John Street Cafe — Restaurant in Portland

TL;DR: As a long-time resident (15 years) of North Portland, I had higher hopes for John Street Cafe. The food was okay, but the service was a rough-go.

With family visiting in town and a new puppy at home, we decided to order breakfast with curbside pickup at John Street.

Upon arrival, I called per the curbside instructions and was told the kitchen was running late, "a few minutes." I waited 15 minutes and then went inside to check on the order. No line / not busy and was told it'd be another "few minutes." I asked if the order would be brought out curbside, to minimize out/in traffic (and curbside, contact-less was the selection on the online order), the checker said "sure" dismissively.

I waited outside another 20 minutes and returned again to check on order status. After another few minutes, the server saw me and then asked my name, again, and turned to get our order which was waiting on a table, "I guess they didn't bring it out." Again, the cafe was not busy, no one else waiting, no to-go orders waiting for pickup, other than mine.

Generally, I'm pretty sympathetic to those working in restaurants and service industry, and I try to not to make a hard job more difficult. But as a long-time professional, I recognize the importance of how you treat your clients. Every place gets busy (not the case here) and there's a big difference between a server apologizing for an expedition issue vs. a brush off.

I asked who was currently managing and the server pointed out the manager. I noted that this was a curbside / no contact that was 30+ minutes late. The manager nodded and no apology provided. Perhaps this was par for the course.

Upon getting home, the food was cold, but was good enough after reheating. Perhaps to-go / contactless isn't the way to go. I've heard good things about the food here. But a poor service experience leaves a bad aftertaste.

I'll continue to happily patronize other great North Portland breakfast eateries such as Posies Cafe, Stacks Coffeehouse, Madrona Hill Cafe, Cathedral Coffee, Grand Central Bakery, and Grindhouse Coffee, all of which provide great food and service in our community. It will be difficult to recommend...

UPDATE: I visited here recently (inside) and found the service to be prompt and friendly. The quantities of food (the Black Bean Omelette ) were on par with the past and the flavors - as usual - were very good. All that prevents me from changing this to a five is the inconsistency that has come up in recent visits. I would advise against using the outdoor patio area, unless you are prepared for the service level to drop.

I’ve been coming here For over 10 years. Used to be one of our favorite places to come with their outdoor patio. I had called to verify that it was open so that I could enjoy a rare opportunity for brunch with my 14 year old dog.

Today when I came I ordered my usual black bean omelette, and was sorely disappointed at the significant reduction in size of all the portions. I was also sitting in the back patio with my dog and barely got any service to speak of.

No one came to ask me if I wanted more water or coffee. No one came to check on me more than one time while I was there for the total of 40 minutes. I had to ask twice for my orange juice.

When I finally went into the kitchen to ask for more coffee, when the waitress came out, I asked if it was busy in the front. She said “not really” and indicated that the back patio wasn’t “officially open” though I had verified it was on the phone earlier.

Although I acted pleasant, they were standoffish and unhelpful. I likely won’t be...

This place is a bit of a St. Johns institution and I've eaten here a handful of times over the past 5 years. Most recently I met a friend for brunch.

They've expanded, which is nice considering how packed the front room used to get. I wish they would have used that remodel to update the decor. The artwork is pretty bad - a lot of old, faded prints from the 80's that are beyond being considered ironic in the context. They would really benefit from allowing local artists to showcase their work.

The service has always been good here with very friendly staff, so that's a strong point. Though I do think they are overcharging for the food that comes out of the kitchen. The food is good, but not great. It's uninspired fare that comes to the table with a hint of being assembled instead of created. And the portions, for the price, are quite small. I ordered the corned beef hash, which arrived as a cute mound of salty melange mostly obscured by the homefries and toast. My friend ordered a scramble, which was similarly portioned. Thankfully, his 3 year old couldn't finish her pancake, so I didn't leave hungry.

Now, I don't need to leave uncomfortably stuffed but if you're going to charge $11 for a brunch special it needs to be either much better quality or much more substantial. There are some places in town where you can have both. That's where you'll find me having...