Last, but not least: Mother’s Bistro & Bar. This was originally our new year’s eve option, but we found out that they were closed, instead will be opened on new year’s day. We swapped around some other plans which luckily and coincidentally allowed us to head over to Mother’s on new year’s day. Knowing how popular this place was due to photo research and reading dozens of reviews, we headed out early before our flight back to LA later in the day to allow ourselves the time to wait for a table.

Parking is street parking as most of Portland is, but while passing the restaurant, we saw that they were REALLY busy, people spilling out waiting for tables and the rest of the restaurant was full. Once parked around the corner (holidays are FREE street parking), we jotted our name down for two– but even for table of two it took about an hour (50 minutes for us). BUT, the nice thing was that they provided complimentary hot coffee for those that were waiting (winter in Portland is pretty cold, good thing there was no polar vortex the time we went LOL).

Once we were called and sat, I personally found the setup is a little crowded with so many people waiting + eating. We had to shuffle between tables to get to ours. The decor style had a pastel Victorian feel to it with vintage textile design to their seats and booths. There was also quite a few chandeliers and a lot of pictures on the wall.

I ordered their grilled marinated portabella scramble with roasted potatoes and the boyfriend ordered their frittata. I loved that their scrambled was cooked in a style where the eggs were still a little runny in the center, my favorite style paired with the marinated mushrooms and spinach, it was delicious. The roasted red potatoes were also wonderful, the savoriness of the spices and seasons used made it very tasty and went so well with the lighter egg scramble.

Only thing was that, while yes, they were incredibly busy, I guess two of the staff members were butting heads or something because one of them basically gave up mid service and walked out saying “I can’t do this, you’re always a bully to me”, to another older female staff, the latter had the most incredulous expression. It was like having front row seats to a drama. LOL. I get it, it’s hectic and y’all probs overwhelmed but iono arguing in front of customers usually isn’t the best method to dealing with personal issues.

Rating: ★★★★☆
Address:
121 SW 3rd Ave,
Portland, OR 97204
Hours:
Monday-Friday 7:00AM-11:00PM
Sunday-Saturday 8:00AM-11:00PM