Fenouil

Small portions, fair service — we had a program for work w 35 peeps. Salad was salty! Entrée halibut was yummy. Anna cotta had rubbery texture. Overpriced. Nice ambiance.

We came to enjoy the last HH you will service and happily you didn’t disappoint us. Neither the underlying gloom nor restaurants demise kept the staff from presenting us with smiles and friendly composure. To wet our appetites and lift our spirits we started with a few glasses of vino. Next we ordered the braised pork cheeks and an artisanal cheese plate picked out by Steve Jones himself.
Like a warm hug or firm hand, these dishes provided the comfort we needed to go on. We slowly savored the braised cheeks which were served in a bowl of roasted vegetables and a salty broth. The cheese plate of aged Swiss, funky blue, apple butter, honeyed almonds and fresh bread brought an array of flavors for us to combine. Finally as if to ask forgiveness for their passing they presented me with the best $ 5 burger one could hope for. The moist beef, complimented by a mustard dill sauce and gourmet bacon bribed my taste buds bringing happiness instead of sorrow. I regret not sharing more time with Fenouil but am glad to have experienced delight in our short relationship.
Au revoir Fenouil —

FENOUIL HAS CROAKED? Per the reliable Portland Food & Drink, the following announcement from Fenouil says the restaurant’s last day of business is Sunday, April 3. With a pun intended for the fact Fenouil once had frog legs on the dinner menu, if you want to eat at Fenouil you’ll need to hop in before Monday it seems.
«It is with heavy hearts that we announce the closing of Fenouil, in Portland’s Pearl District. A longtime iconic restaurant, Fenouil unfortunately was not able to weather the storm of the financial crisis and will close its doors on Sunday, April 3^rd. We are extremely grateful for the efforts of our talented staff, led by Chef Jake Martin in the kitchen and Ginger Henderson-​Radichel as General Manager, and everyone who worked hard each day at Fenouil. The Dussin Group is currently weighing options as to the future of the restaurant space, more details will be forthcoming as decisions are made. A final thank you to the wonderful Portland community who supported us for so many years.»

tu m’avais à la tarte à l’oignon… Oui!
Fenouil you wow’d me, from the moment I stepped into the bar, and walked thru the restraunt pass the prep area and kitchen, you wow’d me! What a beautiful place! The mix of wood and stone, and the iron staircase, all of it is so beautiful! Yes it was my first time here, and I looked starstruck!
We sat in the bar, just missed HH by 10mins, but threw caution to the wind and said let’s do it! The wine was good, but the food… that was where it was at! We shared our small plates and enjoyd every morsel.
First up was the carmelized onion tart with whipped brie… oh yeah, melt in your mouth goodness! the crust was so thin and flaky, it was love at first bite!
Next we tried the hand rolled tagliatelle, very tasty, except my first bite of the clams was crunchy and graining, I think that one had a lot of sand left in it… the others were better.
Alas.dessert… Blood orange cake with vanilla cream of sorts… the flavors popped in our mouth, very refreshing and light. Also had the keylime (crustless pie?) so so good, the best keylime this side of the Caribbean, IMO
The place is a la sexy and high end, I received a few looks while walking thru to the restroom in my jeans and T… the wait staff though is nice and not full of attitiude.
For sure on my favorites list, beautiful and fabulous food… Fenouil is OhLaLa!

Well, it’s feeling like I’m back from the dead. In the last year I’ve spent a significant amount of time traveling the world and getting to try amazing food from lots of regions, particularly in France.
So, Fenouil is a place that I’ve gone several times over the past few years and every time it’s been a «meh» experience. I’ve come to realize that it’s the epitome of what I’ve come to call the «Pearlized Portland Experience» — basically the place where a Californian would bring their friends and family if they were stuck in Portland. I’m going to lump some other places in here as well including 10 – 01 (now closed) and Metrovino — overly pretentious, over priced, glamorized, claiming to be «Portland Cuisine», but somehow not very creative, cutting edge, or anything close to what I would consider «Portland Cuisine» to be.
That said, the food is okay — sure, the last time I went four of us got FOOD POISONING from the Tartare, but it’s a hallmark for me that while they attempted a classic preparation of a dish, they weren’t careful enough in the kitchen to get it right. Okay, okay, enough harshing. They DO have good cocktails — while this isn’t really my thing, I actually enjoyed these. I had the duck leg confit, which was excellent and someone else got the pork shoulder which I thought was very good. One person got the bouillabaisse which was just so-​so. We all had the foie gras which was one of the top three that I had had in Portland. Someone in the group liked it so much, they ordered it again for desert. To finish up, I went for the carrot cake which was not very good — the cake itself was dry and the dish was not put together well as mixing the flavors was very awkward with the presentation.
I’ve taken people here for business dinners because I felt the need to give that proper, elegant environment that suits tend to enjoy. For this, it doesn’t fail to disappoint. Everyone always has a good time and the service is fairly good. The food is NOT commensurate with the price of the menu, but you’re really paying for the location and the cache.

