Crown Q BBQ Market & Deli

This is pretty much some of the best BBQ in Portland.
Here is why:
1: It’s beyond delicious
2: It’s done right
3: It’s reasonably priced
4: It’s not loaded with knucklehead-​hipsters who think BBQ is the next «IT» food. BBQ is comfort food and it’s been around forever. Cheap, delicious and makes you feel good. Save the white table cloth for other meals.
5: Q is the man! One of the kindest, most positive restaurant guy around. If you haven’t supported this place and claim to love BBQ, you don’t love BBQ or you’re not as dialed in as you think. This place IS BBQ PERSONIFIED… in all aspects. Food, quality people and attitude. Please find a new home soon!

Absolutely delicious! We came in from Seattle and this is the first time we’ve had good food since we’ve been here. Especially Soul Food! Fried chicken wings are the bomb! Waffles melt in your mouth.

I love soul food, and since I moved to Portland I’ve been trying to find a place that really does it right. This restaurant is legit! Authentic and delicious

I haven’t tried the entire menu because I don’t eat pork but each visit was full of warmth and a good community vibe. The tasty items I can vouch for: fried chicken wings, bbq wings, shrimp po’boy, potato salad. The orders take a while because the food is so fresh (not sitting under some heat lamp). No private parking but there’s a garage (free I think) across the street.

This place is delicious, period. Love the vibe and the owners, they’re so fun and sweet!

Chose this place off a list provided by «support black owned restaurants» here in Portland. I am not a big BBQ person, mostly because I don’t eat meat! Pleasantly surprised to find vegetarian options (vegan, actually!) on the menu. My partner had the ¼ rack of ribs and I had the tofu «nuggets» and we shared a side of very yummy cornbread, collard greens and very spicy coleslaw. Everything was very good, and I loved my BBQ’d tofu nuggets! The only downside was we waited quite a long time for the food, however the owner came over and apologized, saying they were «slammed» that day. I have to say the quality of the food was worth the wait, and we will be back but probably on a day other than Friday night!

Chicken and Waffles that will break your heart when they are gone. Banana pudding there to put you back together again.

My favorite is the chicken and waffles. The chicken wings are seasoned well (not greasy), and the waffle (omgoodness) has a perfectly crusted outer shell with a moist & fluffy center. Takes a minute because everything is scratch made, but worth the wait.

My spot when I have feelings and need comfort. The food is amazing. I always get the mushroom sandwich. These are also the best fried pickles I’ve had in Portland. Q is so boss, he’s always in the back cooking and wishes you a great night while he makes the next order with love. It’s a wait sometimes, but worth it every time! I have naughty dreams about the BBQ sauce. It’s amazing. Go if you love being happy.

Along with bar none the best BBQ in Portland and the nicest people running the place, they now are serving breakfast! Chicken and waffles — YUM!!! The shrimp and sausage in the grits I had were good ‘n’ spicy, and of course, awesome service with genuine friendliness :) Next time we’re going to try the biscuits and gravy and I’m going for the waffles as I kept nibbling off my hubby’s plate :)
YUM!

Good food by good people, with some good music too. A lot of people seem to order take out. I prefer to stick around — the chef (grill master? owner?) has an energy that is contagious. Call ahead if there is something in particular that you are looking for. Heads up, liquor license is out of commission for now.

Preface: I am giving this restaurant 1 star only because this review must be written and I cannot write a review and give 0 stars.
Oh my god, after reading the reviews of this place I was so excited when i found myself in the neighborhood. I had really really wanting to try this place now I have my chance. The restaurant sits just off the corner, I passed it up the first time but was able to find it and park pretty quickly.
Excitedly, I went inside and I was astonished by how few patrons were inside and the sparseness of the décor, who cares right? I am here for the food.
After reading the reviews online for weeks I knew i had to have ribs and brisket. And that is just what I ordered 1lb. of al a carte brisket and one rib to go.
Immediately upon receiving my food I rushed to my vehicle as I wanted to get home while my food was hot. I did not have far to go, I just wanted to make sure. On my drive I noticed the barbecue smelled, like barbecue sauce on bad meat. I assumed it was the box the meat was in getting wet, I am not sure, but the nasty smell got stronger and stronger until I finally arrived home.
Upon opening the container I was shocked. i have been around barbecue my whole life and I can look at brisket and tell if its gonna be tender, not good-​but tender. This meat looked terrible. The meat looked very dry, almost no smoke ring and very little bark. While looks can be deceiving, in this case they were not. The meat was terrible, it was very dry with no smoke flavor at all. The most surprising thing about the meat was the texture, it was nasty, like a rawhide chew toy I would give to my dog. The difference being the rawhide chew smells better than this barbecue and my dog can actually eat the rawhide chew toy. There was no way I was going to eat this barbecue, or give it to my dog, I love her.
Onto the rib, I think it was a rib but I am not sure. It looked like a rib. There was a rib like feel to it, kinda. After smelling it and remembering I do have insurance I took a bite, or tried to-​there ain’t no way any meat is coming off of that thing. Can you chew rubber off of a tractor tire? No. Well there is no way you are eating this rib. It was also slathered in some kinda glaze, I don’t want to think about what that was.
All in all this is the worst restaurant I have been to in Portland by far and I can only think of one or two restaurants I have been to in my 40+ years as bad as this. How in the hell do they stay open? I’ll never figure that out.
Sorry this review is a wall of text but I had to get this out quick while the wretched taste is still in my mouth so I can share my pain and absolute waste of $ 15.00. I think I may have to wash my mouth out with bleach.

