Roe

Amazing dining experience. Walking through the restaurant in the front to the secret room in the back is so cool. And then the hyper focus on local seasonal vegetables and local seafood is outstanding. A truly special place to have a meal.

Holy god this place will knock your socks off. I don’t have any pictures, but I can assure you that every dish was delicious and each course got progressively better and better.
Hands down, one of the top restaurants I had while in Portland. YUM!

Love this place, small quiet room, perfect service, really really great food. We averaged out at 100.00 a person with wine and, if in Seattle, it would be considered a real deal. We selected the four plate 45.00 option and every single bit was over the top amazing. They have a larger prix fix deal but you need to show up for a 7:00 reservation.
About reservations, if not cancelled at least 24 hours in advance they charge 35.00 per person.
One of our guests was very very late so we asked to be seated without him and since the table needs to order all at the same time we made our missing guest our ghost eater and ordered for him. Since he was going to cost 35.00 as a missing guest, and the four plate deal is 45.00, for 10.00 extra this was a good deal– we split the first three plates and our ghost made it in for dessert.
They comped us some really good champagne when they discover that we were celebrating .
No music or cellphone service in the dinning room is a small bit of heaven and the staff is super attentive without being annoying.
And, to repeat — the food is great!

Amazing from start to finish. Service, cozy room, perfect timing of courses, and recommendations were fantastic. The flavors of the dishes were so original and the presentation was incredibly beautiful. Perfect for special occasions!

I don’t even know where to start with this review. My mouth has never experienced such a roller coaster of all sorts of flavors and amazingness. A week before our Portland trip, my date and I were lucky enough to get reservations for 9PM on a Saturday night, in celebration for his birthday. By the time we finished our dinner, it was almost 11:30PM!
We opted to do wine pairing ($ 45/​person) with our courses, and I highly recommend it. My date and I picked different dishes from the courses so we could try everything.
We started off with bread and butter and 3 different salts to season it to our liking. Next, we were presented with Smoked dashi soup, which recommended to drink straight from the bowl.
First Course:
1) Butterfish — this had shaved foie gras on top (I’m a sucker for foie gras!) and just melted in my mouth.
2) Hamachi Belly — was elegantly presented and tasted just as amazing as it looked. However, Butterfish prevails — yes, biased towards the foie gras.
Second Course:
1) Scallop — the pepper gelee gave such a nice kick to the dish
2) Crab Phở — I couldn’t believe the noodles were made from cuddlefish. the broth had so much flavor in it as well!
Third Course:
1) Ora King — «super fatty new zealand king salmon» accurate describes it. One of the fattiest salmons I’ve tried, and seriously just melted in my mouth.
2) Skillfish — this was hands down the winner of the night. The black cod was cooked to perfection. The piquillo pepper sauce was what sealed the deal and went perfectly with the cod.
Fourth Course:
1) Spice Cake — came out with a lit candle on the plate as they remembered the occasion. this was as delicious as can be and paired very nicely with the wine.
2) Cheese — I enjoyed this too much! Cremeux de bourgogne has to be my new favorite cheese of all time.
Thank you Roe for giving me a life changing experience with your amazing cuisine. I will be back once I’m in Portland again!

