23 Hoyt

My husband and I showed up early for our dinner reservations so we sat at the bar to have some drinks. The bartendar offered us happy hour menus so we decided to cancel our dinner reservations and give their happy hour a GO. What a great decision. The bartender's service was excellent and the happy hour food just right! We will have to go back again to try their dinner! more

I have to admit I am on a happy hour bender. The prices are so right and the food quality unbeatable. I attended a friend's happy hour gathering at 23 hoyt last week and enjoyed a burger, some chick peas and mussels with a glass of big wine and spent just about $20.00, including tip. Then we all headed over to cinema 21. That is the best new thing, happy hour and then a movie. This place is a great date spot and good for a delicious inexpensive meal. Pros: Good food at great prices Cons: not open monday more

Lastnight we had the most amazing meal of our lives. The service was impeccable, the food was outstanding and we really enjoyed ourselves. We had cocktails to start, try the margarita 23! Then we ordred just about everything on the menu. Our favorites were the Halibut and the Chicken. Best Halibut I have ever had. There is no place better in Portland. more

I used to frequent 23 Hoyt maybe once/month, and was especially excited when they started one of the best happy hours in town. I'm sorry to say, but I've noticed that in the past couple months, the wine list has gone downhill. I used to think of the restaurant as a great place to find really cool european wines, unusual things, and the staff was enthusiastic about talking about the wines. I was there last week and was stunned at how small the list is and how few interesting wines are left. My advice: if you like wine, bring your own bottle. The food is good, and deserves an equally good choice of wines to go with it, but unless you like ""average"" wine, you won't be impressed. There doesn't even seem to be a true wine steward working there anymore. Maybe that has something to do with it. Pros: generally good service and cool vibe Cons: crappy wine list more

This place is the best for Happy hour. I go about once a week. Perfect for an impromptu gathering of friends and the prices are great. No sacrifice on food quality or drinks. The nice thing is that they park your car for free. I didn't know that for the first few times I had gone. This place is worth going to regularly! more

Stopped by last thursday with a few friends and ended up catching the end of happy hour. Enjoyed all of the items, expecially the suppli-crochetts(sp) which are little rice bballs with yummy melty cheese in the middle. Service was great, stylish short haired kid(forgot your name sorry!). Definitely worth checking out. Pros: Food, Free Valet Cons: Far from where I live more

My fiance and I had dinner here this Valentines Day and were thoroughly disappointed. I read several good reviews for 23Hoyt and was expecting outstanding food and service, but received neither. The restaurant itself was very nice, and we were fortunate enough to sit upstairs which was a bit more intimate. For my entree I had the roasted duck breast, but could have sworn I received a dried up pork chop instead. And my fiance had the beef short ribs which was frighteningly similar to my mom's highly avoided Pot_Roast. Now I know service varies depending on your server, or even the evening, but other than the free valet parking, we were very disappointed. Being our first visit to 23Hoyt, we asked our waitress for entree suggestions, only to get descriptions such as ""that tastes beautiful"" or ""the duck's soooo yummy."" She obviously wasn't very knowledgeable and in my opinion should start thinking about alternative career choices. Also, I am not one to criticize cocktails, but I wasn't impressed with the Zefiro Martini either. The whole experience was pretty poor, and neither of us could wait to get out of there so we could go grab some Alotto Gelato! I really hate writing bad reviews but I felt obligated to share my experience since I rely on others to do the same. Hopefully your experience will be better.... Pros: Free Valet Parking, Good atmosphere Cons: Food and service more

I was treated to dinner for Valentine's at 23Hoyt this year. We pulled right up, a valet parked our car (and for free at that). When we were seated there were flowers waiting for me. The Maitre D had helped organize this.\r We had cocktails, champagne, lamb + the Love bird entree. Finished with a collection of chocolate goodies and music. It was a magical evening. Everyone in the room looked happy and the food was the best in the city! I will be visiting 23Hoyt again. Thanks for a wonderful night. Pros: free valet more

We went here for dinner on a Thursday night and did not make reservations but were seated immediately. Our waiter was very friendly and seemed to know what he was talking about when we asked questions about specific dishes, but he was slow to take our order after we ordered drinks. The food was average. We ordered the oysters and ahi for apetizers and the oysters tasted fishy which means they were not fresh. The ahi tuna tartare was very tasty, but the seasoning tasted like taco seasoning from a packet. I can't remember the entrees we ordered, meaning they didn't leave a big impression on me. The drinks we ordered were tastey and creative, so maybe next time we will only try happy hour at the bar. Overall the food was good, but not excellent for the price we ended up paying. I would recommend you try this restaurant once, but there is no need to return here more than this. more

