Nicholas Restaurant Lebanese and Mediterranean Cuisine — Restaurant in Portland

Given a giant pita bread to start. I loved it. Parking is paid unless you find street parking along the way.

--- appetizers --- Tzatziki ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ perfectly sour refreshing I loved it, wish there was more no chunks of cucumber though which was probably be deliberate to make it smooth

Tabouli salad ⭐⭐⭐ what you'd expect little too bitter for me to eat just a spoonful of, perhaps the parsley wasn't chopped enough.

Veggie grape leaves ⭐⭐⭐✨ pretty good if you're vegetarian, otherwise I'd say get the meat one served cold strong flavors, wouldn't be able to eat a ton definitely needs the sauce

--- entrees --- Chicken breast kabob salad ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ juicy chicken seasoned well I like how the dressing was on the side, it honestly only needed a little because it was so good as is vegetables were fresh

Lamb kabob salad ⭐⭐⭐⭐ like the lamb slightly more than the beef doesn't have a bad after taste that lamb sometimes has, but it might ever so slightly

Beef kafta kabob salad ⭐⭐⭐⭐ had a little bit of a strange after taste for me think I'd recommend the lamb for other people but the beef for myself

Lebanese salad ⭐⭐⭐ basically the kabob salad without the kabob

Falafel balls ⭐⭐⭐⭐✨ had this for take out but imagine it would be even better fresh I really loved the sauce it came with little soggy for take out, but was still amazing, which is telling that it must be amazing dining in

Hummus ⭐⭐⭐⭐ pretty good! It didn't blow my mind or anything like the falafel sauce did, but I really liked it none the less. I didn't realize it came with pita bread, I ordered pita bread and got 2 packets total

--- drinks --- Turkish cold brew ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ imagine a Vietnamese/thai iced coffee but BETTER I would definitely reorder this got it without the whip cream wish there was a little more coffee, but can't complain because it was good regardless was nervous the chocolate and other sauces would make it too sweet, but it was fine

Turkish coffee ⭐⭐⭐⭐ more earthy than I'm used to but good needed...

We did a combination catering plus platter order, for 40-50 people. Everything was spot-on excellent!  The food was beautifully prepared/presented, bountiful, and absolutely delicious.  And the packaging was perfect - strong/solid/durable, well labeled, and also packaged in a way that allowed pans to easily make it back into an oven for warming.

We're having family in town in July and this past weekend's event, with friends, was kind of a test run - and, now that we've tried out the catering and platters, we definitely plan to do something similar with Nicholas Restaurant in July.  Side note: I ordered a big variety, this time, and figured we'd be able to narrow down the choices for next time - but, unfortunately, we will have a hard time eliminating any choices since every item was a stand-out star.  (I'd give a shout-out to some of our favorites but then that would imply others weren't favorites (which they were)...)  We didn't order the dessert assortment because friends were bringing desserts, but I definitely regretted not trying any of them.

Also the gentleman who was double-checking and boxing our huge order was, clearly, on top of things.  The restaurant was obviously very busy and it was clear that he was handling a lot of take-out and catering orders but he remained polite and professional (and efficient) even as the person in front of me (food delivery person) was audibly upset/angry about finding parking/pick-up location, etc.  Also - I'm not sure if this is the same gentleman who answers the catering phone line - but FWIW, I called that number a couple of times, prior to putting in the order, and received quick (and friendly) answers. Also - the restaurant circled back with me a day or two later to see how the order was received. Definitely 5-stars, in terms of food quality, presentation, packaging,  and "front-of-house" interfaces.

Sorry - we had lots of people over and I forgot to take pictures - but the food was presented...

The Gresham location is waaayyy better than this one

We came in a Friday night around 7pm. It was pretty busy, but we were seated almost right away

Wife got the meat mezza plate. I noticed right away the falafel was cold. Horrible!. Asked about it and the waitress brought us proper hot falafel. They also forgot to give us the meat pie element of the mezza so we had to remind them, which they then brought out. So a bit of miss there.

My friend got the chicken kabob pizza. It was NOT GOOD. I have had the chicken pizza before at the Gresham location and it was delicious. The chicken pizza we got here was way too strong of garlic like they soaked far too much garlic oil ( whatever oil they use in the bread) and it overpowered the entire flavor. It was terrible. Not edible.

I got the beef Kafka kabob. The rice thankfully was amazing as it usually is and the beef had great flavor. So that was good. However, the meat was in meatball form. Any other time I have gotten this meal at the Gresham location the meat was in a flat patty form which is probably more traditional.

So quite a few misses! I was not impressed. Usually Nicholas is amazing food but this location is bad! I would recommend the Gresham location. DO NOT come to this one.

The service was ok. Average.

Oh I wanted to add to the misses - the naan bread was boring as heck. Usually Nicholas's fresh naan is amazing and has some flavor but the bread at this location was much more bland then I every remember having. Last time I was at a Nicholas (in Gresham ) was about a year ago and it was amazing from start to finish . This location is...