Good Portland restaurant for group?
 

We are going to be in Portland for a graduation in May, and want to take a group out to eat - probably a dozen or 15 of us. Any suggestions for a restaurant that would be fun, and good for a group?

Which Portland are you asking about?

sorry, I meant Portland, Oregon.

I don't know of many nice restaurants that have rooms to accommodate groups, but one that comes to mind is Pazzo in the heart of downtown. Downscale a couple notches from that is Der Rheinlander, on the east side. Of course, you can always find an Olive Garden or Spaghetti Factory. Anyone know if Henry's accommodates groups?

Beachbum gave you good ideas. Rhindelander is sort of an old classic here. Henry's does have an area for groups...we saw a fun bridal shower there one evening. The area was not in a closed off separate room...just sort of an offshoot of it.

Another place is the Kennedy School (a McMennamins property). We had a sorority reunion there a few years ago and it was perfect for a group.

With so many great places to dine in Portland, please don't settle or Olive Garden or Spaghetti Factory chain places.

You could call Bluehour. It is a very large dining room and the food is excellent. You also might want to post your question on the PNW Chowhound board. Let's see.... Hurley's, Paley's and Wildwood are all pretty small, tho the food is fantastic there.

clarklewis on Water St. might be able to accomodate you. We dined there a bit back and loved it for lunch. I have all of the menus for lunch, dinner and their wine list here at my desk if you're interested in certain menu items, ask away! I would go for either clarklewis or Bluehour. Bon appetit! ***kim*** ((f))

www.bluehouronline.com is the website, looks like they do have a private dining room for groups. ***kim*** ((l))

Ages of diners? Price point? 'Murican or Forrin?

Navarre has a great communal table, you might want to check and see if they could reserve it for you. They do a small plate type of menu so it's great for sharing.

Jakes has tons of space and is very fun and lively. It is part of the McCormick and Scmick chain.

Isn't Jake's space kind of cramped? We enjoyed a very nice dinner there, but we were seated outside on the sidewalk. Are you referring to Jake's Crawfish? If you are the crawfish are really fun to eat and delicious, too! :)

Another M&S place is the Harborside, located on the waterfront, down a bit from the Riverplace. We've enjoyed several meals there, but I find them to be a bit over-priced for what you get there. ***kim*** ((l))

If it's views you want, check out the Porland City Grill. www.portlandcitygrill.com Sounds like a really fun place and my son said the steak and lobster there was very good. ***kim*** :)

OMG please don't go to the M&S down on the River! We had lunch there in September and everything was wrong with it from the slow wait staff, the mistakes in orders to the bad food.
There are SO many good restaurants in Portland , keep looking :)
BTW- is your budget high? The prices at Bluehour are pretty high.

Ummm.... Jake's is a much better suggestion than Bluehour or Clarklewis (and certainly Hurley's, Paley's Place, and Wildwood). kim, just like with the Riverplace, you seem to think that the answer to every Portland restaurant question is the last place you "dined".

Not necessarily true, but the more I dine in Portland and research on the CHOWHOUND board (where I strongly recommend you pose your question) the better the dining becomes.

Nonimouse, do you like wine? Fernando's Hideaway (www.fernandosportland.com) was just recognized in the Wine Enthusiast for their Distinction in Dining wine list. Check out chowhound for some really good foodie advice in the PNW. :)

As much as I like this site for travel related topics, you can't beat Chowhound for the really good food finds. I know I've really received helpful advice there in making my Portland dining decision. ((f))

The Chowhound board's Top 10 new places in Portland include Pufferfish (where I'm sending my son for California rolls) and H20. You also might want to check out the Blue Room at Harrison that is receiving rave reviews on the PNW food board. ***kim*** :)

I know some people have a "thing" about Hotel restaurants. But the Red Star Tavern in the 5th Avenue Suites is very good and when we were there, had a couple of tables for large groups. They have a private room for large groups, there was a big Attorneys luncheon there :)

http://www.opentable.com/restaurant_profile.asp?ID=139

www.harrisonrestaurant.net A step above several places mentioned on this board. Do you want casual or fine dining? Should have asked this right off! ***kim*** ((f))

I just can't keep quiet on this one!

Kim, I see that you asked about Pufferfish and H2o on Chowhound, but the other posters were less than impressed with either. Based on that, you should not be acting like you can personally recommend them.

Also there are no "top 10 lists" on Chowhound.

Even if there were, you must not believe in them. If you did, you'd stay at 5th Ave Suites -#4 on Trip Adviser- and quit talking up Riverplace -#15 on TA!!!

nonnimouse ( love that name!)
I do hope you post when you get back from Portland and tell us all about it.
((F))
Scarlett

I personally think Chowhound has a lot of wanna be foodies on it. They read chowhound blindly like people read Zagats.

