Pine State Biscuits | Division — Restaurant in Portland

Typically we have visited this location for years monthly. We tell everyone to try you guys. Always had great experiences in the past however today that didn't happen. My husband was still ordering our food so I went to find a seat I was sitting for a couple minutes when a women with glasses and a short bob came over and said excuse me that's not how it works here. I didn't realize she was talking too me while she was about 5ft away from me. I heard her yell excuse me yo hello! She waved to get my attention. I then said yes sorry I didn't know you were talking to me. She said yes sir you can't just sit here without a number! I said oh no my husband just ordered. She said no that's not how it works here you need a number you need to go. I said excuse me but my husband is right there he just paid. She said no no sorry that's not how it works we have numbered sitting for a reason we're full and aren't seating anymore. I said yes and I have a number my husband just paid he's right there. She said no no you can't just sit there. I then stood up and she frantically waived her arms saying sorry no you need a number we're full that's why we have numbers. When I then walked into the restaurant my husband walked over from the front and said what's the problem? I told him I'm trying to tell her we already paid but she won't listen to me. He said ya I just paid what's the issue? She then didn't say anything looked at the cashier who nodded yes.. Only then did she say ooh oh my gosh I didn't I'm sorry that's on me. She clearly didnt trust either of us and had to verify. I told the lady to please listen to someone nextime. She just kept saying sorry and walked away again not listening. At that point everyone was staring as her voice was very escalated and frantic. Me and my husband quickly said let's go, and asked for our money back. At the time there was two open tables outside and one table inside, had she also actually looked clearly they weren't full yet either. Main concern from this moment was your employee didn't get near enough to me when she first addressed me, yelling across a room to someone who clearly doesn't notice doesn't mean to keep yelling. Doing that only drew all of your customers attention making your atmosphere appear hostile. Second concern that should be addressed with the employee is the importance of active listing. Especially in moments where she was clearly frustrated to have to tell I'm guessing yet one more person they need a number first. Had she just paused and heard me tell her multiple times we just paid and truly listened to me nothing would have happened. Me and my husband now have a frustrating moment that will forever tarnish your...

Had heard others rave about Pine State Biscuits, so when I’m Portland recently I had to try it. When we arrived, there was a line to get in, which is not unusual for popular restaurants in Portland, especially for breakfast on weekends. We got in line, and initially it started started moving a little bit now and then. You could see that the tables were full inside. Pretty soon, things seemed to grind to a halt. Tables started emptying but the line stopped moving. We saw that every table in the inside part of the restaurant was empty and still no movement of the line. We ended up waiting an hour and a half before we got in. Once we finally got in, we were told that we had to sit in the outside enclosed o pool atop because there’s were three people in our party. (We we’re already freezing from waiting so long on a frigid, windy day). There was a big heater attached to the ceiling that I asked if they could turn on. I was told that it ‘was’ on but probably didn’t seem like it because it was so cold. The heater was directly over us…and it was huge…we felt absolutely no heat. Next we weee told that if we wanted silverware we needed to go inside and hit ut ourselves. Same with hot sauce, salt and pepper, water, coffee refills, etc. Food arrived (they actually brought it to us) and it was fine. Nothing extraordinary. The “award winning” Bloody Mary that I had was good, but I wouldn’t consider it award winning. Biscuits we’re large, but again, nothing earth shattering that would warrant waiting in line for so long. At the end, we noticed sings asking that people bud their own tables. I certainly don’t mind getting my own silverware or budding my i out em table, but after waiting for so long to get in, it would have been nice to have “them” do something for us. So my final thoughts are that I was definitely not impressed by the experience. I tried it and I’m good. Once was enough for me. IMHO Portland has many other options for breakfast that are far better. Sorry Pine...

starting with the high points:

they have a decent bloody mary... does it compare with virtually any bloody mary if you are visiting New Orland's? no, not a chance, in fact it seems about on the same level as if you were to simply use a store bought bloody mary mix. not bad but nothing special.

but we don't go to a place called Pine state biscuits for craft cocktails we go for breakfast so lets talk about that.

Biscuits were..... ok, emphasis on ok being that they are likely better than something reheated from the frozen food isle in your local grocery store but not by much.

The hash was sad... just the amount of effort put into preparing the food left us getting through only enough bites to taste the food before deciding to leave it for the trash.

Finally we get to the gravy, normally that along with the Biscuits should leave us with a wholesome home cooked meal feel. Instead we got a overly salted, bland white gravy that left me truly wondering if they just forgot to add sausage or somewhere along the production line someone misheard how to properly make gravy. This is soul food and should leave me wanting to indulge in the rich buttery deliciousness not with a headache from the tons of salt and lack of flavor.

I had heard so many great things I was looking forward to the new restaurant but at this point I wonder if they should just pause to find their passion for cooking.

The only other thing that was worth noting is being from the service industry I do not take writing a negative review lightly. however I wonder about their labor reports considering just how many staff were standing around killing time. Any chef I know would have exploded. Maybe they were all busy looking up how to make gravy because the chef...