Beast

Having read over many of the reviews about Beast, I don’t feel as if there’s much I can add, so I’ll keep my review basic.
The GF and I both agreed that the food was very, very good. The multi-​course offerings were creative, well prepared, and artfully presented. We enjoyed everything we tried, and we liked hearing the individual courses described by the wait staff before each course. If food is the only thing that matters to you (by that I mean you don’t care about ambiance, plate presentation, professional service and getting a decent bang for your buck), then I would recommend Beast in a heartbeat. That being said…
My feeling is that if you’re dropping $ 400 or more for dinner and tip (depending on which of the incredibly overpriced bottles of wine you order), then it’s reasonable to expect a «fine dining experience.» At least for us, that means nice plateware and cutlery, reidel wine glasses, polite, knowledgeable, nicely attired wait staff, and an intimate setting. In that regard, Beast falls short across the board. Instead, you’re served dinner at a communal table, from a one size fits all menu (everyone gets the same courses). Plates, cutlery and glasses are serviceable, but that’s the most I can say about them. Hey, I’m a big fan of the funky presentation you get at a lot of the better Portland restaurants, but not at these prices. Speaking of prices, let’s talk about the wine list. Like the plates, silverware and table setting, it’s serviceable. Expect mostly wines from the NW and California, with a few selections from Europe as well. It’s a decent wine list, but it’s not as if you’re going to choose from multiple vintages of Lafite, Domaine Romani Conti or Harlan on the menu (in fact, try none). And given that there’s no onsite wine sommelier either, can someone please explain the 3 and half, to 4 times over standard retail mark-​up for the wine prices here? If this was Manhattan or DC, then I’d shrug and figure this just goes with the territory… but not at a small, rustic café restaurant in NE Portland.
As for the service… like everything else, it was serviceable. Our casually dressed server was pleasant and polite. Table service otherwise consisted of dropping off everyone’s plate in front of them as quickly as possible, so that everyone was served their food prior to the course description narration. Again, it was fine, but not what we were expecting, given the prices here.
In the end, we had a nice time here, but I left feeling dissatisfied by the experience. I really can’t imagine ever coming here again.

Great 6 course meal on 1÷22÷16. Great wine pairing list. A good experience, but 150 dollars was a bit steep. The 3^rd course (which I assume was main course?) was baby pigeon. I probably could have gone through my life without eating that :) but maybe I just don’t appreciate some delicacies like others.
there was a loaf of bread to munch on. Helped to fill me up!

I want to love this place so I will start with the things I actually did love. The ambience is very cozy. You feel like you are at a relative’s house for family supper. The staff is amazingly sweet and helpful. You dine family style here and our party was fortunate enough to be seated by the nicest people.
Why I don’t love it — you really only get one real dish and a bunch of appetizers and dessert. I’ve done dinners like this before and you will get at least 3 dishes with a protein in it. There was only one whip was a squab that was cooked almost uncomfortably rare. It wasn’t even warm. Actually everything came out not warm which didn’t make it ideal.
I wish I could say I loved it here. But after thinking about it overnight, I don’t. Maybe it was an off night.

While my first, and yes amazing, visit to BEAST was nearly an unforgettable meal. I’ll never forget how curious I was to try this place.
They do communal dinner seating that begins at 6:00pm and another one at 8:45pm. Don’t be shy and feel free to mingle and make new friends.
A six course meals pair with the wines was amazingly good. Every component, from the tasty charcuterie to the tender steak to the mouth-​watering fish to the artisanal cheeses and dessert, was full of flavor and excellent texture.
Aside from the food, the wonderful staff was very kind, helpful and knowledgeable. Plus, the server was pouring a generous amount of wine. Cheers!
This is possibly one of my favorite restaurants in Portland. I highly recommend this place.
I hope you give this delightful French restaurant place a try. Cheers!
The simple things in life.

The food was incredible and the service was very good. I did like every bite. However, I have to take a star off due to the beer pairings. For $ 25.00, you get maybe an ounce or 2 of beer with every pairing. By the end of the meal, I maybe had an equivalent of a beer and a half. When I asked for more, the waiter looked at me strangely, like no one ever does that. I expected more and frankly the beers weren’t the greatest.
Back to the food. I enjoyed the fixed menu. There were things I would never order, but when I ate it, it was like wow! The duck egg was awesome and all the cheeses stand out as my faves.
One thing not necessarily about the restaurant but Portland in general. The tables were community and if you don’t mind making new friends, this is the place for you. I noticed this was a trend throughout most of the city and at first I wasn’t keen on it, but by the end of the weekend, I was digging it. Beast was no exception of starting a meal with strangers and ending it with friends.

