Lilia Comedor — Restaurant in Portland

The atmosphere is nice and the service is good, but the cocktails and food were just plain bad. The menu here changes weekly, and I think that this is the restaurant's downfall (more below).

We had three dishes - a small, medium and large, as suggested by the server. For our "small" dish we had a blue corn masa filled with Mexican cheese (like a quesadilla) with pickled onions, red jalapeno sauce and topped with brussels sprouts. There was not enough sauce or pickled onion to flavor what was a bland dish overall with the exception of the brussels sprouts, which were incongruous with the dish and so bitter that you could barely taste anything else.

For the "medium" dish we had a trio of heirloom carrots that sounded much better than it ended up being. There was a base of carrot "mole" covered by a stack of plain carrots, pickled purple carrots and charred carrots. The "mole" was really delicious, but there was far too little of it. Otherwise, it was...carrots. We tried our best, but about halfway through we were just plain sick of eating just plain carrots.

Finally, we received a confit pork "collar." I've not heard of that cut, but it looked to be 4 chunks of pork butt or shoulder topped with a citrusy green sauce (good, but again very scant) and romanesco. The pork was "good" - it's hard to mess up something with that much fat and collagen, but it didn't taste or feel like confit. The romanesco, like the brussels sprouts, was bitter and unwanted, and there was not enough of the sauce to bring life to an otherwise pretty uninteresting and bitter dish. We had a few cocktails and none were delicious, which was very disappointing for $18. For example, I had a cocktail that had Fernet in it, but the entire drink was overwhelmed by it, making it bitter and frankly disgusting. There is even a section of amaros (bitter liqueurs) on the menu, so bitterness seemed to be a major theme here, and not sure it was intended. We weren't into it at all, and by the end of the night we were sick to our stomach with all the bitter offerings.

Finally, a major complaint here stems, I believe, from the fact that this place is, as they phrase it, "hyper-seasonal." This means that they use local ingredients that are in-season, prepared through a Mexican lens. This sounds great, but it wasn't working when we went. This ideology explains why you would shove bitter brussels sprouts and romanesco into dishes where it was totally unnecessary, or to try and make a dish totally out of carrots. These are only good ideas in theory - not in execution. The chef and his team are forced to come up with new dishes each week based on what is fresh at the time, however, they clearly do not have the time to prepare well-conceived and perfected dishes. I'm sure some weeks things work out, but based on what we saw we won't be giving them...

I wish I could give 4.5 points.

It was great in several ways, but there were one or two ways to improve the experience.

To get the most important out of the way: The food was excellent. The tastes surprised us and always positively. You want to experience this food despite our minor misgivings. We had overall a good time and I have recommended the restaurants to friends.

What to improve: (1) The food was on the expensive side which is fine. The service is added at 21% which is also fine. But justifying it by making sure their employees make living wage sounded a bit over the top. I am retired and not super rich, but I feel this social debate and the underlying guilting was a bit out of place at what ultimately is a luxury restaurant experience. Charge your price, but spare your guests the commentary unless you want to listen to their financial circumstances. (2) The chairs were uncomfortable. Of our party of three, two felt they sat uncomfortably. I have long legs and one leg kept falling asleep. The table was rather small for three guests, but it worked except the foot the table contributed to the shortage of leg space. (3) It felt a bit like the waiters pushed a bit to hard for us to order more. We had two waiters independently point out that three guests best order 6 plates. We ordered 3 plates and added 1 desert - this worked really well for us. My wife and I do not like big meals on the evening. (4) I ordered a bottle of sparkling water. It was served split into three glasses for the three guests in our party even though my two companions that night did not want sparkling water. No biggie: I drank out of three glasses. (5) It was rather cold in the restaurant. My wife kept her jacket on. I noticed a neighboring table retrieved a jacket from their car. I at some point wished I had brought a sweater.

Again the food was great and made up for any short commings ... or at least almost. I am not sure that I would go back next week (it was expensive and I am on a budget) but I highly recommend you experience its...

Spectacular! Everything was delicious and unique! I am looking forward to going back. I am Mexican and their mole colorado was to die for. They did an amazing job a breaking down traditional dishes or ingredients and making something new, truly superb and delicious. Every dish was an experience and the flavor’s exploded in your mouth. I have always hated octopus but since we did the chefs menu had no choice but to taste it and I really liked this one… maybe they changed my mind about pulpo… to be determined.

Ambiance was great! I loved the mocktails too , shout out to them for having mocktails. Need to go back and try the cocktails. I dont know if people care about this but the plates were really cool too.

The servers were all amazing! Very friendly and attentive. Checked in frequently and made the experience 10/10

Tip: Check the address before heading over!

Had an issue with the address since they changed locations and the address online and open table didn’t match yet. I went to the wrong place near the river and then had to head back to their new place. They were very kind and sat me even though we missed our reservation because of this. I tried calling but no answer…

Side note and personal industry grievance: I used to work at restaurants, spent many years hostessing and then serving, my only feedback to restaurants is please have a phone and text back or pick up, it makes everyones life easier and better experience for customers. I am not into the email only situation some places have… any ways old lady rant over…

This place is...