Portland Prime and Prime Bar

Stayed in hotel so got a late night steak. No one in restaurant portion just in bar area. Ordered Ribeye but they were out of, so got NY Strip. Good, not great. Mashed potatoes in same category, veggies (carrots mostly) good as well. Bread delish. Didn’t have any apps or salads. Wouldn’t describe as upper tier steakhouse but good enough. Bartender decent guy, food came quick (as it was ten pm or so), overall wouldn’t mind if looking for a decent steak m. Didn’t have drinks or cocktails.

A disappointment. Pretty spendy for what we got. They’re lucky that they do know how to tenderize meat, and their rub is pretty good, because the quality/​cut of meat (prime center cut) was sorely lacking, and very thin. The baked potato was extra for $ 9! Service was cheerful and prompt, but I don’t think we’ll be back.

On our way back with friends. I have really been impressed with our last two experiences. Again excellent service and delicious food. No complaints and that free glass of wine for checking in with Unilocal is a nice bonus!

The maitre’d was a total snot to us, in his own quiet way. How are you going to shove four of us into a tiny booth that’s more comfortably meant for two adults? We had reservations and specifically requested a booth with an open table. Sounds snotty? Maybe. But when you’re paying hundreds of dollars for a multi-​course dinner with cocktails and wine, I’m just A WEE BIT KEEN on expecting top notch steakhouse customer service.
So my mother politely approached him about getting the table we were promised, and he said nothing and near-​silently showed us to a different table. Thanks, attitude.
We probably won’t be back. Ruth Chris is our first choice anyways, and they know my entire family. So much for trying something new!
(Oh, and they grossly undercooked my mother’s steak. My prime rib was cooked nicely, though. Total crapshoot in what to expect from the dinner service.)

This restaurant is in the Embassy Suites. We avoided eating here during our stay as hotel restaurants generally are not the best. On the last day the nearby restaurants were either closed or had a very long wait so to the empty Prime bar we went.
Service was slow. Two mediocre sandwiches and two weak drinks ended up costing $ 60. Days later my husband is still complaining about this place. Save yourself some grief by eating elsewhere.

i am the guy that pick restaurants for restaurant of the week. ii love this place!!!
fox 12 restaurant of the week
moises

Had a nice dinner there last night. We had a party of 4 for birthday/​anniversary. Started in the bar with a nice round drinks, then headed in for dinner. Everyone enjoyed the food (steaks, sea food) I had the rib eye, which was close to perfect. The side salads were large and very good too. Our waiter was friendly and attentive. The room is large and was decorated for the holidays. It was the day after Christmas, so not really crowded at all. So I have no clue how the service would be with a full house. The prices were comparable to other higher end restaurants downtown. If you want a good steak, but on a tight budget, you may want to go elsewhere like Saylers. Overall, it was a very good dining experience.

First and last time. Spontaneous walk in after work. Sat in the bar, places my order for the 8oz filet and got my drink. When I got my steak, ordered it rare, it was closer to medium and smeared in butter. For ~$ 40 it was the quality of a poorly run Red Lobster. The dessert was good, but overpriced. Seems to be a common theme. You’d hope that when the owner opened the place that they’d try to live the it’s former tenants (Ruth’s Chris) quality.
I watched the manager work with another table and it was downright embarrassing. I think that is the issue, the management. It just have that upscale feel that you hope for when dishing out $ 60 p.p. for dinner.

My husband and I have been here 4 or 5 times, and we love it! Food is wonderful, service is exceptional, and sometimes they have live entertainment which is always a pleasure. We are thinking of going for New Year’s Eve this year!

