10/18/09

NEVAH EVAH AGAIN!

by Tarot Chick

My fiance and I were being taken out for a Thank You dinner by a friend that we helped with a project and his girlfriend. I suggested we try here. (Cue Cher's "If I Could Turn Back Time")

Im not an unreasonable person. A popular restaurant on a Friday night; I expected a wait. No problem. I was pleasantly surprised when a friendly male server (who turned out to be the ONLY saving grace about our entire experience) informed us that our wait would be short. Maybe we should've clarified what "short" meant to him. In the meantime he brings us this RIDICULOUSLY, unnecessarily complicated menu/ordering system, a brief explanation of it that was shouted over the loud din of the diners and then left us to wonder if there was going to be an informational video to follow that would further clarify.

Forty five minutes later he comes by to apologize and say it looks like the table he thought was going to free up for us was ordering dessert. As my party smiled and said okay and goodbye and made our way outside, we realized there was a place to sit and eat outside. We should have just kept going!!! He said he would be happy to serve us out there and offered us some bread and water. Returning with menus he then says oh..the table was paying their bill and getting ready to leave after all. (Merry go round, much?) and said go ahead and order outside and he'd make sure we were seated inside when the table cleared and the food would be right after us.

We were finally seated. Happy in the knowledge that our order had gone in over 10 minutes earlier, we were sure we'd be eating at any moment and we were starving. Another TWENTY minutes passed and our good mood we had collectively managed to sustain was quickly turning sour, and FINALLY food arrives. Now I realize this is a tapas joint. Which is why we ordered mostly large plates. But apparently just like the waiter had his ideas of what a "short" wait was, the chef also has his ideas of what a "large" plate is. $20 for the large lamb plate equated to 3 small slabs of meat on 5 inch bones. $8 for a small serving of vinegar mustard chicken equated to 1 tiny piece of chicken thigh. Our potato pancakes were charred and so hard in places that I thought my fork would break before the potato did!

As for service...what an unfunny joke! I had a question to ask my server, couldnt find her, so I attempted to catch the attention of another and watched as she looked at me in my EYES and continued walking away. "Yes, that just happened" is the response my friend gave me at the look of incredulity on my face. We couldnt wait to get out of there and end what turned out to be a horrible dining experience.

When I saw the bill at $80 with nothing to drink but water and not one stomach sated, I felt on the verge of a blood vessel bursting and stroking out right there across the table. Total robbery. When you are sitting at a table with an $80 bill and thinking about what you're going to order at Wendy's drive through, you know you had a dining FAIL.

If you like throwing your money away, being ignored and having the tiniest portions known to man to boot, then Navarre is for you. Bring Lube. Everyone else, do yourself, your wallet and your blood pressure a favor and skip this black hole

• Pros: The dishes were clean... um...the water was refreshing...
• Cons: Absent service, Complicated Menu, Inflated prices

09/08/09

Worth a try

by Jackie in PDX

I think most people would agree that a restaurant can have an off night once in awhile. So when I tried to find a restaurant to have my birthday dinner at I did a lot of research on City Search and other restaurant review sites. Overall it seems to me that the people who tend to write reviews are the ones that say a restaurant, food or service was horrible. I especially like reading the really bad reviews when the owner responds asking why the reviewer/customer did not speak up when they had the bad experience. One great come back from an owner was something along the lines of “REALLY? You sat there waiting for your food for 1 1/2 hours and DID NOT say anything?”

My criteria for the restaurant were:

1. Somewhere I hadn’t eaten at before

2. Interesting décor or ambiance

3. A variety of dishes the three of us would like

4. Ethnic or specialty dishes

5. Not a food cart but not too expensive for my daughter’s wallet. After all she was buying.

6. Location, not too far away so as to make a long night of it driving clear across town and back

What I found I wanted to try were several smaller, niche or ethnic restaurants on what is known as Portland’s NE 28th Ave. restaurant row or a couple of others in that neighborhood. The difficulty was that a couple of my first choices were closed on Mondays.

So I narrowed it down to two restaurants. The leading contender became Navarre because a woman that I work with said she had eaten there and it was good. Navarre doesn’t yet have a website with their menu posted, they just have a blog. I found reviews on City Search titled A Real Disappointment, One of the worst meals I've ever had in Portland!, Rustic, gritty, real, organic in every sense., pretty good, One of my favorite places in town, A wonderful place to eat, etc, etc.

