The Original Dinerant

A group of us decided to have our book club meeting here and everyone except the hostess was extremely accommodating. The creme brulee french toast was so awesome, and the waiter we had was just wonderful. The service was quick, polite and very customer oriented. Again, we had the worst hostess ever. She wouldn't let our party sit until we had all arrived, (we only had 6 people) which unfortunately for us we had a few friends running late. We were forced to stand 25 minutes past our reservation time, until finally I had to insist that we sit down (some of us have children who need to eat!) Thank goodness there was another friendly hostess who we could count on. The atmosphere was really cool, and we will for sure be returning.....hopefully by then they will have a less rude young girl running the front door. more

This is a great restaurant we've been wanting to try. We had the pork chop (great), lamp chops (good flavor and good portions but kinda fatty), chicken fried steak (pretty good), shrimp caesar salad (delicious), scallop ceviche (great), and deviled eggs (ok but not great and you only get 3 halves.)\r \r The diner feel must be what attracts all the elderly people because we were there between 7 and 9pm on Sat night and they were a TON of older people! Not that I have anything against older people but if you are looking for a more hip/trendy spot, this may not be the crowd for you. This place has the potential to be real cool, laid back and trendy on a weekend night w/some chill music but it's not quite that.\r \r Portions were good, prices were a little spendy but overall everything was great and we will prob go back. (Maybe I'll take my grandma.) ;) more

hard to choose the best lunch item! Soup wonderful (lobster bisque) salad fresh (green goddess) hot dogs tasty (a 'flight' of ny style, Chicago style and Portland style...onion, goat chz and salmon ) and their house made pastry...almond joy cake exceptional. more

I liked the ambiance of the place. Good music, friendly staff, with a cool vibe combine here in a way that most trendy places can't pull off. This is a place where you can enjoy a good cup of stump town coffee and a book or go with some friends and enjoy some drinks. I was surprised that a gay friendly place was able to come off without a rude sassy attitude. Many gay friendly places in Portland give off a smugness that leaves one feeling like they are outside some high school clique, but here there was an openness that makes one want to return. The menu is interesting, but unfortunately the taste doesn't coincide. While the fresh lobster is perfectly cooked, it is sadly tossed in with bland ingredients. The lobster benedict comes with a sauce that has the consistency of pudding with eggs that seem to have been cooked by someone's first attempt at poaching eggs. Over cooked poached eggs with lard-like sauce left the poor lobster to fend for itself to satisfy the palate. The lobster mac and cheese had a similar effect. the sauce was again bland, but this time the blandness was covered up with a lot of added salt from the kitchen. The lobster corn dog tasted like an old Chinese kitchen's egg roll, complete with that deep fry oil that hasn't been changed in about 10 years, the lobster was actually ruined in the dish. Many of my friends won't return because of the disappointing food, but again this place has an amazing feel to it and yummy stump town coffee. Pros: The friendly staff and atmosphere Cons: The food more