Congress Squared Restaurant

Writing this from the Great Happy Hour bandwagon. First awesome thing about it: there’s a menu online. Seriously. You can go look at it on their website right now, it even has hours! I’m not sure why happy hours are supposed to be so secretive, but of all the great happy hours in town that involve food, it seems like none really publish a menu. Go check it out, Maine Mussels — $ 7 and they’re pretty huge, Sirloin Steak Burger w/​fries — $ 9. We had those exact two things and both were fantastic. Had the burger medium, and lo and behold it was actually what I consider medium, which is probably closer to medium rare for most. Two ladies came in that seemed to be happy hour regulars and also split the burger and had the Gouda Mac, which also sounds great. They even gave us bread and butter even though we were clearly not there breaking the bank.
One thing that’s kind of annoying, but probably too late to fix, is that there is no draft beer (probably is at the Top of the East though), so all beer is bottled. $ 4.00 for almost all of them and they are locals like Baxter IPA, Sebago Frye’s Leap, Atlantic Coal Porter, etc. Not an amazing deal, not terrible either, $ 5.00 wine was okay. The tea though, $ 5.00! For Tazo! It allowed me to make fun of my date for having a more expensive tea than my beer, but still, that’s a bit crazy.
We sat at the bar (maybe you have to?), and the girls working back there were super nice, fun to talk to and made us feel right at home. We were here at about 5:30 on a Monday so totally dead, but take advantage of this while you can before the touristas descend on Portland for the spring, summer and fall. $ 13.00 for a beer and a sirloin steak burger with fries is just insane and worth every penny.

I never give bad reviews, but my experience at happy hour was truly disappointing. First, the bar tender did not even offer happy hour menus. We were not aware of the happy hour drink specials — that we certainly would have taken advantage of – until we asked another employee for a menu to look at food options (note that the bar tender was not around for us to ask her). This felt like a sneaky move by the bartender. It didn’t benefit her in the end because the terrible service led to a small tip. Overall, the atmosphere was pretentious. There was some sort of event going on in the restaurant and it was clear that the «regular» customers were a much lower priority. The appetizers were fine — but not good enough to give me any reason to return in light of the terrible service and overall rudeness we experienced.

This place ROCKS! I went with a friend and we enjoyed a nice bottle of white for half price! We tried several of the small plates including the serrano ham and everything was delicious! I especially loved the crispy cheese croquettes and the heirloom carrots. YUM! the service was good as well. I will DEF be going back!

I have been here several times during the Holiday season and I have to say that this restaurant hits every nail on the head. The atmosphere and ambiance are inviting and casual whilst maintaining a clean and classy vibe. The wait staff are all very knowledgeable, professional, and genuinely friendly with no feeling of a pretentious façade. And then there is the food; I have eaten almost every item on the menu and I have to say that I am truly impressed by the quality of ingredients, the skill of cooking every item just perfectly to reflect the maximum potential of each dish, and the creativity of pairing ingredients and the way that they are to be cooked is quite sophisticated yet comfortable and easy to appreciate for any palate. Try the caramelized heirloom carrots– they are AMAZING and to prove it, I went with my friend who doesn’t like carrots and she tried them reluctantly and LOVED them.

After 30 or 4 calls for a reservation for ten (at 7 on a Saturday night during the holidays) we gave up. We accepted the inevitable choices of an impromptu takeaway in a friends kitchen or our hotel restaurant.
Shocker.
The food and service were excellent. The atmosphere was quiet. We had the place to our selves for four hours.
I am a fan of c2.

Ok, I loved our waitress. What a great gal. Loves her job, super friendly not phony. Great Customer service from CHLOE!
We had the price fixed dinner for Christmas. We had marvelous soup. Mushroom for hubby and acorn squash for me. Then I had scallops, he had Cornish Game Hen. The bread was super yummy with salted maple butter.
OK, the cornish game hen. …on the menu it states
WHOLE ROASTED CORNISH GAME HEN.
What does that mean? It means A WHOLE CORNISH GAME HEN. What did hubby get A HALF OF A CORNISH GAME HEN? What was explained?
IT MEANS THE CORNISH GAME HEN IS ROASTED WHOLE. Chloe said when she spoke with the chef. He said he was wondering when someone would figure that out. We did.
What did we get… we got a whole meal, to go. So we got to eat it the next day.
We even got more veggies to go with it. PLUS, we got cookies and a nice smile from Chloe.
OH yes and I had a cocktail. A Nelson Mule. Quite Tasty. Thanks!

