McMenamins Hal's Café

We stayed at the Crystal Hotel and stopped in for a quick cocktail and decided to stay for dinner. It was great! I ordered the By Any Other Name cocktail—it has dried rose petals on top and seemed fitting for The Rose 🌹 City. We shared a pear and brie pizza that was tasty with creamy brie—it could have had more pear though. We also split a steak salad—this was the highlight. Tender juicy steak on a bed of delightfully not overly heavy or pungent blue cheese dressed greens, tomatoes and cucumbers with big crispy full sized onion rings. After that we were ready to rock at The Crystal Ballroom!

Was strolling around the area and saw the long wait at a few other places and didn’t feel like waiting for a solo brunch, so came inside. No one was really interested in serving me for some reason, not sure why. There were a few other guests that came in after me who were seated right away but I was definitely ignored. Had to go up to the bar area and ask to be seated and the bartender basically decided to take my order himself. He was very nice but I could tell he was going out of his way because the other servers didn’t seem to acknowledge my presence. I definitely felt a bit of a racist vibe. I was seated but it was 10 minutes before anyone came around to serve me a menu or water. It was not even a busy time and the servers were just casually walking around, not preoccupied. Just a bit odd. Getting to the food, I ordered a spinach and mushroom Benedict, which was delicious. Enjoyed it with some coffee, and the bartender, once again seeing that no one could care less to notice me or take my payment, came himself to take care of my bill. I made sure to leave him a big tip because he was clearly mindful of providing good customer service when others were not. Even though the food was good, I didn’t feel at all welcome.... it was quite an unusually unfriendly experience. Maybe Portland needs more brown people 🤨.

Cool establishment with very friendly service. Enjoyed a Saturday brunch, turkey sandwich with a sour beer. Food was very good! The inside is a cross between 20's era, Egyptian, Aztec...I don't know. One would assume by the name, it would be some sort of Irish or Greek type of theme. They do have an interesting corner bar for outside drinks, not sure if food is served in that area. Overall good time, but it didn't blow me away.

In short, we adored this place. It was a good value for the money, and one of the best meals we can remember having in a long time. We came into this place by happenstance. Originally we had stopped to eat at a salad bar but found out they'd run out of lettuce. Zeus Cafe caught our eye on the map as an alternative and we headed in. First up, the decor: It's a charming eclectic interior with high windows, stained glass, decorative chandeliers, and cozy comfortable booths. Walking in, I immediately liked the look and feel of the place. Next, service: Jacob was our server and simply a delight, very warm and friendly, asking us about our trip, and very attentively seeing that everything about our evening was proceeding well. So much of the menu looked fantastic that we had difficulty making our selection, but Jacob talked us through what we were after and helped put together an amazing dinner. Drinks: Beer selection is almost all in-house brews that all turned out to be excellent beverages. We got the Ruby (fruity), Purple Haze (touch sour and refreshing, and the Diamond Dog Kolsch (very crisp, clean). We wished that these were bottled/canned and available back home. Food: After Jacob's recommendations, we settled on the market greens salad, steamer clams, the wood-fired zucchini, and the Kurobuta pork cheeks. And my god, what a meal these made. Salad, simple but perfectly dressed and vibrantly fresh. The clams were briny and excellent, and after Jacob saw me spooning the broth he set down a plate of fresh bread to help soak it all up. The zucchini was unlike anything we'd seen, wood-fired with bleu cheese, crisp bacon crumbles, and a maple-stout vinaigrette. It was spreadably soft, decadently rich, a hint of sweetness from the maple deliciously offset by the intensity of the cheese and bacon. Lastly, it was the Kurobuta pork cheeks, something new to both of us, served with oyster mushrooms on a bed of pureed cauliflower and topped with romesco. I can't remember how Jacob said the cheeks were prepared, but I do remember him saying you could cut them apart with a spoon, and he was absolutely correct. These were the epitome of tender - flavorful morsels that defy adequate description (really, I'm sitting here at a bit of loss as to how to do them justice). It was one of those "take a bite and then sit back to marvel at what you've just eaten" kind of moments, and I'm still thinking about it the next day. Whenever we pass through Portland, we'll be sure to stop by Zeus Cafe.

Ok breakfast, many options. Both the scramble and eggs Benedict were ok. The sautéed Spanish on the side had lots of yellow leaves and did not taste good. Some of the side fruits taste stale.

Very friendly stuffs And beautiful atmosphere American styles Cheese cake is very delicious and not too sweet

Had live music and the whole street closed off. Very friendly service and great environment!

The food is SO GOOD! And the staff, especially Yvett & Etis were so so sweet and very personable! We got the French toast, which is a solid 10/10 and for a cocktail we got the Figgy Stardust (it has edible gold stars SO COOL) this place is so great I definitely recommend it to everyone!

We came here for some breakfast and drinks and Kaylee (spelling might be wrong) really made the experience here. We ordered two bloody Mary's and to be honest, flavor wise, it was one of the best my fiancé and I ever had. She was very friendly, had good humor, I would return if I wasn't an out-of-towner just because of her. The food I was a little less than impressed with. I ordered the biscuits and gravy, the biscuits were colossal and didn't really have enough gravy for the amount of biscuit given but it was pretty tasty. My fiancé ordered some kind of eggs, I think it's called Has amigas and it was good but the portion for him was really small, he could've eaten three more servings of it. It's a quaint place, cozy inside and friendly atmosphere. Limited menu but for drinks especially this is the place to go.

We came here on the tail end of our trip to Portland for a late last minute snack and were pleasantly surprised! The drinks were the best we’ve had in Portland all week and the steak salad was amazing!