Tastebud

I really wanted to love this place. Heaven knows we need some good restaurant choices on this side of the river! It’s fair to say we have only ordered out and not dined in – always too crowded. My main complaint is with their phone service. We called to pre-​order takeout and got the electronic runaround. You couldn’t get anyone to pick up and take your order and what the message said would happen when you selected 1, took you back to the same main menu, again, and again. We finally gave up and ordered from Pizzicato, again. Very disappointing. Also, there lamb sausage? What a joke. It doesn’t taste like lamb, more like a chewy dry hot dog. I think they need some standard choices. I think some of their combinations are a bit strange. I know they are trying to be different and stand out but you also need to fit in. I am looking forward to some improvements.

Great pizza! and friendly service. Kind of pricey but you get what you pay for.

I came back for the Sunday night all-​you-​can-​eat for $ 19. Came with a friend so that I didn’t just park my butt at 5pm with a book and stay till 9. A little disappointed that the veggie options weren’t my cup of tea and the carnivore options looked *so* much better but overall still a good product and a good place.
I’m not really a fan of communal seating in general and certainly not when I’m pounding mass quantities of pie.

I came for the first time on their Sunday all-​you-​can eat pizza & salad. While it was busy, we were able to sit down immediately and start digging in. One of the purpose to come on a Sunday is to try many different variety of their pizza. You see, on a regular night, they only sell whole pizzas and you can’t even order half and half. Checking out their menu (changes by the season) beforehand, I noticed they had some oddly paired toppings that needed some reconnaissance work before committing on a whole one. While on the pricey side, I thought $ 19 is a fair price for all-​you-​can eat artisan pizza.
The place is cozy, with communal sitting. The ambiance music is coming out of a vinyl and each plate used is different. It’s kinda hard to spot from the street, so drive slowly and circle the block to find parking.
Hands down, their sausage is the best topping they have. Most of the unusual combos they had worked, there was one that I wasn’t too fond of, ricotta & some kind of green — it was too soggy. While I’m not a crust-​eating gal, I did eat some of it because it’s good. There were a variety of salads through out the night too. Their Caesar salad was crispy and refreshing, they also had garbanzo beans and turnips and another winter salad.
I can confidently say that it’s one of the top 5 pizza places in Portland. Whether it’s #1 or not, it depends on your taste and you’re just nit-​picking at that point. Just go.

A resounding five stars for Tastebud’s pizza! We first became acquainted at the Hillsdale and PSU farmer’s markets. My friend would regularly invite me to one or the other on weekend mornings. I’m not a real veggie connoisseur; she’d be loaded down with bags of produce, while I would return with nothing but a belly full of pizza and a desire to go back the following weekend to try the next slice. The markets close during the winter months, so I was thrilled to learn that Tastebud had opened a brick and mortar shop on my side of the river.
My guy and I stopped in for the Sunday night All You Can Eat Pizza (and salad), when we had the opportunity to sample six different pies. All were amazing, hot out of the wood fired oven, just the right amount of crisp on the crust, and prepared with fresh ingredients. Toppings were inventive, and surprisingly, every artful combination meshed well. My favorite had delicata and butternut squash, mascarpone and browned butter. I’d happily eat this pizza three meals a day. Another included housemade sausage, kale, tomato and mozzarella. There was also one topped with peaches (excellent!), and another with a lemony ricotta base.
I was not there for salad, but the two big platters of greens were gorgeous and appeared to popular, even side by side with pizza perfection.
The building was difficult to find– even though we had the address and were familiar with the area – mostly due to dim exterior lighting. Don’t give up if you have to circle the block! We finally parked and located it on foot (kitty-​corner across Milwaukie from the Aladdin Theater). Seating is indoor/​outdoor and very pleasant, with a bubbling fountain on the patio.
Compared to typical pizza out, it was a bit on the spendy side at $ 19 per person. But honestly, they could charge me twice as much and I’d still leave with a smile.

Tastebud has the best pizza in Portland. Their crust is perfect, and their unique combinations of seasonal ingredients are incredibly delicious. There are other pizza joints in Portland that I really love (example: Dove Vivi), but I think Tastebud edges all the others out. The restaurant is small, cute, and has a fantastic outdoor patio. The servers are wonderful. Why are you still reading this? Just go there and see for yourself.

