HunnyMilk — Restaurant in Portland

Very disappointed by this experience. My wife and I came because it was so highly rated online. Waited outside in the cold for 20 minutes instead of being put on a wait/call list to get a seat.

Once we came I immediately noticed that most plates were left with up to half their food on them by guests. Not a good omen.

The previous menu that all the reviews spoke of is gone and is replaced with a donut menu. Everyone dish has a fried sweet bread conponent to it. Might be good for some people. Definitely not the experience I wanted. There is no way to have any food here that isn't fried bread during this donut moment they are having.

We got the biscuits and gravy and their everything benedict as savories, and shortbread doughnut and macerated strawberries, and the apple fritter churro for sweets.

The biscuits and shortbread doughnut were both very dense, as if they are lacking leveners. Not fun to eat.

The benedict was fine. It is just 1 egg, I wish I had known about the truffle oil on it. It dominated the flavor of the dish. I feel they minimized the size of the savory for bigger sweets. But ... why? The sweets are upsetting.

The churo was an apple fritter. There was no churo about it. You could call it a donut danish and it would put you more in mind of what it is. A soggy, oily apple fritter, with apple goo and whipped cream of some sort.

We ate the savory dishes out of hunger but there was no joy in it. And the desserts were just not good enough to base your whole concept around. At least put 1 dish that isn't heaped in goo. Like there wasn't a potato. Or an omlette or just a classic breakfast. It was only doughnuts. And stuff on doughnuts.

If it was a donut shop that started a donut brunch I would be all in for it. This was a brunch spot failing in a fad from 10 years ago.

Maybe it is me, but the thought of a dirty restaurant with messy staff serving you a poorly thought out food experience is not what I want to do with my only brunch in portland.

What a disappointment.

I hope they start to notice how many plates come back with food still on them. That is a very bad sign, and a good reason to...

Cute little brunch spot. The menu is fixed and it’s at the time $24 per person.. $14 for a large drink. You order and then wait for a table. The staff was immediately friendly and I loved the atmosphere. It was a short wait. Maybe 10 minutes even though they were busy.

To start I got the pina colada and a drip coffee. The pina colada was really good. It had a salty flavor that I was really into. And the drip coffee I had black and was really strong and delicious. Overall worth it for the boozy drink and the coffee while not anything to write home about was still really good.

For the savory option, I picked the popcorn chicken with waffles and my partner picked chorizo biscuits.

Mine- the chicken was perfectly breaded and cooked and the waffle was really really good. Them-initially the biscuit balls are really tough but once you cut into them they are soft. The gravy is amazing and has a nice spice to it and the chorizo is really good and not super greasy. The biscuit balls have an herby sweetness to them. And the roasted red peppers being separated is nice. It gives you the option of eating them.

For the sweet option, I got the strawberry bars and they got the apple pie churro-but.

Mine-the strawberry and the jelly like compote was seriously delicious. I have no complaints. Them-Wow. The pistachio streusel is amazing. Could eat it by the bag full. So light and fluffy. The donut is a little doughy. Unsure if it’s intentional or undercooked but the outside is nice and crispy and I actually really like it. The custard is not too sweet and compliments the apples really well.

Overall, I wish I could give half stars. Because I would only take half of one off. The reasoning is that for being covid, everything was a little close. And the damn curtain at tiny window stayed on me the whole time. I know that’s not a huge issue for some but it was annoying. The food was spectacular. Spicy when it should be and sweet when it should be. Overall...

The food was only fine and the vibe was very weird.

The entree was decent but not better than a Benedict or biscuits and gravy I’ve had elsewhere for cheaper. Also, $3 add on for bacon is normally fine, but not when it’s just bacon crumbles.

The dessert was the biggest letdown. The apple churro tasted like the apples were canned and the cream/custard tasted like nothing. The churro part was a bit oily but overall fairly standard. The carrot cake donut was really similar to Indian carrot pudding but the cream cheese part had no tang and the donut underneath was pretty meh so I really felt both desserts I tried were super bland. The desserts needed more depth. Even a sprinkle flaky salt over would have helped.

This is a wildly unhealthy meal which is not something I have an issue with but it needs to be worth it and this was not. Everything was a good idea but executed poorly. Maybe the ingredients were cheap or maybe they’ve gotten too busy to keep their quality up but I left not really having enjoyed my food.

Beyond the food, the vibe inside the restaurant was super, super weird. I don’t mind waiting in line but the workers were clearly very fed up with dealing with dumb people and ended up being short with pretty much everyone. Their ordering system makes sense for crowd control but the lack of explanation and signage left a lot of people in awkward places. I felt like they asked us to come wait inside and then kept shuffling everyone around in kind of a rude way. Even when we were seated it just wasn’t a comfortable experience.

We spent $72 on brunch for two people with no booze. I feel like we overpaid by $20 or so. I really don’t think the entree and dessert I had were worth ~$17 per item. Especially the dessert. It was like a $6 donut, max.

I wouldn’t recommend this place and I’m for sure not coming back. Even if there was no wait (we waited about 15 min so not bad at all) it wouldn’t...