Feral — Restaurant in Portland

Feral has become one of my favorite neighborhood haunts and I really cannot recommend it enough.

For some context: I am an extremely and shamefully picky eater, and I am not vegan. Luckily, with a place like Feral, that doesn't really matter. Their motto is "food you can really eat" and boy is that the truth. The menu is always fresh and changing in new and exciting ways, and whatever you get will have been thought up with the utmost care, creativity, and understanding of simple to complex flavor profiles. I've had countless meals there and every single one of them has knocked my socks off. No kiddin'.

I could go on and on about the food, but I also need to mention the cocktails. Feral has, and I truly mean this without hyperbole, the best cocktails in the city and maybe the best I've ever had, period. There's something for everyone but everything will have been created from a place of deep knowledge and expert craft. I've had some truly far out cocktails at Feral (and a lot of not-so far out ones as well) but I have never had a bad one.

The people are nice and seem to genuinely enjoy being their to create good art and good experiences. There's real feeling of coziness coupled with a flare of fine dining expertise (without the super high price tag that makes actual fine dining out of reach for most folks). If you want to eat food made by people who not only care deeply about their craft and are continually pushing their art in interesting directions, and you want to support a business that is truly breaking a lot of industry norms, whilst staying true to their identity and values, then Feral is your spot.

Anyway, I may not be a vegan but luckily for me Feral is a restaurant that doesn't need to rely on being animal product-free as a marketing tactic to sell substandard meat analogs. The food and drinks are just so good and absolutely a cut above most casual dining spots in the city regardless of whether you're a carnivore like...

Disappointed in the service. We were next to a table with 2 small children, that were super loud and kicking against the booth. They wanted to move us one table over, which wouldn't made a big difference, despite the small 2 top tables. Acted like all the other table had a reservation, when we also had a reservation. So we got finally got moved to the other side, which was great. Fritters were tasty, but too big and too filling for a starter and was kind of like eating fried corn bread. The tofu fried tofu sandwich was a big disappointment. Came out on a burger bun, guess when you read sandwich, you think it's served on toast not on a burger bun. It was like eating a breaded tofu with sauce on it, very basic. As soon as we mentioned to the waitress that we didn't like the tofu sandwich and that we like to send it back.. she gave us attitude.. from thereon the service just went downhill. We ordered 3 dishes. Fritters, tofu sandwich and the Alfredo fettuccine pasta. Never changed our tiny bread and butter plates, which were ok for the Fritters.. not for the sandwich or the pasta. The table next to us had the tomato salad with much bigger share plates..i had to ask for different share plates.. nobody checked on us to see how everything was.. no changing of plates.. just lazy. The Alfredo pasta was very light and delicious.. there is a 20% mandate of service charge on the tap. $100 was definitely not worth the food. Went right next door and grabbed me 2 tacos. So amazing and very...

I was lucky enough to snag a ticket for their sold out NYE dinner and it was such a special treat. My party came for the later seating, and I guess service was running just a little slow, so we were greeted at the door and asked to wait 15 minutes before coming back to be seated. I really appreciated that they let the first service finish up without making those guests feel rushed out the door! We were seated right at 8:15 and were immediately served an amazing snack tray (the croquette!), followed by roasted squash, an unbelievably beautiful kohlrabi salad, the best tortellini I've ever had, and a roasted lion's mane dish that somehow felt like an entire thanksgiving dinner in just a few bites. The dessert courses (a collab with a vegan patisserie) weren't my favorite, but that was probably because they were all GF, and I am not, or because I was surprisingly full by the end of dinner. Either way, it was a decadent end to the meal. The cocktail pairings were all amazing, vibrant and thoughtful, but never too sweet or heavy. Service was excellent, and the vibes were festive and not stuffy, which I really appreciate given the fact that the food is truly on another level, but the atmosphere is still comfortable and warm.

I've been to Feral before, but this meal was beyond what I would have imagined from them. These folks have range! I can't wait for the next prefix to see what...