One-​word impression: APPEALING
Just got back from brunch at Fenouil earlier today, after being invited to eat there by a colleague for a meeting. I don’t meander out to the Pearl District for brunch often (and by that I mean EVER), but I’m going to have to consider it further after a pretty good experience overall.
Being used to some of the other brunch places around town where I’ve had to wait what feels like an eternity for a table, it was refreshing to be able to get seated right after walking in the door. I think the lack of a queue can be attributed to how fancy of a place it was. The décor was very clean and elegant, the waiters all had standard uniforms, and the clientele were all looking like they had just come from church services. Even though I had a collared shirt and sweater on, I felt a bit dressed down with my jeans and Sambas.
Food-​wise, they had a relatively small menu for brunch, but it offered items I usually don’t see much of offered for brunch. They seemed fairly reasonably priced, too, ranging from about $ 10 – 15 per plate. I ended up having the Pork Belly Omelette (how can I resist pork belly?), which was as rich and as good as you can imagine it being. It was greasy, but not nearly as heavy as I expected. It was overall a tasty dish that met my expectations of the establishment. I had a bite of my colleague’s Mushroom Omelette, which was better than other ones I’ve had around the city as it actually had some flavor to it. However, it mildly suffered a bit from a heavy hand with the goat cheese, which completely covered any mushroom flavoring, which is a shame.
Overall, Fenouil was a different experience for brunch than what I typically had. However, it was still a good experience with some solid food at a more reasonable price than expected. I am interested in seeing what this place is like for dinner, as from browsing their menu, it seems like they up the ante quite a bit. If the quality is as solid for dinner as it was for brunch, it just might be worth placing a bet on another time.

Happy Hour.
Fenouil must be French for Happy Hour. Because that, to me, is what this place is all about. And really, what my 4-​stars are all for.
Fenouil is a very high-​end French restaurant in the Pearl. Regular dinner prices range in the $$$ to $$$$ range. The menu is an ambitious read, and the dishes have a look to match. The food is tasty, and the setting is fairly exquisite. I’m not sure the quality of food justifies the price, but the whole package together could be worth it if you want to spend to impress.
But what this review is really about is the HH menu in the bar. From 4−6pm on weekdays, Fenouil offers it’s small-​plates menu for ½ off in the bar. This menu includes an array of delectable delights for what works out to be a beyond-​reasonable price for the setting.
Items such as an ahi crudo, a large and well-​appointed burger with salad, delicious pork belly pot au feu, onion tart, fries, mussels with sausage, tagliatelle, pâté and more run in the $ 3-​$ 6 range. All are fairly high end. Some are in large portions (namely the burger), and everything is quite tasty. Add in some $ 5 red, white or bubbly, and you can do some fine dining for mere pocket change.
On Thursdays and Saturdays they offer live music in the bar, which is a nice touch. The service is quite on-​point and done with a smile.
While I don’t have the bling required for some regular dining here, I would definitely make this an HH spot any time I wanted some high qual eats on the cheap.