This was disappointing.
I sat at the bar for dinner (since it was just me). The bartender was very nice. Though he had to come over twice to re-​capture what I’d said about my drink and dinner order. I knew it would be brought out with sides (after I requested none). It was. I wish places would stop making servers memorize the orders instead of writing them down. Writing instills confidence! But anyway, so that was the bartender. Nice. A bit distracted. Totally fine.
The food took a VERY long time to get there. At least 30 minutes. Some poor woman came in to order to go food. She ordered about 5 – 10 minutes before I was served. She was still there waiting after I’d eaten and left. She’d finished her pint of water, certainly.
So, the food took awhile, and it was a Wednesday night – not packed.
And then, the food. It came with the sides I’d asked for it not to come with, and then… it was dripping with sauce. It says «seasoned with our special rub.» I was expecting a dry rub. It hadn’t occurred to me that it would be anything else. But there was a sauce of some sort coming from that thing. The blackened roquefort I got was nice. I left ²⁄₃ OF THE PRIME RIBEYE ON THE PLATE. I don’t leave steak behind. But I happily left that steak behind. Along with the veggies and potatoes I had to scrape from under my steak.
I eat the whole steak at Acropolis strip club. I eat the whole steak at Ringside. I eat all the steaks in between. I did not eat this steak. I had no sides and I hadn’t eaten all day. I was hungry. I eat steaks almost every day. I DID NOT FINISH THIS STEAK. I STOPPED FOR OTHER FOOD ON THE WAY HOME. That’s how this went.
Was it out and out atrocious? No. That’s why it got two stars. It’s a fine establishment with at least two nice staffers that I saw. It’s got some ambiance and some interesting menu items. But the service is super slow, and I came to Prime for prime beef that I left on the plate. That about covers it.
Miscellaneous notes: No one was there to greet me as I left. The two people at the host stand didn’t turn to say goodbye as I departed. «Rogue» (cheese) is spelled wrong in two places in the menu. The website is atrocious (at least for Chrome users). Suppose you only have the window half-​open – now try to scroll to the dinner menu or a menu you can’t see because your window is small. Go ahead, I’ll wait. Let me know how that goes for you. HINT: Good luck getting it to stop scrolling where you need it to scroll.
I wouldn’t turn my nose up if someone said they wanted to take me there, but I would rather pay El Gaucho or Ringside prices and eat at El Gaucho or Ringside.

Great food and wines that unlike many restaurants, seems to be well thought out. What I liked most was the versatility of the abiance. Friday night included a live band, great for bringing in the weekend. Saturday night’s band brought a sweet jazz appeal. Monday night football was comfortable and casual. (Yes, I kept going back) There’s also a section that is more intimate as well as a private dining area for special occasions with groups.
If you’re looking to impress without the stuffiness of a formal restaurant, Portland Prime seals the deal.

Here’s my opinion for this place:
Décor and ambience — Awesome
Service — Very good bar service, never sat at table. Busy nights they seem to have it in control
Food — Seriously lacking quality. Mixed drinks are questionable. Every dish I’ve eaten, I didn’t get excited about. Maybe I should try the Prime Rib first and then review again… I’m just scared I’m going to be wasting my money.
You’re supposed to be excited about meals at a place that charges what Prime charges. They need a overhaul of the chef lineup. The level of food quality is Red Lobster.
To leave you with a lasting image of the place, they have a 5 foot long piece of masking tape holding up a tear in their nice looking wallpaper over by the piano side of the bar… sigh.

For a steak house, this has a very loud and fun atmosphere. It is lively. Food OK. Not bad, not memorable. Lobster bisque kind of cold. Prime rib OK. Baked potato luke warm. But honestly, the vivacious jazz band and crowd made it fun. I’d rather accept a less than perfect meal but have more fun than it I was at Ruth’s Chris. I would return. Service was not steak house calibre, but I liked it a lot. The bartenders were cool, honest — no pretensions. I just gave it another star while typing. NOT boring. Repeat: not boring.

If there is a better upscale but not douchy steakhouse in Portlandia, I’d like to know about it. Service A+ as is the food… made to order and as you want it. Go here and have a blast!

Not a shining star in a city that has a lot of options. Perhaps we were lured in by the dog-​friendly outdoor area, the jazz playing on the other side of the glass, or the $ 29 prix fixe menu. No matter what it was, however, the food was a disappointment: salads were a poor array of field greens, chicken was a total mess (vinegar-​y), and warm chocolate tort was served ice cold. Prime rib was not even a you-​get-​what-​you-​pay-​for deal.
Avoid.