I was reading some previous reviews. I have eaten here about 50 times since opening. The people that had late tables and/or bad service, I feel for. That is certainly not the experience I have had here - ever. Every restaurant has off nights, so maybe some people were the victims of undercooked food. But I assure you they have a highly satisfactory level of execution and service on a consistent basis. \r As far as overpriced food. . .maybe those people are not used to eating at nice reataurants. 23Hoyt is one of the most reasonably priced quality dining restaurants you can eat at in Portland. . .along with Nostrana, Castagna, and ClarkLewis.\r I felt I needed to add these comments, as I have had a lot of experience eating here, and it is very much a Portland treasure! more

Lastnight was my first time back in the new year and I was pleased as could be. We started in the bar for happy hour (best in the city) and decided to stay for entrees and wine. The chicken with paprika sauce is the best and my husband had the steak and it was cooked to perfection. I am keeping this place on my list of hot spots. more

Atmosphere was nice. We were seated promptly at our reservation time. Server was polite but extremely shy. Had to pull reccomendations out of him. My friend's flat iron steak was very tasty. My lamb was ok. Entree prices seemed high but not horrendous. \r \r I made the mistake of ordering two glasses of chardonnay without looking at the wine list or inquiring about the prices. BIG MISTAKE: $11.00 per glass of chardonnay? Come on, its not like we requested the nicest Pinot Noir! When I asked the server if he just automatically gave me the most expensive chardonnay, he said ""I gave you what is considered the house wine"". I'm guessing that means if the customer doesn't make a selection then the staff is supposed to give them the most expensive choice!\r \r All in all we had 2 entrees, split 1 salad, 2 glasses of wine, 1 San Pellagrino, no appetizers, no dessert, no coffee and with tip our tab was $105. Seems excessive to me, even for NW 23rd. Pros: Location, free valet parking, ambience Cons: $11 glasses of chardonnay!! more

Not going back. Never have I had such bad service in supposedly a top notch restaurant. With so many other places to dine in Portland it would take an act of Congress to get me to come back here.\r \r How was the food? I couldn't tell you because I never got to try it.\r \r I can tell you that it takes an inordinate amount of time to get a drink from the bar. It even took 10 minutes for them to figure out that they didn't have the Peach Schnapps to make the drink my friend ordered. Then another 10 minutes for him to get a replacement drink. An additional 7 minutes for them to bring the Coke back he ordered. And it wasn't like the bar was SUPER crowded.\r \r 2nd...we had reservations for 8PM. By 8:40PM we were paying our bar tab and heading across the street to a McMenamin's because NO ONE talked to us about where are table was. We had to ask the hostess twice what was going on and each time she swore it was being worked. They never walked over to us in the bar to tell us what was going on. Never acted like it was an issue at all. Not until we were walking out the door did anyone apologize for the inconvenience....they then offered to buy drinks that we already paid for. They also swore that the table was just being cleaned and we would be seated shortly.....no offer of please stay and we'll buy dessert and wine. Just sorry and we're almost ready to seat you 40 minutes after you had a reservation. Cons: Bad service. more

I dined at 23 Hoyt this evening for the second time. First time, I had a good experience, but this evening was certainly not the same. The first time I had a wonderful waiter (do not know his name...tall, beard, shaved or bald head...folded my napkin everytime I left the table, Attentive, converstional, very pleaseant).\r \r This evening we had a different waiter. I don't know his name. He was dark haired and chubby. He seemed too interested in bigger tables to give us much thought. We waited for 20 mins to have our drinks refilled, and an amazing 1 1/2 hour for dinner! When we got dinner, it was sad to say the least. My girlfreind's steak was overdone, her vegies cold, and the bread was not replenished. My dinner was just a disaster. I had ordered the ""Mixed Grill"", but there was no grill about it. After a very long wait, I got a plate with an underdone slab of bacon, a sadly splayed out quail (very small) and a limp, cold ,underdone rabbit sausage all served on a horrid sauerkraut that made me cringe at the $24 + price. I really couldn't eat it. I had 2 glasses of wine under poured wine which netted me over $24, for which I could have purchased 2 or more decent bottles of wine. What a rip! \r \r I won't go back to 23 Hoyt. \r \r Nancy Pros: Valet parking Cons: Bad food, expensive more