We got breakfast price fixe here and I thought it was wonderful. It was a 4 course brunch. Obviously price is extremely high, but it’s not bad once in awhile to fine dine.
Reading through these reviews it seems like everyone has already covered all the food options. The only thing I would say is that for brunch most of the food was already finished, and all you could really see was the chef plating the food. Not that anyone seemed to care as most people were busy involved in their own conversations.

The roomie and I had dinner at Beast recently during their second seating on a cold and windy Saturday night. We learned the hard way that if you show up even a few minutes early, you will be turned away (with a smile) and asked to wait outside as they prepare for the next seating. There are, however, a few nearby bars and restaurants that you can kill time at, which we ended up doing.
ATMOSPHERE.
For a communal table, I didn’t really have any kind of neighborly-​dining experience until the very end (maybe the wine had finally kicked in?). I can definitely see this being a real treat for a larger group of foodie friends. The restaurant itself is spare but homey, a little chilly, and the kitchen itself is pristine. It doesn’t seem like any cooking is done in real time, everything is pre-​made (hours before) and reheated before serving (or so it looked).
DINING.
Dinner was absolutely lovely. Every course was simply phenomenal (save for the seared Moulard duck and the winter greens salad). The total highlights were:
+ MAINE LOBSTER BISQUE w/​PICKLED SHRIMP SALAD
+ CHARCUTERIE (especially STEAK TARTARE & FOIE GRAS BON-​BON)
+ ARTISANAL CHEESE w/​HIGH DESERT HONEY
+ TARTE AU CITRON w/​BUTTERMILK-​BLACK PEPPER ICE CREAM
We ended up skipping on the wine pairing, but the rest of our table went with it, and seemed to really enjoy the generous pours. Honestly, it was a fantastic dinner, and I enjoyed it much more than my more frou-​frou dinner at Le Piegon. Beast is well worth your time and money (at least once).

One of the best overall dining experiences I’ve ever had. Ambiance, service, food, timing, pairings & flow of menu. All of it was perfectly executed and thoroughly appreciated. Highlight of our time in Portland, and would definitely return if given the opportunity.
Recommended to adventurous eaters who appreciate food as an experience & are in good company.

Was the food good, yes. Was it worth $ 150, was it all the hype, no.
Service was spot on, Lisa our server, was smiling the whole time.
Open kitchen is cool, you get to see what the chef is cooking. Though if you are going to do it, the chef needs to occasionally look like he enjoys being there, not spend 3 hrs looking like someone stole his puppy.
The water carafe was a wine decanter. A 18 inch tall, awkward to pour wine decanter, after watching 3 people spill pouring water I asked for something that wasn’t absurd.
Food.
The charcuterie plate was a disappointment, blood sausage was house made, really no of the delicious mineraly flavor you love in a good blood sausage.
Foie Gras was served on a peanut wafer that was way too sweet and really threw off the balance of that bite.
Salad, cut the lettuce so it fits in my mouth without me embarrassing myself.
Duck, the reason we eat duck is for delicious crispy skin. If you aren’t going to have crispy skin, serve beef ribeye instead.
Nothing special going on at Beast, next please.

We opted for brunch at Beast because they didn’t have reservations available for when we were able to do dinner on a weekday, but it turned out amazing anyway — woot!
It’s a very quaint restaurant also with communal dining style (the other that we tried being Simpatica) — there are 2 large tables inside and 2 small tables outside. I really liked the decorations and service was great! I was «tricked» into getting an orange juice… somehow I thought it would be complimentary until the check came (even though the menu clearly stated the price for drinks) — but it was all very freshly squeezed goodness, so no complaints here!
Here was the brunch menu:
— spiced sweet 16 apple clafoutis, with whipped crème fraîche & maple-​glazed house bacon
— «Beast Hash»: red wine braised beef short rib, with summer squash, cheddar cauliflower, corn, maitake mushrooms, confit carola potatoes, served with a side of poached duck egg & chive hollandaise sauce
— selection of artisinal cheese with farm summer greens & sherry-​banyuls vinaigrette
— bête noire with cointreau crème chantilly
The entire meal was so magical, I can’t even begin to describe how amazing everything is! We would definitely come back again for brunch AND would love to try out dinner too someday!

