Thirst Wine Bar & Bistro

Doesn't Recommend

HBrandon

Joined 5 years ago

Terrible service, over-priced wine and food, limited choices, too loud to hear your friends talk. Wow - this is the worst wine bar in Portland!

I wouldn't recommend it to any one.

There was no place to park, and getting to Thirst was difficult. Once inside, I could hear what anyone was saying because the place was so loud. The walls and floor are cement, so sound reverberates off every surface!

You'd think the wine would at least be good - but there were so few choices by-the-glass that I simply picked the least offensive brand. There were no choices under $8. Ouch! When I finally got my glass of wine - which took forever - it tasted like wine made from grape syrup concentrate. Yuck!

Thirst failed to have enough staff (or enough compotent staff) on a night when they had a small holiday party in their side room. It was obvious they need more wait staff and kitchen help, when our fondue took over 20 minutes to get to our table. Fondue! What were they doing back in the kitchen???!!! Same thing with my bowl of soup. It was ridiculous.

Not only was the kitchen slow, the food was not notable. My butternut squash soup tasted like cream-of-nothing. The fondue tasted alright, but they gave us olives, artichoke hearts and other odd things to dip into the cheese. While that might sound good on paper, it was not tasty in reality.

When I finally got the bill, after trying to flag down the waitress several times, they had overcharged us for the soup and for some of the wines. It was a pain to get it changed to the correct price b/c the manager is the only one who knows how to do it. There were no apologies.

I would not recommend Thirst to anyone. In fact, I recommend you steer clear of Thirst at all costs.

Recommends

katiesong

Joined 6 years ago

Great wine, helpful staff.. I love going to Thirst for a glass of wine with my girlfriends. I don't know that much about wine, but the staff is always helpful in guiding me towards a selection that is exactly what I am in the mood for. If they ever have Sangria-get it! They aren't using Carlo Rossi here. It is complex, flavorful, and refreshing. We always get a cheese plate or the antipasto platter, and have never been disappointed by the rotating selection. Overall, Thirst is a great place to enjoy good food, good wine, and good company.

Recommends

Teamgoletsgo123456

Joined 5 years ago

Best Wine Bar in Town!. We had an event at Thirst last week and it was absolutely amazing! The banquet room is lovely with modern decor and local artist work. The art is really interesting and makes for great conversations! Leslie and Gary the owners did such a great job with planning the menu and wine choices and this made it easy for me, as I am very busy but wanted this to be perfect. The food was so good! Loved the fondue and the hot crab dip! The service staff was friendly and did not miss a beat and made sure we were well taken care of. My business partners were very impressed and I will definantly be scheduling more events with Thirst in the near future! Thank you for the referral Jodi, you are right this place is great and I can see why you and Pete love to have dinner there!

Recommends

Izod

Joined 5 years ago

Best Wine Bar by Far!. We had a wonderful time at Thirst Wine Bar. The staff was friendly and gave us excellent service. The wine selection is a very nice array of local wines with some from further afield. The pricing here is excellent too - most wines are about what you would pay in any retail location. That's why it got the five stars from me. It's tough to find a place that is not charging up to four times the retail cost of a bottle, but here it is. The scallops and shrimp were delicious and had a lovely chili sauce drizzled on the sides of the plate. They come on skewers wrapped in bacon sitting on a bed of fresh greens. The cheese trio was also delicious and we ordered another one which made it perfect for the five of us. If anyone should wonder where to go for a nice bite and a great bottle of wine - this is the place for you! It would be remiss not to mention that you can also enjoy the best river scene in the town while sipping and savoring.

Recommends

multnomahvillage

Joined 6 years ago

Great View and Good Opportunity to Try New Wine. The location for Thirst is great, and offers a great opportunity for people watching and enjoyment of the river. I recently discovered that on Wednesday nights you can "make your own flight" of wines, which gives you the opportunity to sample whatever wines by the glass you choose. Other nights occasionally feature wine tastings showcasing a specific winery. On the regular menu, there are usually about three flights of wine that you can choose from if you are looking to sample the selections on the menu. This wine bar seems to make an effort to showcase great local wine makers, even from local wineries that are not yet widely known to the average local wine consumer. I have been to Thirst several times when the service was less than stellar, but this seemed to be because Thirst was so busy, not because the waitstaff were rude or intentionally inattentive. When the weather is good, the patio is usually packed, and it is very difficult for the servers to carry in and out multiple glasses for all of the diners - many of whom are drinking wine flights, not just single glasses of wine. I waited to write a review until I sampled the food, which was fine, but not divine. For a wine bar, I do think that the selection of appetizers is limited, and a little boring. My friends and I tried the trio of appetizer dips - including the crab dip and the tapenade, and found them a little disappointing. On the upside, the gnocchi was good.

