Schilling Cider House & Gluten Free Kitchen — Restaurant in Portland

New review:

TL;DR: The new schilling is nothing like the old one and has various issues, including re-serving food that was given to another table, green fries, and disgusting shows playing on the TV. They seem to be going through an identity crisis of not knowing whether to stay a bar or lean family friendly. Food was okay, and cider was amazing as always.

To say I’m disappointed would be an understatement. I have been a fan of schilling for about a year and a half, and have been eagerly following along this new location journey on Instagram. This new schilling is different from the old, and while change can often be a good thing, I’m unsure if this was for the best.

One of the things I loved about the old schilling was its food. It wasn’t too heavy and was perfect finger food to pick at while hanging out with your group and playing games. The new menu is okay, but it seems like schilling is trying to become a sit-down family friendly restaurant. The brussel sprouts were drowning in apple cider vinegar and the burger and chicken sandwich were bland and tasteless. The best part was the bun, which is outsourced from Oatfield Bakery.

On top of subpar food, I witnessed some serious health concerns. I was sitting near a table that received a burger — the tray fully placed and set down on the table — only for the customers to mention that it wasn’t their order. The staff took the burger back and then placed it back on the pickup line. I watched as that burger sat for about five minutes, only for it to then be handed to me. I pointed out that I literally saw the burger get handed to another customer and they quickly remade it, thankfully.

One of the fries we received was also green on the end. There seems to be a complete lack of quality control. The restaurant wasn’t even swamped, but the staff seemed to be both overwhelmed and uncaring at the same time.

Another reason I loved schilling originally was the vibe. It was adults only. It was more of a pub as opposed to a sit-down restaurant. The new schilling feels like it’s trying to rebrand as a family friendly joint, but they still serve very little non-alcoholic drinks so it comes across as struggling to find their identity. They also turned on Fear Factor — a show known for showing grotesque videos of people eating literal pig intestines — which just added to the awful atmosphere. The TV was originally on a sports channel too, so I’m unsure why they changed it.

Needless to say, I won’t be coming back anytime soon. Which is a shame as I talked up schilling to all of my friends and coworkers. I brought up these issues with a staff member and while they seem receptive, they also had excuses for everything, including saying that they didn’t know how to operate the TV, and that I choose a bad place to sit.

Old review:

Had an amazing time here with my fiance. The food was incredible and the ciders were equally as good. My one gripe is that there isn’t more non alcoholic cider. I don’t like alcohol, however I love the moonberries cider.

I was also bummed to find out that the cherry non alcoholic cider is a limited time thing. I’m glad that they sell it in cases because I...

we went last night for the grand opening. now i do understand that it was the grand opening, and was really busy as a result...however it seemed very poorly planned and executed. the line was out the door and moving VERY slowly. turned out there was only one single person working the counter?? on top of that, the person was engaging in all kinds of extraneous small talk while the line grew and grew. again, i get that the service should be friendly, but you also need to keep the line moving, especially when it's out the door and down the sidewalk. after standing in line for 42 minutes, we get to the front only to be told they were out of the regular corn dogs and the brussels sprouts...the two things we both wanted. it would have been nice to have some signage saying that so we could have tried to figure something else out before getting all the way to the front counter. it seemed very chaotic and unprepared.

having said that, the food we did end up getting was pretty good and the ciders were quite delicious. the server that brought our food was quite pleasant. it didn't feel worth it after the crazy wait though.

also i question the decision to allow children inside. there were two kids that kept running into our table and one of the chairs, and the parents seemed oblivious to the obnoxiousness.

overall we were fairly disappointed in the experience, and we're not sure if we'll be back. if it weren't for all the issues, it would be a nice place just for the cider...

Schilling was originally suggested to us by Atlas Cider when we sampled their ciders at Saturday Market and we couldn't be happier with their awesome advice to check it out. We stopped by last year a month or so after they opened and were in awe of the vast amount of ciders we could try and eventually had 3 flights each because we couldn't choose just 6 because they were just too good! We had lots of fun out on the balcony with delicious food from their kitchen too. Since then, we've been buying Schilling ciders from our local Total Wine store in Houston (Lumberjack is my fav!) and couldn't wait to come back this year and brought more people with us too. They loved it just as much as we do and we were able to walk next door to Market of Choice to buy some ciders we sampled which was really cool.

As far as the staff, they are the absolute best! They are very knowledgeable about what they have on tap and are super friendly too which gives you those genuine good feels about Portland. The manager Jennie was an absolute star with helping me replace a growler that broke during transit back to Texas and went out of her way to do so which I greatly appreciate! I thought it was a long shot to get another one, but they went above and beyond to help me out. Million thanks to Jennie and the other staff at the Goat Blocks location for always providing a wonderful...