Veggie Grill - Downtown Portland — Restaurant in Portland

UPDATE (April 2024): I am changing my previous 1 star review to 4 stars because of the owner's responsiveness. They did follow up with meal credits, which I really appreciate. I have had good experiences at the Cedar Hills location since leaving this review two months ago but have not gone back to downtown yet (which is where this kept happening). But I am hoping they have addressed the issue, which seemed to be with one specific employee. Previous Review (Feb 2024): I used to love eating here but tonight for the FOURTH time in a row the dressing for my salad was left out of my pickup order. I always order the same thing, a buffalo chik'n salad with ranch on the side. The ranch comes with the salad...it's not like a special request or anything! The first time this happened, I did not discover the missing dressing until I was already back home, with a sad dry inedible (but pricey!) salad. I figured it was an unfortunate fluke but the next time I ordered, I made sure to open the bag and check everything before leaving the restaurant. Unbelievably, the dressing was missing again! This same dang thing has now happened two more times. Why do I keep ordering from here? Am I an idiot? Maybe, but I love this stupid salad. Every time after ordering I get an email asking for feedback, and every time I recount that they forgot my dressing. But I have heard nothing. (Previous ownership was very responsive and would always offer a refund or gift card if they messed up an order...which sometimes happened but never this much). So I am leaving a review here in hopes someone sees this and addresses the problem. It's really unacceptable to be so consistently inaccurate with orders and leaving basic items off (over, and over, and over again!). It was the same person working each time, and she seems to not know that when she is bagging to-go orders she needs to also add the side sauces and dressings. The fact that this has happened 4 consecutive times is almost funny, but it's not. I also was ignored for quite a while when I went in to pick up my order tonight (it was not busy), but that is a complaint for another day. Anyone reading this, don't make my mistake -- check your order before you leave the premises! Those getting...

First of all, this is now officially on my list as A place I will literally never go again. I had to wait 20 minutes for a $15 smoothie and then the manager himself asked me if I wanted to hang out longer to try a sample of his other smoothie.

That to me is literally insane. When I sat there in the slow restaurant is the only customer and waited as long as I did for that food. Literally anything he could’ve been doing could’ve been pause for merely 3 1/2 minutes to blend the already proportion ingredients, but instead I sat there after paying almost $15 for a regular 16 ounce smoothie that was definitely not 20 ounces. I should’ve kept the plastic to do the test myself.

Either way, this place has become such a process food rip off it’s not even funny. I will never be back and no I would not stay longer to try another subpar smoothie that’s trying to mimic the smoothies they’re selling at Erewhon in California. This is not Hailey Bieber skin smoothie and you have no business charging this amount for it. Also, it will make your stomach hurt and I’m not really sure why, but if it’s the fact that I had to consume it so quickly because I was starving or whatever weird powders are put in it and whatever else has made it not as digestible as it should be.

I am aggravated by having to have waited that long being the only customer in a building for that long and then had the offer to wait even longer to try something for free. Are you insane? Of course I’m not gonna sit around to try some thing that I can make it home because I will never be back because I will never pay that much for a smoothie again.

By the way, there are so many more local options especially if you’re mobile with a vehicle and not walking. Check out Harlow check out Greenleaf check out the farmers market.

This isn’t the veggie grill we used to know, it’s essentially McDonald’s for vegans. Just subpar and has hipster taxed everything.

You’re better off somewhere else, try to find a local smoothie place and pay 5 dollars less and be...

Veggie Grill - downtown Portland, OR

We're in Pdx for a few days. Sooo many places to try, new and old, so little time lol. While we can eat Veggie Grill in Seattle, tonight we opted for convenience as Veggie Grill is within a few minutes walk of our hotel and I've been jonesing their Pan Seared Salmon protein plate ever since it was first announced but haven't had the chance to stop by Veggie Grill locally.

We got a bit carried away with ordering too much, which isn't unusual when going to Veggie Grill lol, it almost seems sacrilegious to go there and not order some variety of Mac and Cheese 🤷😅.

Everything was great, VG never disappoints 🙌. The cheese bites were great, haven't had them before .. pretty sure it's a relatively new offering. The center was soft and cheesy and nicely balanced with the dipping sauce. The Seared Salmon had a great flavor. If I'm being honest, I didn't find it to be very reminiscent of salmon, there was no flakiness associated with salmon, this dish had more of a vegan spam feel/ texture. This was my observation but it's not intended as a critique, just my objective take. The dish was really good, very flavorful, the color was reminiscent of salmon and there was a subtle but noticeably pleasant seafood-y after-taste on the back end.

I have to mention how friendly and personable everyone was. We've always found staff at VG and Next Level to be friendly but everyone tonight just seemed really genuinely approachable and friendly. Kelsey took our order for us and chatting with her really felt like we were in a place where we belonged, a vegan home away from home, an extra touch that was really appreciated.

So my recommendation is ... come for the food, come for the camaraderie, and then stay way too long because you're gingerly nursing a food coma from ordering and eating...