Clyde's Prime Rib Restaurant and Bar — Restaurant in Portland

01/27/2023:  4.75 out of 5 - I came here with my wife, mother-in-law and nephew for my 50th birthday dinner and, along with my mother-in-law and nephew, it was my first time eating here.  My wife wanted to bring me somewhere that would be older than me. Clyde's prime Rib Restaurant was established in 1955.

So yeah...my wife has a brilliant taste.

Moving on, this is how I score it today:

SERVICE - 4.75 out of 5. Clyde's is a table service restaurant with a Lounge.  We made reservations.  Arrived and the host was nice and, although a minor wait, was quick to get us checked in.

Our server, Taylor, was friendly, made us feel welcomed, and was helpful with explaining some things with the menu.  Taylor and the other staff were good about checking on us, quick to get us some requested things, water refill, clear the table and such.

Taylor showed a lot of patience when my nephew wanted to do the order for the table, which was a big surprise to my wife and I.  Our nephew is on the spectrum, he voluntarily wanted to put in the order, and Taylor was outstanding with him.

Overall, the service exceeded my expectations when it came to this kind of food service establishment.  It was just golden!

PRICE - 4.50 out of 5. For any white linen table service one should expect the prices to be...pricey.  Surprisingly, for the Portland area, the pricing at Clyde's Prime Rib, in my opinion, was right on the mark.  We definitely got what we paid for.

QUALITY - 4.75 out of 5. Now this is where the food comes in.  For starters, we went with: (2) orders of the Prawn Cocktail - way better than what we thought it would which is why we did the second order. (2) orders of the Hot Wings - same as the Prawn Cocktail...so good! (1) order of Calamari. (1) order of Sauteed Mushrooms - very good! (1) order of Caesar Salad - I didn't eat it. (1) Au Gratin Cauliflower - wow!

For the main course, I ordered the Ribeye Steak, my mother-in-law went with the Prime Rib, my nephew had the Fish & Chips, and my wife went with the Lobster Mac & Cheese.  All was shared amongst each other, and everything was delicious, and such a joy on the taste buds!

Regardless, for the price, portion, ingredients and tastiness...it was all SO worth it!

TIPPING - 5.0 out of 5. Clyde's Prime Rib does show suggestions at the bottom of the receipt based on the total, which is, in most cases, the standard and helpful.   The best part of it though is that Clyde's don't make you feel obligated, nor give the sense of "guilt tipping", and doesn't tack on those ridiculous "surcharges" for some made up line item.

This, in my opinion, is the correct way to better serve the customers.

ESTABLISHMENT - 4.75 out of 5. Keep in mind, Clyde's Prime Rib is an established restaurant with a lounge.  The lounge had live music, served drinks and food, as well.  With that going on, the music didn't overwhelm the seated dining area.  The restaurant was packed but still felt nice and airy.  The bathroom was clean but could do with a bit of improvement.  The vents were kept clean (No caking of dust in this place).  This place was considerably quite clean!  Tables were full of patrons but it wasn't overly loud.  The overall ambiance was enjoyable.

"WOULD YOU COME BACK?" Often after each meal, I would ask at the table, "Would you come back?", which in my case, I absolutely would.  My nephew really enjoyed the food and the scenery, and wants to come back to Clyde's.  Besides, there's more that I definitely would like to try on the menu.

So, if ever in the mood for great Prime Rib and/or tasty food with live music, then give Clyde's Prime Rib Restaurant a try.  As I always say, try it once and decide for...