I had this restaurant recommended to me by friends long ago as having an amazing happy hour. I decided to try it out for my bridal shower and was very happy with that evening. They seated us well and the chef even kept sending little complimentary dishes to our table. I enjoyed it so much that I decided to go back for my birthday dinner… big mistake.
First of all the hostess was filled with attitude that is, when we could actually get our table any attention. It was horribly embarrassing as the night went on and more and more of my guests were making comments about how for the price they were being charged you would think we could get someone to actually wait on us and how we were being treated like third class citizens etc.
I was also very disappointed they stopped carrying escargot which was one of my main reasons for going there to begin with. The food was good but I now have several amazing French restaurants to chose from so why would I spend twice the amount to be treated like I am lucky they even gave me a table.
To top off the evening a friend was in a huge hurry so she asked to pay for her portion of the bill really quickly and gave the hostess her card. It took us a bit to realize (after my friend had run out the door since she was in a hurry) that the hostess charged the 20 person dinner completely to my friend’s card. When we discovered this it seriously took an hour to get the mess straightened out and the staff were extremely rude about it. I will not be back and if you want a list of some great French restaurants I will happily give them to you so you can avoid this one.

I was really excited to check this place out, as we were visiting from out of town for the holidays and it was in close proximity to where we were staying. Big mistake. Maybe it was because we visited on an off hour (arrived around 2:45PM for a late lunch)?
There was barely anyone there, and when the waiter finally ventured over to take our drink order, he acted like it was a big inconveience for us to be there during the off hour. He was clearly enjoying his «break» without customers dining in his section. The hot drink that we ordered arrived luke warm. It took about 15 minutes to find out «if they could make a side salad» since it was not on the menu. It took 45 minutes after ordering for our food to arrive. And the portions were ridiculously small (butternut squash soup was $ 9 for about ¹⁄₃ of a bowl– it should have been called a «cup» of soup). The cheese board only had a variety of 2 cheeses. Everything was exteremly overpriced and nothing was great, everything was just okay. The list goes on.
I understand that we were here during an off time, but if this is the experience that customers are going to have if dining outside of normal hours, you should just close for a couple of hours and reopen for dinner. Needless to say, with all of the great dining options on the Pearl, I wouldn’t recommend dining here.

If you have $ 100.00 to drop on an appetizer this is the place.
Only order off the right side of the menu if the Portland Concierge is footing the bill. Expect to tip about $ 50-​$ 100.
Located in the HART of the Pearl district there is no cringing from the ostentatious pretext. Dainty deserts that are seriously gone in one single bite.
Doors and seating open out onto Jamison Square where you can take in the man made waterfalls and hear little kids laughing. This is what Rome must have felt like shortly before it burned.
However, rest assured it is worth every dime. Truly you get what you pay for. The food, the wine, the service, the silver wear, even the toilet paper are so luxurious most people have never imagined such a lavish experience.
Think of it this way: either you can go on vacation, or go out to dinner.

What used to be one of my favorite Portland restaurants has just become the place that I warn people about. Not sure what happened but it wasn’t good.
Let’s start with the bar. Fenouil used to have a signature cocktail called Le Poire. «Used to» is the operative verb because they don’t have it anymore. The problem is that the waiter must get alot of grief about it being removed because he was EXTREMELY defensive when we asked why it had been taken off the menu. We settled for two other overpriced 4oz. martinis. Attitude cost them a star on this review.
Next there was the food. I am not sure what happened to the old menu but the new one sucks. I am not a picky eater and I am not the type who sends things back. I just couldn’t find anything on the menu that looked remotely appetizing. The old favorites are no longer. They need to fire the «chef» and hire an old fashioned cook.
Lastly, the portions are painfully small. Small drinks. Small appetizers. Small entrees. Expect to pay $ 120+ for you plus your date and plan to leave hungry and sober!

Order some fries since you have to wait a half hour for your entrée, even though the restaurant was practically empty. I love the location.
I’d recommend coming for happy hour.

This last visit was a joke. The hostess greeted us at the door with, «Can I help you?». Mind you, it was brunch on a Sunday. Wasn’t aware they did more than seating people to eat. Should have been our first clue.
Coffee & water service spot on. No menu, no waiter, nothing. 20+ minutes later, we were refilled on coffee and that’s when we asked for the manager.
Manager claimed to have been out for a few minutes, but was super sorry we hadn’t been helped. Menus, ordered, was comped everything.
Unfortunately, my breakfast was burnt (french toast, how the hell, right?). Waiter came and apologized up and down for not being on the spot, which was nice, but I still feel bad for the other three tables that waited longer than us, and didn’t get any kind of apology. It wasn’t us, it was the whole section of the restaurant. We just spoke up.
I still love this place, I’m just pissed. This should have been a great experience as they all have been in the past. I’ll be back, but strike one.

