Wildwood

This restaurant was truly a great place for drinks and food. Too bad they had to close and hopefully will open a creative new place somewhere else!

Went last year for lunch with my husband and his parents. Great, fun cocktails and the best BLT we’ve ever had in our lives!!! Loved this place!

Having anchored Northwest 21^st for years, a great restaurant falls. Yes, restaurants typically endeavor to, and are reviewed for, it’s food, service, and dining atmosphere. But this storied place, to me, housed friends, fed family, wing-​manned great dates, and even aided a family member’s marriage proposal; the Wildwood is just chocked full of memories, good and bad. It embodied Portland’s restaurant ambitions: fine dining, full of fresh local ingredients, complimented by great wine, to the casual tune that rings in our PNW culture.
It will be missed.

It was tasty food. Creative. Whoever I will not recommend coming to get drunk than eating there meal. Not nearly enough carbs to absorb the booze… Oi!
We came for a Holiday party. It was a nice venue. I do recommend this.
Great Martini and Wine selection.

Surrounded by a rich wood interior, bf and I were treated to some super farm fresh produce and delicious meat. I love that we received a complimentary petite appetizer, just something to get the pallet excited. Service was spot on and the long list of craft bottled beer was great too. The service was excellent and we left very happy and full!

Maybe it was the app chef, I didn’t love my apps. My mussels were fishy. The grilled romaine could have had a bit more Parma cheese, the leaves were bland, egg was fantastic; the risotto was just ok. The service was not great. I came alone, waited at least 15 min before I could tell her the mussels weren’t good. The another 10 –15 to flag down another waiter, so I could try a dessert. The peach buckle was extremely dense and not moist.
And no management came over to say something that my mussels tasted strange.

What a great place! We showed up a little before the dinner menu started and decided on a cocktail and bar app until it was ready. Housemade tonic that is foam based until it mixes with the gin and is the best tasting tonic I have tried to date! Locally made Aria Gin is a must if you enjoy an outstanding Gin and Tonic. Talk to Ryan about it…
The food was exceptional all the way around. Lobster Mushrooms were outta sight! Pork Chop equally delicious and the Flank Steak looked amazing. I think we will be getting that the next time in. Enjoy!

Wildwood had been on my list of places to try for a long time — finally made it a few nights ago. The service was excellent, the flavors rich, and the drinks flowing :)
We tried: everything on the appetizer menu, Fava Bean cakes, Pork Loin, Steak, Ceasar salad, Pots de Crème for dessert.
Pros: seasonal cocktails. They introduced me to a Strawberry Balsalmic Bpurbon drink, which was amazing! i’ve started making it at home now! the octopus was excellent (appetizer), favabeans were good — not my favorite item of the night, but good. and teh dessert was OUTSTANDING. Service was excellent too.
Cons: none really to speak of.
Enjoy your experience!

This is a romantic place to go out for a dinner date night. The atmosphere in the restaurant is very warm & charming. I love all the white lights outside, the candles on the tables, and the pale wood throughout the restaurant.
The dishes were well proportioned and perfectly seasoned. I tried the shaved radish & asparagus salad (fresh & delicious) followed by the green curry on lamb shoulder. The lamb was tender and well paired with the spicy green curry. It paired nicely with the syrah wine that I tried. For dessert I followed it up with coconut cream with strawberries on top. My husband tried the pork shoulder which was fabulous!
Our waitress was wonderful and she had lots of great suggestions for wines to try. I can’t wait to come back for more!

Great service. Let me re-​phrase that — excellent service! Excellent food. Sorry I waited so long to try this place.

Wildwood is the place where I first learned about how good food can really taste. Every dish we had, from appetizer to entrée was bursting with flavors. And the combinations of ingredients was amazing!