WOW!! lets start of buy saying that, but that wasnt my first impression. I was informed by our server, Mark, that the restaurant was out of the steak and the lamb entree. It was 9:00 on a friday, that seemed like a bad start. After our server apologized, he did a great job of selling us on the halibut, the chicken, the spaetzle, the gnoochi, and the ceaser. The ceaser was the best I had ever eaten(I later found out it was the Zefiro recipe), the gnoochi and spaetzle were just as amazing. However that chicken was hands down the table favorite. The service however was the best part of the evening. I have eaten at bluehour many times, and am always disappointed by the food and the service there is the worst in portland. It was very refreshing to be waited on by Mark, he was great, not only on the technical side, but he really knew how to make us feel welcome. You should go for the food but stay for the service, ask for Mark you wont be sorry you did Pros: Mark Cons: no steak more

Let me start off saying I recently moved to Portland from San Francisco and have found the service in Portland to be questionable at best. I have finally found hope at 23 Hoyt. Our server, Mark was very knowledgable, friendly, and personnable. He recommened the spatzle and gnoochi for starters, the gnoochi was the best I have ever had. He then told us the halibut was outstanding, and the chicken was his favorite, once again very great choices. I was skeptical when I saw the wines by the glass, however Mark gave us great insight to each, and ended up trying 3 of the reds and 2 of the whites. We skipped dessert, but the guest next to us seemed to love theirs. The evening was going perfect, when Mark brought out 2 glasses of dessert wine, compliments of the house. After chatting with Mark, we realized he had just moved here from New York City, that might explain the exceptional service. Regardless the meal was amazing, the service exceptional, better then I ever expected to find in Portland Pros: Service Cons: the piano player more

We're here on vacation and decided to try 23Hoyt on a last minute recommendation from a friend of ours who lives in Portland. He said the scene was very trendy and the food was excellent. \r \r We arrived about 15 minutes early and were directed to the lounge. Unfortunately, no one came to get our drinks for about 10 minutes. We didn't really mind because neither of us was craving a drink, but it would have been nice to get prompt service nonetheless. \r \r We were shown our table after 15 minutes of waiting. The server greeted us promptly and was quite personable. My wife ordered 3 appetizers as an entree: mussels, gnocchi, and spatzle. I ordered the Meze appetizer and the flat iron steak for my entree.\r \r My wife's gnocchi was phenomenal - among the best dishes I have ever had anywhere. The butter had a sweetness to it, while the herbal flavor of sage was just strong enough to impart the appropriate flavor. Her other 2 dishes were good, but not nearly as great.\r \r My meze platter was good, but it was lacking something to tie it together...I think warm pita bread and hummus would have done the trick. \r \r I'm usually not a fan of flat iron steaks as they tend to be chewy and underflavored. However, this flatiron was exceptional. It was properly trimmed, thinly sliced, and cooked to perfection. The wine sauce that accompanied it rounded out the flavor perfectly. \r \r Dessert was a pear dumpling or something similar, and it was very good. A bit too much dough and a bit too little filling, but I'm really grasping at straws to criticize this.\r \r We had 1 glass of wine and 1 cocktail, both of which were recommendations from the server, and both of which were average, especially for the prices.\r \r Overall we gave this a 4 star and not a 5 star, because we reserve 5 stars for world-class experiences.\r \r 23Hoyt was definitely repeatable and gets a ""very good"" from me. more

My wife and I had the pleasure of dining at 23 hoyt last night. We were vacationing with family in Portland and this place came highly recommended. I must say that I wasn't disappointed! The restaurant was very busy and the staff handled it like pros. Our server Eric was personable and knowledgable. The food was wonderful and the service equally impressive. The halibut was perfectly prepared and the greek spinach salad will be remembered. Pros: service, food, artwork Cons: creepy antler chandelier more

The kitchen really knows what they are doing and has just the perfect menu for everyone's desires. Start with oysters, enjoy one of their many salads and take your pick of some of the best entree's around. The steak is among the best in the city (cooked perfectly, served with chiogga beets, watercress and a light and airy dolop of horseradish cream.). The decor is warm and inviting. And the service is just right. Attentive but not over the top. The devil is in the details. Which this place gets.\r This restaurant is one to keep on your list. more

A friend of mine's dad was visiting and wanted to take us to a really nice place. While the decor was very pleasant and the valet parking was free, the service was horrible.\r \r First, it took forever for the wait staff to come over to take our orders. At a place that serves food in courses, this was a real drag.\r \r Second, the attitude of the wait staff is stuffy-they barely give you eye contact and don't seem to like working there.\r \r The cherry on the cake was when the manager approached the dad's friend after he had paid the check asking him if he could leave more for the tip b/c our waitress was a single mom-i couldn't believe it! We spent a lot of money there, too, so it's not like he was a cheapskate.\r \r I expected a special dining experience and got treated like i was at denny's. Pros: nice decor; good drink selection Cons: service service service more