Location is great, right in the downtown area and very easy to find. The restaurant is nicely decorated and very classy. Service was okay. The food was actually pretty delicious and wine selection wasn’t bad. The bad part is how long we waited for our food!
From sitting down to ordering was an easy 20 mins process. Then we waited over 45 mins for the food to arrive. We had 3 people and ordered 3 dishes. It wasn’t busy at all and we went in on a Sunday evening.
Eeek! Because of the wait, I wouldn’t come back here unless someone else wants to.

Wow. I am completely speechless about how horrible this meal was tonight. First of all, my 3 girlfriends and I spontaneously stopped by Portland Prime today looking for some bar food and cocktails on our night out in Portland. Let me be clear that we had very LOW expectations… We wanted bar food for crying out loud. … But even so, this was the worst meal I’ve ever had.
Cocktails: I will only speak for what I had. Cocktail #1 was a simple margarita. This margarita had an incredible amount of sweet & sour mix, what tasted like a teaspoon of tequila and cranberry juice. Cranberry?! The amount of tart and sour taste in this marg was the equivalent of a sour patch kid. Cocktail #2, a Moscow mule. First it was served in a pint glass… Last, it had the same taste as the margarita. They use a ginger syrup with sweet & sour! I had to send it back. Did I mention these drinks were $ 12 each?!?
Food: The first dishes we ordered were the calamari and the fried Bree balls. They literally came out 1 minute after we ordered, which leads me to believe they were prepared long before we actually ordered… They were luke warm, calamari was chewy and the Bree balls were served in a bed of lettuce with cold fruit. Next we had the cheese soup, which tasted straight from the can with a few bacon bits, and the onion rings. You may be thinking… Ok, onion rings, nobody can mess that up… Wrong. These were the most disgusting onion rings I’ve ever had. They had extremely thick breading which tasted like grease, and limp tasteless onions. We each ate 1 bite and called it quits on the entire meal. We got our check and it was $ 105!!! Highway robbery.
Overall, I have absolutely nothing good to say about this place. In a city which prides itself on great food, I have no idea how Portland Prime stays in business. The food is embarrassingly bad, and the prices are insane. Stay away!!!

Good food. Insanely pricey. $ 50 feeds one person.
The menu has changed (price went up) and completely removed the one dish I wanted. :(we were told there was «no longer anything like that» available. So far I talked six people into going here. We will never be back.
That being said, the server was good even when he was very busy. We tipped well.
I can vouch for the calamari (appetizers cost over $ 10) which came on a bed of lettuce and was excellent but as for main course? None looked worth the cost.
I recommend using the calamari dip on the rest of your food.

Since my last review i received a message from the portland prime owner on Unilocal and now i feel i am even MORE frustrated!
He responded with «how he can rectify the situation and how sorry he was that we didn’t receive their high standards» i responded quickly with all of the details he wanted and i received a message back days later saying they will change the acoustics in the restaurant… Like it was a joke. He offered no refund or even to come in and get a drink when he was working to try to offer better service… The whole situation just got worse and i feel even less likely to go back!

At first, we were supposed to go to Tasty n’ Alder but the waiting list was over two hours which is crazy (talking about the Portland parking issue haha) so we decided to go to Portland Prime and Bar – and I believe that this place deserves more than three stars!
As we arrived at this place, there was a live music playing – it was very active and everyone was having fun, although it was loud on the left side. An attending gave us an open table, where everyone else sat and eat (the quieter place) and we just walked in, we didn’t make any reservation. I forgot our server’s name but she was very attentive and kind! Btw, if you check in on Unilocal,you can get a free glass of wine!
Dimmed lights and great atmosphere, it was a perfect birthday dinner for the boyfriend. Before the meal, they served us bread, which was very delicious plus she made us try a free sorbet, quite a surprise at the end of the meal. The Oyster on the Halfshell was so fresh and delicious, especially with the ponzu dragon sauce. Boyfriend ordered medium rare house cut ribeye steak that is served with bourbon demi-​glacé and asparagus. Even the chef served it to him to see if the meat was perfectly cooked the way he wanted it. I got me the grilled salmon with mash potato and asparagus. It was perfect! Tender and saltiness – it was very delicious. Overall, our experience was great in Portland Prime: D