**Happy Hour Review**
Basics: HH runs until 6:30, came in on a Tuesday around 5:45 and were greeted by the hostess and manager with a smile and graciousness. The place only had a couple of tables filled and the manager let us choose which table we’d sit at (by the window, of course)! It filled up soon after we arrived. Our server had great personality and was very attentive. Service was prompt and nibbles came out surprisingly quickly.
Drinks: Among the four of us we imbibed the passion fruit martini (the actual name escapes me, but it’s the only cocktail with the fruit) which was a little sweet but very easy to drink and very potent/​/​BEAST of the martini world, the Vesper, did not disappoint here/​/​House Red, merlot blend was very good
Food: The hubby and I split the Kimchi Fried Rice with a sunny-​side egg on top and the Tuna Pan Bagnat (basically a fancy tuna salad sandwich on toasted french bread with a salad on the side). Both were delicious and I have been craving the fried rice ever since. The other couple split the burger which they raved about. One of them swears the fries that accompanied the burger were the best they’d ever had. They also got the potato croquettes which I thought were somewhat forgettable but were improved with the pesto aioli dip.
LOVED the friendly and attentive service, food, drinks, location, and ambiance. I will definitely be back!

Our server, David was amazing. Trust this man, seriously, he won’t let you down. We asked him for advise on each course. We started with the Tartar, it was amazing the blending of garlic and the Capers were very good. Next, the Pork Scaloppine was amazing. I’ve never considered grilling the pork, always considered it breaded, but the grilling with the carrot-​cayene was amazing.
We moved on to the Duck Confit, which was amazing. The skin was so very crispy and yummy. The sunchokes were awesome as were the turnip purée. Amazing. Once again David amazed us with this wine suggestions, which we followed and were not disappointed. We selected the Passetoutgrain. WOW.
Dessert was not the usual for us. We typically have dessert with coffee. Tonight we opted for the wine suggested with the Chocolate Daquoise… wow. The Bartoli Marsala Oro was amazing with the chocolate. The earthy flavors of the Marsala paired very well with the chocolate. Again WOW.
A great dining experience!

Upscale Food — NW experimental menu
Fancy, Innovative cocktails
Attractive –attentive bartenders
Great hospitality and a fine reputation. A must visit while in Portland.
And sometimes I am there, not looking my best… kind of Portlandy and not too dressed up. They still treat you good.
A block from my home.

Food Pornogrpaher’s Log. Star date 12.9.12
There are lots of restaurants in Portland, and quite easily they can be broken down into two simple categories (for convenient arguments sake, anyway): «first date» restaurants, and «serious relationship» restaurants. The first type, is simple. The space:
it’s not intimidating in setting. The price point is relatively reasonable. Décor is quirky/​campy/​kitschy; their menu is the talk of the town. Maybe they were even featured on the Portland edition (s) of «Diners, Drive-​Ins, and Dives». A place where it’s socially acceptable to whip out your phone, gleefully tap into your Unilocal app to *check in* for scene points and laugh about it with your date, who’s just done the same thing. «Everyone’s going to be so jealous we’re here, HAHA.», you’ll say.
Then there’s the second type. We’re calling those «serious relationship» restaurants. Places that typically, cost a pretty penny for a dining experience. Not just a meal – A DINING EXPERIENCE. Multi-​course meal, skilled and knowledgable servers, refined/​streamlined décor, and an entire air of superiority and excellence the entire time you’re a guest there. And there’s usually wine list that’ll make your jaw drop to the floor. It’s the kind of place where you’re almost too shy to pull out your phone to check in; where you ALMOST don’t want to take pictures of your food for fear of disrupting the atmosphere, and you kind of apologize to your date with a «sorry it’s for Unilocal» comment. There aren’t but a few of these places in Portland, which is what makes these restaurants truly special.
Wildwood is definitely a «serious relationship» kind of restaurant for the Portlanders, and I ended up there on a first date. *high five*
The meal itself was undoubtedly one of the best i’ve had in Portland, but it was the service that stuck out so much for me. Our waitress was honest, attentive, not too overbearing, and emotionally attached to the menu and the chef’s vision. We ordered carelessly and sent out multiple dishes to enhance our experience:
smoked gouda and sunchoke risotto.
duck breast with wilted spinach and bacon-​wrapped potato gratin.
a salad with radicchio, blue cheese, and walnuts – wonderfully bitter and creamy.
Bulleit Old Fashioneds from the bar, with that deliciously large Scotch ice as the perfect cocktail companion.
…to name a few.
For having such an amazing, honest, delicious aim to please, I’m a little surprised i’d never heard of this place until a year ago, maybe. But I’d like to think it’s because it’s so special of a place, that nobody NEEDS to talk to about it. The reputation is solid. Advertising is not necessary. Critics won’t ever soil the place with bad reviews, and even if they did, this place has such a huge longstanding following in Portland that the regulars alone would keep it afloat. Why do you think Paley’s Place is still open?
;)
I can’t wait to return to Wildwood. Maybe next time it’ll actually be for a celebration, which’ll make it even sweeter.

