Noble Rot — Restaurant in Portland

We held our wedding and reception at Noble Rot Restaurant. Due to the tireless effort of Courtney, Leather and the Noble Rot team, this day was awesome and I highly encourage others to hold their events here.

I worked with Courtney to prepare for our wedding. From the first time we did the initial walk thru, she was graceful, helpful and accommodating as we discussed our vision for the day.

We held our ceremony in the semi-private atrium and spread out through the rest of the restaurant, including the balcony to enjoy the amazing views for the reception.

The professionalism and accommodations made for us throughout the process made the planning time a stress-free breeze. The wedding came together without a hitch. The venue was setup beautifully and on time per what we had envisioned. I attribute much of the beauty of our event to the efforts of Courtney and her team.

Food and Drinks We'd been to Noble Rot for dinner a couple of times and we were always blown away by the food. However, we decided to go the Brunch route for our wedding. We did a menu planning meeting with Leather, the head chef and were beyond excited at the ideas he brought to the table. We left feeling inspired and hungry imagining the gluten free waffles, house-cured/smoked thick-cut bacon, shrimp and grits with tasso ham gravy, crustless frittatas, sweet potato tartlets, fresh fruit and vegetable salads (some of which was procured from their rooftop garden) and finally, the gluten free cheesecake for our dessert. It is not an understatement to say that the excitement we felt in anticipation of the food was nothing compared to actually experiencing the food.

My husband and I are both allergic to gluten and we both come from family and friend groups that have many food allergies and preferences. However, we love the taste of gourmet food and wanted it to be central in our celebration. Leather and team came up with delicious modifications, presented everything beautifully and noted food allergens so everyone could consume safely to their heart's desire. You wouldn't normally associate a brunch buffet-style with beautiful food presentation but they succeeded in exactly that. Our guests are still talking about that cheesecake...and I am still dreaming of their bacon. Seriously, if you like thick-cut bacon, look no further than that prepared at Noble Rot restaurant. Do yourself a favor and head over for dinner one night to try some of it with your meal - you'll thank me later.

For drinks, everyone's tastes were happily accounted for. Fresh-squeezed juice for mimosas, delicious Stumptown coffee, wine and beer (because this is Oregon) and refreshing non-alcoholic ginger limeade spritzers elevated the beverages to align with the high pedestal we put the food on.

Finally, a note should be shared about the value in what we received. With a pricing model that rolled in headcount and time spent at the venue, as well as an incredibly wonderful bar pricing structure, it was affordable while maintaining an extremely high quality.

Staff The staff who helped us that day were magnificently present yet unobtrusive with their assistance. Alison deftly handled the bar and kept everyone very happy. The waitstaff was on point to make sure everyone always had drinks in hand and wanted for nothing. And finally, they knew how much I'd been obsessing about the bacon that I was without a serving of bacon the entire time I was in the venue, from the moment before we walked down the aisle, to the moment we left. It was an unexpected and delightful touch that they did not need to provide but did so anyway.

There are many more things I could add to this review but having written a novel here, I'll try to wrap this up. I can say without a doubt that our wedding was the best it could have ever been and that is all thanks to Courtney, Leather and the rest of the team at Noble Rot. I highly recommend booking your next event or enjoying your next...

I recently had friends in town for a special occasion and we chose Noble Rot to make reservations for the birthday girl who was visiting from Colorado. We arrived early for our reservation and the hostess explained they were running (very) behind and our table was not yet ready for us; our wait would be longer than 30 minutes. I mentioned that it would have been nice to have a heads up since they had my phone number and we rushed from another venue to make it on time. She was a nice young gal who clearly had her hands full and we stayed positive and sat at the bar to get drinks while we waited for our table. The bartender was lacking basic customer service (maybe they treat their employees poorly, because no one seemed in the mood to show basic manners). An hour passed as we waited for our table and nothing was done to check in with us or apologize. At the minimum I would have expected an appetizer brought by to satiate us or perhaps a drink on the house for the inconvenience. We were getting worried because we had plans to go to Hélé Pele afterward for drinks and they would be closing soon, so I went to check in with the hostess. The man get came over and was so rude when I expressed irritation that we had yet to be seated an hour after our reservation time. Before we were seated the manager came over the avian with an unfriendly demeanor to ask if we were unhappy with our table. What?? No one had been by to seat us or show us any table. I responded that we were only unhappy that we waited an hour to be seated and we just wanted to place our food and drink order. Her response was, “oh well, it’s ready” then walked away without saying anything further. I got our group together and awkwardly went to where she gestured as she lazily pointed while padding off. Of the 5 dishes 3 were delicious and the others were not worth the extensive wait or cost. At the end of our meal we were asked if we wanted dessert to which we all replied, no. We were running late for our next engagement. Our server insisted we order dessert; “we were celebrating a birthday after all”. So we accepted whatever she recommended to share as she was really pushing for it and we were horrified to find that we were charged for it. We declined the dessert and only agreed to it because we assumed it would be because of the birthday or the hideous circumstances we experienced. There were so many opportunities to make this right and no action was taken. Terrible. I feel sad knowing this restaurant has fallen so low. Will...

I usually don't write reviews....but this place was beyond my lowest expectations. Went here due to good reviews and the pictures of the decor looked nice. Side note: The view is actually an obstructed one, of a parking lot and buildings. Upon arriving, we were greeted with a 15 minute wait. After being seated we waited 30, yes 30 minutes for a menu! The waiter came back 15 minutes after that to take our drink order. So we were 60 minutes in before ordering drinks. The waiter came back 10 minute later and took our dinner order. We wanted to just leave, but we were already there for an hour and a half and we were starving and late for a show. The food took another 40 minutes to come out and the waiter never even checked to see if we needed another round of drinks in that time. So that's the service. We figured it couldn't get any worse, we were wrong. The food was horrible. Not bad. Horrible. We would have loved to send it back but we were there for almost 2 hours already and had to time to re-order as we would have been there for over 3 hours and missed our event. I had the burger and my girlfriend had the tuna. My burger fell apart on the first bite and the bun was soggy. For $14 I was pretty disappointed. I've had better burgers at Dairy Queen. Literally. My girlfriends seared tuna was $29 and smelled fishy and was beyond bland. Like maybe they forgot to season it at all? We have literally had better meals and better overall experiences at diners. This place should be ashamed. As a restaurant manager myself I am appalled! I think it's my duty to warn others about this pretentious, over-priced money pit. I literally have nothing positive to say, which is sad. There are so many great restaurants in Portland and Oregon for that matter. There is no need to spend your money here. I'm shocked at the good reviews and their claims of the best wine bar in Portland. I can assure you there are dozens of better places to spend your money. I suggest you avoid this place like the plague! And yes I tried to contact the owner and was not given the time of day. They asked me if I was sure I had the right place and offered no apology and no resolution. I'm sure where we went, Noble Rot, the worst dining experience of my life....