Clarklewis

A friend and I had a reservation, but it wasn't necessary. There was a ton of seating available for an early dinner. Parking can be a bit of a pickle, so give yourself time, but no worse than your average downtown Portland parking difficulties with no dedicated lot/garage.Our server was an absolute doll. He gave us great recommendations and discussed allergy concerns very respectfully. Our drinks were well made; I enjoyed a classic, and my friend tried one of the custom cocktails; both were excellent. I appreciated that the menu was creative and took some risks. If you like to explore flavors, this is a great place to go. The menu changes seasonally, so I'm looking forward to returning in the fall. Portions are very small but beautifully plated. We didn't give ourselves long enough to enjoy dessert as we had to get to our next destination, but I can't wait to go back for a long, leisurely dinner and try the wine menu.

First the good. Ambiance and service were both 5-star. But...Portion sizes were surprisingly small. They're probably the proper, healthy portion size to be fair, but at the price and being in America where we're accustom to portion sizes being on the more obscene end of the spectrum, these were definitely more on the other extremely sparce side of the spectrum. They weren't very accommodating of my girlfriend's dietary sensitivities. We asked for options with no garlic and onion (admittedly a difficult one) and were told that they had none and the kitchen didn't like to work around allergies, but they would add the note to minimize garlic and onion if possible. They do have GF and DF options for some items (Pizza).They tack on a 10% fee to every check so they can offer a fair wage to servers. I wish they would have just raised prices 10% than tack on this sneaky fee. I know it's probably controversial and I may be in the minority, but I find it really off putting when it's presented as a fee. Nice place and the little food we did get was delicious, but I'll probably never return. There are too many great options in Portland.

Well. I've been to clarklewis several times and have always had a great meal and experience. We went tonight for burger week. Maybe the waitress was having a bad night or maybe she wasn't a fan of burger week. In any event as we sat on the patio our experience this time was disappointing. She was very unfriendly and some in our party actually thought she was rude. I'm a very big tipper and I hate not leaving at least 20% but sadly tonight we didn't leave much. Aside from that the burger was great.

Fun location, and the ambiance is very "Portland". I had one of the best martinis I've ever had, and the bartender could. It have been more kind and attentive. Dinner, on the other hand, left me a little cold. My "Mary's Chicken" was undercooked and stringy, but the presentation and side dishes were awesome. Another person in our party had some pasta, but it was way too spicy for her to finish. Flourless chocolate cake for dessert was incredibly creamy, rich, and worth coming back for. This place used to be top in my list of Portland restaurants, but unfortunately, this recent experience left me wondering if they need a bit of retooling.

This would be a one star... but the two stars is for the folks at Clarklewis who tried to help us and spent time trying things to accommodate us but this was a truly horrible time for me and a friend who had never been here before. At least, in the end, her food was good. Over the last year I have been attending a lot of events with a friend new to Portland and she is a vegan. I saw a few things about Veganuary where a few spots in Portland were offering vegan items where their menu might not normally have these options. I would never normally take a vegan here and was so delighted that they had a prix menu 3 course meal offered for a great price. It sounded delicious. I made a reservation through Yelp. I am not a vegan but I love food and I do cook quite a few plant based options myself and I eat a lot of plant based food. The difference is that I am not restricted. We went to our event and were early for our reservation. The restaurant seems a bit darker since my last visit - I appreciate low lighting but this is very near pitch.We were given menus and that was when the awkwardness started. The waiter said he was being shadowed by another person and it was her first day. Totally fine...the weird was that the new person seemed way more to know things than the waiter did who immediately seemed to not be paying attention to us at all. My friend asked if they had a separate menu for the vegan options they had for January. He seemed confused and say yes but said he needed to go ask. He eventually came back, was extremely dismissive saying that was no longer available, started mumbling something and we were confused trying to explain that was GENUINELY the reason we were there. VERY long story short and after a lot of back and forth where he would leave, go somewhere and come back basically telling my friend a bunch of vegetables...we were not understanding because he was just saying they would make 'something'... so we just get charged something for something? Finally his, manager? came over saying similar but it was well, we make pasta but that has egg so we can give you the dried gluten free, add veggies... I honestly checked out just figuring I would order off the regular menu since a Caesar salad sounded good but the entrees... nothing was really jumping out so I just went with the chicken. I was delighted with my glass of Malbec which was great since I was mortified I had talked up this restaurant to my friend. We were told by multiple people that the executive chef took time off and apparently is the only person who could cook the vegan menu. Questions about other items were similar - there was a lot of talk about things being pre made which I found just weird since it was like the whole regular menu was almost described like a TV dinner yet the vegan 3 course was this complex thing that only the executive chef could make. All i know is that there were two things I found delicious - the Malbec and my Caesar which I am glad was filling. My friend ordered a drink described by the staff and the menu a sweet. She was confused and had me taste it... I sent it back for her because it literally tasted like vinegar. She was embarrassed thinking that they would feel like she was just nonstop complaints which is when I sent the drink back. The waiter took it and stormed off while the person ho just started was so kind, coming back saying the bartender wanted to try to make her a drink - he did and she loved it. Luckily she also very much enjoyed her whole meal. I did not want to spoil anything for her and I expected the waiter to make a comment at the fact that I barely touched my entrée. When you are planning to assault a dish with that much fennel, I would expect a heads up or I would not have bothered. I then thought I would correct it and was happy to order a simple orange sorbet. It was served as a soup, it was so melted. The tiny amount that was not melted had a very stringy and awkward texture. It has been a really long time since I have been given this bad of a meal. When I got the sorbet I seriously was laughing wondering if that was a joke. We were just exhausted seriously - my poor friend was having a anxiety attack an I was just glad that her meal was good since I am the one who has all the options normally... well, I will chose another option in the future to not come here. The true perfect ending was that I had parked near the door as I am ADA. Some lovely human in a white Tesla parked crooked over the line blocking my door to get in. The best part was that the spot next to them on their drivers side was empty!