Maybe it's time for Clyde's to pack it in. Sometimes, restaurants that have been around for decades, need to be set out to pasture. Clyde's is one of them. We went for a celebration dinner the other night, and it was a total flop. This was very disappointing for a landmark restaurant in the pdx scene. Whatever pizazz there once was among a chef or management that cared about details seemed long gone. The service was on par with applebees or any other garbage chain restaurant. There was no mention of specials or anything else that may have been of interest from our server. In fact, we had the bare minimum of service one could get. There were three of us, and all three ordered a beverage. Instead of using a tray, our server brought all three drinks in his hands and had my wife grab hers from his collection. That seemed odd. We were barely checked on. Perhaps they were understaffed. The food was a comedy of errors. We ordered raw oysters, shrimp cocktail and the french onion. Somehow, the soup came out 5-8 min before the other two raw items. That was weird. The soup was standard and maybe the only thing prepared correctly all night. The oysters were ok. They weren't very briny or flavorful. The shrimp had been over cooked and were mealy and flavorless, the cocktail sauce was bland and lacked any real zip. All in all, they were a milquetoast start to the night, and a precursor for the mains. The entree portion of the night was just awful. My wife had the prime rib wedge salad, which came out five minutes before the other two entrees. We were told my ribeye was holding up the other items. It was one of the most amateurish and sloppy platings i'd seen in quite a while. The meat looked like it had been thrown from across the room onto the salad. It was also way overdressed with maybe 5oz of dressing sloppily plopped on the not-so-crispy wedge of iceberg. The other garnish on the salad was nearly invisible because of the amount of dressing. My ribeye was a disaster. I ordered med-rare, i got blue. This steak needed 5-8 more min to get to temp. It was raw for the center half of the steak. This is a $38 cut of meat from a steakhouse. C'mon. You have one thing to do at a steakhouse. COOK THE MEAT PROPERLY! I was told i could send it back. Why would i do that? Give the person a chance to bomb it again? Have them spit on it? Nah. I would mention the sides to the steak, but the mash was so old and flavorless and the broc so overcooked, it wouldn't be worth it. The other person in our party had the hanger. It looked cooked properly, but the chimichirri was old and brown. Not fresh and vibrantly green. I thought maybe they could redeem themselves slightly with dessert. I saw they had pot de creme. I am a sucker for a custard. Womp womp. This was so poorly made, i'm shocked the ghost of french cuisine didn't rise from the floor and behead the garde-manger person. There was 1/4" of custard in a large creme brulee ramekin, the wrong container for a pot de creme. On top was 2"' of can whip and hershey's syrup. I could barely taste the custard through all that.

In short, we won't be back. Clyde's is in need of a stalwart kitchen manager that can create standards that elevate the dining experience. They are also in need of a foh manager to also maintain service standards to match the price points. I wouldn't be shocked nor upset if Clyde's...

Not sure if it was a bad day or something but arguably the worst service I’ve ever had experienced. Took my mother here for her birthday. We arrived here in the afternoon, it was relatively empty. I asked for their capacity just in case if we need a reservation or could we do walk in, the server rolled her eyes and said I guess, so I proceeded to say would it be alright we get a table for two. She then said go to the bar; you two are obviously older than 21. Sat and waited for roughly 10 minutes and was given menus and water, I asked what appetizers did she enjoy and could recommend, and as a former server I know this is a bit annoying but jeez I’m just asking a quick question for my mother for her birthday during a dead period basic customer service won’t kill you hon. Lady starts sighing and pointing to the menu goes it’s honestly all good just pick whatever, and just let me know when you’re ready as she’s walking away even though we were ready to order the mains just wanted to see any suggestions for the appetizers while we wait. I then asked if I could get the dessert menu when she had a moment, massive eye roll, “Kay”, We ordered, during this the lady asked me multiple times to speak clearer and slower and if possible proper(?), as she couldn’t understand me, weird, anywho, then we got our apps followed by the main and during the next duration of our meal we got a single check in from a different waitress who was there to clean up our table from 15 minutes of us getting our food, then we finally got the dessert menu and was left alone until later another attempt to take away our plates we were able to order dessert. Ordered dessert and the original lady came by finally trying to clean up with food still on our plate and table, I asked if we could have another moment before she starts cleaning sighed and left only to return a few moments later to give us the check and not return again. Another waitress had to provide us with to go boxes and close us out. Never saw the original waitress again. Not a single refill, check in, or decent courtesy other than what it feels like the need to shoo us away. If it wasn’t pouring out accompanied by my mother, I would have instantly left if I was just myself. Now the food. Appetizers, albeit the best item we got, was ice cold and felt like somebody forgot about them last week and brought them out. Prime rib 16 oz, was solid, done very well actually. Ribeye? Jeez medium rare was looking like it was still mooing. Crème brûlée, sweet but go get the ones from Costco, infinitely better and cheaper. Overall, food? Mid. Not worth the price IMO. Service? Atrocious. Any fast food place would outclass the experience we had. Vibe? Actually kinda quaint, bar lounge had a nice ambient and felt very cozy and I was eager to return but definitely not after the experience we had. Not to mention the glares and slight aggression and attitude from the original waitress, just not worth it. Stick to Fogo if you’re lazy and wanna have a good time with good eats for Prime rib. Again not sure if it was a bad day or something however, would be despicable behavior and very inappropriate for fast food drive thru joint let alone a steakhouse. Absolutely...