This restaurant is really nice inside, our service was great, and the food was high-​quality. The interior is swanky without making you feel weird for not dressing to match, and their iced tea is really good, if you’re into that. I am.
We were given some salted foccacia before our meal, and it was super tasty. Had we not known there was a burger in our future, we would have happily finished it all.
Now, on to our burger, which was what brought us here in the first place.
There were so many things going well for this burger. The bun was awesome, light and tasty. The cheese (optional) was a great, aged white cheddar. So effing good. There was a creamy garlic sauce of sorts for the spread that kept me licking my fingers. Pickled onions were barely sweet and had a great flavor.
But that meat. That poor, poor meat. Cooked perfectly (I order mine medium), it had exactly no taste whatsoever. None. The texture was fine, it was plenty juicy, but I couldn’t get even a hint of beefy flavor (sir couldn’t on his either, so it wasn’t just me).
Had this been a grilled cheese with all the accompanying ingredients, I would have been more than happy. As it was, it made for a bummer of a burger. What’s more, the only textural diversion, the romaine lettuce, was placed under the patty in the assembly process, making those leaves which could have added some crunch into an unfortunate, slippy, wilted something that had to be dealt with. Womp womp.
Now I will admit, sir and I are becoming somewhat of bistro burger snobs as we continue on our quest, but for $ 14, I’d hope that a burger could at the very least deliver on the beef front. I’d definitely come back here, but order something else.
The fries were tasty.

We’ve not been there before.
One of my boys thought we should go there for his birthday party, he read it on Unilocal it has good reviews!
Indeed!
We’ll write more when I have the time, & add photos. .. but I’m getting it started so I won’t forget.

Maybe it was an off day?
Wildwood came well recommended — even four stars on Unilocal.
We arrived just after the lunch rush. The hostess showed us to a two top in the darkest part of the restaurant away. She gladly moved us when we inquired.
The waiter was upbeat and helpful. «The lamb burger is great. I recommend you get it medium rare.» The BLT? Comes with great heirloom tomatoes.
The medium rare lamb burger came well done. And it came accompanied by the most insipid french fries I have had in decades. Limp and greasy.
The BLT was a mess of too much stuff piled on a bun. And those heirloom tomatoes. They were the same tomatoes you get at the Safeway and whatever their provenance, they weren’t fully ripe.
Had the waiter come back, we would have sent it back. By the time he passed by, we were almost done.
If the meal had been inexpensive, no problem. But mediocre food at upscale prices? In Portland, a mecca of great restaurants? No thanks.
Wildwood? More like Deadwood.

I didn’t think it was great.
Maybe this place is slipping in its old age and needs something exciting and new to revive it. The drinks are amazing though, do come just for that but don’t make a special trip for dinner.
The price to happiness ratio would have been on target if the meal was just a little better but the flavor was really unmemorable. The wait staff was wonderful, very friendly and helpful and I don’t know why the mixologist is in Portland and not San Francisco or New York City. He can definitely hold his own in a big city.

Had a great dinner here last night, love almost everything about it but very disappointed at the desserts (they looked and tasted like I could buy from the Supermarket).
Suggestion: Eat dinner here and go to Papa Haydn for the nice desserts.