1944 North Portland Boulevard
Portland, OR 97217
Multnomah County
Phone: (503) 283-2372
Fax: unknownWebsite: no website on fileEmail: no email on fileHours: unknown
Cuckoos Nest Tavern - About Us
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by Sara L. on It amazes me the number of different "scenes" that one can experience in this cool historic space depending on when you go. I will confess up front that this old lady almost always finds it too loud at night, but I have had raucous good times when I was in the mood for them. They keep a nice rotation of draft beers including local micro-brew favorites and some more exotic choices, as well as solid, basic beers (e.g. Yeungling, Sam Adams, etc.). I have had some good mixed drinks as well, but the bartenders and waitstaff can get a little overwhelmed when it's packed, making beer seem like the easier and kinder choice. My favorite National Mechanics experience has to be brunch. It is quieter, more mellow, and the diffuse sunlight streaming through the antique stained glass windows really highlights the grand space. The rough-hewn wood tables and little touches like carnivorous plants under glass bells on the window sills stand out. All of the breakfast and lunch dishes I have tried (turkey sandwich, Breakfast!, monte cristo, and a couple of salads and omelettes among them) have been quite good, and a HUGE amount of food for the price. They also do a spectacular bloody mary bar even though I am generally not into these. The times that I am out seeking therapeutic early-day food with liquor are usually the times I most want someone else to do all of the work. However, the generous pours of customizable vodka (or tequila), and absurd variety of hot sauces and extras really make it worth the effort and the money.
by Joe Hjalmarson on So I sat awake in bed this morning trying to figure out how to properly slay this club with words so that others may avoid this hell. I haven't come up with anything witty so I'm going to do this raw. First of all they HOLD THE LINE in freezing temeratures, once you're in they give you the full Al Quaeda treatment complete with ball grab in a search for weapons. Then after paying the $20+ cover to enter an empty club you meet with the most ARROGANT BARTENDERS in the manhattan and that's saying alot. Without batting an eye they'll serve you a $12 cocktail with ALMOST NO ALCOHOL, I really thought my girlfriend's drink had none. The fact that the average person would have to spend over $100 for a nice buzz in this shit hole is beyond me. The bouncers are your average dumb-asses on a power trip, The bar staff is uneducated and unrefined but still find a way to make you feel like shit. THE PEOPLE THAT GO THERE are equally fucked up, from fat chicks in tiny clothes (big pet peeve) to GUIDO's with shiny shirts doing the sprinkler while totally pitting out...GROSS. They should rename this place Festering Cunt. BLAH!!!! there...I feel better.
by Rich S. on Bwa ha since there seems to be a battle of firsts going on, here's a review from a "joe diner", no association with the restaurant, no favors from the kitchen, not even a food blog. Tho after reading Kevin H.'s full review (cool that you ordered the entire menu!) i gotta go back and check the math on my bill! Very odd! I had dinner at Michael Mina in SF back in the day (which was a wed btw) and back then many dishes were definitely "sets" of small items. He's definitely still exploring that idea here. If you haven't heard, the menu at XIV is made up entirely of small dishes, $8 each, everyone at the table must have their own plate of whatever dishes you choose. In other words, this ain't family style where you can skip taking a spoonful of that calf brain stew your friends ordered. Instead you're meant to discuss and agree upon the dishes you want as a group since everybody's gettin' a plateful of their own. Voila', social dining. Doh did i say plateful? The dishes here would make most tapas feel like he's a platter of pasta at Don Corleone's Sunday dinner with the family. Think 2 or 3 bites per dish. Their suggestion is 8-14 dishes for a meal. I'm just sayin'. Ok, now that that's out of the way, when you arrive at XIV, you'll find a white modern exterior, up lighting along the walls, still channeling it's past clubby roots. The staff is extremely friendly and, well, huge. I think we were greeted by 3 different people between the valet and the front door...another 2 more before making it to the hostess booth. $14 valet btw, as another diner quipped "possibly a new record for most expensive LA restaurant valet!" We had a short wait for our 10:30pm reservation (the place was hopping, they're open till 2am th-sat!), ordered cocktails at the bar (huge, my vodka rocks looked more like a glass of ice water) and we were promptly seated. By the time we got to the table, i'd estimate we'd been thanked by at least 3 more people. Maybe it'll die down after they've been open for a while, and i'm not complaining by any means, but man. The interior is in Starck contrast to the exterior (did you see what i did there? bahaha). Warm wood, couches, upholstered chairs, art hanging in frames, real fireplaces. Not the chrome and glass the exterior would suggest, but instead feels like your great grand dad's living room. Well ok, if he lived in a french chateau perhaps. As i said, they suggest 8-14 dishes for a meal thus it's no surprise that there are chef chosen fixed meals of 8, 11 or 14 dishes. You save a bit of money going this route, but no substitutions so if there're a few things you really want to try, you should order up yourself to guarantee success. Nobody likes failure, so we went this route...after much negotiation, agreed on 10 dishes. Btw there are vegetarian friendly equivalents of every dish, so if your date wants the crispy pork belly, the evening isn't a disaster because of it. That appears to be the only flexibility on any given dish tho. I won't list off all 10 dishes, but some were more successful than others. Hands down the best dish we had was the foie gras terrine. The tartness of the cranberry offset the richness of the foie gras with the yogurt saying "hi" from the side for a terrific combo of flavors. The pumpkin dumplings with stewed cherries wins the award for taste explosion in your mouth. I thought it was great, but you gotta like cooked pumpkin. Some have said it's a bit too intense but it worked for me. On the other end of the spectrum, the black cod on spaghetti squash was rather bland. Black cod, usually a favorite, was barely distinguishable to the palate in the foie gras dashi. Not sure i'd order the black truffle risotto again either. Nothing wrong with it really, just a bit pedestrian. I guess no matter how much lipstick you put on a risotto, it still looks like that peasant dish from next door. If you love truffles no matter what they're atop, then i imagine you'll be fine here. Somewhere in the middle fall the others...crispy pork belly was perhaps the best of the rest...was fatty, but it is pork belly after all. If you made sure every bite was a bit of everything on the plate it was pretty damn good. The tempura bay scallops were fine but NOT tempura fried! :) Other bits in the dish were tho and it all came together in a very delicate way...very subtle flavors. The beef carpaccio was rolled and stuffed with finely prepared romaine and cherry tomatoes...interesting contrast with the mellow flavors of the raw beef, but nothing revolutionary in the world of beef carpaccio. Like the risotto, if this is what you asked mom to make for your birthday dinner every year, i think you'll be pleased. I promised not to bore you with every dish, so i'll close by saying the white chocolate cube was alot of fun, full of orange cream, spices and nuts. A treat, but a bit difficult to get onto your fork. But who cares after a meal like this!
