am! Line out the door when we left. Our server was super nice and cheery and attentive. My husband ordered chicken fried steak and coffee, my son ordered an omelet and side pancake and a smoothie, and I ordered two eggs scrambled, potatoes, and sourdough toast and a hot tea. We also ordered a breakfast bread of the day which was banana hazelnut. The drinks came out quickly and lots of free refills on coffee and hot water for the tea. The banana bread wasn’t fully baked and gummy on the bottom, baked as individual little breads that looked more like hostess cakes. Sent it back and asked for a refund. We waited a bit for our food. All came out hot but my order was scrambled eggs but came out with fried eggs, which I sent back. They were quick to correct. The chicken fried steak plate was good. My son enjoyed the omelet. The pancake was just okay. Lacked flavor and was a bit gummy/soggy on the bottom. The scrambled eggs were lackluster and tasteless. No seasoning. Had to add salt. The chicken apple sausage was way overcooked and tough. The sourdough toast was fine. The potatoes were decent. Nothing special though. Overall the food seems to have gone a bit downhill from years past. It’s not hard to make scrambled eggs and these didn’t cut it, especially for a place that boasts itself as a breakfast designation. The atmosphere, decor and tables are the same as they were 10 years ago…and not in a good way. The fun is the Cadillac literally in the restaurant but the rest of the place is super dated and tired. Parts of the menu are too. Seems time for Cadillac to get a face lift. There are better places for breakfast...

I went for brunch with friends. It was semi busy but not overly busy. I found the general wait staff was friendly but our server was short tempered and tried to hide it and did not check in on us. I think they left early without notifying about a replacement. Had to ask multiple times for simple items like a napkin. The environment is nice and cozy. There is a Cadillac inside the cafe and I think it would be a good spot for first dates. Overall it was good. My food I got did not mesh well together. Although the individual ingredients were good, I don’t recommend getting the smoked salmon hash. The flavor of the salmon over powers the other ingredients. If it was fresh and not smoked it would be better. The plate was really hot like burn you hot and seemed like it was reheated in a microwave cause food was splattered and melted on it, I did not like that part. My lunch mates enjoyed their food and their drink specials seemed to be a favorite. Food portion was more than enough and price seems in line with this kind of establishment. Pay about $30 with meal and drink. Expect a 15-20 min wait if you go on during peak times. Don’t expect fresh food. Overall I think worth checking out since everyone will have a different experience depending on time of day, and who your server is. The environment is worth it, food is average...

Tl;dr: food good. Orders incomplete. Inadequate signage and a mildly negative employee encounter.

Full story: Friends and I ordered take-out from the Cadillac Cafe on Saturday. Probably not the best decision, considering how very busy they were (Portland brunch tradition being what it is).

The food was excellent. Or it would have been, had we gotten all of the elements of our meals. The house-smoked salmon is as close to perfect as I've had. Their poached eggs were more often overdone and cooked hard than done right. And we missed the crème fraîche and hollandaise for two of our three dishes, rendering the eggs benedict only benedict-adjacent.

Forgetting parts of our meals is why I took off the first star - the chefs seem to know what they're doing, but the staff needs a little more training and more support. Better procedures could undoubtedly prevent things like this from happening in the future.

The second star was removed for poor signage/direction regarding order pickup. There are two doors - one marked for the coffee bar (which also doubles as order pickup, though nothing says as much) and one for in-house dining. After waiting for an opportunity I asked an employee about food pickup and received a brusque, almost rude direction to go to the coffee bar door.

I likely won't return to this restaurant, cute...