McMenamins Black Rabbit Restaurant — Restaurant in Troutdale

Edit: The restaurant contacted me to ask about my experience. They were very apologetic and empathetic about the situation. I am going to give the restaurant another chance when I in the Gorge.

Arrived at 4:45pm to eat and drink before the Sylvan Esso concert. Restaurant was mostly empty (about a 1/4 full). I am not sure if the restaurant was extremely understaffed or the waiter was really bad. Waited almost 1 hour for our drinks. Had to remind the waiter twice about the drinks. The other table who arrived at the same time of us and ordered right before us (they asked if they could do a substitution on a cobb salad that had chicken and they were vegetarian - no substitution) had their food and left before we got our food. That is sort of why I think the waiter forgot to put our order into the system. I ask the waiter about why our food was taking so long and he said "some food just takes longer to prepare." Burger was ok and the mashed potatoes were good. Ordered a Ruby ale and the waiter brought me the wrong drink (Rubyade cocktail which I ordered for the first round instead of a beer which I ordered second). There was only one vegetarian entrée which my wife ordered. Total bill was about $75 for burger, rice curry dish, two sides of mash potatoes and three cocktails. Left a $13 tip. Overall it was really disappointing because we came to the restaurant before the concert and have a couple drinks but just ended up at our table most of the night waiting for service. My wife doesn't like McMenamins because of their lack of vegetarian options but I thought it would be worth it because of the proximity to the concert. One star because the food was good. Feedback, didn't see any busser or support staff, I think that would have helped. There seemed to be plenty of waitstaff hanging out at the kiosk where staff put in orders by the kitchen. Not sure if the bar is accessible for the waitstaff or what took them so long to get drinks. I thin they get drinks next door but my wife passed by the bar next to the restaurant and said there were plenty of seats at the bar implying that it wasn't that busy. I am just perplexed. Not sure if the waitstaff was really bad, restaurant was understaffed, or the restaurant has poor...

Went for to enjoy a nice birthday dinner. Service was horrible from the beginning. We sat in the bar at a booth, There was one other person at the bar and it took about 5 mins for someone to greet us once we sat down. We ordered a drink from a gentleman, then a few minutes later someone woman walked by and asked if we needed anything and we said we were waiting for our drinks. We waiting a few more minutes and the first guy server/bartender brought us our drinks. Never asked if we wanted to order food. A few minutes later the girl stops and asked if we need anything and we mentioned we wanted food. We tried to order but she kept talking over us and wouldn't let us finish our order. We ordered fish and chips with Cajun tots(usually my favorite!!) we got 2 glorified fish sticks and French fries for $31. The kitchen quickly brought us tots, they were undercooked and barely seasoned. We both asked for ranch and were given a 1 ounce cup of ranch to share. We had to ask twice for more ranch and each time received the same 1 ounce cup. We also ordered the Shrimp artichoke dip for $21. The bread was soft, barely toasted and the dip was flavorless. We didn't even finish it. I was excited about my blackberry lemonade that barely tasted like water and once I asked twice for a straw(their straws are HORRIBLE) I was able to mix the flavoring in the drink and it was better. The woman server walked by multiple times and looked at us, but never spoke to us. Never asked how our food was, never asked if we needed anything. I asked for more water (it was 100 degrees outside and barely any air conditioning in the bar) and she brought back something that was carbonated. She never offered to clear the empty plates off our table, zero interactions!

We got up and left, said we would be right back, told them they could clear our table we were going outside and would like to get dessert. When we came back, our table had not been cleared. We looked at the dessert menu and for the high prices, lack of service and underwhelming dinner, we decided against dessert.

This was a horrible example of McMenamins. I expect more from them and for their prices! I...

So.... We have been to Black Rabbit twice in the past month, first on Thanksgiving and then tonight: Christmas. The atmosphere is generally pleasant. It's a dimly lit restaurant that evokes old time fine dining. Both times we were seated fairly quickly, although we DID have reservations.

On Thanksgiving, our server was attentive and speedy, while being friendly. She stopped by several times making sure we didn't need anything and even made small talk, even though they were very busy. On Christmas, they weren't as busy, but our experience was completely different. One woman came and took our drink order, and delivered half of it a few minutes later. Then our regular waiter came and took our order. After he left, I realized we still didn't have water or my wife's drink. I flagged him down a few minutes later to ask about it and he promptly brought it to her, commenting that it was just sitting at the bar. Her drink was room temperature, (it was supposed to be cold) and if I had seen our waiter again, I would have complained. After almost exactly one hour he did return to tell us the kitchen was "backed up" and offered a complimentary drink, which we took. Our food finally came about fifteen minutes later.

For Thanksgiving, the food was decent, but nothing exceptional. We both had the traditional turkey dinners. The turkey was really good, the side dishes were all right, and the rolls were hard and dry. Overall not bad, but honestly I could do better at jome. For Christmas, my wife was going to get the prime rib, but we were informed that they were out, so she ordered the burger. I got the ham dinner. Her burger was decent, but the bun was stale and the salad was limp. All of my side dishes were really tasty, but the ham was dry and very fatty. By the time we were done eating and the waiter showed up again, we had been seated for over two hours, so we declined any dessert and just left.

I get that we were there on holidays, but even taking that into account, it just was substandard overall. Next year we will...