Classy brunch venue! Loved the huge glass windows looking out to Jamieson square.
We had a large group with us for brunch, but service was quick and professional. A 20% gratuity was automatically included.
I had the Dungeness crab eggs benedict — came with avocado, lots of real crab meat, no filler. Egg was perfectly runny and it came served on a nice crispy brioche. The hollondaise sauce was creamy, light and lemony — went great with the roasted potatoes.
I preferred the croque madame though, served with a sunny side duck egg. Ham and gruyère — so hard to go wrong. It’s on par with Bouchon bistro’s in LV. And more affordable!
They also served us complimentary beignets — ie donuts. Nice touch, they were hot and fluffy.
Overall, I thought this was great value for the food, service and experience.

Delicious, creative, and gorgeous presentation. Eating on the patio overlooking the park was a highlight as well. Felt like we were in Paris~
The potato and leek vichyssoise was poured at the table and was the best I have ever had.
We will be back!

For reasons I will soon explain, I actually debated giving Fenouil only 2 stars, but also considered 4 stars. That about sums up our experience there yesterday.
As the weather was conducive to outdoor dining, and the restaurant is only a couple of blocks from our apartment, we headed over to Fenouil around 5pm. In order to enjoy the Happy Hour specials, the hostess indicated we could sit in the bar area or on the right side of the outdoor patio. Of course we opted for the patio.
The first negative was the screaming 3-​year-​old at the table across from us. His mom wasn’t trying too hard to calm him down; she was too busy sipping her cocktail (s) with her girlfriends. Our other «neighbors» were chatty middle-​aged women. No problems there.
A waitress greeted us fairly quickly with tall glasses of ice water, but she had to go back inside to get us the happy hour menu. We each ordered a drink and perused the menu, ultimately deciding to order one or two smaller plates followed by two entrée-​sized dishes. We specifically asked the waitress if we should wait awhile to put in the order for the entrees, as we didn’t want them to arrive too soon (while we were still enjoying our appetizers). She said she would take the entire order, but would wait to initiate the entrees until we were ready.
We chatted and enjoyed the sunshine while we waited the approx 10 minutes for our appetizers to arrive. Although we ordered 3 items (raw oysters, olives, tete de cochon), they arrived individually about 3 – 5 minutes apart. Since we were not sharing them, one person had to sit with a plate of food waiting for the other to receive theirs. This wouldn’t have been an issue except for the fact that we had also discussed this with the waitress prior to ordering (ie, that we wanted those dishes all at once and then the entrees after we were finished). Despite that minor snafu, we both enjoyed the food.
Unfortunately, less than 10 minutes after receiving our appetizers, a server came out with our entrees (hamburger with duck fat fries and the braised rabbit vol au vent). We weren’t even halfway through our first course so immediately sent them back. A bit perturbed that our simple timing request had not been met, we finished our appetizers. In the meantime, another family with young children had been seated on the patio and the kids were jumping around and talking very loudly. Not to mention that the 3-​year-​old had now proceeded to remove his pants and, only wearing a diaper, was whining & climbing all around the patio furniture by his mom.
Just as our appetizer plates were being cleared, we realized it was almost 6pm and the end of happy hour. As we were more than ²⁄₃ finished with our drinks, we placed an order for a 2^nd round. Our rather we tried to. Our waitress said that she could not «double-​up» on drinks and would not bring us the new ones until we had finished the 1^st ones.
We waited, and waited, for our entrees. Considering they had already been ready for 20min at this point, we wondered if they had simply kept the food under a heat lamp or if they were cooking it fresh. Finally, after at least 15min, someone brought our entrees. The fries were definitely freshly cooked, and it seemed like the hamburger might have been as the bun wasn’t soggy; but we had ordered it rare and it came out medium. My vol au vent, which is pulled rabbit cooked in a pastry crust, was tasty enough, but the crust was fairly soggy leading me to believe that it had been sitting under a warming unit while we ate our appetizers.
Bottom line — we could have enjoyed our experience at Fenouil 10x more if we hadn’t been surrounded by whining children or had our expectations set too high by our waitress. Would I go back? Maybe… I’d like to try the mussels & clams dish on the HH menu. But I would probably think twice about sitting on the patio or ordering all the food courses at once.
Positives:
*The wait staff refilled our water glasses consistently without being prompted.
*Great outdoor dining space.
*Good food.
Negatives:
*If you’re going to sit outside on a nice day, beware that you’ll likely be sharing the space with rowdy children and the related noise from Jamison Park.
*Inconsistency with food delivery despite explicit discussion on timing.
*Waitress wouldn’t put in order for 2^nd round of happy hour drinks until we were 100% finished with our 1^st round. When we received our final bill, despite ordering the 2^nd round during HH, our waitress charged us full price for the drinks.

