Port of Call Restaurant

Unsung Hero of the Old Port. Rarely does one have a stand out moment in dining at a large hotel, like the huge Holiday Inn by the Bay where this restaurant is located. Often one will praise the hotel, but not stop to praise the restaurant separately. How else can there only be three reviews? So, allow me to let you in on one of the best kept secrets in Portland: The Port of Call. First, they have the might of the all important parking garage, which gives you access to the best of Portland for less $ than the independent ones, and often they have space when others are full. Then, the wonderful service: whether there are three people or three thousand being served, the experience is consistently pleasant and Charming. Then the food. The buffet is epic, but if you’re not of the $ 13.95 eat as much french toast and bacon as you wish kind of Diner, by all means order ala carte! What a pleasant surprise! I am a notoriously picky foodie and chef myself, but I braced and ordered the Eggs Benedict on crisp bacon. Much to my delight I found it to be impeccable! Spot on Hollandaise very much made to order, plentiful and just the right amount of fresh lemon. Eggs perfect. All elements, immaculate. My companions for breakfast were also picky eaters and ordered the corned beef hash. Oh boy. I thought to myself… But again, wow! Lovely! I would tell you how it was, but even Miss Skinnypants wasn’t sharing! What a delight this restaurant is, and I’ll do my best to sing your praises… I’m terrible at keeping secrets! Special thanks to Jake, our fantastic waiter, and the executive chef Joseph who came to make sure we were being well taken care of. It was like being royalty :)

On our romantic weekend away we encountered a blizzard and 40mph winds. This left us no choice but to go to the Port of Call resturant in our hotel lobby. When we walked in it took us about 5 minutes to get seated in a near empty resturant. We sat down and waited some more. Portland is known for their food and trendy drink menus. No drink menu was anywhere to be found. Our waiter came over who was very nice but didn’t know what beers were on tap. He didn’t share with us any food specials. We proceeded to order our beer and meal in the same breath because while there was a manager and another waitress in the resturant he was the only one running around waiting on tables. The other two stood at the hostess station all night.
We waited about 15 minutes for our beers that arrived unfull and I don’t mean a little under the rim. I mean a sip worth. When our food arrived it came with our bread bowl and the side salad my meal came with. We had waited about ³⁵⁄₄₀ minutes from the time we were sat for food so I didn’t understand why salad and a bread bowl didn’t come first. I ordered chicken parm and my boyfriend ordered haddock. My chicken tasted like rubber, the pasta was overcooked and the sauce was blatantly a can of tomato paste that was barely doctored up. My boyfriend’s haddock was the only thing edible, the mashed potatoes were like glue and the vegetables were mush. When we told the wait staff they admitted the chicken was frozen and they tried to ”spice it up as much as they could.”The manager came over and asked if they could replace our meal with anything else and said ”sorry you didn’t like it.” Luckily it was taken off of our bill, if they hadn’t our bill would have been over $ 60. I can’t believe anyone would pay that for the quality of food we received.
The resturant definitely needs some updates, it feels very 1970’s banquet hall and as seen in my review the food needs an overhaul. In a city known for food it is unacceptable to serve frozen anything.
After our meal we went next door to the Port of Call lounge, the lounge is comfortable with lounge chairs and televisions. Definitely a place for a night cap not a place to get the party started. While there, a man sitting at the bar drinking a beer got up and walked into the kitchen and came back. It dawned on us that we may have found the cook and the reason why the food was so overcooked.