We were finally able to grab a same day reservation but it wasn’t until 9 pm. We arrived 15 mins early, but were immediately seated at a counter overlooking the kitchen to await our reservation. We ordered drinks at the bar and eagerly awaited our escort into the room behind the curtain!
Upon entering Roe, we noted how the round blown glass light fixtures added a calm to the dim but active space. Architecturally, the space was stark but cozy. The tables were spaced with enough distance that we didn’t feel like we were intruding on other conversations when we were speaking.
My dining partner and I each ordered one of the choice 4 course menus along with the separate wine pairing (sans caviar). We were immediately served a course of buttery and airy bread along side 3 house-​made salts: smoked tuna, citrus, and anise. All were delicious and we joked about taking some home to go.
For the first course, I had the big eye tuna tartare. The sake & dashi gelee along with the puffed rice was delish. My partner ordered the Butterfish that was literally covered in a furry coat of shaved foie gras and yuzu tobiko. The truffle soy ponzu was to die for! The pairing was lovely for each as well.
For the second course I had the butter poached diver scallop. The scallop itself was cooked perfectly but I feel the heaviness of the poblano sauce completely overwhelmed the delicacy of the scallop. In this case a few strategically placed dots on the plate might would have sufficed. My partner ordered the lobster phở. The lobster was delicious as well but he didn’t care for the sauce. The wine pairings for both were ok.
The third course for me was gin-​glazed king salmon. The consistency of the fish was smooth and buttery. My partners sea bass was poached in olive oil and was a complete dream for any white fish lover. The hen of the woods and abalone mushrooms with piquillo pepper popcorn sauce was to die for. The wine pairing for both courses was amazing! My partner doesn’t even like white wine and LOVED the Chardonnay!
My fourth and final course was the cheese and sour cherry sorbet with hazelnut streusel crumble. Pairing this with the sour cherry beer was literally a match made in heaven. My partners chocolate dessert was just as delish even though the port-​like flavored pairing was not his favorite.
The service overall was awesome. The woman who served us our first drinks also gave us some of their amazing salts in a take-​home to go. We will definitely recommend this restaurant to others and we will be back ASAP!

Great food. Great service. Server was very knowledgable and nice. Did the wine pairings with the four course menu.

Roe was one of the culinary highlights of our Portland trip, with Le Pigeon as the other!
Hidden in the back of B&T Oyster Bar, Roe serves some beautiful plates of seafood. For $ 75 per person — which is a great value considering the quality of ingredients and portion sizes — you select one item from each of four courses. If you eat here with at least one other person, you can try almost everything on the menu so I won’t go over each individual item. We enjoyed all the seafood dishes but being the fatty that I am, I particularly loved these two dishes:
1) Poached Maine lobster with coconut tapioca, hearts of palm, and lobster yellow curry. SO GOOD! This probably ranks up there with The French Laundry as far as the best lobster I’ve ever had.
2) Super fatty New Zealand king salmon with chanterelles, sunchoke purée, and perigord truffle burerre blanc. Another excellent dish!
Compared to the great dishes that came before it, dessert seemed like a disappointing afterthought but not enough to ruin our dining experience.
Service was attentive and professional but I initially was turned off by the unnecessarily secretive, exclusive reception; despite arriving a little early for our reservation and being just the second party in the restaurant, we were forced to stand/​sit by the oyster bar for whatever reasons before being ushered into the back room.

Another level of dining.
My wife appreciates the finer things. At one point in my life I would have scoffed at a $ 75 tasting menu, but now that I’ve been around the block a bit, that is actually one heck of a deal.
I think raving about any particular item would be a little counterproductive as the menu changes regularly. I will tell you that the menu consists of a raw course, an appetizer, an entrée, and a dessert. All for $ 75 and you can get the wine pairing (which according to my wife was done very well) for another $ 45 It’s actually quite a deal in the realm of fine dining and this certainly is.
It’s tucked in the back of BT Oyster bar. Just go behind the velvet curtain and you’ll find a room with just 8 tables or so.
The wait staff is very professional, friendly and knowledgable. The kind that will refold your napkin after you get up to go to the bathroom. They know the region of the wine and exactly how the courses of the meal were prepared.
My word of caution is that you are the type that is a little squeamish about raw or undercooked fish I wouldn’t recommend it. A lot of the courses were very lightly cooked. The gives an amazing velvety smooth texture and a bright natural flavor. If the thought of this texture gives you the chills, then save your money and time and go elsewhere. However if you are willing to try seafood the way that is should be, then definitely hit up Roe.
I loved every course that I had and some of the components I normally don’t even like. My dish had mussels in it. I don’t even like mussels, but with the chefs deft hand with seasoning, it was probably the best bite of the night.
Treat yourself, be a little adventurous and give Roe a try.

