McMenamins Hal's Café

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.

We had a wonderful dinner. Great food, great wine and cocktails along with fabulous service. The manager came and chatted with us for a bit making us feel really welcome. We will be back!!

Hal’s replaces the Zeus at this same location. Not sure why the name change, but Zeus had far and away the best food any Mcmenamins restaurant ever served. Hal’s wasn’t bad either, we ordered the squash ravioli that was very good, and the loaded tots which had a maple syrup glazed pork belly bits and a sauce that made these the best tots you’ve ever had. Both dishes were executed well enough that I’d return to try their other menu items. We also had a 6-beer sampler which as usual at McM’s had a couple winners, a couple mehs, and a couple failures. Notable winner is the best beer they make consistently year after year which is the Black Widow Porter. Sadly not always available at this location. (I think it’s made at one of their Salem locations so supplies are limited) The service was very good and friendly, typical for this location, but not company-wide which is well known by anyone who’s ever been to a Mcmenamins establishment. Overall a great experience, and I cannot wait to return to try more of their menu.

Was so cold that I was seeking a place to warm up to. Saw the fire then immediately I went over to warm up. Really nice place to warm up by the fire. They have CHAI my favorite 😍 bit it was alright cause not strong or dirty enough. (With coffee) Saw that they have the pizza . Those wood fired pizza oven. Well got to try some of that since it sound good. Smokey flavours and all. Had some Greek pizza . A lot of cheese on it as well. It was goooodddd. Shall go back and try other stuff once I pass by.

Stopped in on a whim on a colder day when most other restaurants had their outdoor seating closed and I was looking for a quick bite with the pup. The staff accommodated me sitting on the patio and even turned on the heaters. Amazing customer service! The food was also fresh and tasty! Could not get enough of the truffle fries. Would recommend to anyone traveling through Portland, especially those traveling with pups!

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 🤨.

I loved the thanksgiving meal here! Wonderful service and tasty food with a very unique interior. They also had a wonderful vegetarian thanksgiving meal option which tasted great!

Very relaxing breakfast. Steel cut oats were expertly prepared and the international breakfast was a nice light option. The artwork and atmosphere made for a great environment. Service was impeccable.

The best way to explain the decor is historical chaos like they go to random estate sales and use the spoils decorating, it’s not distasteful it’s just not consistent. It is full of character just not sure who’s. Unfortunately, I have to say the same for the food, it’s not bad by any means the burger stands no less than 6” high. They have got the presentation down and it looked great. The taste was good, it was cooked to the correct temp fries were crispy and hot. This would be a 5 star review except the server recognized that I was a single person for lunch and she had bigger tables, no one checked on me, no refills on drink, not even my water, I had to flag her down for the ticket. Sadly this is not the first time I experienced this at this restaurant. It wasn’t a great experience overall, I would go back but not for lunch or by myself.

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!