Cheerful Pitstop

07/20/09

OK for what it is

by saltlord

Had lunch in the bar. The bartender worked hard on being friendly and had a nice smile. Her drinks were great, but her menu suggestion sounded forced for a classic Portland bar. The bar its self was very small and cosy with an amazing amount of tvs for such a small space. Perfectly dark and with about a quarter of the space taken up with video poker. The rest was about 12 bar seats. I ordered the "famous" Brisket sandwich with garlic fries. I liked the fries, but was very put off by the brisket. The sandwich was built like a burger (chopped green leaf, onion and tomato slice), which I felt was strange, but whatever. The brisket tasted way too much like boiled beef, almost wet cardboard. No brine, no rub, almost no smoke. Not BBQ.

They offered two types of house BBQ sauce. A firey and normal. Both tasted like ketchup with some basic flavors add, the firey not hot enough.

If I go back, maybe I'll try one of their "Portland Best" burgers.

• Pros: Nice strong drinks
• Cons: BBQ lacking in quality

01/27/09

AWFUL, AWFUL, AWFUL

by ssmith2526

I am shocked that ANY would rate their food good. It is atrocious! I ordered the chicken and it looked like a poor little bird laying on it's side with it's head cut off. It was enough to make me a vegetarian. I'm not adverse to eating meat but I don't like it to look so much like it would have looked alive. So, trying to get past the look, the meat was pink and it had an overwhelming (as in too much) smokey taste to it. The poppers were adequate at best and the potato salad was a mustard potato salad, which may appeal to some was not what I was expected nor was it enjoyable. After 3 bites of the chicken I knew I could not continue with it. I took the rest home to my dog, who is less picky about his quality of food. Pretty expensive dog food though, unfortunately.

• Pros: Waitress was nice
• Cons: Food was terrible, waste of money

10/20/08

Mmmm, yummy above average bar food!

by HNDTJG

My boyfriend I recently ate at the Pit Stop and were both impressed with the food and atmosphere. I had the pulled pork and pineapple pizza which was very good (would have been slightlly better had the pulled pork been basted in bbque sauce) and my boyfriend had a bacon swiss burger with garlic fries which were out of this world! The service was also pretty good for a bar..(it wasn't very busy). Next time we go, I will totally try some of their bbque as the smoker smelled yummy as we were leaving. Next time we will also come a little earlier as they have happy hour 3-6 M-Sun!

• Pros: selection of food and price..very reasonable!
• Cons: smoke..lots of it!