So what did we think? Navarre is a tapas place. We ordered 10 small plates ranging from really good rustic bread with lemon grass olive oil, chicken on the bone served in a bowl with a lot of broth (great flavor, chicken a bit over cooked), French cheeses, (my daughter thought that the Camembert smelled like my aunt’s barn). I loved the Brie, Blue Cheese and Camembert spread on the rustic bread. Other dishes – daughter and SIL really liked the porcini and corn salad, we had two potato plates, an a gratin and a pancake, both of which were really good, none of us really liked the braised greens, in fact daughter wouldn’t even try them. The one dish that we all agreed was the best was a pork plate. It was hot, juicy and had a wonderful flavor. We would have ordered a 2nd pork plate but they had run out. We all three had dessert and declared them all to be very good.

Our overall rating was something like “good maybe not great but we would eat there again, service was kind of slow but they have a very small kitchen and the place was jammed packed and we weren’t in a hurry. Tapas is a great way to try many things without committing to one dish that you may end up not liking. For three people, a bottle of wine and dessert with tip the bill was about $100. Not too bad.

• Pros: Small plates, lots of variety
• Cons: Service was a little slow but they were VERY busy

09/04/09

A Real Disappointment

by Peidmont Gastronome

My wife wanted to go out "someplace nice" The Oregonian may have called this the best restaurant for 2009, but we thought it was way overrated. Our stuffed pork was as tender as my shoe sole. No one asked how our food was or if we were happy with the dishes. If they had I would have been honest.

• Cons: Confusing Menu, Tiny Chairs, Tiny Side Dishes, Big Prices

09/02/09

One of the worst meals I've ever had in Portland!

by yayeer

My husband and I love great food and feel so lucky to live in Portland because of that reason. We tend to plan our travels around food, also. Last night was our wedding anniversary and decided to try Navarre instead of going to one of our favorites because I remembered reading about it in something recently. We were so disappointed with our meal. To start with, the bread they gave us had burnt crust all around. Great start, isn't it? The clams arrived luke warm, gritty, and flavorless--briny but nothing else. The crab cakes were burnt, cold, rubbery, and had no flavor and came with this sweet sauce on the side--why would you serve them with something sweet when crabs are sweet to begin with? Braised greens--again, no flavor and cold. The only thing that we liked was the pork pate but the bread ruined it. They never came to ask us how our meal was, either. Seemed short staffed. We laughed about it on the way home and couldn't believe why it was so busy.

With so many great places to eat in Portland, why go here?

• Cons: Yucky food

07/20/09

Rustic, gritty, real, organic in every sense.

by grumpybear

We went on a sunday evening, and managed to squeeze onto stools at the bar. The staff worked feverishly to accomadate the totally packed room and sidewalk. If you needed something, you had to flag down a server; it helped to call out to them by name.

The wines that were recommended from the long list of mostly imports were good, not outstanding. The same with the food. Good, but not outstanding.

Our friend from out of town really enjoyed the uniqueness of experience. Unlike so many restaurants these days, Navarre isn't polished, pristine, or proper. Just real food in a nononsense style. The place was steeped in rustic kitchen quality: pie plates my great grandmother might have used, giant hunks of bread stashed where ever they could find a home... some dishes were outstanding, some were so-so.

On the whole, it was a good experience, but we'd strongly recommend going on a slow tuesday afternoon to avoid the expectant throngs, and to take the time to remember the joy of creating good food.

• Pros: Real food, no gimmicks, evolving menu
• Cons: Popularity has outgrown capacity

07/15/09

pretty good

by kapd

fun place

07/08/09

Disappointed, for the most part

by kathleenmary

We took our daughter to dinner there on a Monday night. We were told that it would be a 30 minutes wait. This turned into an hour. Only two waiters were on the floor. They did their best, but should have had a busser at their disposal, at the very least. The order process is odd. We ordered a variety of things. Nothing seemed to flow together. Crab cakes were hard, cold, unseasoned. Nothing really stood out. I am a professional cook so perhaps my expectations are too high. We had the chocolate mousse, as recommended by our waitress. It was grainy and very runny. The bill was a surprise at $131. Wouldn't go back.