VERY ballsy move, for these folks to finally open up a brick and mortar, making the big move up— and to do it, just a few blocks from the 800# gorilla that is not only widely acknowledged as some of the best bbq in the region, but one of the best restaurants of any stamp (uh, that would be «Who is Podnah’s, Alex, for the win»).
Sorry to see they’ve already given up on staying open super late on weekends!!! Had I known about this feature of their brick and mortar, I’d have supported their business many a time, in those wee hours. Hopefully they’ll consider tryihng this tactic again at least seasonally (Summer will be here before too long…).
After having had so much sub-​par BBQ these past few months in Southern ORegon, central Oregon, and here in the Metro area, I was beside myself to finally get ahold of these folks on a day they had brisket in stock. My oh my, was that worth the wait! Some folks might complain about the thickness of the fat sheath on top, but bear in mind, that’s where the meat gets most of its natural flavor, and juiciness! The way so many places cook brisket, you’d think it was a mortal sin to retain any juiciness in the beef! OUTSTANDING brisket, Crown Q. Very nicely done.
Its only been a couple weeks and I can’t remember much about the rest of the food we got here– the hot links, the chicken, the pulled pork were all ok but just that. The sides (collard greens, principally), again, ok but nothing I’d be in a rush or go out of my way to get anytime soon.
The fish (thank you for at least offering fish on the menu), they completely forgot to place in our large carry out group order. It wasn’t possible to come back and grab the fish, as we weren’t done at work til after CQ was closed. No effort was made to bring the fish to us, or reduce the credit card bill. So that’s an unavoidable one star deduction. Any one can louse up a big order once… let’s hope next time, if there’s any errors it’ll be in our favor, for a change…

I’m updating my review since we had brunch here today — the shrimp and grits were perfectly spiced, and the chicken and waffled would make Leslie Knope come here all the way from Indiana.
I don’t want to ruin the place, but there was NO LINE just before noon on a Saturday. You’ll avoid brunch lines and get some of the best Southern food around.

Good food. Wait time was longer than anticipated, but once the food came out there were no complaints. Good vibes inside, I like the family atmosphere. Everything was slappin! Highly recommended

With classic, awesome BBQ places like Podnah’s and Russell St BBQ in this same area, if you want to do BBQ in this zip code, you better come correct.
Unfortunately, Crown did not measure up to those other BBQ spots in any sense.
Girlfriend ordered a burger and fries. I ordered the Beef ribs platter. And we got a few sides.
Girlfriend’s burger was OK, in fact, it was probably the best thing we had here.
My rib dinner was just bad, though. I got ONE rib. This was a huge affair (like a foot long) and I would have been satisfied with the amount of meat, except that the meat was terrible. It was tremendously under-​smoked, and instead of falling off the bone, I has ripping and tearing that sucker off the bone. My teeth literally got tired of this and I gave up after eating only about a quarter of it.
I’ve done some meat smoking before and I would say this needed another 2 – 3 hours minimum to be any good.
The baked beans were also not good. Not were the few wings we got in addition.
Add to this, we arrived when they said pickup would be ready and we had to wait another 30 more minutes at the restaurant for our order. It was a Tuesday evening and it wasn’t even busy.
I went into this venture with high hopes, despite being aware of the negative reviews already here. We were hoping maybe they had worked through the bugs here. It appears they have not. I would not return here.

This is one of Portland’s best kept brunch secrets.
The food is top notch (farm fresh eggs, ya’ll!). The portions are generous and I have never had to wait in line. In fact, it’s almost never «busy» when I go in for brunch – we get our order in and piping hot food to our table a short while later.
Speaking of that food… the biscuits and gravy are INSANE, the beignets are legit and I’ve never seen so much fried catfish on a po’boy before!
The fact I can walk a couple blocks from my house and be here anxiously awaiting my food is a special bonus.

The sandwich is $ 9 and nothing comes with it. You want pickles on your sandwich? That will be extra. A sandwich, side and a soda comes to $ 15. At these prices, it needs to be really amazing food because you certainly are not paying for ambiance or amazing service.
Well dear readers, after having sampled this food I’m hoping you will avoid my mistake and keep moving. At these prices you won’t have a tough time finding much better fare. The sauce was the highlight, with a combination of peppery and sweet, the BBQ under it was tough. The bun was burned, the turner fries were greasy and soggy.

Went in here yesterday to redeem my groupon for pork products. Unfortunately the pork selection on Sunday was pretty depleted so I left with some chorizo and a few packages of pork sirloin.
While there tho — it smelled so good we decided to get some food for takeout. This place definitely deserves the accolades and stars it has received. It was yummy! I got the ribs — which were HUGE and full of lean meat. A half slab was enough for 3 meals! The BBQ sauce was smokey and delish — i added some from home because I like it a little spicier but it wasn’t necessary. My friend got the pulled pork sandwich which was also fabulous!
We ordered a variety of sides: collard greens, mac n cheese, rice and beans, fried pickles and jalapeño corn bread. Everything was spot on good but I liked the collard greens the best — quite spicy and flavorful!
Job well done and service with a smile!

A mini market and restaurant to satisfy all your needs in one very small space! Now Crown Q definitely is not a place to take a big group since it only looks like it seats 10 total. However, the food was surprisingly good. The ribs were so tender and the meat just fell off the bone. The collard greens burst with flavor and was filled with tender chunks of pork. I wasn’t a big fan of the brisket as the quality of the meat wasn’t up to par. However, I will admit that it was pretty tender.
Service was great but the cook in the back (guessing he was the owner) was a little to much preoccupied with the lady tending to the front. As a business that kinda of behavior shouldn’t be shown while you have patrons dining at your restaurant. For goodness sake, get a room!
My visit was mid-​October so hopefully this place stays open longer to try it again.