What a charming experience. You walk into this lil hidden gem in SE and are promptly greeted by soft-​spoken hosts. The communal tables are not horrible. Warning for the all you can eat pizza/​salad on Sunday — KIDS! I guess they eat for free, because they were everywhere when we went this past Sun. (One horrible father and unruly child foursome that was unbearable!) The servers cringed as the kids man handled new pizzas as they were brought out as if starving.
Take away that horrible experience and the slightly too high price point for the all you can eat and it was it was some of the best pizza we’d had in quite some time. Fresh ingredients and wonderful dough can’t do wrong.
If it was $ 14.99 we would visit on a regular basis!

I love a good stone oven pizza and tastebud has it! The cheese they use is great, sauce made in house, and the dough, the way its cooked in the stone oven, crispy on the outside, so chewy, this is what good pizza is all about.
I live really close to the restaurant, so I can’t comment about eating in as I always get takeout!
The only negative I can think of is that they sometimes have weird hours, so look online or call first to make sure.

Hot dang, Tastebud has got my vote for best pizza joint in p-​town! We went in on Sunday not knowing that the only option they had was the all-​you-​can-​eat-​pizza. The $ 19 pizza buffet seemed a bit steep at first, but that all disappeared from our minds when we took our first bite. My first thought was total pizza perfection. I finally found a pizza place that fit my criteria of the pizza-​of-​my-​dreams.
The crust is thick with the exterior being crispy but the insides filled with chewy dough and lovely air pockets. I was so mesmerized by those air pockets — I think I might have stared at them in awe for a long while before scarfing down the rest of my pizza. The other portion of the pizza was thin but covered with delicious locally sourced ingredients like the sliced pear/​apple and bacon, pear with arugula, leeks, caramelized onions, sausage with kalamata olives.
Sunday all-​you-​can-​eat-​pizza is communal seating. I’m not sure if it’s only for the buffet and is arranged differently on other days. Either way, it wasn’t distracting at all and it made for a cozy and intimate dining experience. Btw, I love the woodwork entry to the business!
This place puts some of the other pizza joints around town to shame. I won’t name names — I’m keeping my mouth sealed (pssst, it starts with a K!).

I can only speak for the bagels as I haven’t had the pizza or been to the restaurant.
I lived in New York for a number of years and miss a true bagel. I generally avoid bagels because I’ve had the real thing and what passes for a bagel in much of the US is too large and too soft to be of interest to me. My SO asked for bagels today while we were at New Seasons and I sighed as I opened the bagel door — only to be greeted by a sign describing the wood fired bagels by Taste Bud, which looked small enough to be the real deal.
I won’t call them NY style bagels and I believe the owners of Taste Bud describe them as Montréal style. However, this is a REAL bagel. It’s hand rolled, proofed, boiled (not steamed!) and baked in a wood oven. The final product is crispy on the outside, chewy on the inside and not so large that you wish for the days when nothing was super-​sized.
My SO had his with cream cheese and tried mine (with butter). He said, «I like it better with butter because the bagel is so good I want to actually taste it.» That is a huge compliment coming from him.
I have not had the bagels at K&Z’s, but have had the Kettleman bagels (not too impressed). These are the best I’ve had so far in Portland.

I have started this review a bunch of times basically because Tastebud is oh-​so-​good I can almost not put its amazingness into words. Suffice it to say that EVERYTHING that comes out of their kitchen is well worth any wait and you will NEVER leave here hungry.
The waitstaff is super friendly and I’ve had some of my favorite meals in Portland here. «Nuff said.

One of the best pizza in town. We had a pie with apple, caramelized onions, and goat cheese that was outstanding. It was so good that it didn’t even occur to me until later that I had a great slice of pizza with no meat on it.
The hot pies they pull out from the brick oven are blessed with slightly chewy, yet lightly crispy crust that’s delicious. They also have an all-​you-​can-​eat-​pizza night on Sundays where you sit family-​style with other patrons. It’s actually very enjoyable. Every few minutes they bring out a couple pizzas and salads and let everyone dig in. Wonderful experience.
Plus, they also produce some of the best bagels in the city. When spring comes, they set up at the PSU Farmer’s Market so you can enjoy a slice of pizza or a bagel in the South Park Blocks.