Another vote for the happy hour. It really is as good as it can get. I have been there twice and it seems like the happy hour menu did not change at all (Well, why would they? The menu is so good to start with already). I would recommend to come here with a big group of friends, order everything on the happy hour menu and figure out which one is the best to order next. Don’t dress too casual though because you will feel out of place. There are a lot of business people in town and dine here.

Congress Squared, or C2(squared) as the locals call it, gets my vote for the BEST HAPPY HOUR in Portland. The deal isn’t with the beverages, as most happy hour haunts would like to emphasize. My vote comes from an amazing bar menu that is half price until 7pm! With items like lobster sliders, a grilled romaine salad, a local beef burger, or a flatbread with honey and goat cheese, all for under 10 $. It’s like dive bar prices at a high quality restaurant… my kind of place.
The service has always been welcoming. Servers are there to refill your beverage or give you more bread (made at Standard Bakery served with a ricotta lemon spread, YUM!)
I have always been able to immediately get a seat and have never had an issue with a large group or add ons to our party. Even thought this restaurant is located in the Westin Hotel, the atmosphere is much less «hotel bar» and much more «fine dining». I wouldn’t hesitate to take business dinners here or a group of friends. Probably not the right atmosphere for family dining, with small children.
Tonight they had patio seating, which gave me a great «city» vibe. People walking past, the hustle and the bustle. Another great meal, in a fine location.

One of the best kept secrets in town is no longer a secret. The happy hour at Congress squared everyday from 4 to 7 is without a doubt the best happy hour in town if you are a foodie. Although this is a hotel restaurant, and can feel a bit «hotelish» in ambiance, there is always a free table and the waitstaff is consistently super friendly and accomodating.
Every night from 4 – 7, there are beer and wine specials in the $ 4 – 10 dollar range and one craft cocktail for $ 6. Tonight’s craft cocktail was a spicy Margarita with muddled strawberries… amazing!
Aside from the incredible drink specials, what really pushes this particular happy hour over the edge are the food specials. The entire bar menu is 50% off during happy hour. With that said, this is no nacho /​chicken finger bar menu.
Here are some examples of what was ordered at my table off of the bar menu tonight:
*A handcrafted burger with bacon jam on a brioche bun, with house made fries and Ketchup for $ 7
*A flatbread pizza covered with ricotta, fresh fig and prosciutto, covered in arugula and drizzled with local honey for $ 5.50
*Three lobster sliders on mini brioche buns with a generous amount of fresh lobster, house made chips and pickles for
$ 8.50
The burger is consistently delicious and super huge, it comes with a good helping of fries that seems too big but somehow, still gets eaten. Ask for extra Ketchup before you even get started. The flatbread is an exceptional flavor blend, the combination of the fresh figs, the ricotta and honey with the salty prosciutto is so incredible, I’m still thinking about it now. The lobster sliders are generous, fresh and come on house baked brioche buns. Possibly one of the best lobster deals in town.
I cannot recommend this spot enough!

We arrived late at the Westin and really didn’t want to venture out for dinner and thought we would try the restaurant in the hotel. The food was fantastic and the presentation was stunning. Highly recommend!

After a very long week, I came here for happy hour on Friday night. I parked a few blocks away to avoid trying to navigate around downtown in the summer. C² lived up to its promise. There were tasty local beers, ½ priced apps, and a baguette from Standard bakery served with lemon herb butter. I also liked that they give your table a large bottle of water so you could refill your glass as needed. There were only two bartenders running the place when I arrived, and only one left about halfway through happy hour (4−7pm). Service was friendly, but might be really slow on a busy night. The atmosphere was also very casual and relatively quiet.