When I think about the city of Portland, there are very few places I wouldn’t recommend to someone. Everywhere has their perks, and draws different people from different walks of life. So I give this one-​star (which is defined as «Eek! Methinks not.» here) to the Port of Call Restaurant/​Lounge with a heavy heart, because I want them to be better. I want them to catch up with the times. I want them to have a chance in a city that’s beer and cocktail oriented now.
Because Port of Call is stuck in the sixties/​seventies… and not in a good way.
My friend and I arrived at 7:00pm on a Friday night. There was no one in the restaurant. There was no one in the lounge. We took a seat at the bar and the bartender — a heavily tattooed and made-​up girl in her twenties or thirties — greeted us. Having just had cocktails at other hotel bars earlier in the week I was shocked to see how super casually she was dressed. «What can I get you?» she asked. «No cocktail menu? Or specials of any kind?» I asked. She laughed like I had just told her the funniest joke. «Nope, we don’t do that sort of thing here. We got beer and I can make you a mixed drink, but that’s about it,» she responded. I nodded and said, «Okay, but what makes your bar special?» She stared at me with a blank expression, so I continued, «Like, what are you known for? What one cocktail do you make exceptionally better than anyone else?» She blinked, and then excitedly said, «OHHHHH! The Pink Panty Dropper.» I was taken aback at first (I’m no prude, but c’mon — you’re at a supposedly «classy» bar that seems to mostly cater to older folks). «Did you say The Pink Panty Dropper? Because… that’s kind of a shocking name for a hotel bar.» She waved me off, «Yeah. It’s amaretto, Malibu, pineapple juice… it’s really good.» So my friend and I both ordered one. You could mostly only taste pineapple juice with a very small suggestion of Malibu (and, since we’re being honest here, it was one of the most disappointing cocktails I’ve had in years).
During our two hours at the Port of Call the bartender shattered two glasses — one behind the bar, one at someone’s table (yes, more people showed up — they were all older than 60). We watched Brian Williams present the NBC Nightly News (which was on the TV overhead blaring VERY loudly), 207, and then finished off our night with Dateline NBC. And we witnessed the bartender spend copious amounts of time examining herself in the mirror (sucking in her gut, pushing out her chest, pursing her lips, fixing her make-​up, practicing her hand-​on-​hip stance).
Don’t get me wrong — I had a great time, but that was because of the awesome company I was with (I did feel it necessary to apologize to my friend for choosing this place because of what a dud it was… I don’t know what I was thinking with this suggestion). As such, I really can’t recommend this place; there are just too many other good bars in hotels serving cocktails throughout the city that this one just falls by the wayside.

On the morning of my wedding, I met my bridesmaids downstairs in the in-​hotel restaurant (Port of Call) for breakfast. There were approximately 8 other people in the restaurant before the 5 of us arrived. We were seated, and ordered from the menu at 8:00am. Two bridesmaids ordered the lobster benedict, myself and another bridesmaid ordered pancakes, and a third ordered another breakfast of similar composition, and a bowl of fruit.
After 43 minutes, our food arrived. I would not have been upset about this time if not for the fact that the other 10 people in the restaurant were mostly eating from the buffet, and already had food, so I can’t imagine what could have caused a 43 minute time to get our food. I was prepared to let this go until the food arrived. The two that ordered the lobster benedict received plain benedicts, and the person that ordered the fruit bowl got only a side of fruit (consisting of 3 pieces). Not having time, now, to re-​order the lobster benedicts, the bridesmaids remained disappointed with their meals. We alerted our server to the mistake, who shrugged and said «I don’t know how that happened,» and «It’s my first day.»
After hurriedly consuming our meals, we asked for the check so that we could remain on schedule for the day. However, when the check arrived, there was a difference in price from the regular benedicts (listed as $ 9.99 on the menu) to what they were charged ($ 11.99). Thinking that they had been charged for the lobster version that they ordered, but did not receive, we flagged down the waitress who argued that the benedicts were, in fact, $ 11.99. We had to physically get a menu from a nearby table and point out that she was incorrect in her assertion — somethingI have never ever had to do in any other restaurant — inside of a hotel or no.
A manager came over to look at the check and said it was because the girls had «ordered bacon as a side». At the time of ordering, we were all asked by our waitress if we wanted sausages or bacon because they were the standard sides. So two girls were charged an extra $ 2 for bacon that they thought was included — obviously an error on the new server’s part. The manager blatantly blamed the new employee, and took our checks. The check was taken from us and they then split it, returning it to us. They said they took 10% off the bill for the inconvenience. However, when we got the split checks, they were still wrong. I was given two checks myself — one with orange juice and hash browns, the other with orange juice and pancakes. This means I was charged for two orange juices — so that remained incorrect. We then had to flag the waitress again to correct the newly introduced error.
At no point did anyone take responsibility or apologize — they just disagreed with us and treated us like we were trying to get something for free. All we wanted was a pre-​wedding meal! Never going back.