I love your Montréal style bagels. I am a Jew and they are so perfect. Nice and hard on the outside and wonderfully soft on the inside. I just want to lick the salt off em. I am so glad they carry them at many places in my hood in Sellwood — Staccato Gelato, New Seasons.
Sometimes I used to sneak early in the am to New Seasons to buy the discounted day old, but I barely make in time and they are usually gone.

Tastebud is where you go for a lil UPP. That’s right — Utterly Perfect Pizza.
I had this place bookmarked forever and finally convinced the hubby to go there one Saturday night. We couldn’t believe how un-​crowded it was, especially since it was one of the last evenings of nice summery weather in Portland. We were seated outside in their courtyard, which is small but nicely set apart from the street by a big concrete fountain-​wall.
The staff clearly care about you having a good experience and check on you often.
The menu is small (one page, really) so you won’t have a tough time deciding what to order. And you may well end up ordering the exact same dinner that your neighbors at the next table did, which is exactly what happened to us.
We started with a beet, goat cheese, orange and hazelnut salad, which was a beautiful combination. We then moved on to the main event — the pie. The crust? Buttery, flaky, and perfectly crispy on the bottom. There was no sauce, but just some nice olive oil. The toppings we ordered were pork sausage, apple, garlic, and fresh mozzarella, and again, a beautiful flavor combo. The pizzas are one size, and not exactly cheap. But you’re paying for locally-​sourced, quality, hand-​made-​with-​love and baked-​in-​a-​wood-​fired-​oven pie here.
My only complaint would be that the beverage selection was a bit small, but they do have some unusual options, and everything on the list is quality.

I’ve been here twice now, with mixed results.
First time — came for dinner on a weeknight and ordered a pizza off of the menu. The pizza was excellent, server was nice, no complaints at all.
Second time — tried their all-​you-​can-​eat Sunday pizza for $ 15. This was where things went south.
When we got there, they had several pizzas out on a table, except they were all room temperature! No warming lamps or anything. It made their normally excellent pizza taste sort of gross, not to mention the the temperature was just… ugh.
It took another 20 – 30 minutes before any new, hot pizza was brought out.
I’m not sure if this was a fluke or what, but if I’m going to be paying $ 15 for pizza I’d like it to be kept warm, at least.
I’d probably try them again, but not without hesitation or considering someplace else first.

Wednesday market spring salad and salt bagel review
Plain vegetarian is taken to a whole new level with roasty leeks and chard. Oh man.
I ate the whole salad (at least 4 cups of food) and I was burping roasty veg all day.
Bagel is nice (dense and chewy).

I got two bagels from them from the Farmer’s Market. First of all, the person I bought them from was «meh» all the way. Totally listless and uninterested in selling the product. Luckily someone mentioned to me how good the bagels were, or else I wouldn’t have even been inspired to stop by their stand.
If you didn’t really know what a Montréal style bagel is, you’d probably think that up in Montréal they completely blacken the exterior of their bagels. It was uncomfortable watching my «meh» girl fish through the pile of burnt, ugly bagels to find the least offensive ones. At this point my curiosity was at maximum levels so I practically tore the bag open as soon as I got home.
Insert sad tuba here. I get that the bagels are supposed to be dense but my bagels were so dehydrated that, as I was sawing one open, it emitted a fine dust. I toasted it very lightly out of fear that it would just shrivel up and die. The flavor was okay, it reminded me vaguely of whole wheat bread. Nothing wow at all about it. And, I got sesame bagels, but all the rattling around I did getting it to saw in half made almost all the sesame seeds fall off. They charge $ 1.50 a pop for these, and they remind me of this one time I left a bag of take and bake bagels open in the freezer for a few months, brushed off the freezer burn, and tried to bake them anyway. Also, after a day they fossilize and become inedible. What a waste.
I guess people seem to like the pizza and the restaurant. Avoid the bagels like the plague.

