Alberta Street Public House

Not Any Better. Well, all I can say about the favorable reviews is that either they're written by staff or the owner or these people have never experienced a good pub.

I've been in this place a few times and it's the music that draws me, though the decor isn't bad. But the food and the service are so abysmal that nothing can redeem this place!

One of my more recent experiences: I go to the bar to order food and beer before a show. It takes me forever to get to the front of the line. By the way, I'm not a tall person and it certainly seemed like the bar tender skipped right past me to serve taller people. I finally get her attention, ordered a beer (no problem) and the soup listed on the daily specials board - potato chowder. I take my seat and wait (and wait, and wait, and wait). OMG, all I ordered was soup! I assumed it was pre-made. It takes almost 30 minutes for them to get my soup out! SOUP! Then it's not potato, but a very LAME Cheddar broccoli. I really don't want to deal with the Ms. Surly Bartender again or wait in line, so I just eat it. Later, I return to the bar for another beer. I tell Ms. Surly that BTW, the soup on the board is wrong. Not only does she not apologize, she looks at me with a glare that says "so what?" and she doesn't even change it! When I leave the pub quite a while later, the board still said "potato chowder". I leave feeling ripped off and sorry I left a tip for being treated like I was a pain.  View Less … View More

Great pub with good food & live music. This is a great pub. All the food I, and my guests, have had has been very good. We think the fish & chips are some of the best in town. As others have indicated there is a sign at every table letting you know to order at the bar. Usually only 1 person working the bar and taking orders but it all moves along just fine and we've never had anyone give us any 'attitude' (as some other reviewers have objected to). We have always enjoyed ourselves and think it is a great place to hear groups. Recently went for the Rite of Spring and Tom May show and it was a fun night of great music and great food. One person with me had never been to the pub before and she will definitely be going back for other occasions as she really enjoyed it.

Highly recommended.

Only Con was a women talking too loudly in the back during the music. She quieted down after several people looked around to see who was making all the noise during the good music. She apparently wasn't there for the music so she really should have been visiting in the bar except that she was talking with the owner! He should have hushed her up before she bothered those that were there for the music.  View Less … View More

Some of the best music around. I have seen some great touring folk acts at the Alberta Street Pub: Bruce Molsky, Bohola, Niamh Parsons... and some of Portland's greatest: The Stolen Sweets, Lara Michelle, Kate & Steve Einhorn (former owners of Artichoke music), Trashcan Joe, & lots of others.

The quality of service depends entirely on who is behind the bar. In the past, I've seen some bad attitudes, but lately everything's been fine. I like the veggie lasagna.  View Less … View More

Great music and great beer prices. I first started going to this place because several bands that I love to hear play here sometimes and have grown very fond of it. It's one of the few places left in Portland where you can still get drinks for reasonable prices and hear some great music at the same time. And the patio out back always offers a wonderful retreat if it gets too crowded inside. I've always gotten descent service at the bar although the staff can be a little overworked at times, especially on busy nights. This is probably not the place to go though if your looking for a dining experience, it's a bar, not a sit down restaurant and the service would seem to really lack something if your expecting a restaurant. Personally I'm not a big fan of their pig themed decorating that's been way over done(there are everything from piggy banks to flying pigs on every inch of the bar and scattered around the whole place, some of them kind of creepy looking) but that may just be my personal taste.  View Less … View More