DISCLAIMER: Review of happy hour only! Congress squared is now one of my favorite happy hour deals in Portland. They have happy hour EVERY DAY! Even on the weekends! It is from 4−7pm and the food is more than just bites. We’re talking full size meals! During happy hour the bar menu is half price! So far I’ve had the grilled flat bread which is a perfect size meal for one person. I’ve also had the grilled sirloin burger which comes with hand made fries (two servers at C2 have recommended this to me). They weren’t wrong it was huge and very tasty!
Now to the real reason I come, the cocktails! The atmosphere has a very classy minimalist vibe, I would expect to have to pay very high prices here. But no! Very reasonable prices! We’re talking $ 4 beers (some local brews like Allagash and Sebago), $ 5 wine of the day, and $ 6 cocktail of the day. I always go for the cocktail of the day, which both times I’ve come has been a kiwi mint deliciousness where you watch the bartender cut up fresh kiwi and mash it up to make your drink. Yummy. I hope next time I come I get to try something else though. Mix it up a bit!
I’ve noticed that both times I’ve come the place has been virtually empty. I don’t think Portland has really embraced the hotel lounge scene yet. Not sure if this is a plus or minus for me, because I do love to people watch. However, the service has always been spot on and I love all the attention my friends and I get from the staff!

This is a review for their fantastic happy hour. I believe this may be one of the best happy hours in portland! Not only is it half off the entire bar food menu, $ 4 beers, $ 5 wine of the day, $ 6 cocktail of the day, but it’s also from 4p-​7p EVERYDAY. For those of us that work late, getting to a happy hour in P-​town is a bit of an ordeal. For this happy hour, you’ll make it. It might be a Sunday, but you made it, right? The bar food menu is not your typical wings, tapas, small plates either. It’s full-​sized burgers, pizzas, lobster sliders, mac and cheese and other deliciousness that I have yet to try. Yes, it’s at the Westin. Yes, there are cooler places to hangout during happy hour. But, like I said, It’s good food and drinks at a steal and at a reasonable time.

We went for happy hour one evening. It’s so clean and chic. The staff were all courteous and friendly. They have half priced food and select drinks from 4−7p. It was well worth it. I loved the lobster sliders! My husband had the mac-​n-​cheese, which was very good as well. I would definitely go back.

This is THE BEST Happy hour deal in Portland, hands down!!! Every night from 4 – 7 all food on the bar menu is half price. That means one of the best burgers in town with a ton of hand cut fries and homemade truffle ketchup for $ 7, a trio of generous lobster sliders with a pile of homemade chips for $ 8.50, crab packed crabcakes with a crazy good remoulade for $ 7 and on and on.
There is also a signature cocktail on special every night for $ 6, the night I was there it was a vodka drink with muddled kiwi and rhubarb and simple syrup! There are also wine and beer specials, complimentary baguettes from Standard baking served with a lemon ricotta spread and complimentary macaroons at the end of your meal. The staff is super nice and really professional AND the place is never crowded, even on first Friday!!!

Happy hour review only… but happy hour runs from 4 – 7 every day of the week, so I don’t know who wouldn’t take advantage of this. It’s one of the best (if not the best) deal in the city.
The restaurant is in the Westin, which in any big city would be a big plus, but Portland hasn’t embraced hotel restaurants yet. It’s a minimalist but upscale atmosphere with a horseshoe bar and many traditional tables.
The happy hour deals are simply incredible. ¾ of the bottle beer selection (not the best ever, but think Allagash White/​Black, Frye’s Leap, etc) are all $ 4, there’s a $ 5 wine selection, and a $ 6 cocktail of the day. Today it was 1800 tequila with maple sage syrup and soda. Unbelievable drink and very strong. Of course you can order off the extensive and great cocktail list, but the prices are high at $ 12-​$ 15. On Wednesdays all of the wine bottles are half off. Combined with the food deals this would be an amazing date night.
And the happy hour food! The whole bar menu is half off and the portions are enormous. The fancy mac and cheese sounded sublime, tasted even better and surprisingly came with a full salad that was just as good. The burger was also delicious with a heaping portion of bacon and jam. The fries were homemade but a little disappointing. Still, for the happy hour price of $ 7 it’s a steal. Flatbread pizza, lobster sliders, pork sliders, mussels, scallops, etc are a great reason to come back. And basically everything is $ 5-​$ 8 with the happy hour deal.
For an upscale happy hour with huge portions, great food and classy atmosphere, I can’t think of anywhere better. Plus it seems to be unknown to locals, so you don’t have to fight the crowds. At least for now…

I began the evening with Maine Clam Chowder, which was decadent with clams, applewood bacon and red potatoes in every bite. My main course was the Pan Seared Duck Breast with a gratin of celeriac, parsnips & sweet potato so thinly sliced you could almost see through them. The gratin was delicious and set of by a warm kale salad. The plate was perfectly plated with three drops of a fig balsamic which was a perfect sauce for the duck. Finished with a Brown Butter Pear Crisp, which is homemade in house with vanilla bean gelato. How more perfect could the dinner experience be? Attentive and friendly staff to boot!