Recommends

KristenHum

Joined 5 years ago

Love It, Love it - Burgers & Wine!! Yum!. We were walking on the riverfront last weekend and spotted Thirst's cute tables on the sidewalk and stopped to check out the menu. Then we smelled the delicious burgers and decided to try one. OH-MY-GOODNESS! To die for. Flavorful, cooked perfectly and came with delicious caramelized onions and other fun goodies! Service was stellar, friendly, and fun! You can tell the manager likes his job since he was really interested in whether we were enjoying our time at Thirst and what we thought about the burger since I guess this is the first Summer they've had them. Wine was great - try their house red, one of the best wines I've had in a long time! It was a delicious meal at the perfect place with gorgeous weather - who could ask for more?

Doesn't Recommend

jacklondon

Joined 5 years ago

Business isolates self from kindliness. Although this wine bar has a favorable grouping of wines, the owner disrespects his surrounding neighborhood. Good wine bars associate themselves with others in a friendly manner. Thirsty has no such talent. Thirsty would be my bottom choice when attempting to support a local business for wine. Try The Little River Cafe, down the way. They may not have as much wine inventory, but they at least don't push you away.

Recommends

JackyM

Joined 5 years ago

Great Place...bad customer handled well. I frequent this great bistro / wine bar frequently. It has wonderful food and wine, perfect ambiance and the owners are some of the friendliest and most genuine people I have ever met. The review from a few days ago is ridiculous and unwarranted. I was by myself sitting right across from this particular table of 'ladies' and witnessed the entire situation. I NEVER write reviews, and never visit Citysearch, however I decided to monitor some of these amateur 'review sites' after the ladies loudly vowed to pepper this place with bad reviews. It is unfortunate that some people come into a restaurant just not wanting to be happy, no matter what. That was the case here. They were grouchy about everything, loud and impolite to the staff. When the owner inquired at the as to what was going on - the ladies were impolite. I don't think I could have been half as tactful as the owner asking these 'biddies' to leave! Good for you Thirst for standing up for your employees. I will be back time and time again - for food, wine and camaraderie!

Doesn't Recommend

food4thougt

Joined 5 years ago

Beware Vicious Owner. It was a wonderful summer evening in Portland. Me and 3 of my girlfriends were strolling the Waterfront and decided to stop for a cool glass of Sangria at "Thirst". It was, after all, listed as the drink special of the evening. I stuck my head into the bar to ask about outside seating. I was told it would be awhile, as they were quite busy. We told them we would wait and sat patiently on the bench outside. A few minutes later, one of the waitstaff told us it would only be about 5 minutes and we were soon seated.

We requested 4 Sangria's and ordered the appetizer "Trio". We were told they were out of "Sangria", so we ordered wine all around. The wine came promptly, but about 15 minutes later, they served the guy at the table next to us a long cool glass of "Sangria". Curious, we thought, but we didn't say anything and let it go. It was about 7:30 when we were seated and by about 8:15, we had still not seen our appetizers and we were almost finished with our wines.

Now this is where it gets REAL good. One of my friends asked one of the waitstaff to talk to the owner. The owner walks up to the table, totally indignant and starts off by YELLING at us. Telling us how rude we were?? In about 30 seconds, the conversation deteriorates to the owner ASKING US TO LEAVE AND NEVER COME BACK AGAIN!!! Just what had we done? Ask about where our appetizers were? Four girls, kicked out of a wine bar . . .I have NEVER!!! Everyone was watching and quite bewildered!

Once the owner left, our waiter approached, looking at us about as confused as we were and asked us to give them "ANOTHER TRY". Only if there were NEW OWNERSHIP, would I give this place another try!!! And with the viciousness of the current owner, I'm sure that will be soon!

Recommends

juicy82

Joined 5 years ago

GOOD WINE AND LOCATION, HORRIBLE FOOD!. I love going to Thirst on a nice sunny day to sit outside, people watch and drink some good wine. Just beware that the food is a major disappointment. I've tried the crab dip and it was runny and gross. Then once I tried the spinach dip, and that was a JOKE! It was essentially cold cream cheese with a few peices of spinach and artichoke mixed in served with cold unbaked bread slices. This is NOT a SPINACH DIP PEOPLE! Just beware that the food will most likely be a disappointment from what you would expect to recieve. Other than that, enjoy it for the view.