Roe, roe, row your food, gently to my plate. Merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily, I’ll tell you what I ate.
Originally hidden, speakeasy style in the back of Block & Tackle/​Wafu they have expanded to open B&T Oyster Bar. Roe is still within and wholly separate.
Fixed menu Wednesday-​Saturday a la Noma, French Laundry and other high end establishments. Full bar and beverage actually adds to the experience. Instead of me being a beer and cocktail snob I opted for the full beverage service getting wine pairings and Italian apéritif and digestif. I had temptations to request specifics like Fernet or Strega, but thought it might offend the time they spent cultivating their menu and pairings.
Service is excellent. The menu and pairings well thought out and creative. There is something in having access to the kitchen and talking with chef’s that communicates the passion they bring to the dishes instead of an explanation from front house staff. That enthusiasm and gesturing of the techniques used is something you can’t replicate. With that you are at their timing mercy. It’s not some 6 cook staff being overseen by a chef, but 2 chef’s taking care of everything. The wine is the real value here, you’ll probably make money from them based on what they offer and what you buy.
It’s dim, dark and quiet, compared to B&T. The menu’s take time. My 1^st trip I did the 4 course and 2^nd 7 course. 1^st time wine pairings and 2^nd time full beverage and caviar which really pushed the budget out of reach. I actually got an extra 3 and 4 courses on each trip.
I don’t recall the specifics due to lag in review, but I had geoduck with a sweet citrus sauce, Dungeness crab in which I called ahead to ask for the cab fat so I could eat with their fantastic complimentary bread. A little butter and bread and crab inners, boom. The variety of high end ingredients they use to plate and garnish is top notch, it’s amazing they get this done without a full kitchen. Urchin and scallops are common on the menu. Ora Salmon, blue prawn with yuzu,. Octopus, and marlin crudo. I could go on and on. The course that lacked both times was dessert. I had them make a few «honeymoon» drinks and got some craft beer between courses because even at 8 courses over 2 hours there is some definite lull’s even with food conversation. Due to my night being extended so much longer I ended up getting food around midnight and delivered afterwards to my hotel.
It’s a top notch restaurant I recommend to any seafood and drinks lover, just make reservations a few months in advance.

OMG! I will try to put in words what was the most incredibly delicious meal that I have been blessed to have consumed in the last 1+years (but I am sure that it will not do full justice). I stopped in Portland on my way to a business meeting in FL to celebrate my son’s 23d birthday (OMG, how time flies). I looked up Unilocal reviews and knew this place promised serious dining and was perfect since all protein courses were based on stuff from the sea (my son gave up meat a few years back, but still is a ‘pescetarian’; better be since his degree is in fisheries biology :-))
We pre-​reserved the Chef’s Dinner (7 course) that is only available to 4 persons per night and only at 7 PM for $ 115 per head. So happy that I decided on this splurge, in any other major foodie place (SF, NYC, Napa), this would have easily been twice the price (and still worth it!).
Although advertised as 7 courses, it actually turned out to be 11 courses with the additional complimentary courses that were provided. Every course was perfection and I could recite every course in detail, but have decided to be lazy and simply post a photo of the evening menu.
Service was impeccable and we never rushed throughout our 4 hours of gourmet hedonism. We brought a bottle of ’02 Chave Hermitage Blanc that I had been saving in my Portland cellar which they served without corkage fee and also purchased a ’13 Domaine Weinbach Alsace Sylvaner. Both wines were killer and worked extremely well with the fish courses. We shared a portion of the Chave with their staff who knew what a special wine this was. In return we were gifted glasses of ’94 vintage port with dessert.
Without question, a meal that sets a benchmark for Portland (and the rest of the world) standards. Bravo!

This place is nice. Nice, nice. Wear your fancy underwear even though no one is going to see it kind of nice.
It’s the kind of place that: you eat until you can’t feel your face, drink until you can’t take a deep breath, trip and crack your rib and still only remember that the food was amazing.

