Cafe Nell

Good was decent service was TERRIBLE! Been here for over 2 hours and just got my check. There are 2 tables near us that have new parties sitting at them and they still have not been bussed from the previous parties. They even ran our cards for the wrong tab.

Pretty good food. Usually service is fine-​good depending on who you get (like everywhere pretty much!). I’ve tried all menus of the day. Slightly out of my budget (especially for most of the portion sizes) so I don’t come here too often. I can see how that would be different for other people though. I love their happy hour!

We’ve been to Café Nell for brunch and dinner and have overall had a positive experience. The restaurant is on a street corner with a great, European feel to it, and there are many outdoor tables for when it’s nice outside. Both times we ate there getting seated was awkward — we stood in the doorway for a couple minutes as waiters would pass by quickly saying «excuse me» but never «I’ll be right with you» or «sit wherever you like». That being said, once seated service was always fine with a friendly wait staff that would check in on us a reasonable amount of time.
They have a nice assortment of drinks — for brunch their mimosas are really good (get the pear!) and generously sized. For dinner the Harvest martini was really good — but we also tried a couple of bourbon drinks (the Continental Club and the Kentucky Neil) that were pretty small and loaded with crushed ice that made for a watered down drink that gave a more «dive bar» feel and not worth the $ 10.
Their food is actually really good. Their benedicts at brunch are the easy standout — the beef bacon rendition is the way to go. We also got the the mushroom omelet but were surprised to find that despite the menu saying it came with herbed chèvre there was none to be found. Their dinner was even stronger than their brunch — we started with a mushroom tart pastry that was pretty tasty (could use more salt) and a beef belly dish that was really tender. Both were pretty large — so one starter is enough for two people! For dinner — the pork porterhouse was okay but overcooked. The lamb ragout is hands down the best item we have had at this restaurant (and honestly one of my favorite dishes I’ve had in Portland to date) — incredible flavors that melt in your mouth and a very generous portion!
Overall we were between giving this place 3 and 4 stars and do feel like it should get 3.5, with the negative factors being the consistent lack of a host (ess) (which is fine in general but not when the wait staff don’t pick up the slack), the overpriced drinks and the lack of cheese in the omelet, but because the lamb ragout dish really is a standout in Portland
I’m going to have to round up on this one. We will be back!

Never disappoints, one of the best neighborhood places to go in NW. The food is fantastic, Nathan awesome at the bar, risotto is perfect, can’t wait for pork shank to come back in fall. Bravo!

Love Happy Hour and Love to dine at Café Nell.
We had yet another amazing meal on Tuesday evening at Café Nell. This restaurant is at the very top of our list. When ever we are in Portland, it is a must that we go there. We have never been disappointed. The food is really good and the wine list, one of the best. There is something for everyone one on the menu and wine list. Thank you Café Nell!

A BIG Dinner Disappoint. The food was just mediocore, lukewarm + overpriced for the quality. The wait staff though, was cordial and pretty attentive. This is a HUGE missed opportunity — the location in this quiet Alphabet District neighborhood couldn’t be better. We won’t go back — and I wish I hadn’t spent $ 100 on a meal for two that would have been fantastic at a number of alternative restaurants in the area.

Food and drinks were AMAZING and I would give 5 stars just for that… but the service was SO bad (waiting 20 minutes to be asked if we would like a beverage, for example), I can only give 2 stars. Hopefully this is a one-​off experience, as I’m willing to give it one more shot and don’t want to be disappointed a second time.

We went there for a late dinner. There seemed to be only one waitress for the entire restaurant. So service was pretty much non-​existent. We had the mushroom tart, Caesar salad and pear, walnut and cranberry salad.
The Caesar salad was incredibly salty. It was inedible. I can’t imagine anyone eating that thing. The pear walnut cranberry salad turned into an apple walnut cranberry salad because they ran out of pears. That was a forgettable dish.
The only dish that was okay was the mushroom tart. The mushrooms were flavorful and the puff pastry was very light. Hence the two stars.
And we were next to some drunk women who thought it was karaōke night. Terrible experience.
UPDATE
Owner contacted me and invited us back for another meal. I really appreciate that level of customer service. Unfortunately we can’t take her up on that since we leave in a day. But adding a star for her going the extra mile.

Came for happy hour left with disappointment. The happy hour wine– White was extremely sweet and the red Cab was full body but not smooth. Happy hour Barbacoa tacos are $ 7 you get two and the sauce it comes with is very hot and overpowers the taco. The bartender was nice and attentive. I would come back for the drinks and the 90’s RMB music not the food.