No Kim, Jakes is not crowded. They have large areas for large groups. If you only ate on the sidewalk then of course you would feel a bit cramped.

nonni there are tons of great places in Portland and I'm sure the fact that you are celebrating will turn any restaurant into a very special event!!

nonimouse, you've been given lots of great options, have you made a decision yet? My son will be trying out some new places on his Portland visit in a few days, so we'll see how he likes them! :)

Lucky ones, staying at the Riverplace of course and then heading over to the coast for several days to enjoy the fresh ocean air. :)

If you do choose clarklewis, try the sea scallops if you like them. They are simply the best I've had in a long time. Just dined out last night with a group of eight and ordered them, but was so wishing I was at clarklewis enjoying them there. Happy Travels! ***kim*** ((l))

Strongly disagree about the chowhound board. It's where I've learned A LOT about places and the advice there is mostly spot-on. :)

There are a few posters there that live in Portland that have given me excellent advice on great places to dine. The posters there are very different than this board. Very focused and helpful. They know their stuff over there when it comes to food! ***kim*** :)

kim, You are either a very good troll, or in need of counseling, or both.

Check out the Alexis restaurant on Burnside. It's a Greek restaurant with great food and a lot of atmosphere. We took a large group there and were seating in a good configuration on the second floor. They had belly dancing that night, and pulled people into it. It was an extremely fun evening. You can call for a fixed price and order in advance, if you'd like. The calamari is to die for.

seated, that is. I make a lot of grammatical errors when I edit and don't reread. Darn! Just like my kids!

I seem to keep adding more to this. The Alexis will serve family style, so people can pick from a variety of items that you have ordered, which is a real plus.

You might ask at any restaurant you choose if you will have this option. Certainly you will find this common in Chinese and Indian restaurants, and probably in most ethnic restaurants, in fact. This way you can have a fixed price and still allow choice.

Hi Orcas, yes this is a great way to order. We just went to East West where I live last night with a party of eight. The meal was served in this fashion and what a feast it was! :)

We were celebrating a birthday and took home LOTS of extra food. It's a very good way to also be able to sample lots of different menu items. ***kim*** ((l))

Hi nonnimouse,

I think you've gotten plenty of "fancy" restaurant suggestions so I thought I'd throw in a couple of other ideas.

Okay, this may not be your cup of tea if you and your group don't like Japanese food, but Todai may be a place to consider. It's not fancy or anything, but good for a group of folks. It's a Japanese buffet (chain restaurant, but pretty good) located in Pioneer Place - they have very large seating capacity and since it's buffet there may be something for everybody. They have a sushi bar, hot food bar, udon noodle/soup bar, dessert bar.

Another place that's not fancy, but we find fun is Rock Bottom Brewery. We've had a group of 16 in there before - although we were seated at a really long table (lots of smaller tables pushed together) - it was a bit crowded, but fun nonetheless. Then made even funner by riding MAX over to the Rose Garden/Coliseum for a Winterhawks game.

You didn't mention what part of Portland you were interested in so if you're still looking for suggestions you may want to indicate what part of Portland - that will help focus the responses.

Happy dining!
Tracey

Tracey, have you dined at Pufferfish in Portland? In your opinion, what would be the best Japanese place for two twenty-ish California Roll lovers? ***kim*** ((*))

Nope, never eaten at Pufferfish, but maybe someday. I'm not "up" on all the best Japanese restaurants in Portland since I don't live in the immediate area anymore. We now live in Corvallis and only get up to Portland about 3 times a month and usually don't go for Japanese....but that's only because we really LOVE the local Japanese restaurant in Corvallis called Aomatsu (in our opinion it competes well with some of the sushi restaurants in Hawaii)...we usually like to try other kinds of food when we go up to Portland since there are so many great restaurants there - we figure we can already get REALLY good sushi at home.

Sorry to hijack the thread for a moment...

Tracey--I love Corvallis! DH and I met while in school there. We usually only get back there for homecoming, but really miss it. Enjoy it for us!

Tracy, I've written the place down, if we're ever in Corvallis I'd love to try it! :D

I see that you LOVE Hawaii, my husband's family all lived there for many years and have since moved back to CA. Our kids grew up spending lots of time visiting on the islands. We hope to get to Maui soon and I know it's a honeymoon destination for my son when he gets married in a few months. ***kim*** 8-)

We love Corvallis too mms! We lived in Lebanon for 7 years, while working in Corvallis, and I can't describe how much I longed to move back to Corvallis (Lebanon is NOT our cup of tea, but at the time had more affordable living than Corvallis). We just built a house in Corvallis and moved in July and it's heaven - 10 minute commute to work - gotta love that! Plus, hubby no longer has to look for parking during the Beaver football games - I just drop him off and pick him up in front of the stadium - doesn't get much better than that! BTW, hubby and I met at OSU too so it'll always have a special place in our hearts!

Yes Kim, I love Hawaii! In fact (I know this is a bit pathetic) my license plate is "GO MAUI" - so any of you Oregonians seeing a "GO MAUI" license plate you'll know who it is ;D. We just returned from Kauai in November and I am longing to go back to the islands...I think I'm sad because I don't have my next trip planned there yet..it always helps when you know for sure when you're going to be able to go back (at least for me). We're going on an Alaskan cruise in July so probably will just be doing local trips until we get back from that. We honeymooned in Maui and I highly recommend it!

Sorry to hijack the thread too nonnimouse!

Cheers,
Tracey :D

I'm thinking of the whale's tail license plate that says "OR COAST" for our new plates. I'll keep my eye out for Go Maui when we hit the OR border! :D ***kim*** ((*))

I want to thank you all for so many great ideas!! You've given me lots of options to think about, and I appreciate your input. Now, how to decide?