When I go someplace new, I generally have an expectation and grade the place on whether it meets them. Rebecca picked this place, so I had none.
We started with a caviar flight. Each good; each different. Caviar was put on small pancakes. We could add crème frache, egg yoke, onion and chives. They were put together as invitingly as I have ever seen. It was lovely.
After caviar, we moved to the four main courses. My first was cerviche, some of the best I have ever had. It was followed by a fabulous scallop dish, followed by sea bass. Each had its own sauce.
We finished with cheese combined with sorbet and filberts. The tastes and textures mixed perfectly.
The service was excellent. They were very helpful with wine choices. They know how to match food with wine.
This place is expensive; it is worth it. Glad we went. Can’t wait to go again.

Roe has given me a life altering standard of the way seafood should be cooked.
Menu was 4 courses over the span of 2 hours. My boyfriend and I picked different dishes just to make sure we get to try everything. We also opted out of the wine pairings but got the recommended glass that suited our personal taste and would also work for the entire meal.
The butter poached scallops and ora king salmon were standout dishes to me as we sat is disbelief at how they could cook it so perfectly. Dessert was perfectly executed as well as the huckleberry sorbet is another memorable point for me. There was not one dish that disappointed us as every part of each dish had a tasty component that just worked perfectly as a whole.
My only complaint would be that they do not offer more as I would have loved to sit there all day and keep eating the chefs beautiful creations.

Walking in to Roe was a breathe of fresh air. It’s small, quaint & intimate space with just the right amount of lighting. Roe has 8 tables in the small space but you feel like you are in your own private restaurant.
We had the prefixed 8 course dinner, but really it was 10 course, with the wine pairing. Each course was more amazing than the next. I’m a big guy that loves large portions and most chef’s are small portions but each flight of food was just the right amount and by the end of the night I was completely full.
If you love food and wine that pairings this is a can’t miss experience.

My experience at Roe was perfection. I was extremely blown away by the flavors and presentation of each dish. Each one was a masterpiece!
I am not sure how these dishes were cooked because each one was extremely unique and included remarkable final touches– like shaved frozen foie gras!
Thank you Roe chefs for the most amazing experience dining in Portland!

Oh Roe. It’s been a few weeks since I dined here, and I’m still lusting over the memories.
First off, Roe doesn’t have a full kitchen. As in there is no open flame. But other than the lack of maillard (basically you can’t sear/​brown things), the meal was incredible. And even more so given the limitations. Chef Trent Pierce is a genius.
We had the four course prix menu which had 2 – 3 choices per course. Between A and I, we each ordered a different choice, so we could try the majority of the tasting menu.
FOOD:
I seriously loved everything I ate. All 8 dishes are documented in my photos. I’ll go over the highlights here.
Complementary bread, butter, and sea salt trio (miso, citrus, anise) — Good bread, amazing salts. The miso was our favorite.
Butterfish — Walu sashimi generously covered with shaved frozen foie gras and truffle, white soy sauce ponzu, yuzu tobiko, shiso. I think I went to heaven already and we were just getting started. I don’t even like the taste of foie gras normally, but the frozen texture was delicate perfection with the rich butterfish.
Surf & Turf — Butter poached scallop, confit lamb belly, charred ramps, meyer lemon, gin & castelvetrano olive butter emulsion. The one dish that had a non-​seafood meat. The lamb belly added that savory oomph to the delicate scallops. Such a great combo.
Ora King — New Zealand king salmon, salmon roe, caramelized onion, glazed asparagus, hollandaise. This is like a smoked salmon lover’s dream. But instead of thin smoked slices, it’s a ridiculously tender piece of sous-​vide salmon.
Cheese — Cremeux de bourgogne, sour cherry sorbet, hazelnut crumble. The cheese is a decadent triple cream with a hint of mushroom aroma. This was paired with the sweet/​sour cherry sorbet. Initially this confused the heck out of my taste buds. I couldn’t tell if it was too much of contrast to enjoy. But with every bite, I came to appreciate this pairing more and more. By the end, I was convinced I loved cheese and sorbet together.
SERVICE:
The service was outstanding — professional and enthusiastic. Our waiter took extra time to explain the dishes and chat with us, but he wasn’t overbearing or intrusive. He was also so kind to give us a complimentary dessert wine pairing, which he said was one of his favorites.
AMBIANCE:
Intimate, dimly-​lit, romantic, and upscale. Very small space with the two chefs working in the same room as the diners. There is a 4-​seater chef’s counter for the «Chef’s Tasting» menu.
OTHER NOTES:
–We chose not to get the pairings after a day of drinking, but I would make sure to try them next time. The selections sounded unique.
–Timing between dishes was on the longer side — two hours for four courses. But I let that slide, given the space limitations and only two chefs. The food more than made up for the wait.
–Make reservations early. At least 6 to 8 weeks in advance for weekend dinners. Roe is tiny and gets booked quick. (~30 seats).