Beast is divine. We came here over Thanksgiving weekend after reading about it in United’s Hemispheres magazine — three perfect days in Portland. This restaurant deserves the mention.
We started our evening at the cocktail lounge across the street, Expatriate. Owned by the same owners and perfect to start your night. We enjoyed a hand crafted cocktail that was the perfect size and flavor profile. ‘Ornament and Christmas’ as well as ‘No. 8′.
Beast has extraordinarily knowledgeable servers, an open kitchen where you see the calm, skilled preparation of the food, and a wine list that won’t stop.
Beast is a communal dining experience. If you don’t want to socialize with your dining neighbor, at a large banquet table, this really isn’t for you.
Our meal included tuna tartare, an amazing charcuterie plate, pressed pork shoulder, a cheese plate, and finally — dessert, an éclair with ice cream. One of the small, lovely items was a palate cleanser of celery sorbet. Dear God. It was OUTSTANDING.
I’d come back to Portland just to dine here. It was really wonderful.
Beast serves two seatings, pre-​fixe. The meal we had started at 6 and we left at 8:30. Count on being entertained with the food and your neighbors.

Prior to dining here, I did read some things about the place. What I hadn’t expected was the dark interior, low lights and uncomfortable chairs. This was a surprise. While I don’t know that they took away from the experience, I can say they bothered me.
I ate alone. I had expected that communal table dining might be a nice option but unfortunately I was placed between a group of Japanese tourists and a couple of business people discussing a deal. This communal table was the loneliest place in Portland! Finally, the waiter was skilled but spoke so softly it was difficult to hear much of his explanations.
Now that all of that is out of the way it is important to know that the food was perfect. Loved the Charcuterie plate, the lamp was flawless, pear salad with Roquefort amazing and the dessert was a nice mix of spicy and sweet.
Beast is a small place (24 seats) without the buzz and coming and going of regular place. This allows patrons to concentrate on the meal, watch the quiet Chefs prepare the food and read the menu in anticipation of the next course. In many respects this may have resulted in an unexpected dining experience. One I had not anticipated.

FYI: A $ 85 cancellation fee per person. This was our dilemma because we wanted to cancel our dinner reservation. But we had to go to support our buddy who was visiting Portland, similar to my group of friends and I.
The interior design of Beast is ok, with only three tables, and a seatting capacity for about 25+ people. Thus, they only have very specific intervals of time to choose from, thus making a reservation can be difficult. The ambiance is romantic, with dark/​black walls with cool quotes, and even a drawing of a pig!
It is a set menu, and changes each day. It includes 6 courses, including dessert with a coffee as well.
On the night my friends and I went, our 6 courses included: Hokkaido Scallop crudo with Taro-​beetroot chips, a Charcutterie, Petit Sale, Watercress-​Grapefruit & Radish salad, a Selection of Artisanal cheeses, and for dessert it was a Brown sugar spiced buttermilk tart with a orange-​cranberry sherbet.
Overall, the each course was either a hit or a miss. One of the dishes that surprised me the most was the Hokkaido Scallops because the taro-​beetroot chips really complimented the scallops really well, and gave it a delicious sweet and salty flavor. Most of the charcutterie was either ok or just bland. The best was the short rib croquette, veal loin, and chicken liver mousse on a leaf lard cracker. Finally, the dessert they had that night was expetional, and thus it definitely made it up for the small portioned meals and «bougie» style vibe we experienced.
We decied to to share a bottle of a French red wine ($ 56) among the four people in my group, instead of their wine pairing per course option ($ 48 extra per person). If you know your wine and your on a budget, then I would recommend you share a bottle of wine versus letting the people of Beast decide for you. It’s another «bougie”/ pretentious trick they use for you to pay more, haha.
The service was expetionally friendly, and I liked that they explained us each course for us bedore we ate each one. Thus, if you are a foodie like me, this is a great place to check out! However, I didn’t like the «bougie”/ pretentious vibe here, the portion were small, and I really felt I could get better food at another restaurant similar to Beast.
It’s a place to try once, even if you are a local. It does have the potential to be better, and maybe they can, if they stick to a few dishes that the customers like, rather making food that they «think» their customers «will like».