Our neighborhood hangout! Great ambiance love Nathan the bartender. My favorite dishes are the Chicken Paillard we substitute the frisée for spinach, the Risotto, Lamb Ragout and the Mac and Cheese! I also love the Caesar salad with all blue cheese.

Dining alfresco is always a delight here! Wednesday all night happy hour is Devine. Food is delish, service is excellent and the drinks refreshing. Always a neighborhood favorite!

Was greeted when we entered with «can you throw your coffee away, we don’t allow outside drinks», which didn’t really start things off on a high note. The waiter was kind of nice but also kind of pushy, he didn’t really give us time to sit and look at the menu much before approaching multiple times to take a drink order.
Overall the food was average and the price tag was too high for the quality. I probably won’t return.

Amazing Service And Drinks By The Bartender Saturday night. His cocktails and knowledge about the food was amazing. Mushroom tart and the salmon were perfect. I will be back again and again. Jewel in nw.

It feels a little fancy for my taste.
The service is great and they have giant mimosas.
Brunch is good. Would probably come back here if
a friend invited me.

My good friends, Jim and Kim Lott treated me to lunch here today. Besides our beverages, we started with oysters on the half shell. Umm… I then had a side green salad that was excellent followed by a mushroom risotto was continues to delight hours later.
This is a cool small eatery which, as I understand, has a good happy hour.

On a weekend jaunt with family to Portland, I chose Café Nell based on Unilocal reviews and location… one block over. I made points with the entire crew after we enjoyed a marvelous two hour meal. Very reasonable price to value ratio… sorry I missed the brunch, it looks amazing. Dinner was awesome, fluid service and no trouble getting in on a Sunday eve. I won’t detail all the meals we enjoyed, but if you want a very pleasing meal, fireplace and service, go to Nells. I will be back!

By far the worst dining experience I’ve had in Portland, perhaps ever. Mediocre food at best, but the service is what really puts the dookey icing on the shit cake that is Café Nell. Hobgoblins. This one old slattern in particular seemed to relish providing horrible service with what I can only describe as a kind of sadistic glee not usually seen outside prisoner of war camps. –1,000 stars

FOOD 3 — Entrees had decent flavor. Drinks were good, nothing special. Nice twist on entrée options but the presentation looked better than the taste.
SERVICE 1 — Super slow. Not very attentive or aware of situations. Finished plates and glasses were stacked on the side of the table for over 20 minutes. Until it was picked up. Only because a waitress was flagged down to gather the dirty dishes. Before we were seated, I sat at the bar for 10 minutes until the bartender acknowledged I was there. Then the service was very cold and impersonal. Though our party was big, it still shouldn’t take over an hour to get food, and more than 20 minutes to get a drink.
INTERIOR DESIGN 4/​AMBIANCE 2 — design is nice. Industrial rustic look and feel. but the cold and slow service kills the look and feel.

Love love love the champagne cocktails on the happy hour menu!
They have late happy hour on Wednesdays. I went with my mom for my birthday and she ordered a champagne with bourbon and I got the champagne with limoncello in it. Yum.
We ordered a bunch of happy hour food:
Mac & Cheese, mussels, & tacos. Everything was really yummy.
Honestly the best part about our experience was Mary, our server. I just moved into this neighborhood and there are so many snooty, hipster servers with attitudes that make me feel so unwelcome.
Mary is the perfect server: friendly, quick, attentive, not overly friendly, and got everything right. She was super cool about my mom ordering a bourbon and champagne.
I recommend Café Nell — go on a Wednesday night for happy hour and ask for Mary.

We arrived in Portland on a late-​ish flight, showed up at the hotel then cleaned up, and went out for dinner… our hotel staff recommended this place and he absolutely hit the spot.
Café Nell has a great ambience with small bar (with few older locals chatting as we walked in), adjacent dining area along wall of windows (most tables were empty, probably since later at night), and outdoor seating (few seated there). Few staff that served us were very attentive and quite insightful for providing food/​drink spots to check out throughout the city (as we were visiting the town on vacation).
Food and drink were on the expensive side, but definitely worth every penny of it. We got seafood starter and more seafood for main course, definitely made a good choice as most seafood is local+fresh since nearby body of water! Plus we got bottle wine and chocolate cookie cake dessert… for the first meal of the visit, everything was so perfect.