Q Restaurant & Bar — Restaurant in Portland

THIS IS HANDS DOWN THE BEST RESTAURANT IN PORTLAND. I WANT MY LAST MEAL TO BE LITERALLY ANYTHING FROM Q.

After many trips to Q, the latest of which being yesterday 12/30, I realized that this review was long overdue. This is the first restaurant I recommend to visitors or friends coming to town who was to experience amazing food. So far, their response has always been the same: “this is the most amazing (insert dish name here) I’ve ever had”. Yesterday we had the osso bucco (this was the first dish I ever had from Q and the one that got me hooked it is so amazing every time and I believe it’s one of the dishes that’s always on their menu), squid ink pasta with Hawaiian tuna, the 1/2 chicken, clams, duck confit spring rolls, and bacon wrapped dates. The food was so amazing that we all sat in almost complete silence while eating because it is so incredibly difficult to form full, coherent sentences while experiencing the carefully cultivated sensations of taste and smell. The chicken was so absolutely incredible having the thinnest, crispiest external layer that gives way to the softest, most tender and moist interior. The squid ink pasta with Hawaiian tuna was like nothing I had ever tasted before and was so sweet yet savory and soft and juicy. The bacon wrapped dates are always a huge favorite (and I believe they are another menu item that is always available) and I make sure to get them every single time. The portions are also perfect with each plate being more than enough to satisfy (we ended up ordering 4 entrees and several appetizers as we had hardly eaten all day in anticipation of Q). It was an amazing experience as always and my friends were blown away and already had a list of people they thought to contact because they knew that they would also love to experience the high quality of food that Q has to offer.

I also have to share another experience I had at Q quite some time ago. They were serving this lamb dish (shame on me for not remembering the full name of the dish) that sounded interesting and tasty. I’m a huge fan of lamb and have eaten a lot over the course of my lifetime but nothing could have prepared me for this experience. I always have to preface this story with this: I was under no influence of any psychoactive substances, (except maybe some caffeine from my morning coffee) not even alcohol as I did not order any wine or beer during this visit. The lamb was brought out (my partner had ordered a duck dish they were serving at the time) and we began eating. I sat in complete and utter silence until my meal was finished as I was completely enthralled by the tastes I was experiencing. At one point during the meal, I felt like I had left my body on a journey through this lambs entire life, catching mental images of it grazing on grassy fields and drinking from streams. It was absolutely surreal, and it is the only time food has ever caused me to experience something like this. I can only speculate that this was because of the combination of tastes of the herbs and the meat, but I realize that the chef, over years and years of developing their craft to perfection, likely thought of ever intricate detail and flavor combination in the dish, and those particular flavors happened to ignite particular neural pathways in my mind that ultimately led to my brain imagining those images of the lambs life. Regardless, now you see why I had to preface this story with the fact that there were absolutely no psychoactive substances involved, it was simply the amazing food that caused a neural response that I didn’t even know was humanly possible. I am so grateful to have had this experience even if it is just once in my life, but every time I go to Q I feel so grateful to exist in a time and place where we have access to the most amazing tastes that humankind has been able to generate thus far.

TLDR; the most amazing food in the world in my opinion and if you choose to patronize this establishment, your only regret will be that you did not decide to come sooner.

PS: the service and ambiance are...

Went there with a group of friends, two of whom were from out of town and wanted to try this restaurant. From the second we walked in, they had a hard time finding our reservation. A couple of minutes later, we were guided to our table and greeted by a somewhat stressed-out-looking waitress. She began to almost shout out the menu in an aggressive tone; in all fairness, it was very loud, so maybe she was just trying to be heard. We are a very chill group, so we brushed it off and ordered our drinks and food. I ordered the non-alcoholic hot cider that was brought to me in a regular glass, making it impossible to touch for a while. My suggestion would be to maybe buy appropriate glasses for hot drinks; the flavor was great, and honestly, I would have ordered many more, but the extremely hot glass was off-putting. The rest of my friends mentioned to me that their cocktails were not that great. One had a glass of wine and said it was good. We finally got our food delivered by another person, only to realize they brought me the wrong order. I kindly pointed it out to her, and she said, 'That’s what I was given to bring; I don’t know, let me talk to your waitress.' A few seconds later, our waitress showed up with a very condescending tone, telling me this is what I ordered, with the lady who brought the food standing close behind. Once again, I very kindly reminded her of my order (normally I would just take whatever they bring me and let it go, but this dish had anchovies in it, which I very much dislike). Now we have our whole table (they pointed out to me how her tone was not nice) and others nearby watching this unfold. Then she realized I was right, and she made a spelling mistake on her ticket, so she just said, 'Oh yeah, you are correct; let me bring you another one.' Of course, I told my friends to eat their dinner while it was still warm, so I had to wait a few minutes until they made my dish again. I understand mistakes happen, but this place seems very disorganized, and their attitude doesn’t help. Most of my friends enjoyed their meal. I ordered mine medium rare, and it was well done, but at that point, I was not about to complain and just let it go and ate my over cooked dry dish. I did took a bite of my friend’s poached egg salad, and it was very good, and a bite of the warm baguette, and it was good as well. Our group was bigger than six, so they added 20% gratuity, which I would normally do, or even more, but with such bad attitude and service, to be honest, I would do 15%. Would I come back on my own? Absolutely NO. If I ever have to go back, I would stick to the salad and probably try dessert, which we ended up deciding to go eat somewhere else because of...

We went all out and spent over $230 plus tip here. We ordered the baguette, which was warm and crispy on the outside, soft on the inside and served with butter and a little salt on the side.

We also tried the black sesame cashews (served in a shot glass), which were not too sweet and not too salty.

We tried the salad with the bacon, poached egg, and white cheddar dressing and it was a good size to share as an appetizer.

We ordered New York strip and substituted fries instead of the corn and squash. The portion was good, but overall the dish was more expensive than it probably needed to be.

We also ordered the Rocco, which was a veal dish served with a bone with the marrow. The portion was good and the meal was good, but again, it was pricey.

We tried the bloody Mary, which was garnished with a pickled cauliflower and small piece of celery on a skewer. I was not impressed with the garnish, which lacked olives and was overall unimpressive. However the flavor was good, I enjoyed the smoky salted rim, and it had a good level of spiciness.

We also had the Mule which was fairly good, made with pineapple juice and Q's house-made? ginger beer, which made it a bit different than the traditional mule in my opinion.

Lastly the favorite drink was the Orchids of the Caribbean, made with a house-made almond syrup, which I think really made the drink. It was slightly sour (sourness reduced by the milky almond syrup), and slightly herbaceous flavored thanks to the mint leaves. I wouldn't hesitate to get this drink again if I come back.

The cocktail menu had a zero alcohol section.

Overall, the food was tasty; we had a myriad of different, new flavors; and we spent a small fortune ;) so it wouldn't be a place we go to regularly, personally.

The atmosphere was nice, there was seating around the edge (suggest reservation) of the dining room and at the bar. There was nice table decor, which felt romantic.

We arrived at 5pm and only a few people were there, presumably waiting for the rest of their group. By the time we left, it was bustling, bursts of laughter and boisterous conversations.

All in all, l'd probably come here again if I had money to burn. Everything tasted good and it was comfortable. The waitstaff were very friendly, answering all our questions without hesitation about what the various ingredients were in both food and drink.

We enjoyed our special, upscale flavored meals and drinks; the friendly service; the reasonable, fairly low wait times for food and drinks; and the...