CBG — Restaurant in Portland

Two Brunches--Two Vastly Different Experiences.

So, for my first time at CBG I had a classic: eggs Benedict and home-fries, and although the egg was a little runny (the clear/white albumen part, not the yolk) it was otherwise pretty good... once we finally got a (printed out) menu. In short, decent food, but the staff were sloppy in their haste, and it was noticeable. But decent food! Really.

Now the next time--and only a couple months or so) I was glad to see that the one waitress was handling the lunch rush pretty well. It wasn't fast service, but it was brunch and we were happy to wait.

I ordered the same eggs Benedict while my wife ordered biscuits and gravy. This time my poached egg was overcooked. For reasons unknown there were veggies on my eggs Benedict, and instead of hollandaise there was a bernaise of no special note (so... why??) and a sliver of Canadian bacon. Very unimpressed with a plate that should be so simple.

Here's the kicker: for my wife's biscuits and gravy, they substituted what tasted like Italian sweet sausage for breakfast sausage, resulting in a gravy that tasted strongly of fennel instead of rosemary. Again, these are super simple dishes. I have no idea if they thought we would not notice the sausage substitutions or if (god forbid) they thought they were being inventive and did it on purpose, but I can advise against trying it: it was a huge disappointment.

Finally, the home fries were clearly out of some giant Sysco bag of frozen, pre-seasoned (sooooo much seasoning) potato chunks and crumbs. Honestly tasted like barbecue flavored potato chips on steroids. Seriously disgusting.

So: three very simple menu items and not a one done well. For the waitresses sake I still tipped a full 15% but I will not...

I have lived in Portland for almost 20 years. This has never been my go to bar but I have been enough to know it well. It's known as where the drunks hang out around town. There's always numerous people at the bar who can barley speak and are practically falling off their stool which is why it's never been my go to bar.

For this reason it was very surprising that a server refused to serve me and my friends when we hadn't even been drinking. We came in to meet a small group with the intention of getting some food and a beer. The server, a guy with dark hair wearing a shirt with pineapples, told us we were not welcome there. Again, we had not been drinking. He was so nasty to us I couldn't believe it. The place was empty, as is typically is when I walk by, and this must be the reason. I guess if you aren't one of their regular fall down drunk customers you aren't welcome in the business.

How unfortunate that for absolutely no reason at all this business chose to be really nasty to me and my friends. Not only will we never go there again but I feel to protect other friends from being treated poorly I will have to strongly encourage that no one I know ever go there again. Too bad considering all of us live in the neighborhood where this...

I want so much to give this place a good rating. It used to be a great die bar/comfort food joint. Then it was got it and reinvented as a nouveau dive bar/comfort food joint. Seem like a lot of effort went into creating, but they already had but whatever. And it’s not unusual for a place to play music so loudly it screams “eat and go”. The cocktails and Mock-tails seem quite nice. But the food… what to say about the food? When it’s good, it’s fabulous! There’s just no telling when that will, or will not happen. If you offer, homemade, hand, cut fries and potato chips they should always be awesome, otherwise just toss in a bag of Lays and be done with it. Why replace a great burger with the trendy ‘smashed burger-just an excuse to serve an overcooked burger with less meat and less quality? Truffle aioli shouldn’t be some thing you confuse with mayo. Everything that should be a safe, go to, dinneresque choice can’t be trusted. One day it’s the best in town and totally worth sitting there screaming at your next-door neighbor because the music is so loud, and the next your left wondering if the janitors are filling in for the...