• Pros: fun, busy place
• Cons: food lacks seasoning, service is spotty

06/20/09

sadly disappointed!

by sparky9

Ah, Navarre, how I really wanted to love you. The idea of CSA, the atmosphere, the wines. I really did want to fall in love. Our party of four allowed the kitchen to choose our meal for $28 each. What we received was such a sad disappointment. The dishes did not mesh well, there was no balance in the meal, and salt and vinegar were abused to the max as the primary seasoning. We kept glancing around to see if anyone else was having such a painful dining experience. Bok choy, salad with lamb, buffalo steak, beans: salty! Farro, bird, lentils, potatoes: bland. Crab cakes and halibut: good, but not exceedingly great. Kens' artisan bread was the best thing on our table, perhaps we should have just bought a loaf down the street?

We walked away with salt burn in our mouths, laughing at how you can't just believe the hype surrounding some restaurants. Perhaps it was an off day, but for the price and wait we expected to at least have something palatable.

• Pros: atmosphere
• Cons: horrible food

06/18/09

Great ambiance, terrible service

by KGraves

Darn -- what a dissapointment! Given Navarre's recent nomination of the "Restaurant of the Year" we were super excited to give it a try. From the moment we sat down, the service was a disaster. We had to harass our waitress to order beverages and get some help with understanding the menu. We sat down at 7:30 and our food was not served until 9pm. No one came and checked in with us during the extended delay to ask if we needed anything (more wine, perhaps?) or how we were doing. We ate quickly (we were starved!) and were eager to try the red velvet cake. After waiting 30 minutes fo the dessert menu, we finally had to flag down our "no sense-of-urgency" waitress to ask for a dessert menu. The chef was extremely complimentary and offered us some amazing cheese and sweet vermouth, but once he left, we were in a desert of non-existant service once again. We finally got our dessert, ate it promptly and were ready for home (it's now 10pm). When it came time to pay, our waitress left and we sat waiting, once again, for almost 30 minutes. We finally had to trouble the waitress at the bar who was sending text messages as we were the only table in the entire restaurant waiting to pay. Although the ambiance was fun, and the food was decent, because we were left to fend for ourselves the majority of the evening, we will not return to Navarre. It's simply too much work.

• Pros: Atmosphere, location
• Cons: Service

12/14/08

Great Potential

by allenrob

The atmosphere was relaxed and comfortable. Nothing fancy but welcoming. Ordering is unusual so ask for help from your waitress.The wait staff was pleasant and informative.You can order small portions or full portions which you share with your fellow diners.The menu was eclectic and interesting. The Bread is a must order and the French butter is the best I've ever had;salty and very rich. Delicious.The wait staff slipped in not serving the bread with the butter. I asked for the butter and was told our portion was being prepared. Hmmm? Wait to serve the bread when the butter is uh...ready.We ordered small portions of crab cake,pork pate',black rice with mushrooms, lemon chicken,potato pancakes,razor clams and green salad. We also ordered a fantastic French country beer. The pork pate' was excellent but a bit dry; it could have used a little butter to soften it.The lemon chicken was pretty bland and dry. It needed to be marinated and it needed some herbs and spices to give it flavor;or perhaps a sauce. I found the razor clams inedible, like eating shoe leather.One of my fellow diners enjoyed them however.The crab cake was good but nothing special.The potato pancakes were bland.The black rice with mushrooms was delicious and I could have used a larger portion;highly recommended. The green salad was nice and fresh with a good variety of greens. One of the restaurants best desserts, a bitter chocolate mousse, was already sold out at seven PM; unforgivable. A popular dessert should not be sold out so early in the evening. Poor planning by the staff. The desserts we did order were fabulous. I had a devil's food cake that would have made Satan proud;decadent! The Basque cake and the apple dessert were also thoroughly enjoyed. I would highly recommend this restaurant. Some of the dishes need some work but were good none the less. The atmosphere,the interesting menu, the ordering options and pleasant staff make for a very enjoyable experience. You won't be disappointed.

• Pros: Atmosphere, service, menu options
• Cons: Some of the dishes need some work