Wilf's Restaurant & Jazz Bar at Union Station — Restaurant in Portland

I was disappointed. I stopped by before my train to take a look at their Happy Hour menu. My train was arriving in 20 minutes, and the food seemed to be much better quality than the food in the Amtrak station. I was told by the friendly host that I would not be able to take Happy Hour food to go- understandable. I was informed that I could sit and buy a drink and get the happy hour food if I would like to do so. I sat down at the bar and ordered a drink as well as the sliders. I asked if they could bring out a to-go container, that way if I didn't finish the entire meal, I could bring the rest of it on the train. The bartender told me that I wasn't allowed to have a to go container - even if I bought a drink, and ate my food there at the restaurant. The manager reaffirmed that. The manager was pretty rude and unsupportive. Usually when I am a customer at a restaurant and I have questions or concerns, the employees and management have been super supportive and kind. I am a kind person and I was beyond frustrated. It definitely appeared that Wilf's didn't care about me as a customer or a person- maybe because I wasn't incredibly wealthy and dressed to the nines. I was even going to purchase a beer- and I didn't even want to have a drink- just so that I could eat one of my sliders now and save one for later. I think the rule that I can't even have a to go container for my leftovers is ridiculous, especially if they are getting the business of me purchasing a drink anyways. I've never had to write a negative review before, and I am disappointed that management did not even offer any type of conversation or support. In fact, when I began writing a comment card, the manager told me I didn't need to write it (although I could if I wanted to) since we were having the conversation now. I said okay, and laid the comment card back on the table. The manager proceeded to rip up the comment card in front of me. I just can't believe how rude she was. I hope others can understand how pretentious and unsupportive the management at this restaurant is.

Hi again, I just wanted to respond to Wilf's response. Thank you for your quick reply. You are correct, all of the staff I interacted with were kind (although the manager was rude to me). I do have a problem with those rules, because I think it is quite ridiculous that I could not take some of my leftovers with me, and instead that food would be wasted and thrown into the trash. That is wasteful to me and doesn't show care for the environment, the customers like myself, or the wait staff- to have to require the wait staff to give this information to customers. It is quite frustrating. I did say I would write a yelp comment (I opted for Google Maps instead) because the manager shut me down and ripped up my comment card in front of me. I do not know what "alternative solution" you provided, because all I wanted to do was eat some food and save a little bit of it for the train to snack on. I didn't think this was too outlandish of a thing. Again, I understand that employees need to uphold policies and rules. This is why I am advocating for this policy and rule to be changed- or at least for management to be given a little bit more control over the situation so that they can help customers out when necessary. If not, they will lose business. Thanks...

My BFF took me here as a multi celebration get together. We were both very excited as neither of us had heard of this place. I love jazz so I was especially excited to go.

We got there and parking is street or there's a small pay lot directly across the street. You must have reservations and we did, but due to traffic we ran about 15 minutes late so we called to make sure we still had ours. They assured us we did and were very sweet about it. We were seated and had great seats to see/hear the band, but far enough away we could still talk. We ordered a fabulous red Washington wine and an appetizer of baked brie (covered in a Phyllo Dough), a wonderful sweet/spicy jam, GF crackers (by request), and Greek olives. My BFF ordered the steak and it came with Asparagus and mashed potatoes. The steak was so tender you can cut it with your butter knife and was delicious! I ordered the salmon but requested the parmesan coating be left off (I'm GF and the coating is not). It came with Asparagus and rice pilaf. Again so amazingly good. For dessert, we ordered the Cherries 🍒 Jubilee for 2 and it was sweet with a hint of tartness and served over vanilla ice cream. It was perfect ending to our dinners.

The staff are amazing! From checking in they offer to take your coats, so you aren't dealing with that, to our fabulous waitress (I'm awful about remembering names), who was attentive, but not hovering, gave great suggestions, good sense of humor and reading people's needs. Everyone works as a team and it's obvious they are like family (in a good way 😉).

The band played great music and the female singer was excellent! The band change week to week and they list them on their website.

This is an expensive restaurant, and worth every penny! It was fun to watch them do tableside ceaser salads to the cherry Jubilee. I have nothing but high praise for this restaurant. I definitely look forward...

I took my father to wilf's as the part of his 80th birthday present. The train ride from Seattle was over an hour late, so we missed lunch hour menu, which wasn't a huge deal for my dad.We stood for a very long time waiting for anyone to appear to seat us; though there were only a few people in the restaurant, there wasn't single server, host, or barkeep in sight. When the hostess finally appeared from a door behind the reservation desk, she walked past us as if we didn't exist. She told us that we could sit anywhere in the restaurant - except in over by the windows. The hostess was borderline hostile when I asked, as it was my fathers 80th (we had made reservations for lunch and I had sent a note telling them it was his birthday) if we could sit by the window so my dad could watch the trains pass - she hesitated and then took us over to the only table that had not been set - not even a tablecloth (the others were all set with white tablecloths) and did so in a rude and overtly hostile manner. I was somewhat shocked at the way they treated my gentle 80 father for his birthday, and even though the food was good, and served quickly per my request as we had a limited time to eat because of the late arrival of our train... I really wish I had chosen some other restaurant, as this was a once in lifetime event for myself and my dad. Do yourself a favor and DO NOT take your special event, party, or birthday celebration to Wilf's Restaurant in Portland Oregon. ps. Read the glowing reviews carefully - quite a few give 5 stars on everything and the writing seems overly polished and, in my opinion, have likely been paid for to raise their ratings -. The most telling review of all is the one where the management's response to a complaint...