Flattop & Salamander — Restaurant in Portland

Buyer beware.. here is my adventure at this place recently..

It took zero time to get seated, great.. then a little time for water and silverware.. ok average.. to get the staff to come over for my drink order.. it took a while, zero eye contact no verbal recognition I was sitting there.. not good considering they sat me next to the servers main path.. so for 20 min I watched them walk by me..

Food was tasty, I ordered the breakfast bowl menu said 16$ with choice of bacon sausage or a few other options I didn't recognize (I assume they are vegan options) it also had fried chicken as an extra for 4$ .. also orange juice was full of ice AND small for 6$.. if I'm spending 6$ on orange juice, I'd like a large like I asked for and no ice.. I'm spending money for juice NOT A CUP FULL OF ICE..

OK BAD.. i was needing to go do other things.. I wasn't getting attention again.. with my empty bowl too the edge of the table and my wallet out card on top.. it took her a while to stop and help me. When I got my card and bill back, I looked down and was upset.. she ran my card for someone else's table that was over twice what my bill should've been.. I hope she fixed it.. I never recieved a confirmation nor receipt they refunded my money.. then I was upset again on when I got my actual bill.. the way it was written out first appeared she charged me for sausage (WHICH WAS SUPPOSED TO BE INCLUDED).. the fried chicken (pieces not the whole breast or thigh) WAS 6$ NOT THE 4$ LIKE IT WAS ON THE MENU..

WHEN I ASKED about it the explanation made it sound like I was the one that was wrong.. I pointed at my slip chicken 6$... pointed to menu 4$.. there was NO INSTANT LET'S TAKE CARE OF THAT.. I'm sorry, well fix it in the future.. just him trying to explain it in a way I wasn't understanding..

Your menu item has a price, here are the extras and cost of extras.. that's it.. you don't assume everyone is eating meat then discount if they don't but on the bill start if they aren't then add meat for 2$ then have no explanation on why on the menu it says 4$ and your...

This is a great place to eat. They do have really great food and really great drinks. But, they have issues.

Every time I've been here, it's been with between 2 and 4 people and I have never waited less than 45 minutes. The last time I was there with a party of 4 and we waited for an hour and a half. We later learned that was because of parties of 6 or more could make reservations. Only parties of 6 or more can make reservations, which basically tells me that smaller parties can kick bricks because we can't make a reservation and won't bring them as much money.

On these occasions, the staff have not been mean or rude, but do give off this air of not caring about my small party as much; this way of treating us like we're just in the way of the bigger money. It's all just very disappointing.

And of course, once inside their indoor space, it's so loud in there that it's hard for me to not become overwhelmed with sound immediately upon sitting down. I know the reason is because this place is popular, which makes me happy for the staff and owners, but if you're looking for a place where you can actually talk to your brunch buddies, this might not be it.

For what the food and drinks are, even though they are good, they are not worth waiting 45+ minutes for. I'll go again if one of my friends really wants to go, but there is better brunch to be had in town that doesn't come with all the issues that Flattop...

I haven't noticed any 5 star restaurant with over 100 reviews before. I decided to go because of the reviews! It was highly rated on several other platforms as well. We arrived there during lunch and had the Chicken and Waffles. You choose either a maple with bacon butter or hot chili honey with lime and cilantro and you can also get half and half of both). I enjoyed trying both to compare. If I was to order just one flavour, I would personally pick their maple bacon butter, it sounds simple, but it allows for the chicken and waffles to really shine through. While the chilli lime was an interesting mix of flavours that I did enjoy, but it masks the qualities of how good the chicken itself is flavoured and moist. I found myself assessing the flavour to determine whether the combination was something I liked and if I like it more than the other flavour. Overall I am happy that I had both to try and enjoyed having a bit of sweet and savoury. Obviously if you don't like lime, cilantro or chilli, I wouldn't recommend it. I think you can't go wrong with the maple butter and to peak your curiosity you can always get both. I also enjoyed their sweet tea and their server would check on us in a very personal way, so no wonder it was 5 stars from most reviewers ! Also we got seated...