Portage Bay Cafe — Restaurant in Seattle

From my experience the service is quick, respectful, and kind. That alone deserves 4.5 stars. So for the purposes of keeping a high rating I'm giving the Portage Bay Cafe 5 stars.

After the obstacles most restaurants endured during the pandemic, having a staff you can rely on is difficult to achieve.

The fresh squeezed orange juice is extremely refreshing. The coffee wasnt worth a single complaint. All the bread...? Toasted to the crunch and pillow soft in the center.

Once the food arrived, I realized I didn't even have a chance to think about how long it would take. Nor did the food arrive too quickly for me to believe that the cooks cut corners.

If I had to give some critiques it would be the state of the staff & quality of management. A tired expression had washed the faces of everyone this morning. Making their pace, and quick service, even more commendable than my initial impression. I noticed the detail of service everytime a sleepy waiter performed a clean and fast pour to refill a customer's water. My Spinach Scramble arrived a bit soggy (I did not send it back it was still quite satisfying) which tells me even the cooks are feeling the weight of their own fatigue. When spinach and eggs are mixed you need to watch out for how long the greens are exposed to heat. Otherwise the water seeps from the palisade and will condensate the eggs. I assume the heat was on high when making the scramble and the cook added the spinach too early to account for time. I expect this judged off the quality the other foods like the "pork belly sandwhich" which was very tender. Another thing I noticed is that the servers seemed to be menu trained very well but had some pretty low food knowledge. This shows me that communication between front and back of house could use some improvement. There's so much a new server can learn within the first few weeks on the job just by talking with a passionate cook. However, passion and energy is NOT the responsibility of staff. It is the achievement of upper management. My last critique goes to the LINTY NAPKINS. Portage Bay needs to talk to whomever washes their table napkins, because they will leave noticable white specs of lint on any article of black clothing.

It is important that the culture of the business start from management, or from "the top" and allowed to steep to the staff. When Natural Communication is encouraged then the motivation to present an overwhelmingly positive customer experience becomes easier to achieve. Portage Bay has some extrememly talented staff willing to work hard. I feel their potential is held back by something above...

Was looking to catch up with some of my best girl friends over a girly brunch and stumbled upon Portage Bay in the University District. I seriously did not realize how popular this place was--but wow, I get the hype.

First tip: MAKE A RESERVATION ON OPENTABLE. I was lucky enough to snag one (bless), and even with a reservation, we waited around 15 minutes to be seated. It was a Sunday brunch, so we expected a bit of chaos, but it still felt overwhelming. There was a line out the door with people waiting outside, the level of noise in the space is quite loud. While waiting for our table or even seated at our table, it was a bit hard to hear one another. This is not the space for a quiet girly brunch for sure. That said--would say the food is 100% worth it.

Don't come hungry or hangry as it did take close to an hour for our food to arrive (yes, we were HANGRY), but when it did, the first ten minutes was silence of devouring our meal. Service was okay, the servers seem uninterested to be there, barely checked in - we had to ask about status of our food and get his attention.

We ordered the Smoked Salmon Benedict, Seattle Benedict (with Dungeness crab!), 2 Rancher Breakfasts (3 eggs your way, house potatoes, one with chicken sausage + pancake, the other with bacon + French toast). Honestly such a cute idea to do a berry bar, the menu lists items that gives you access to a literal berry buffet--fresh berries, whipped cream, butter...

The benedicts were the best menu choice--rich, flavorful, and perfectly portioned. The Rancher Breakfasts were huge and hearty--perfect for anyone rolling in with major hunger. The chicken sausage was flavorful and the potatoes were crispy on the outside, soft on the inside.

I am a BIG pancake girly, and their pancakes were giant, fluffy, with the perfect hint of sweetness. I ate my entire meal plus one pancake and still had leftovers for dinner and breakfast the next day. No regrets.

The coffee here is just okay. Seattle has no shortage of amazing coffee shops, would recommend saving your caffeine intake for one of those instead--which we did, shoutout Ugly Mug Coffee, which...

THEY DON'T CARE IF YOU COME BACK IT'S ALL ABOUT $$$$$$$

Went there for a light late breakfast. The server put two menus in front of me and on the back of one menu I found that I could order two eggs, toast, and hashbrowns. I made that order and was surprised when each item was delivered on its own white plate. A piece of toast on its own white plate (not cut), two eggs on a white plate and hashbrowns on their own white plate, not very appealing. It looked like cafeteria food.

After I had eaten breakfast and was waiting for my check, I noticed a third menu that was shoved between the ketchup and the salt and pepper. This menu had what I had been looking for. It was called "small plates". They had a plate of two eggs, hashbrowns, and toast for $9.00. which was exactly what I had ordered. However, when I got the bill they had charged me $19.00! I asked the wait staff about it and she said that I had gotten more potatoes than what was on the small plate menu. I asked her if she could have my bill changed to the small plate charge and she left my table and I assumed she was going to get it changed. She never came back.

I finally went up to the front desk where the manager was and after waiting around a few minutes, she came over to me and said they could not change the bill. I had brought the small menu up and I told her I ordered exactly what was for nine dollars but she told me that I had gotten more potatoes than on the small plate order and an extra half piece of toast. I ASKED HER IF 1/2 PIECE OF TOAST AND SOME EXTRA POTATOES WAS WORTH $10.00? !! Also, why the wait staff had not pointed out that what I wanted was on the small menu? She said, "The wait staff are not suppose to make suggestions". The manager said she could not make changes and left me to insert my card and pay for it.

Really lousy...