Tabor Bread — Restaurant in Portland

Updated to add: they added a 15% service charge on all orders… including take out. The grocery store doesn’t ask for a tip, why should I pay one while getting a to go order of bread. Just raise your prices if needed. I’ll go elsewhere from now on.

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I really like their bread, bagels, and sandwiches here. Coffee isn’t great and their pastries are hit or miss for me. There are a few other things that knock this down from a five star experience.

Their supply is totally unreliable. I have come in after 12:00 and they have not had their sandwiches ready for the day and quoted another hour. When I drive across town to get sandwiches and they haven’t even made them for the day…. I’m just confused as to how this even happens. And it’s happened multiple times. But then sometimes you come at open and they have sandwiches.

Their supply of bread and pastries is also totally unreliable, as in they will sell out sometimes within an hour of opening.

So if I come early, I can’t get sandwiches, but if I come late, I risk them being totally 100% sold out of all bread and pastries?

I’ve journeyed to the storefront probably a half dozen times now and walked out empty handed. This is just too unreliable for me.

Lastly, their prices are just too high. They ask for tips AND have a mandatory health insurance charge that is a % on all items. So not only are the items priced pretty high, but the prices advertised aren’t even ultimately correct due to fees on top. You basically don’t know this until / if you get a receipt.

They also don’t have a bread slicer or a way to heat up quiche. There are too many awesome bakeries in Portland to keep coming back here.

I want to love Tabor, but...

this wonderful little homey bakery opened up just down tabor hill from where i live at the end of e. hawthorne blvd. and I couldn't be happier. huge brick wood-fire ovens constantly filling the place smell of fresh baking bread, bright walls and windows, cardboard floors you have to be a little careful, not because they're naturally slippery, but because there is flour on them from all the baking done here. bread loaves to purchase or to eat there, great sandwiches from their fresh baked loaves and delicious soups. instead of quiche, a wonderful savory bread pudding for breakfast, and coffee that is always hot, fresh and portland strong. they are local bakers (you can watch them put the loaves into the wood fire ovens yourself) and are proud to be supplied by local farmers and grain growers. ignore all your portland hypochondriac friends fretting over wheat/gluten sensitivities, one bite from a fresh spelt loaf will have you feeling health coursing through your veins! “bread is agriculture” is their motto and amen to that, i say. also, free wifi. my few qualms might be wanting an egg sandwich for breakfast on the menu, or that they weren't closed on mondays & tuesdays - i know these hard working owners need days off, but those are prime work week times they could be catering to early commuters. but overall, a serendipitous find in southeast portland and...

This is a place that is high on pretensions and low on offerings, high prices... As a grandfather of bakers as I have been known to many, I must say that their capital mistake are the dry doughs they practice. To do this is to not have the basic understanding of what water - in right proportion - does to dough and how flavor results. Like a slow cooked dry steak as opposed to a quick, seared one: flavor differ greatly. Secondly, they do not know much about thermal exchange, their over with large doors is a mistake, baking without (natural) steam resulting in improper baked breads. The effort going into design and feel of the place is lovely, but the disconnect from the basic tenements and soul of traditional European baking is worrisome. More so because of aforesaid pretense which the place oozes. this is sad, for they can make significant changes with very little effort, if only their philosophy will allow it by changing! I would gladly assist them at no charge....