Tapalaya

I actually found this place while waiting in line for screen door. the line was not moving and I was starving. I am so glad I found this place it is now my favorite restaurant in Portland. its southern comfort food and the cornbread is amazing! Ive tried pretty much everything, the fried chicken, the crabby mac and cheese, the fried okra, its all delicious!!!

Siri & I stopped in for dinner.
OMG. Perfect, perfect, perfect!
Look at my reviews. I am not easy to please. This place won’t, wow you with personality of the servers but bottom line is this. If you go in knowing that they are lacking in personality, you won’t be disappointed.
Fried Catfish — Awesome
5 spice chips — Wild Flavor (search for the spice)
Cocktail Sauce— grab some extra napkins
WILL FOR SURELY BE BACK!!!

I loved my egg dish and side of cheesy grits. I almost feel like a traitor saying this, but the grits might have been TOO cheesy… Doesn’t mean I didn’t finish them though.
The real winner of my meal was the server with short grey hair who gave me tips on what do for my day in Portland. Thanks to her I hada lovely meal and a fantastic time checking out the rose garden and Laurelhurst theater.

Food was just above ok. Corn bread was dry and tasted like Jiffy mix. Fried chicken was like shake-​n-​bake and the Mac and cheese was dry. Also had the steak Dianne and while it a nice flavor was chewy and tough. Would not go back. There are so many better options.

All right, Tapalaya. I see you… and when I see you, my taste buds get excited. I’m not ashamed to admit it. I think I’m falling in love with you.
Ahem. After moving out of the south, I found that it was quite difficult to find the Cajun food of my childhood: the reason for my high spice tolerance and my nonexistent tolerance for under-​seasoned food. In this sense, Tapalaya made me feel at home. I can’t offer enough praise for their Crawfish Anh Luu, which is Cajun-​inspired and Vietnamese-​infused.
Tapalaya isn’t typical Cajun food, and that’s what makes it so great. Maybe that’s why I’m such a fan — it’s set a new bar for itself that never existed before. It isn’t trying to live up to the homecooked Cajun goodness I had in my youth. It is its own entity, and it is wonderful in its entirety.
The ambience and service are also great, and though I have yet to stop in while there’s live music, I imagine that would only add to the magic.
Other menu items worth noting: red beans & rice, fried okra, and jambalaya. Seriously, though, you’d be hard-​pressed to find something not worth ordering here.

This restaurant is a fusion of a tapas bar and Louisiana cuisine… quite the combination… and it works well.
We started off, as always, with drinks… I got a hurricane… New Orleans standard had to be… my daughter got a margarita and my son got what is called an Uptown Nola, which is peach infused bourbon, bitters, ginger syrup and vermouth, which came in a metal martini glass… very classy. The drinks were very good… refreshing on a hot Portland evening.
But…(a little foreshadowing here)…would have been nice to have another with my meal. Same with the water.
For dinner, we all decided to order salads and have a few New Orleans type tapas to compliment the greens. I had the Caesar, they had the kale slaw… damn hippies… I raised hippies, dammit!
The tapas were fried oysters, popcorn shrimp, sweet potato fries, black eyed peas, and the kids had fried okra… I didn’t…okra is grown by the devil himself and is slimy as Elmer’s glue. As a friend of mine said every time okra was mentioned, «Fuck that shit… take your okra and throw that shit out the window.» I tend to agree.
The food was fantastic… so good, we decided to end it with desserts… I had the bread pudding, Brittney had the beignets, and Martin had home made ice cream. Again, all very good… nah…they were excellent.
Now…with all that being said, and again, I do not want to pass over how fantastic the food was, I do have a real problem with this restaurant… service.
Service is what puts a restaurant over the top. Mo… of now the sorely missed Hawthorne Café… would have water in a glass at your table before you got your coat off and sat down. I’ve seen waitresses fill glasses that had 1 sip taken out of them. Back in the day… and now I’m showing my age… the ashtray at you table was emptied and cleaned before the second butt was put out in it. Those are the top examples of quality service given to the diner.
But, I don’t expect that. What I expect, as a bare minimum, is a waitperson to check with you from time to time… and for Jebus sakes… scan the table. You can see the water glasses are empty from across the room… wouldn’t that be a good opportunity to, as you are refilling, ask if the diner is happy? Maybe try and sell the diner another cocktail? Maybe ask if dessert is in the future? Maybe have the check started to get the customer on his way when you see there is nothing more the person is willing to buy?
I dunno… I don’t own a restaurant… maybe times are different now… maybe restaurant service went the way of checking oil in gas station… what do I know… I drive for a living.
All in all, the food was fantastic… I salute you, chef who works in the back… well done. Too bad the service fucked it up.
I’ll be back… maybe…but then again, on that block alone, there are 5 or 6 other restaurants… maybe I’ll just mosey over to one of them, next time I’m in the area.