Came in on a Saturday evening with a reservation at 5:15, we were seated immediate despite arriving at 5, always appreciate being able to do that. This is only our second time here and the last time was precovid. The decor hasn't changed much, the place feels warm and intimate. Service was fantastic throughout the night, our waiter was courteous and personable, our water was constantly refilled. The drinks are fantastic, well balanced, with a number of ingredients for the ginger maple margaritas being made in house. The campfire had a very nice toasted marshmallow which paired perfectly with the campfire drink itself.Appetizers were fantastic, the salumi plate had a good selection of spread, the lamb meatballs are absolute 5 star, the acidic pairing of the pickled radish with the collard green cream sauce, and the fresh tasting meatball itself was a homerun. Beets salad was excellent, tasted fresh. The Mortadella pizza had an interesting mixture of various ingredients that worked well together. The lambchop was very tender, we got the medium rare but probably prefer it to be a little more done, not their fault. The sirloin was done well but nothing stands out, the risotto as the side was well made. We had the affogato to finish up the evening, they didn't comp the dessert even though it was my wife's birthday, this is just a note, and does not take away anything from the great meal and five star rating.We'll come back again for special occasion.

I came for a dinner reservation with friends before a movie in December. I was anticipating a nice sit down restaurant with nice ambiance but I was left underwhelmed. I believe part of the restaurant can be reserved for private parties, the large entourage from that party began congregating from their room out into the middle of the restaurant where the only entrance/exit was, and were rather loud. Started off with drinks by one waiter that was fine, but he ended up disappearing and a new waiter introduced himself to us as the one to take over our table for the rest of the night- fine okay. He gave us some time for the menu, and we finally decided on which appetizers to get, and instead of just writing that and going he proceeded to really push dishes on us to purchase. "You guys should get the polenta cakes since there's three of you, I can just write that down-" we kindly said no. Then he wanted us to add additional salads after we kept saying we were fine. We got the cheese board as an appetizer and it was a large amount of blue cheese, with 4-5 small pieces of bread and some pickled vegetables scattered. It was a letdown, wish there was more bread to finish the cheese with it seemed very wasteful.We then ordered our entrees and again, he wanted us to add more items. We were pretty annoyed, I've never had an experience at a "nicer" restaurant where the waiting staff pushed me to order foods even after explicitly being told no. We all got different pastas and found it to be extremely salty. Not sure if the chef in the back was just having a heavy handed day or what- but I needed to drink water after eat small bite. I got shrimp gnocchi, and after each bite I had to fish out shrimp shells and tails out of my mouth. Super unpleasant. One of our friends had ordered her last drink and he didn't bring it out till 20-25 minutes later just as we were asking for the check. Overall, wasn't a great experience.

The best Persian New Year dinner we ever had anywhere. Chef Warren went beyond his talent and made us a breathtaking dishes from starter to main and deserts. As Persian we are so picky trying our dishes by other people but every single dish chef made for us was absolutely perfect and delicious and meet all the check marks and rated 10 + from 10. Thank you Clarklewis for hosting us for our very special day Nowruz Persian New Year. We will come back to celebrate more of our special days.

Scored a seat on the patio on a rare early spring Pdx day. Yahoo! Service was on point right when we entered from host to wait staff. Had a good size group so we tried a couple bottles of wine and cocktails. They make a good old fashioned and whiskey sour. Oysters were nice and sweet but that burrata tho...we had to order a 2nd one almost a 3rd. Meat cheese plate and veggie pizza also satisfactory :) Kudos Clarklewis. Lots of inside/outside seating. Restrooms located out in hallway. They do add a 16% fee to bill that does not count towards gratuity so ya might wanna whip out the calculator.

Food and service was absolutely stellar, thank you!The problem was that there was an unexpected service charge that wasn't on the menu or we were informed of first. It specifically stated on the receipt that none of said charge went to the servers or the chefs and was to "not raise prices" HOW IS THAT NOT RAISING PRICES!? I felt swindled and felt very badly for the service and kitchen staff. I heard three other groups complaining about this.Either just raise your prices or let people know about this policy. Will not be returning til this is rectified.