/​/​PDX Sweetheart Foodie Trip: Aug 21 – 23, 2015– Stop 7 of 7//
Hubs and I made our first out-​of-​town «entire weekend» getaway since the l’il miss arrived 5.5 years ago. Cue the music! But seriously, hubby was a good sport and I ratcheted my normal foodie weekend levels WAY down.
Beast was the last stop of our getaway– Sunday brunch before we started the drive back north to Seattle and «reality». This was easily our favorite/​best meal of the entire trip (and the other meals were mostly no slouches either, so that’s saying a lot) and perhaps one of my all-​time best brunches ever! The tables are all communal and that only added to the experience as we had fun chatting with the other folks at our table who all obviously love good food too. We did the first seating at 10am so that we could hit the road at a decent time for the drive home.
When seated, the menu descriptions on our place settings sounded divine, but the taste and platings of the food exceeded our every expectation! I got the wine pairings, which were all excellent accompaniments to the courses.
Course 1– Oregon Plum Clafoutis w/​Whipped Crème Fraiche & Maple-​Glazed House Bacon
Course 2– Beast Hash (Braised Lan-​Roc Farms Pork Shoulder, Jimmy Nardello Peppers, Haricot Verts, Summer Squash, Yellow Cauliflower, Confit Purple Potatoes, Poached Duck Egg & Summer Savory Hollandaise)
Course 3– Selection of Artisanal Cheeses, Summer Greens (Gathering Together Farm) & Sherry-​Balsamic Vinaigrette
Course 4– Bete Noire w/​Vanilla Rum Crème Chantilly
Service was excellent from start to finish! One example that comes to mind immediately is that the dessert course was basically a little chocolate cake with whipped cream and pink crumbles. We asked if we could box up one of the desserts to take with us for our little girl, who is a bonafide chocoholic. But we knew the whipped cream wouldn’t last so we scraped it off onto the plate we were consuming and so with it did the pink factor. The server added extra pink crumbles (I’m guessing it was freeze-​dried and powdered fruit of some kind… thinking rhubarb due to its tartness) to the to-​go box without us asking him! He just guessed (rightly so) that a little girl deserved a proper pink dusting!
My next trip to PDX, a dinner reservation here will be the first item on my to-​do list!!! :)

One of the best brunches I’ve ever had.
The tables at Beast are all communal, which means making a reservation calls for an amazing four-​course meal with an eclectic group of people. The food is absolutely divine, but I think the best part of the experience and culture here at Beast was meeting other people who shared the same love of good food and good coffee.

Dinner at Beast was simply amazing. I couldn’t find fault with anything without venturing into nitpicky territory.
Beast does one or two seatings a night with a 6-​course set menu. The upside is that the pacing of the meal was perfect. Watching the staff plate 30 of each course at a time was really something.
The only indoor seating is at long communal tables, so be prepared to make conversation with strangers for hours unless you bring a larger group. Luckily, we were seated near people who were extremely pleasant and conversational. (If you really want to avoid strangers, you can probably ask. There are tables for 2 on the sidewalk available too, and we saw 2 people eating at a corner of the kitchen counter.)
The chalkboard walls were decorated with cute drawings of pigs, recipes, and quotes about food.
The 6-​course menu was $ 102 with a $ 48 wine pairing, including gratuity. What a steal for the quality and quantity of food. I was stuffed and ecstatic after the meal.
WHAT WE HAD
1. Muskmelon + prosciutto Americano with pickled piparra peppers, pine bud syrup, chives, chervil
I don’t usually care for the combination of muskmelon + prosciutto, but this was amazing.
2. Charcuterie platter
8 types of charcuterie organized on a round plate. You could eat them in any order, but it was recommended that you save the foie gras bon-​bon with Sauternes gelée and peanut shortbread for last. That one was the highlight for many of my companions. I liked the steak tartare and quail egg over toast and beef tongue pastrami a lot too.
3. Carman ranch strip loin roast with summer squash tian, blistered toybox tomatoes, horseradish crème, Castelvetrano + hazelnut tapenade
4. Chicory + arugula salad with peaches, Pecorino Romano, aged balsamic, walnuts
5. Selection of cheese with muscat grapes, high desert honey, Marcona almonds, housemade crackers
6. Summer berry shortcake with whipped crème fraîche, basil ice cream, cocoa butter crumble
I was really too full to properly enjoy this, but it was good!
The 6 wines we had were from Washington, France, Spain, and Germany. I thought that each wine worked perfectly with the course it was paired with, and the amount of wine was just right.

