Ken's Home Plate

10/29/07

Shi* Sandwich

by tysonturbo

"Wow! This place is bad... I went last night (sunday the 28) at around 7. I stood in the door for about 5 minutes before I was seated at the tiny bar in front of the kitchen, there were plenty of other spots open in the place so why I was squeezed into the bar I'll never know.. Now we all know how crappy Portland waitstaff is, but come on. After being seated I was promptly forgotten. I didn't get water, and the two spots to my left were never bused throughout my entire meal.

After standing up, walking around, and starting to gnaw on my arm... No one came to take my order.. this is after about 15 minutes. I finally grabbed someone and asked if I could get at least a glass of water while I waited.. and waited.. and waited... 5 minutes later I got my water.

I was still optimistic, I mean the place is brand new... I finally ordered a pastrami ruben (they had run out of corned beef) with coleslaw...

The food arrived, excited and starving I picked up, or I should say, tried to pick up the sandwich.. the bread was a soggy mess, the top of the sandwich was nicely toasted, but hiding on the bottom was the almost unpalatable burnt remains of what was a piece of rye. The bread doesn't hold the sandwich together, sliced too thin? and I would have to say not big enough.. So the entire thing pretty much fell apart before I could get it in my mouth.. Now I'm from NY and this aint no ruben... The meat was overly salty and greasy, and sliced far too thick.. the swiss undetectable, and the kraut, bland at best.. the one redeeming thing on the plate was the slaw, while milquetoast, was edible...

Needless to say I ate a few bites, and decided to cut my losses, and the intestinal assault I knew was on its way.

I've been to better "jewish" delis in Phoenix Arizona... Don't waste your money or your pallet at this dump."

09/20/07

CLOSED

by mzwong

Citysearch - try to be a little more up to date! This place is closed. Watch for Kenny & Zuke's Deli downtown at the Ace Hotel October 2007.

About the old Ken's Place: I enjoyed it and had great service. They were very accommodating with our kid without being a "kid" place, which I really appreciate. The bad thing was that the dish that my husband ordered was so salty that it was inedible. When our server was told this he responded that Ken often makes that dish way too salty and he would take it off our bill. Weird that that's known and not fixed. We appreciated the comp but would have preferred edible food and/or to be warned when ordering it. Maybe the servers could have tasted this dish at the beginning of the night to be able to warn customers? Is Ken so frightening that no one will tell him? No idea, but I do look forward to trying the new deli.

• Pros: Service
• Cons: Closed

03/23/07

This spot is a refined diner-style eatery complete with counter seating, canning-jar water glasses, formica-topped tables and circular booths.

by Contributor

In Short
The laid-back atmosphere and service accentuate the delicious fare. Local produce drives the alpha-diner menu with stars like the sweet and savory Walla Walla onion tart, pan-seared sea scallops or the tender Painted Hills cheeseburger. Ken's Chocolate Bites feature a sweet sampling of chocolate treats including Boca Negra, a chocolate torte doused with raspberry sauce.

03/11/07

This place is closing

by doctor_stu

according to rumors that abound, Ken's Place is closing, and the owner plans on opening a deli in a new hotel downtown.

03/09/07

Horrible Experience

by julesf

Worst dinner of my LIFE. My food had hair in it, awful service, and the atmosphere was horrendous.

P.S, thats really cool that the owner of such a fine establishment would comment on his own restaurant, and rate it as "recommended."

• Pros: Nothing.

01/27/07

Best Pastrami on 1800 block of Hawthorne

by chromedomian

Waste of money. I've been to Langers and Katz and this is not even anywhere close to these places. Ridiculous approximation of the real deal.

12/02/06

Skip Saturday Mornings

by aarin

Ken's does not disappoint for dinner. We have had many very good meals there and were excited to try the Saturday morning brunch, also known as Kenny and Zuke?s Deli. The staff, with the exception of surly Ken, were great as always but the food was very disappointing. The beef in the corned beef hash was rubbery and chewy and the potatoes, onions and peppers were burned. Not browned or just dark, burned and bitter. The salmon hash was similarly overcooked. The potato latkes were the best thing on the table but also stayed in the oil too long. I can appreciate dark, caramelized and flavorful but this food was just cooked beyond recognition and for a $9+ breakfast entry we rightfully expected more. I have to say that the dill pickles are awesome but certainly not enough to make me return and spend $15+ per person on a seriously sub-par breakfast.

11/27/06

Great food, Great service, Great Price...

by asicellenl

My husband and I visited Ken's Place on a Sat. night at 7:30 pm. We got seated within 3 mins, and service was very attentive. They have approx. 20 people dinning, and two wait staff, two cooking staff, and I guess one of them would be Ken. We've got our drinks and food at a very reasonable time. I ordered pork chops and my husband ordered steak with peppercorn sauce. We also have the crab cakes as our appetizer. All the food were delicious, and the price point vs. quality/quantity was very reasonable. We would definitely head back again. They use Calton Farm pork which is local farm with very high quality meat, and quite expensive; so we feel our $18.00 pork chop is well worth the price.

• Pros: great food, great service, great price

08/15/06

NO customer service.

by cwel2006

Ken's is a popular place in my neighborhood - all my neighbors say it's delicious, but I wouldn't know. Why wouldn't I know? Because my family and I (we're all adults) stood in the doorway for five minutes and not a single staff person even made eye contact with any of us. The two waitresses were busy, but you're never too busy to tell someone you'll be with them in a minute. We were willing to wait. I worked in a very busy sushi restaurant for 2 years and I never gave people service this bad. One of the waitresses was helping another customer right next to us and never looked at us, another waitress cut a piece of cake and turned her back on us. If they wanted to close, they should have put on the closed sign. They could've even lied to us and told us they were out of food. (tuesdays is 5pm - "whenever we run out") But they did neither, and completely ignored us. I won't be back, because all this treatment means is that the service while you're sitting isn't worth a dime anyway.

• Pros: smells good
• Cons: bad service

07/23/06

Reviewing yourself?

by danber

Wow!

How thinned skinned do you have to be to write a response to city Search reviews calling your customers liars? As a restaurant owner you should be able to handle an irate breeder or 2.

Ken, spend a little less time on the internet, and a little more time forging bonds with the "republican-libertarian" deli poseurs. Let the chips land where they will.