Fat City Cafe — Restaurant in Portland

This is hands down, the best diner west of the river, if not all of the greater Portland area.

My friend and I happened upon this beautiful bastion of breakfast purely on accident, after fully intending to get our meal from the grill across the street. However, as luck would have it, I had to stretch a little bit after getting out of the car and I caught a glimpse of the name out of my peripheral vision.

“Heh, with a name like that, you know they make good food!” I chuckle to my friend, and so we changed course and went across the street to my new favorite diner.

Walking in, we saw all the best in standard diner decorating; Celebrity cardboard cutouts in the windows, license plates adorning the walls, street signs wherever the eye could see, all working together to build the comfortable classic café. We also noticed that the entire place was filled, with no bar room left, leaving only a single booth in the back corner open, lucky us. It is also important to note that there were a total of 3 servers and by the time we had finished our meal and left, each one had spoken to us and made sure we were well taken care of, despite how busy they were, I immediately felt right at home.

I made sure to order my standard, a dish that I order any time I try a new place, to gauge how good their food is, and for me, that was French toast, with a side of bacon, and a glass of milk with the meal, (I have always ordered the glass of milk “with the meal” that way it is still cold when I start to eat, however, it has always been forgotten by the staff of whatever place I was eating.) Each of the 3 servers gave me crap about making them have to remember my milk, jokingly upset that I would ask for such a thing. But here is the thing, for once, my milk was NOT forgotten and arrived with the meal, a meal that was perfect in every way (insert mad max fury road scene here). The bacon was perfectly balanced between chewy and crispy, almost melting in your mouth, the butter on the French toast had already been melted on all of it, and was still quite hot as I attempted to slice it all into bite sized pieces, each bite taking me back to a moment of bliss from my childhood.

All of this happened within about 20 minutes of us walking into a jam packed restaurant, with only 3 people working the tables, all three of them being the most friendly, kind, and cheerful people you could hope to meet. One fine server was even named “Ester” a name so at home in such a place one would think that it was done purely for the atheistic! (I know I had thought so, haha)

I for one cannot wait to come back, and try other meals and dishes here, and best of all, bring my friends and family to my new favorite diner. So thank you to all those who work here and have made this a home.

Sincerely, An extremely satisfied diner lover.

P.s, for those who would like a little context, I myself have grown up with a love and respect for diners and those that make them great since I was a child, as I grew up I loved to travel and try new diners, so to find a diner this good, this close to home is really...

Fat City Cafe was one of my favorite places to go for breakfast in Portland. However, I came in on the 15th of August, 2018 for breakfast and was extremely disappointed when I ordered a cinnamon roll with a chocolate shake. From my previous pleasant experiences at this establishment I was expecting the morning's sugar binge to make my day. Instead, I left without a shake and severe agitation from the disgusting utterance the waiter displayed.

Shortly after sitting down and placing my order I was amused when a customer complained about the service and left the establishment. The customer sitting next to me calls over the waiter. Customer: "Can I get my food?" The waiter replies: "Oh, sure, I suppose I will go over there and tell tell them to hurry up." He walks to the kitchen, grabs another customer's food and says, "oh, this isn't your food." The customer was flabbergasted and left the restaurant.

The waiter proceeded to mutter passive aggressive comments about the encounter. Shortly after he brought me my cinnamon roll. Thirty minutes pass as I watch this waiter walk around like a host instead of a waiter and perform his duties in a scattered fashion, spending more time and effort flirting with the guy sitting next to me than tending to his customers.

Right when I am at the point where I was about to politely remind the waiter about my shake he asks me if I wanted it for here or to go. Originally the plan was to consume the shake with the cinnamon roll, but the half hour it took to make the shake was more than enough time for me to have finished, so I chose to go. I watched as the guy made what appeared to have been his first attempt at making a shake. What I received was essentially chocolate milk with whipped cream. The waiter hands the drink to me without a straw and apologizes: "sorry, we don't have straws, but you can like go down the street, they have straws there."

The straw thing was it it for me. I walked out. When I got to my car I took a couple deep breaths, then thought, "ok, just go complain and get your shake." I went back in and said, "sir, I am gonna step out for a smoke. When I get back can you please have a shake made for me that I can eat with a spoon?" The waiter looked at me as if I had asked him where he was last night; confused and slightly offended. He took the shake out of my hands and reminded me again about some other place that had straws. I said, "I came here to get a shake, not there." He then stirred the chocolate milk with the spoon and told me that he can't make a shake thicker than what he had given me and offered me my money back. At this point I expected my money back, and my shake. He gave me the money like it was a donation, with puppy eyes. Pathetic.

Get rid of this guy, he stains your reputation. I can say with confidence that I am never coming back if he is going to be serving me. I love the restaurant, but not enough to take a gamble in hopes he won't be...

Fat city is one of my favorite places to go eat it is always been fun inviting and has had good food, it is also been a restaurant I’ve been going to since a very little kid. Today I experienced some of the worst Customer service ever, I honestly felt extremely attacked and harassed because I brought in my service animal who is registered, immediately when I walked in, I was told no dogs are allowed. Clearly, he has giant patches visible, that say, service, animal, and a vest, and all of his credentials. I replied, he is my service animal India is fully certified. The owner of fat city responded. Well, he doesn’t seem well trained enough to be a service animal, as he was a little agitated from being wet because it was raining outside. Lol. I responded. He is extremely well trained thank you and he is also a fully registered service annual and I can show you certificate if you would like. I also responded. I don’t think you’re allowed to say much more than just ask me if he is a service animal. And she said I can do what I want. How about you shut up and just order. At this point, I was kind of baffled, so I looked for my ID card and when she asked me for my order, I went to show her which she told me to just leave LMAO Grand Central bakery, where dogs are also not allowed but service animals are and nobody even questioned or asked me anything. They’ve been very polite and kind When my animal tried to shake off the rainwater when entering. Since then, he has just sat by my side and walked with me very respectful. Also, prior to writing this review, I also called to just try to give them a chance to reach an understanding before posting this. They literally just hung up on me. Honestly, with the service I experienced I don’t really trust him to make my food anymore. I don’t know what happened and the owner is 42 years of working there but she’s gone sour and probably so is there...