McMenamins Boiler Room — Restaurant in Portland

What a fun place! We were working in Portland and wanted to give it a try. There are a couple of restaurants. We opted to eat at the one run by Marriott as it seemed to have a larger menu. The food was ok. Nothing exciting but ok. The drinks were good but what you can get in the bar downstairs you can’t seem to get in the restaurant. We were seated outside and it was chilly so we asked our server to have a heater turned on. She pretty much blew us off and we had to ask for a manager. After almost 45 minutes they finally sent someone to turn on a heater. We didn’t find the staff in the restaurant particularly friendly but the bartender downstairs was great! The drinks we had down there were great as well and we really enjoyed walking around the property. Cool old school. I recommend giving it a god if you...

Let’s start with the positives! This bar was once actually the boiler room of the huge former school on the floors above; there’s a pool table and funky and fun decor. Now for the meal: an IPA was the highlight. Then a well-done burger though no one had asked how we wanted it cooked; a gluten free plain pizza that arrived lukewarm on top though on an extremely hot pizza pan and really barely edible. I was told the only Pinot Noir was a McMenamin’s label, and I should have had an IPA instead. It can’t possibly be in the customer’s interest to serve only the house brand of something like wine, it smacks of corporate greed. I left most of mine in the glass.

Oh and the water and the beer came in single use plastic glasses. Really?

The hotel is weird and fun; if I came again I...

I wouldn’t recommend coming here during COVID, at least. As a former bartender who has worked during insanely busy football weekends at a campus bar, this bar was not packed at all. Watching the bartender juggle drink orders and not be able to close someone out in interim, is insane to me. How on earth do they handle a busy night? Service is crazy slow, and usually I give people the benefit of the doubt, but this place is not customer service oriented. I tried to ask one of the bartenders if we need to have someone seat us, or if we were to free to take a table that was available. At first I thought maybe he didn’t hear me, but by the 4th time asking him as he passed us from 5 feet away, it was clear he heard me and didn’t care...