Oliver's Downtown Bar & Grill

08/24/09

Closed early 2009

by mickeywalk

Across street from Portland Center for Performing Arts and the Heathman Hotel.

• Pros: Closed early 2009
• Cons: Closed early 2009

03/18/09

Example: great place for good bread

by ChrisJohnson

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• Pros: Example: best croissants in town
• Cons: What are the drawbacks?

03/02/09

They appear to be out of business

by Minanzi

The listed phone has been disconnected. Barfly's website says they're closed. I'm required to write 100 characters to post this review, so I'll say it again: Looks like it's closed!

11/07/08

What a pleasant surprise!

by BettyMillerPDX

My husband and I had dinner at this charming place prior to going to see the Jimi Hendrix experience today (Nov. 7-2008) and i must say that we were pleasantly surprised when we recieved outstanding food and service from the staff whom were extremely busy. We had thought that we were not going to be able to eat dinner and make it to the show on time upon being seated (based upon past events when we have eaten here and things took a long time to get to us) However, our order was taken promptly and the food was served timely and was absolutely delicious. The gorganzole penne pasta was one of the best pasta dinners i have had in a very long time. Snrimp, Mushrooms, garlic and herbs sauteed in a gorganzole cheese cream sauce tossed with penne pasta. Yummy! This place is high energy being across from the Arlene Schnitzer theater but relaxed and comforting at the same time. Amazing that we walked in at the same time as everyone else dining (all at once i must say) and it seemed to me that we weren't the only customers surprised by the good service we received. I heard many comments of how fast the food came out and how delicious it was. Mixed drinks took a little while to get to us but the staff did an amazing job. Way to go Oliver's! We will be back! Kudos to the staff. Lots of new faces from the last time we were in and it looks like you guys are hitting the mark. Great job.

• Pros: Food served prompt and delicious. Great attitude from the wait staff!
• Cons: Little slow on mixed drink refills but not too bad

02/25/08

Reviewers are sometimes way to Harsh!

by pinkypie

Oliver's is a cool joint and it irks me when reviewers on citysearch are sometimes way too harsh. I have eaten here at least 2 dozen times. Sometimes it's slow and sometimes being across from the Arlene Schnitzer is's super busy. i walk out on those nights cuz i know it's going to be awhile. I learnt this by experience and when my meal was late the manager made sure i got a heafty discount and loads of apologies. The other times i have been there, the staff are friendly, the food great. sorry to hear the person below didn't get bruchetta as theirs is so delicious. It's made with toasted chiabatta, a tomato topping that is great and drizzled with a balsamic reduction that makes my mouth water just writing about it. well worth the $7.00 as it's a meal by itself.

On their busy nights it can get hectic and as far as the "layout" , how can a business get criticized for a floor plan that i think just comes with the building and don't you think if there was a grease fire the place might have been made to close???

I eat out lots in Portland and in SF where I go for business a few times a month and in all my eating out I have gotten to know servers, managers and even some owners. They tell me it kills them to get cruddy reviews. Servers, Cooks, Bus Boys and Dishwashers all depend on their jobs and one off bad reviews hurt especially when mistakes happen. I think it takes a boat load of courage to open and run a restaurant and it's pretty lame that people can have one experience and then bash a business to pieces on the internet. I am sure glad that as an architect gal, who can make loads of mistakes or have bitchy days that there are no websites out there to bash my business or me personally. We all have off days, we all come under the bar on some days. ease up city search reviewers. it you have a bad time over and over then bash away. If it's the first time you had a bad time there then just remember everyone is human.

• Pros: A good restaurant serving good food
• Cons: be weary of nights when there are shows at the Arlene Schnitzer - very busy and kitchen can take awhile

02/19/08

Can I get an answer?

by whoone

**Responding to the reviewers are too harsh...they don't have an email address on the website except for catering and obviously calling does no good. Perhaps they read my review since I ordered from there again today, because my co workers wanted to give them another shot and they had the bruchetta, You're right it would have been fabulous but they assembled it rather than putting the wet tom's and basalmic separate so it was a soggy mess by the time it got back to the office. They in the heart of downtown and set up for delivered dish too! To go shouldn't be an issue. I shoulda had a cup o noodles :(

After calling the restaurant and asking to make sure that everything was available from the whole menu , and calling back again to ask a couple questions to make sure everything was clear before placing a an order during lunch for seven people when we did call to place the order, two of the items were not available which was irritating, but not as irritating as this. For the $7 they charge for bruschetta, which anywhere is at most four slices of bread and a few tablespoons of a tomato/onion/herb mixture, they do not serve it during lunch. For the pennies the cost per serving is on that dish you would think that bread, tomatoes and onion would ALWAYS be on hand and versus the cost of other items you'd be THRILLED to serve that. Frankly, that's the only reason we went there. It was my pick, and I wanted bruschetta. I was flipping thru Delivered Dish and I spied Bruschetta My luck the only Italian-esq restaurant in the city doesn't have bread and tom. on hand, and the manager or owner doesn't have the courtesy to return my phone call as to how that is. Just a question. Can I get an answer? You must not have a good answer for the moment it takes to return a customer's phone call. Fabulous customer service :( Oh, and the two things you took off the menu, the calamari and the shrimp were the best looking things you had on there.

12/29/07

Amazing service!!!!!

by graciegirlie

After reading the good reviews I decided to check out Olivers before heading to the fox tower for a movie. The restaurant was pretty empty, there were two parties seated when we arrived at 7pm on a Friday night. The server brought us bread right after she seated us. The bread was served with garlic oil and was really really tasty. Our drinks were made just as fast. We ordered the garlic cream and pesto pastas with chicken. The food was ready in about ten minutes. the presentation was lovely and the food was really delicious. I enjoyed every bite. Our server was friendly and attentive and really went the extra mile to ensure that we were having a good time. I will definitely be back to Olivers!

• Pros: Great service, great food, no wait to be seated

11/04/07

Stopped in for take out and stayed until past bed time

by crewunited

A fellow crew member and I dropped by after our hotel food sounded inedible. Exhausted, we wanted quick take out and to be back in our rooms watching ppv. Instead we sat at their bar/counter and opened up our to go boxes and had a great time with one of the owners who made us feel like we were long lost friends. We laughed, ate great food, were entertained, laughed some more and finally left.....knowing we had to be up early to catch a flight. The place was packed, fun and she was a warm and charming host. What a find! We get to alot of cities and frequent places over and over. Oliver's is our Portland "hang out" now. And we told the entire crew that they missed out on a fun night.

• Pros: Welcoming!!!!!!!!!!!!!

09/06/07

cool place to work

by otemployee

i love my job. After several server jobs in Portland, it's cool to find a place where my employers care, the customers are great and i am proud of the food we put out.

From:

A happy employee :-)

• Pros: lots
• Cons: few

09/02/07

Do NOT EAT HERE

by getmesome

We had the worst I repeat the worst meal in Portland we have ever eaten.. and we have been to most in town.. But this one takes the cake (by the way is frozen then microwaved) The staff were frazzled and the owner was yelling at the employees in a non professional manner..then went outside to smoke at least 3 times during our time there.. We had to actually get up and leave because of the quality of our food..

.DO NOT GO TO THIS PLACE!!! awful awful awful...did i mention it was awful and way over priced...

• Pros: NONE
• Cons: NO PARKING, BAD FOOD, BAD SERVICE