I’m not entirely sure why I’m so into this place… but I am.
If you’re judging a book by it’s cover you might think this place with it’s very chic and modern décor is actually sterile, monotonous, and personality-​less (after all… you ARE in a hotel bar). I had never been tempted to come here before because of that; it just didn’t seem welcoming to people of a certain demographic, budget, geographical locale, or diet (pseudo-​hipsters who like things cheap, live locally, and don’t eat animal flesh).
But I was recently in the area with time on my hand between meetings and thought I’d check out their happy hour which happens from 4 to 7 pm: there are $ 5 select glasses of wine, $ 4 select bottled beer, and half price apps. So for $ 12 I got:
— a verrrrrrrrrrrrrrry large pour of some red wine ($ 5)
— a cheese plate that had three good sized pieces of different kinds of fromage (a harder cheddar, a softer blue, and one other I can’t remember), rosemary roasted nuts (which were crunchy, meaty, and divine), toasted baguette, and a drizzle of honey ($ 14, but only $ 7 because of half price apps… for the price, I was VERY pleased; too many places in town are charging $ 7 to $ 10 for what’s really just a suggestion of cheese; I would come back here again for this without a question).
— some of the funnest bartenders I’ve ever met in my life
The two fellas working that night — one as host, I believe, and the other behind the bar stole the show. The host was intrigued that I was there — apparently they don’t get a lot of Portlanders, and would love to have more of us come in. Both he and the bartender talked to me about the cocktail list — many of them are chosen by corporate, but each Westin gets to add a couple of their own options to bring a little local flare.
I had a bit of a falling out with the girl bartender who took over for a spell — I wanted a bloody Mary, but it had anchovy-​based Worcestershire sauce in it. When I asked if she could make me one from scratch sans the Worcestshire, she flat out refused saying she had to use the premade house mix. When the male bartender came back (I think his name was Dana or Jamie… something like that) he told me that she had mis-​spoken; they’d be more than happy to make me a fresh one. I never followed through with this request, so I’d like to go back and see if they really will!
If you’re looking for a new cocktail or happy hour place in town, don’t pass this one by (my reason for the four star instead of five is because I can’t vouch for the cocktails/​bloody mary quite yet… just the happy hour and the cheese plate; but, I will ABSOLUTELY be back for drinks and real food, and will bring along friends with me because locals really are missing out on this one)! There’s a lot more than meets the eye at Congress Squared (and if you’re feeling brave enough [and the bartenders like you enough] ask what their REAL passions are… they might just divulge).

This is the restaurant in the Portland Westin Harborview, and we had breakfast there during a stay. It’s a clean minimal space, maybe a little «hotel restaurant”-ish, but still quite nice.
I had the excellent «Rustic Hash». Being a corned beef hash aficionado, i have to say this is among the better versions I’ve had as far as ingredients — the corned beef was big chunks of corned beef, along with potato and some onion, with a couple over easy eggs, and i asked for English muffin on the side. Everything was cooked well, though the hash could have been crispier and more charred (but that’s a personal taste thing) and overall it needed seasoning, but better under– than over-​seasoned.
My partner had blueberry Yogurt pancakes and said they were delicious
We loved the awesome china and flatware. and for a hotel restaurant, the prices were reasonable.
The service was friendly and prompt.

With exceptional service and attention to detail, C Squared kicked off my day perfectly with a delicious brunch. After staying at the Westin the night before, it was convenient to have breakfast right in the hotel the next morning.
I had a cappuccino and bagel with lox and cream cheese. I was also able to try the yummy strawberry smoothie. Everything was delicious. There was no shortage of coffee or water the entire time, and the wait staff constantly checked up on us.
Would love to come back here for HH if ever in Portland again!