Oven and Shaker — Restaurant in Portland

I've been to Oven and Shaker twice in the past few weeks, and experienced the same problems both times. I'd noticed a number of negative reviews mentioning poor service, and I can say that my visits confirm what others have noted - nice atmosphere, decent food, terrible service. My first time at Oven and Shaker was just for drinks and appetizers. I ordered the fried mozz, which was delicious, and a dirty martini, which was barely drinkable. The server was nice enough. We told her that we wanted to have a few drinks before ordering more food. Unfortunately, that lead to her not showing up to our table for a good 20 minutes. By the time we choked down the drinks and waited, watching her chat with other tables without looking at us repeatedly, we decided we would go somewhere else. We got our check, paid and left. We came back again because we enjoyed the mozz, and we figured that the bad service was due to miscommunication - we did say we wanted to take our time. The second visit we ordered fried mozz and a margherita pizza, along with two beers. From the moment the waitress, Nicole F, started talking to us, I felt slightly uncomfortable. She seemed disinterested and somewhat condescending. I brushed it off at first, but after verifying with my partner that she seemed unpleasant, it was hard to ignore the tone she took when talking with me. There were two prices for each beer. After my partner ordered and I then ordered, I asked her about the price difference. She said the cheaper option was for a glass the size of our water glasses, while the more expensive price was for a pint. Apparently she assumed we wanted the pint, because she failed to mention our options until I brought it up. After she brought our beers she took our order. The busser brought out our fried mozz, which was only lukewarm. The first visit it was piping hot, so the difference was noticeable. After we finished the mozz, the busser cleared the table and then brought our pizza. The pizza was also lukewarm - I'm not sure if they didn't have the oven hot enough, or they just serve up lukewarm food. The pizza was mediocre. Neither the dough nor the sauce were salted well enough. We took at least 20 minutes to finish our app and make our way through most of the pizza before we saw our server again. She was on her way out the door and noticed our beers running low, and asked if we would like more. No question about how we liked our food. I told her no more beer, but we would like our check. It took another ten minutes before we got our check. The busser came by and asked if we wanted our pizza wrapped up, and came back quickly with it packaged nicely in tin foil. We handed him what little cash we had in thanks for his care and attention. He also offered to run our credit card that had been sitting on the table for some time, but the server must have noticed the cash change hands because she swooped in immediately to grab the card, returning a few minutes later with a curt thank you before leaving again. Our server only had a few tables in an otherwise empty restaurant. Yet she barely interacted with us. The busser did almost everything, while the manager floated around chatting with staff. On our way out we told the manager that the busser was great. He responded, "Yes, I think so." The manager had been standing less than 10 feet away while we were ignored by our server and had been looking around for someone to help us, and his response to our praise seemed to verify that he was aware of our displeasure. Instead of asking us what was wrong, he seemed annoyed that we were displeased. We won't be going back to Oven and Shaker. The food is mediocre, but the poor service seals the deal. There is no reason to spend so much money to be treated badly, not with all the other...

I often look for nook and artisan establishments when eating out. Oven and Shaker is the definition of Artisan wood fired pizza. Many people do one of two things.. eat food to live or live to eat food. I am definitely the latter of the two. Other reviews complain about "raw" or not firm toppings. This self proves that they eat food to live and do not know Artisan basing reviews on places like Domino's or Pizza Hut. Those that know, know the curl up of a Pepperoni means they use real Pepperoni and the "raw" is where protein meets cheese.

Let me divulge my experience with my other half and his brother. We started with drinks and Arancini and spicey meatballs. The appetizers were refreshing and definitely made to order. The word "Dry, gooey, raw, or bland.. we not in our opinions of anything we had". We then decided to order 4 different pizzas, to try the assortment and accompany them with some drinks. The drinks, especially mine, are one of the freshest I've had from any top bar and not overly strong. Of the pizzas, that natural burn spots on the crust are classic signs of not only fresh wood fire, but also fresh made thin dough. The ingredients were all fresh and of the spicey Salami, Italian sausage, seasonal special, and Pepperoni... we could not choose a favorite as we enjoyed all of them. We had about 6 slices each and were pleasantly full, not stuffed by any means or left with the feeling of bloated like you would from most pizza places or thick crust remnants.

We finished with a couple desserts, a creme (I don't remember the name) and the mint Gelato. Both, are as of 5 star quality. Especially the mint Gelato.. never have I been to a place that took the time to make and use fresh mint essence in Gelato. Let me tell you, Gelato with fresh mint is by far Paramount in flavor to any other made. It's details like that that make a place elevated and unique.

Oven and Shaker will definitely be the place that is recommended by me when people ask for unique artisan places to eat in Portland. Not only was our bill evenly matched to all we ordered, the wait was not long and I was more than happy to give a generous tip of over 35%, which is rare for me. It is a well deserved and much deserving resteraunt of 5 stars with top pic of...

I went to the NEW Oven and,Shaker at the Mercato Grove tonight. This is now the 3rd Eatery I've visited in that Mercato, and quite honestly, was not impressed at all. It was there 2nd night open, more staff than Guests( which you would expect training). I was there,around 400 pm, there were a total of 11 Guests at that time. Was seated promptly right by the entrance, waitress came up brought a bottle of water and Menus. I decided to start with a glass of Wine and the LA Fettunta(which was excellent) Then ordered my pizza, and got the sausage one. And that's were things started to fall apart, therefore the 3 Star rating. The pizza arrived, it was already lukewarm(wow), then I was going to look for some magnifying glasses to FIND THE SAUSAGE, the crust of the pizza was doughy, and it was very dissapointing. Having such great oven, like they do, I expected a perfectly GREAT CRUST AND WITH some crunch. Flavor was very mediocre. That put,a very negative spin to my visit, because from a place like that, I expected the VERY BEST IN A GOOD TUSCAN PIZZA. Granted it was only the 2nd night, but with the background these Owners have, that's not a very good excuse to serve such pizza for $18.00, sorry. The service was at its best good, server after delivering the pizza never came back, my Wine glass was empty, would have ordered likely another one, had she returned to check. I still left a very good tip, being that I am also in the Foodservice business, wouldn't have thought to not tip. Well, they have their work cut out, hopefully with more training, the place will become better, especially on the Pizzas. Good Luck to the Owners, and hopefully someday in the near future I plus maybe all my friends I know in the are, will come and...