The ambiance was very, very nice here, it does remind me of New Orleans. On the evening we dined, there was a guitar player doing very pretty renditions of classic songs, perfect for dining.
Unfortunately, the rest was not great. Service was fairly efficient, but not particularly friendly. Our drinks were mixed very well, well enough to notice.
The food? Hmmmmm… We had looked at the menu online, assuming if we ordered something it would be a regular portion of food, esp the part that said, «bigger plates.»
Our server informed us that everything there was served «tapas style» and everything was small plates. My partner wasn’t super happy with that as he really just wanted a big bowl of jambalaya. We felt a bit pressured to split the food.
The jambalaya was actually very good, nice seasoning and nice chunks of sausage and seafood. We also got the crawfish fritters which were mushy inside and bland, they could have been any type of seafood, the accompanying remoulade sauce was nothing special.
But the worst was the fried catfish po’boy, it was like eating totally bland fish on a dry, hard roll with vegetables, there wasn’t enough sauce to add any flavor. It was really disappointing.
I doubt we’ll go again as this just isn’t our type of menu.
And this really isn’t a New Orleans style of eating.

Terrible food, bad service, small portions, what’s to like?!
–They did have live music, which was pretty good.
There was only one employee really working and smiling. The others were all just goofing off on their phones and not working. Or just looking really pissed off and hating the guests.
We waited for a very long time for our food and when it came it looked shockingly small and not how we ordered it.
I’d avoid this place like the plague. There are so many better food options in the hood. It seems silly to waste your time and money on this cheesy garbage.

Food was good. Not great. The screen door just down the street still by far so much better. Seafood was slightly fishy smelly and tasting. I don’t think I will return for an other meal. The wait staff very slow and too much standing around socializing.

I’ve been here twice. Once for dinner and now trying it again for brunch. The menu is a bit electric with a mix of southern food and Vietnamese. I got the coconut pork with rice bowl. Topping this bowl was a sunny side up egg with a runny yolk that mixed with the rice well. The pork had a nice flavor with coconut. My only wish is that there was a touch more of the drippings to mix with the rice. Otherwise it’s just like my
Mom makes it. The beignets to finish were a bit
Too chewy for my taste, the bourbon syrup was a win! Service was fine and it wasn’t overly crowded for a Sunday brunch.

I was in NOLA lower 9^th 1 WEEK after katrina hit with my army unit 1 – 162 infantry. And you guys. Brought back so many feelings this is now my favorite place in Portland hands down everything is just perfect. And making it a small world our waitress grew up in lafitte she was so sweet and it made us both a little teary eyed
Love you guys
Bryan & pam gomes

Food was good. We came for Happy Hour and got the fish sauce wings, steak skewers and the banh mi. The wings were crispy on the outside and the flavor was spot on; not too salty from the fish sauce. Steak skewers were goos, but slightly cooked too long. The banh mi French bread was crusty and yummy. Portions are small, so you may need to order a number of plates to share or double the order.
We had the hurricane drinks and it was a little strong but yummy. We finished the visit with a crème brûlée flambee. The presentation of the dessert was fantastic; the fire was mesmerizing and went out after a min. The burnt top had a heavy liquor flavor but was ok.
There was also a guitarist in the restaurant so it was nice ambiance.

Great food, in a comfortable atmosphere.
Came here for V-​day with the wife and daughter.
Our server was warm, hospitable, and took very good care of us! Crawfish étouffée was on point, and the fried chicken was perfectly crispy outside, while juicy inside.