First off, let me encourage you to call the restaurant directly to make a reservation as the Open Table system doesn’t allow you the full range of times and options (like the Chef’s Tasting).
Second, the service here is excellent, and although it means little to say they provided the best service in PDX, the staff were as efficient and professional as any I’ve encountered in bigger cities and overseas.
Third, the fish. It is flavorful, moist, and intelligently conceived and beautifully presented. Each course is a magazine cover. The four-​course menu follows a 1) Raw, 2) Shellfish, 3) Fin Fish, 4 Dessert format and diners choose between several selections within each course. The quality of the food and the service justify the $ 75 prix fixe
The Enoki mushroom dashi broth was an unexpected and incredible starter that awakened the palate with bursts of citrus and smoke and salt. It was delicious. The desserts were lovely.
There were one or two dishes where the sous-​vide might not have been my favorite way to prepare the dish (the butter-​poaches scallops were very delicate and tender but were less flavorful than a caramelized scallop) and I would not have minded more variation in the texture of the fish, and I would have appreciated more vegetables as part of the meal (the vegetables were more of a garnish than a serving). The flavors started to feel a bit one-​note by the end of the meal, but that may have been my fault for not knowing how to vary the flavors within the menu options. I was overall happy with the relaxing pace of service, the beauty of each course, the pleasant wine, and the incredible service. Everything was so delicious and beautifully presented an I would definitely recommend Roe to anyone seeking a fine dining experience in Portland.

Fish. Ridiculously delicious fish. Lot’s of it. Raw. Cooked. Tarted up. Sauced. This tiny little speakeasy of a restaurant hidden in the back of Block + Tackle is really, really good. $ 75 a head for a prix fixe menu of 4 courses, however there are three or four choices per course (and certainly something for any taste, presuming you’re not opposed to fish). $ 40 for the wine pairings. That makes for a fairly spendy dinner for two, but for the quality and sheer artistry of what you get it’s well worth it I think. The space is small, quiet, and intimate. The service is impeccable as well. I brought my girlfriend here for her birthday this week and we were ‘wowed’. We ordered strategiclly – each ordering something different per course, eating half, then swapping plates. That might be uncouth, but we didn’t care. We wanted to sample it all!
This is certainly one of the very best restaurants currently in Portland.

$ 330 for dinner for two (4 courses plus wine pairings, an apéritif and digestif and tip) is a hell of a lot of money. It’s definitely something I couldn’t do on any sort of regular basis, and even once in a lifetime might be sufficient. But damn if the amazing staff at Roe didn’t make me feel really, REALLY good about spending a car payment’s worth of scratch on a fancy dinner. Everything was perfect. Everything.
Seeing as the menu constantly changes, there’s little reason to go into the specifics of the meal, but each course of this modern seafood experience was amazingly fresh, delicate and balanced. Truly unique flavors were paired expertly with wines that were each delivered with a fun fact or two from the knowledgeable staff. I sort of felt like I should be taking notes, but ultimately just decided to enjoy the experience, appreciate the volunteered info and hope that some of it ends up retained.
If you’ve got a very, VERY special occasion to plan, booking at Roe should be an easy decision you can feel good about.