I really want to not like this pizza. My reasons:
1. I’m not a fan of wood fired pizza and so far I’m not a big fan of pizza in PDX.
2. The décor inside Tastebud is lousy. I don’t believe in ghosts but this is the kind of place that feels like it is haunted.
3. The service is very lazy and lacking enthusiasm.
4. A little girl eating at the table next to me saw me when I walked in and said to her mother «Mommy that man has boobies!»
How does a parent not scold a child for that? This one didn’t…why? Becasue she’s a liberal d-​bag from Portland who’s going to raise her kid to be a self-​consumed, bike riding, tatted up vegetarian.
This was not a good way to start. They got one star right off the bat.
I ordered the sausage pizza with chilli peppers and sweet red peppers. It had nice burn etchings on the underside as well as nice black pizza acne on the crustline. The crust was extremely chewy but yet it maintained a firm texture. My wife had two slices and I had six (hence the man cleavage). Still, nowhere near the perfection of a well done east coast coal oven pizza but this is one of the best wood fired pizza’s I’ve ever had.
The best part are the Montréal-​style bagels. I bought seven of them and brought them home. I’ve had them before in Montréal and in all honesty these were even better. Very crunchy, flavorful and hard. I love them. They are quite possiblty the best bagels I have ever had.
I’ll be back and when I do I’m going to be fatter. Count on that, kiddo.

Oh, Tastebud, you gotta be kidding me with the Sunday Night Supper! This place is cute and cozy, I would be surprised at anything but the family-​style seating on Sunday nights.
I’ve had this pizza (and bagels, too) at the PSU Farmer’s Market many times, but this was my first time eating in the restaurant. So fun. We walked in, were greeted right away, and instructed to grab seats anywhere. As far as the ordering protocol– «Grab a plate, eat til you think you’re going to die, then eat one more slice». Love it.
We tried classic cheese (excellent tomato sauce), delicata squash with ricotta and arugula, porcini/​pesto, anchovie/​fancy green Spanish olive, and a couple of others. Each was better than the last, but I think my favorite was the squash. The salads were tops, too: classic caesar with bagel croutons and a lovely green salad with roasted beets, my fav!
My choice of beverage, Caldera IPA ($ 3) didn’t help my stomach capacity out any, though. I don’t know why I always forget how heavy an IPA is when you’re trying to self-​induce a pizza coma.
The total for this all-​you-​can-​eat fest was $ 15 a person. Probably more than I typically intend on spending for pizza just for myself, but it was well worth it for how many slices we tried and the salads. The cooks started getting creative, too, bringing out pie after pie saying, «Ok, folks, this one’s not on the menu…» Their wood-​fired crust is amazing. Good tunes, to boot. Nothing finer than munching away on exceptional pizza with an Old Crow Medicine Show soundtrack.

Disclaimer– I am only reviewing the bagels here; not the café.
Who says the bagels are good? You must be kidding me! if you tried to serve these bagels on the east coast, you would be taken out and beaten.
Beaten with a peel or Pelted with the small, hard, flavorless and tiny rock-​like bagels.
WAAAAY too much time in that wood oven.
And what is the deal with people thinking that a wood oven is going to always put out groovy great tasting food? I do not get it.

The place overall looks ok. Kind of a tight and odd layout inside.
Servicers were friendly, though slow and mixed up our order.
The Crab we ordered came out dry as a bone. Winter squash was even drier — kind of jerky like… way over use of the wood fired oven unfortunately.
Pizza was good, but not great. Crust had nice flavor — yeasty and chewy, but was on the edge of under done which always leaves me blooted (as it continues to rise and cook in me belly). Sauce had little flavor which was unfortunate as they go for the classic minimalistic toppings which work well — if here is flavorful toppings.
Wines come in little shirley temple-​style glasses or short (warm) water glasses — which are quaint if you are a kid or sitting in france on the street. We could not taste or appreciate the bubbles or wine we bought; so we did not get a second glass.
I liked the pizza at PSU while walking around the part, but was very disappointed that it was not as good or even way better when sitting in a dedicated resturant.