Naomi Pomeroy won 2014 James Beard Award for best chef northwest – I’ve had my eyes on her for a long time. I am not sure what took me so long to dine at Beast. For my thirtieth birthday this year, I made brunch reservations for 12 people 2 – 3 months in advance just to make sure they could accommodate. Beast only offers a prix fixe menu so I decided brunch ($ 45/​person) was more affordable for everyone to come celebrate a milestone in my life. They offered two seating for brunch at ten and noon, I opted for the noon hour. They called to confirm reservation a few days in advance and I changed the number to nine people.
When we arrived, my friend’s fiancé got so excited because he didn’t know where we were going and Beast was on his list of places he wanted to try. It’s communal seating so they required everyone to be punctual because they fire the courses at the same time. The servers were so accommodating and friendly, we were greeted and offered coffee while we looked over the drink menu. Shortly after our drink arrived, I ordered a cassis mimosa, the first course was brought out in the following order…
First course: cherry clafoutis with whipped crème fraîche and maple glazed house bacon
Second course: braised pork belly hash with a poached duck egg
Third course: artisan cheeses with a summer salad
Fourth course: bête noire with a vanilla rum crème chantilly
What’s not to love about candied bacon? First course started the whole meal on a great note and setup the expectations that the proceeding courses would be just as amazing. The best dish for me probably was the second course, there’s nothing like a perfectly soft-​poached egg mixing with the hollandaise sauce and running into the flavorful hash. It was so succulent! People thought it was weird that the salad came out as the third dish, however, it makes sense to me because cheeses are typically the progressing dish before dessert and it was light after a heavier dish. No one liked their alcohol soaked cherry in the salad so they all gave it to me – yes! The «black beast» cake with the chantilly had the perfect amount sweet and richness to end the meal.
Substitutions is politely decline and they will take allergies into consideration but I forgot to let them know one of my friend is pregnant. However, they were kind enough to hard-​poached her duck egg, unfortunately, they couldn’t substitute the hollandaise sauce or soft cheeses without advance notice. The restaurant and staff was beyond accommodating for my special occasion. I look forward to dining at Beast again.

When going to a French restaurant you expect to pay a lot of money, get a great food and be served by pretentious server.
In this restaurant you get two out of three. Unfortunately the two doesn’t include getting the good food. I am not trying to be the world best food expert but when I asked everyone from our party of 8 (that paid over $ 1700) what do you think about the food, I got the same polite response — it was ok.
The 6 course meal was nicely presented and decorated but it was lacking any enthusiasm to surprise. Almost every course we ate was missing the wow element. It was food.
The plate setting is very pretentious and try to be sophisticated, however the food can be described as nicely presented mediocracy.
Another unpleasant issue is that the cooking oven is located right in the middle of the dining room and was emitting a strong and unpleasant smell of burned oil or butter.
If you want to impress your girlfriend by dropping $ 400 on a dinner, you might want to take her here. That’s probably the only reason to come here.

Fun experience. We sat at the smaller communal table, all the diners at our table were out-​of-​towners and fellow food lovers. All the courses were very good. I really loved the charcuterie plate, it’s no wonder that is the staple plate that they always serve. That foie bon-​bon, am i right?
The only course I would say I was a little disappointed with was the protein course — our server went on about the quality of the pork and the special diet it’s fed on the amish farm and how we would totally be able to tell when we ate it. So I was super excited for a pork chop or something of the sort to highlight the meat, but it ended up being a crepinette, which is basically a sausage patty. I was just a little sad that this amazing piece of pork was ground up. It was still a tasty course though.
Other than that I enjoyed my meal here and would definitely recommend it. I hear their brunch is fantastic as well.

Good but not great. Large influx of traffic due to Naomi becoming somewhat of a network TV star.
Beast offers competitively priced brunch seatings vs. their pricier dinner tastings. The communal dining experience with shared tables is a creative one that is the mother of many invigorating (or awkward) conversations. We found it pleasurable, but this depends on your preference. Atmosphere was quaint, and I really enjoyed the open air kitchen. The staff was well trained, but I found the head server to be a tad pompous but YMMV.
Sour Cherry Clafoutis with Whipped Crème Friache and Maple Glazed House Bacon: B+
— Definitely a solid start to the meal. The clafoutis was perfectly executed, but was a tad bit dry. Bacon was great! A strong start to the brunch menu.
Beast Hash of Braised Pork Shoulder, Parsnips, Oyster Mushrooms, Kale, Squash, and Confit Yukon Gold Potatoes with Poached Duck Egg with Black Truffle Hollandaise: B+
— Explosion of flavor on the plate. Really longed for some freshly shaved black truffle over this heavy hitting breakfast dish. The potatoes and squash were cooked perfectly, and the poached duck egg was the perfect consistency when drained. The pork shoulder itself was a bit over seasoned. Overall, a great ‘summer’ dish.
Bete Noire & Vanilla Rum Chantilly: B
A bit underwhelming after such a heavy main course. It was executed decently, but the flourless chocolate cake made the consistency a tad too dense straight after the beast hash.
I’m excited to see the dining options, but so far I can only rate brunch three stars. It was a solid meal, but lacked anything particularly memorable at the price point and exclusivity.