Grain & Gristle

FANTASTIC fresh burger. Must go! All their meat is home ground daily. We will be back!

Now, mind you, I was awaiting a visit from Aunt Flo when I walked in, so my senses may have been more keen than usual, but this burger ranks up there with the first time I did the naughty with my extremely hot spouse. Not only did the guy behind the bar answer all of my pain in the ass questions about whether the beef was free-​range (yes) and whether the red velvet cake had red dye (yes), but he, my hero for the night, brought out the burger that turned this former-​vegan into a ravening lioness who fell asleep in the veldt afterwards, blood runneth from my tongue, etc. Best burger in Portland. Also, really excellent bourbon stout…

I love that this place is consistent with great service and great food. I do wish they had a little more as far as liquor options go. Brunch is always awesome, dinner is always awesome. They really have it down here. I had the taptail when i was in last and it was amazing! Keep up the good work G&G! I have truly never been disappointed by a meal here.

Pork croquettes. Remember when you were a kid and how freaking amazingly delicious McDonald’s Chicken McNuggets were back then? These… are so much better. Their burger was fantastic too. No sauces necessary, perfectly cooked and seasoned. They only have locally made spirits at the bar (or at least they didn’t have captain, pyrat, or sailor for rums), but the rum and coke I got was served as a glass of rum on the rocks with a glass-​bottled coke (hencho en mexico, real cane sugar!) on the side. This place was empty when I arrived at 5:30PM on a Monday night, but got packed around 6 and hadn’t let up by the time we left at 8:00PM.

G n G is a G thang. I had the Kielbasa and the Pickled plate and I HATE pickled things, but the way they prepare it made it tolerable to the point where my HATE turned into DESIRE. I DESIRED the pickled plate. The Kielbasa was also very good. very very good. very good. very good. you see how good it is?

Best burger Ive had in Portland. Been there twice both time the burger was cooked perfectly, med rare with a nice dark sear on the outside, perfect bun I got blue cheese it was great.
Good beers and excellent service will be back soon!

Sometimes, when I’m at work, and not working, it’s because I’m daydreaming about the pork I had here.

Amazing food and great beer selection! I had the burger, added the blue cheese and bacon… magical!!! I don’t know where they get their brioche buns from, but it was so good, it rivaled the delicious juicy decadent burger patty! My fella had the roasted pork shoulder on top of root veggies which was fall apart– moist– crazy flavorful minefield! Excellently cooked! The gal behind the bar was a great host and the place is cozy and nice, a perfect place for a date or meeting up with friends for a bite and a beer! You can’t go wrong!

I came strictly to try the burger. I’m a huge burger fan and I’m on a quest to find one of the best in Portland. I wasn’t overly impressed by my first bite — you have to do something to make your burgers stand out, whether it be the way you cook/​marinade them, the bun, a certain cheese, toppings/​sauce, etc. For this burger, it’s the brioche roll and aioli that stood out for me. The burger was perfectly juicy and the combination of juicy meat, melty cheese, creamy aoili on a toasted brioche bun was delicious. So far, its in my top 3 burger places in Portland. I got my order to-​go as I was eating alone but the vibe inside was cool. Lots of good beers on tap too, must try those next time!

I’ve been here several times, and the food is good — hence the two-​star review and not a single star.
I called today because I wanted to come in with a friend who is deathly allergic to gluten, and when I asked if they could accommodate that, the guy who answered the phone told me to check the online menu. I asked if the gluten-​free items were explicitly marked on the menu and he told me no, they are not.
I explained that the menu wouldn’t be much help because it probably doesn’t indicate if flour is used in sauces or in other subtle ways, and at that point he told me he was too busy to talk to me. I said I would call back and asked what time would be best. He just hung up on me.
Food and service are like video and audio. Is the service sucks, it doesn’t really matter how good the food is. This guy was a total insensitive asshat and as much as I like the food, I don’t want to give this place my money after being treated so rudely.

Cute place for a date. No gluten free options. Interesting appetizers, like a plate of pickled veggies! Burger was delicious! Waitress was very knowledgable and friendly. They do dinner specials served family style.

It was a bit of a hike out here from the city, and back again to where we were staying in Hawthorne, but worth it. G&G was recommended from one of the breweries we had been to earlier, and it capped off a great day of all things Portland for us. The meals were simple, and with limited options, but all very tasty and interesting, if a touch overpriced for what you get.
Staff were great, and there’s a superb laid-​back vibe to the whole place that would make me a regular if I lived nearby.

Friend took us here because of the reviews from her friends. We sat out on the porch and even though none of us had a beer, I ordered the braised pork shoulder. The presentation looked great and eye appealing. However, I must’ve thought the shoulder was slow cooked as it turned out it had more give to it. The sauce was flavorful and had a tinge of tang. Seasonings were right on point. The gnoochi was also nice and soft. I just had a problem with the pork shoulder. It seemed borderline rubbery but my friends said that’s how it’s cooked, so I was under the wrong assumption of the braised shoulder. Beyond on the food, the atmosphere had a nice wood patio and blackboard specials on the sides, with music to wrap you into the restaurant. Server was nice and checked in several times to not forget about us. This will most likely be just a one time visit.

Atmosphere was good, retro, service was good, beer was great, food not so good.
Had the meatloaf, was dry and potatoes were over crusted and dry. Beets were fantastic. Burgers look great.