Fenouil, je t’adore beaucoup.
My friends and I were happy campers from Happy Hour on a Sunday. The rhubarb-​ginger-​vodka drink was quite fantastique as was the pinot noire!
We ordered:
— hamburger with pomme frites, which had great flavors from an abundant amount of caramelized onions, gruyère cheese, aoli sauce and bacon. Magnifique!
— moules et palourdes, the clams and mussels were good but i would have liked some wine in the preserved fennel and meyer lemon sauce
— lapin vol au vent, braised rabbit with carrots and peas served with a pastry shell. Tres delicieux.
Btw, Happy Hour is 7 days a week, from 4−6pm.

HAPPY HOUR
Fenouil is truly someplace special! aw-​dropping and totally impressive place with quality wine and good cocktails. A perfect place for a date. Completely stunning upon entrance with glamorous, trés ritzy style. Outside patio can’t be beat either. Pronounced fen-​EW-​eee (French for fennel).
FOOD DEALS $ 3-​$ 10
Half-​off their extensive bistro menu (20 items) includes salads, cheese plates, foie gras, salmon w/​spinach, oysters, mussels, burger, pommes frites, and the best French onion soup ever!
DRINK DEALS
$ 2.00 off all beer; $ 5.00 wine selections
$ 5.00 cocktail or spirit special

Fenouil’s (pronounced Fen-​oooh-​eee) has a pretty nice happy hour that starts at 2 on Sundays.
$ 5 red/​white/​bubbly
$ 5 cocktail of the day
$ 5 sangria
and some sort of beer special.
The bartender was extra-​special nice and made me a champagne cocktail w peach bitters for my bubbly selection.
The happy hour food menu is pretty much ½ off their regular menu. They do have a few vegan options, which makes this hippy lady very happy.
Warning: The olives come out HOT. LIke, to touch. Like, burn your mouth and fingers. Like, I’ve never experienced hot olives before. Nice flavors though – rosemary and chili pepper.
The truffle oil fries were nice – a tad oily, but a pleasant taste overall.
With a nice atmosphere, nice service, nice drinks… I would come back if I were in the neighborhood, but I don’t know if ‘nice’ would drag me over to the Pearl just for this place.

After all this time, now I know why Fenouil is so busy. I met our group in the Bistro area to try Fenouil’s Happy Hour menu. They do not disappoint. Loved the service. Loved the atmosphere. Loved the food.
The greet staff was pleasant and the table staff was accommodating. One more waitstaff would not have hurt. The Bistro was busy on Sunday night, and rightfully so because of their Happy Hour until close.
The atmosphere is a little fancy, but more laid back in the Bistro, while the main dining area is romantic, light and airy. The bathrooms were luxurious.
The mussels were plump and briny with saffron. The truffle fries good, but mainly limp. The foie gras was decadent on toasted brioche. The crab beignets were light as air. If you leave without getting the beignets, you will be doing yourself an injustice.
Next time, I’m skipping the fries and doubling up on the crab beignets.

Loved this place.
It was a beautiful afternoon in the 70’s and the sun was out and we were having brunch outside watching everyone have fun in the park area next to us.
When all the stars align this place is a little piece of heaven!
The food was not crazy off the charts good… but they make a mean Bloody Marie and we had a very nice brunch.
Thank you for a great ending to a fun weekend!