Cafe Olli — Restaurant in Portland

----- brunch ----- --- drinks --- Espresso tonic ⭐⭐⭐⭐✨ really refreshing strong

Shaken espresso ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ little too sweet for me but it was good we liked it more than the tonic espresso but I wouldn't order this for myself, too sweet

--- food --- Olli plate ⭐⭐⭐✨ was good, but didn't blow me away loved the bread and bacon the most the bacon was perfectly crispy

Smoked salmon plate ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ again, loved the bread lettuce was delicious, had a really good olive oil on it salmon wasn't overly fishy or had a strong smoked taste, I feel like it's really easy to mess up this type of salmon so it deserves 5 stars for that the red onions were really good

Steak and eggs ⭐⭐⭐⭐ like a roasted brisket, not a medium rare steak super soft I really liked it but not 28 dollars much, was expecting a steak steak perfect sunny side up eggs cool sauce

Savory porridge ⭐⭐⭐ this one used really expensive olive oil, you could tell it was a little on the bland side I think personal preference for me is I would have liked a chilli oil or a bit more pop, maybe a citrus in there?

----- dinner -----

Baguette and butter ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ really good bread. Warm and actually worth it, it was flavorful the butter was delicious and soft the anchovies were a bit much for me though! But my partner loved it. I personally would skip the anchovies unless you love anchovies. It is better than typical American ones though.

Black cod ⭐⭐✨ wouldn't reorder didn't flake apart salsa macha was good, but not extraordinary loved the cashew crunches

❤️Roasted fennel pizza ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ loved the pickles red onions I'm picky with olives but I loved the olives on this I think the calabrian chili cream tied it all together, it was actually a tiny hint of spice tiniest bit soggy but I liked it

--- drinks --- Matcha latte ⭐⭐⭐⭐ I liked how it wasn't overly...

Having now dined here on multiple occasions I can confidently say that their food is not worth the terrible service and underwhelming dining experience . The incentive structure for the employees to work with any amount of energy seems null and void with the automatic 20% gratuity added. I would have no issues buoying the base pay for the staff IF the service was worth the 20%. Because the owners refuse to compensate their staff with a livable wage, the customers are told to pay the 20% without getting any of the benefits of paying such a generous gratuity. Meals are served at different times and the workflow is completely inefficient. On a Wednesday at noon while the restaurant was not full, my sandwich arrived 20 minutes before my husband’s pizza and our coffee drinks didn’t arrive until 30 minutes into the meal and only after we asked the hurried, passive aggressive waitress. There seemed to be a full staff working, but there was an obvious absence of consideration for time. The NY Times recently wrote an article about this restaurant, which is no small feat to garnish similar national recognition with other local restaurants such as Kann and Okta. However, Cafe Olli is nowhere in the same stratosphere of quality that they provide their patrons. And unfortunately for this adorable restaurant, Portland is saturated with good food, pastries, and restaurants that have exceptional service and give customers a reason to want to come back time and again. Sadly, that won’t be the case for Cafe Olli unless they change their customer experience. No $29 pizza is worth standing in line while being ignored by staff, waiting 30 minutes for their drinks, and having to request basics like...

I'll preface this review by saying I don't often write reviews...but this was quite the surprising experience, and not in a good way.

I'll start with the 2 positives. The food was wonderful. Flavorful, well cooked. Drinks were tasty as well. That being said, from the beginning our (very sweet intentioned) server and the rest of the service team dropped the ball left and right. Our drinks accidentally not put in. Ok fine, no big deal... Server finally realized, apologized, and put them in. Once they were put in, one of our drinks arrived with the incorrect spirit. The runner who delivered it seemed to also not believe my friend when he clarified... Our appetizer (bread and butter) never showed up. To try and make amends, our server offered to comp the $3 chili oil...Guess what ended up on the bill at the end...yep, the chili oil. Whatever, it's $3, but maybe just don't offer it. Our food took FOREVERRRR. Tables that were sat after us and ordered after us got food at the same time. We were never offered water refills. Had to try and flag down runners twice. At no point were we given an opportunity to put in a second drink order. Once we finally flagged our server down to get another drink, it didn't arrive until nearly the end of the meal. It felt challenging to even flag down a runner or server, as they all seemed to generally avoid eye contact.

All in all, this is definitely one of the worst service experiences I've had in Portland, and when you add in the fact that they put an automatic 20% gratuity to the bill, it's pretty frustrating that you're getting such a crappy experience. Would recommend...