What a fabulous find. Great beer selection and cool vibe.
My son had the hamburger, which was very nice. My husband and I shared the fish charcuterie. I had never seen that on a menu before. It was phenomenal!
Our waiter was awesome! He was fun and totally cool with our son.
This is one of those places that is quintessential Portland!

Vegetarian Review: I want to start out to say that the service was top notch. But this place really annoyed me as a vegetarian. I would not have picked a place called grain and gristle… that would have been asking for it, but as happens so many times, my meat-​eating friend makes the decision without thinking about my food preference. Not a big deal… but I wish that restaurants that specialize in meat would consider that occasionally a vegetarian friend might be brought along and would like to be treated as an equal counterpart to their meat-​eating brethren. Here’s why:
1. There is no vegetarian entrée. Only meat things. This is a number one beef with me. When I am hungry and would like to order a complete-​ish meal, I would like at least 1 measly vegetarian option. Is it so hard to put a plate together with veggies? Any restaurant that doesn’t do this, I feel treats me like a second class customer, an accident… like «How did you get in here, we weren’t expecting your kind… what an anomaly, we don’t really know what to do with you.» I contrast this with eating at The Farm Café the next night… which had at least four AMAZING-​sounded veggie entrees, and I loved the one I got. I even told the waitress there that I felt like a «first-​class citizen».
So what did I do? I asked the very lovely waitress if I could maybe put a plate together with several things on it. The answer was no… I know it was a stretch, but it would have made me very happy. So this left me with the next option…
2. Order lots of vegetable side dishes. The only thing was that these side dishes were pretty expensive and many had meat on them. So I would need to pay for the meat, which it’s priced at, and then asked for the meat removed. Of course. they probably wouldn’t take the price down for removing the most expensive part of the dish. Now if I order two side dishes… already my food cost is more than any of my meat-​eating entrée friends. Bummer, considering really that I eat the cheapest thing around if you’re shopping at the grocery store.
so… I ordered the salad and deviled eggs and figured that I’d see where things would lie with an order of onion rings for the table. So the rings came… and I must say they were delicious. They of course were breaded, fried food… so filling but not the healthiest thing you can put in your mouth. I was momentarily happy.
The salad came out and I was quite dissapointed. I ordered it because it said that it came with grilled vegetables. What came out was a quarter wedge of a small raddiccio with thin slices of veggies that almost looked like jalapenos… just for taste, not for fill. That thing dissappeared fast. Now the dressing was amazing… so the taste palate was great. Very flavorful. But hardly a substantial meal. The deviled eggs came out and !!! there was a dang fish on it! How did I miss that?
I was so hungry still (we’d spent the day at the beach) that I had to order another plate of fries just so I could walk out of an already expensive meal not feeling hungry.
So basically, I spent a lot of money on onion rings and fries, with a little piece of lettuce and a fishy egg.
Now, the flavors were quite good. But who cares if you don’t feel like you can get a decent meal short of eating a bunch of fried food. I would have rather gone to a food cart and spent 8 dollars on that.
Now the service was outstanding, the flavor was good… if they can just get the format right I would even recommend it. But if you are a vegetarian stay away! If they would put even one vege entrée on the menu I would change my mind.

So, food was fairly good but… as stated in some of my other posts, somewhat overpriced for what you get. I am frustrated with this trend to overvalue the food that is placed in front of you as the consumer. This trend in Portland has occurred in last 5 years. As more people move here from NY and California, prices go up, portion size goes down. G&G charged 9 dollars for a very very small salad, which was tasty but…9 dollars?! Come on!
The atmosphere is nice but extremely loud and obnoxious. Could do with some ceiling sound panels to dampen it a bit.
Service was very friendly and not pretentious.
Ultimately, you go for the food, which is overpriced for what you get. But I guess that is what people are willing to pay for food that costs cents on the dollar to make.

Just had the burger. while it wasn’t medium rare or even medium like they said, it was delicious. probably in my top 6 spot. I had it with blue cheese and bacon. it was juicy and perfectly constructed. The amount of blue cheese was perfect and added the perfect punch. Ill be back.
I’ve also had brunch there too; it was a year ago, but I remember it was excellent. Not a tasty n sons or screen door, but still really good.
Another great thing about this place is that is underrated, this is good because there isnt a long wait.

Awesome gastropub food at an affordable price! I ordered the old salt’s hot dog with baked beans and kraut. The girlfriend got their special that day which was a meatloaf sandwich served on Texas toast with a spring green salad. We also decided to share a mussels frites served with charred allium vin, preserved lemon, and aioli. I was a feeling a bit sick that night, so opted not to get any alcohol.
Everything was quite good, I particularly enjoyed the beans served with the hot dogs. The meatloaf sandwich was probably the best dish of the night for me; it was served open faced on top of deliciously buttered Texas toast. Excellent balance of salty and sweet for the meatloaf. The broth for the mussel frites was delicious and the fries actually paired quite well with it. The whole meal was very affordable with our bill coming out to around $ 30.

There are so many brunch places in Portland, and although Grain and Gristle is a solid choice for the neighborhood. I’m not sure if I would want to return. Food is decent but not very memorable to my tastebuds. I have been here twice and tried the home-​smoked trout and scramble eggs and the eggs Benedict. While the smoked trout is fairly unique, Veritable Quandary and Bridges Café make a better eggs benny.
Service was decent.
For larger groups, be aware they only take at most three credit cards.