Harlow — Restaurant in Portland

When in Portland, do as the Portlanders do. That is to say, eat something plant-based, organic, locally grown, sustainable, and gluten-free. Well, we have to eat gluten-free anyway, so we gave this place a try when we visited Portland.

Everything tastes about as you would expect. Delicious? Not exactly. But certainly nutritious. I had the farmer's vegetable scramble with eggs (pictured) and honestly, it was pretty good! Some of the veggies took a lot of chewing, but that's good for you, right? I felt good after eating it, and like I was fortified for a day of adventuring. My husband got the biscuits and gravy. He was not very happy about it. He likes meat, and there was none, so grumbles were to be expected. He also found the gravy to be too peppery. I tried it and I agree that it did taste like someone ground a whole pepper mill into it. Still, it was decent.

My husband also found his smoothie to be literally too crunchy. (Not just figuratively.) There were coffee grounds and something else chunky in it, and it just wasn't his jam. I thought the flavor was good, even though the drink needed to be chewed.

Overall, the place was pleasant and cute, and I did like all the plants on the window sill by the entrance. A cute place for breakfast, and we could at least relax because we knew everything would be gluten-free. You order at the counter and the food comes promptly. No long waits. I would definitely...

Save your $$$. Iv been here twice, first time I got nothing, my girlfriend got a breakfast burrito and it was missing ingredients that were listed and super greasy and horrendous customer service. Second time I went I experienced the worst customer service, even working in customer service myself for my adult life I still was shocked at how unprofessional the service was. I was not greeted when walking up to the counter, when I asked what soup they had the girl with reddish hair and short bangs looked at me in silence and pointed to the board, which Iv had my bad days but I would never make someone feel so uninvited and uncomfortable. I went to sit down and waited for 25 minutes and still had nothing. When I walked up to the counter all three workers were huddled talking amongst themselves. I politely asked to check on my order and they pointed to the counter as it had been sitting there for 10 minutes and no one came to tell me even given how dead it was in the shop. I asked for a full refund and explained how uncomfortable I felt, then to notice they didn’t refund my tip. Not to mention workers were playing with their hair then handling food. Like I said, 10+ years in customer service and I didn't know the bar could be this low, skip this place… your better off anywhere...

Casual counter-service restaurant, nicely decorated and cozy. The menu is mostly vegan except for a few dishes where they use eggs. They have good options for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. The service was okay. Not the friendliest staff but they weren't overtly rude or anything. My food came out quickly enough. I had to remind them about my drink which then took another minute or two but that's not a big deal. I got the seasonal pasta (butternut squash, mushrooms, spinach in sage cream sauce), a ginger pineapple soda, and a no-bake cookie. The pasta and soda were really good. The sauce was super rich and had a texture that I loved. It was a pretty big plate but with lots of vegetables so it wasn't just a massive pile of pasta. I liked that the ginger soda was more zingy and dry than sweet. The no-bake cookie was not very cookie-like, it was really more like a (cookie-shaped) chocolate bar with seeds and dried fruit. Very dense. It was too big for me to finish the whole thing in one go. It was okay but not what I expected, which is kind of my fault for not taking a closer look when I picked it out. They do have some "regular" (baked) cookies which looked good. Overall my impression of the food was positive so I would definitely come back if I lived...