I was so excited to try this place because it had great reviews and the food seemed so interesting! On a Saturday evening, we were in the neighborhood and decided to try this place!
We got the fried okra, buttermilk fried chicken jambalaya veggie and the cornbread
The fried okra was so oily and the okra so fibrous… Just not what we expected. So disappointing to start with
The corn bread lived up to its expectations and more. Could stuff myself with a dozen of these! It was so good, fluffy and the honey goodness from the butter. Aah so good!
The chicken no flavors at all… Jambalaya was ok… Low on the flavor side as well
Maybe I was too excited but such a disappointment! The good side is super cheap but that’s the kind of food you are going to get

Had a great happy hour excursion on Thursday last week. We arrived at 5:42 & were able to cruise thru some affordable happy hour cocktails. Our server was on point & maybe I’m missing something here but I never saw anything but courteous & attentive service.
The Mississippi caviar (black eyed peas) was flavorful as well as the three others we offered; blackened catfish, fried okra & kale slaw.
I will be back!
Unilocal wants me to keep writing– y’know– I hate 5 paragraph reviews, get over yourself.

This is Tapalaya’s first time at doing a ramen pop-​up night on a Wednesday night. Have had good food and good service in previous visits but that didn’t happen tonight. The ramen noodles were mushy, grainy and overcooked. The noodles were placed into a large bowl with just a cup of noodles and one single piece of pork belly in a pool of broth. It was not a good ramen and will not be returning for this pop-​up meal again.
Also, would not suggest not sitting at the bar as the bartender is not able to bartend and give you the service that one would expect. I sat right in front of him and the only interaction I received was him taking my order and him telling me he’ll get my check for me. He didn’t ask me if I wanted a drink, inquired about my meal or if I needed anything and most importantly didn’t offer a thank-​you or any acknowledgement for coming in. I had ordered 3 different dishes and none of the finished dishes were taken away until after I had gotten up to exit. Looks like he just forgot what is expected with customer service! I would to come back again but definitely will not sit at the bar.

First time here. Food and service were
amazing. The crawfish ahn lu, jambalaya, Brussels sprout and corn bread were delicious. We followed our meal up with crème brûlée which came to the table still flaming. We will definitely be back again!

I’m impressed with the food here. They really dish out some good southern, Cajun dishes! The jambalaya was really good here! I think their fried chicken was also very special… seems like they dip it in balsamic vinegar to flavor it or something.
The service was meh… could have been better I suppose. It’s not like it was bad, but it wasn’t that great. Nothing to rave about. The waiter didn’t really check on us that much and when we were done with our meal, he just handed us our check and didn’t even ask us if we wanted dessert… which we did!
But other than that, I think the food is good enough to keep me coming back, especially the delicious jambalaya! I really want to come back and try the Gumbo here!

Update: I received an email from the owner, immediately after posting this review, who said she was sorry I didn’t enjoy the food and said that she would have offered me another cornbread had she known I felt it was dry. She felt that the time I waited was not that long. I felt that given the lack of tables, and the server talking with friends, that the service was not great. That said, she did step in and try to help by giving me my food, and she did respond to this review very promptly. I appreciate responsiveness. For that reason, I’ll give an extra star.
*******
Really odd service and not so good food. I went in and the place was pretty empty, even though there were 3 servers. My server disappeared in the back so that when my food was up, (and the chef called it out), I could see my food but not my server. I asked the chef (it’s an open kitchen) if I could just grab it, and he said no, and he also didn’t bring it to me. Finally, another server brought it to me, but, it was a wait even though there were only 2 or so other tables in there. The grilled veggies on my salad looked old and wrinkled. I also had a piece of cornbread — it was a muffin and was very dry. Perhaps I got the wrong things to eat. But, I did not enjoy my meal.

It’s about that time of year, when Mardi Gras brings memories of amazing cuisine that brings me back to New Orleans. I’ve been a few times. One of my favorite dishes that I often seek out is crawfish etouffe.
Tapalaya has been one of the restaurants on my to try list. Arrived just a little after 7. Missed out on their happy hour, which seems to have reasonable prices on drinks. I ordered a hurricane, which is quintessentially New Orleans. Definitely packed quite a punch.
Our waiter, informed us if it were our first time, to order each dish as one were at a tapas restaurant. We started off with the fried chicken. Which was accompanied with a bourbon pecan syrup. It was quite interestingly different, I am not sure if it was baked. It didn’t have that fried chicken taste. The syrup additive is a little confusing, as I felt that there should be a waffle somewhere in the mix.
Next off, we ordered the crawfish étouffée and steak diane. Steak diane was savory and flavorful. The étouffée was a little too spicy for my taste buds. I am fond of spicy dishes but when a dish is overwhelming spicy it takes away from etoutffee’s original buttery richness. I wouldn’t mind checking out their happy hour, to try their other dishes.