Daily Cafe
Categories: American (New), Breakfast & Brunch [Edit]
Neighborhood: Pearl District902 NW 13th Ave
Portland, OR 97209 (503) 242-1916
- Hours:
Mon-Tue 7:00 a.m.-5:00 p.m.
Wed-Fri 7:00 a.m.-9:00 p.m.
Sat 9:00 a.m.-9:00 p.m.
Sun 9:00 a.m.-2:00 p.m. - Price Range: $$
- Accepts Credit Cards: Yes
- Parking: Street
- Attire: Casual
- Good for Groups: Yes
- Good for Kids: Yes
- Takes Reservations: No
- Delivers: No
- Take-out: No
- Waiter Service: Yes
- Wheelchair Accessible: Yes
- Outdoor Seating: Yes
- Good for: Breakfast
- Alcohol: Beer & Wine Only
24 Reviews for Daily Cafe
PROs: You can order coffee/tea what have you while you wait. Very good food and very generous portions. Prix fixed brunch menu includes a delicious basket of scones and muffins. CONs: You will wait. Your server will be busy and will not coddle your every need. The website is uninformative. NEXT: I'm curious to have dinner here because they appear to have a decent wine list.
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I can't pinpoint why i was unimpressed with the Daily Cafe, their was nothing wrong with the food, but it wasn't spectacular either. I do like the idea of choosing one appetizer and one entree, but it's a little expensive for just having a unique idea going for it. My service wasn't that astounding. The waitress was around, and everything was done she just had as much personality as a wall. I did enjoy the ambiance, a converted warehouse. However, there were families with their children (whom I can't stand), and due to the open ceilings and concrete floors you will hear all their screams. They don't do split bills, so I suggest if your going with a group of people be sure to carry some cash.
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Seeing the praise this place is getting, my perspective may be skewed based on two things:
1. Sitting outside on the Patio (even though the weather was good)
2. Our terrible service
Our last morning in Portland, where should we go for breakfast? Jake's or the Daily Cafe. Now I had heard great things about both, but, since we loved the Pearl District so much, we opted for the latter.
Bummer.
Sunday has the Prix Fixed brunch menu. The food looked like pretty appetizing, comfort food, and it was good. The fact that the food was pretty tasty is the only reason they are getting 3 stars. Yes, the service was that bad.
Back to the food:
I ordered the Hot Brown (basically an open-face turkey melt, with a sunny side egg on top). It was good! Des ordered the Desayuno breakfast. Spicy, but also very good. The problem was we didn't get our food until 45 minutes AFTER we sat down. Not so good. She simply told us "You're up next" after we had been waiting for a half an hour! Look lady, if you fess up and tell me you forgot to put our order in, pull a meal off the bill, and apologize, this is easily a righted experience and probably a 4 star rating. I can't stand it when servers pretend like nothing happened and you haven't been waiting for a half an hour. Tip: when your other two tables, that were seated after us, get their food before us, it doesn't take an engineer or mathematician to figure out that you dropped the ball!
Our service was slow, slower, and slowest. Our server dropped in, maybe every 10 minutes, whether it was to refill coffee, drop off the house "pastries", one of which was hard as a rock, and then seemed annoyed any time that I had to go "flag" her down.
I can see how this place is looked at different, having walked inside to use the pit stop. The interiors are a cool mix of new and old, modern and warm. The servers probably don't forget about you in here either.
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6/19/08 - Visiting Portland and found Daily Cafe. Our family of 6 ate dinner there. There was no waiting, our waitress was great and very attentive. The food was fabulous, we all loved everything we ordered and the menu was very reasonably priced. The wine list was awesome as well. Visitors to your city found this a very enjoyable restaurant.
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Walked in today. Stood around for 15+ minutes. As the crowd grew in the small lobby, the 4-5 staff behind the counter milled around. One short gal stood wrapping silverware in napkins, making eye contact with various potential customers ... nary a smile or remark. Intermittently, other people waiting peppered ME with questions. Which for some reason increased my irritation.
In the lobby is a big easel with specials offered. Creating an expectation of seating.
I've only ever eaten here on Sundays, where one waits to be seated. Do you think even ONE of the various staff would bother to greet me or any other customer, let alone indicate that, other than Sunday, one orders at the counter and seats themselves? Finally, one or 2 individuals who had entered well after I did approached the counter and ordered. Even still, not ONE staff member took initiative to organize the happenings or provide any direction.
I walked out. Rare that I do that, but the whole situation rather pissed me off.
On the Sundays I've eaten here, I have enjoyed the food. Going forward, I will limit my visits to Sunday when there seems to be a modicum of service in evidence.
WOW ... although I can't help but yelp at just about every place I dine this place has some killer food with a very cool layout.
The waitress was a doll and she recommended the Wild Boar entree which I was like hmmm okay I'll go with that...
Oh what a good decision on my part. The boar was neither gamey nor was it overcooked...(like I have tasted in the past) it was just exquisite and their homemade pasta was actually al dente which I know isn't a huge step in culinary sophisticato but none the less tasty and just ... I'm going back.
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The Daily Cafe is a great place for brunch in the pearl district. It's located in a converted warehouse and has a very nice casual atmosphere. I've been here twice - once on a Sunday for their Prix Fixe Sunday brunch menu (For $12.95 you get to choose something from a basket of pastries, and then choose an appetizer and an entree from a list of 5-6 choices) and once for the regular breakfast menu. I enjoyed the brunch a little more but both times I had tasty food. The menu changes all the time but it seems like there are always spicy egg dish options, and interesting pancake / french toast options and fresh squeezed orange juice and that's good enough for me.
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Amongst all of the tragic marketing ploys that plague Portland with poorly named shops and restaurants - I exhaled a large sigh of relief when I concluded that, YES...I could come to this cafe Daily...and be exceptionally satisfied. Thus - the brilliance of the Daily Cafe.
The End.
Oh wait - there's more.
$12.95 Sunday Brunch. Their brunch menu is prix fixe: you select one appetizer and one entree from the day's menu. I'm a sucker for before-they-were-star-sightings...so the "soon to be famous" granola with fresh bananas was an unmatched delight...but my table mates actually wanted to mate with the Oatmeal, and I do believe that there were some inappropriate American Pie references thrown around.
I admittedly drink fluids like a camel - so I was exceptionally pleased to always reach down to find a full glass of water and a topped off cup of coffee. ...yes, the bathrooms were nice too. ; )
My experience was a STRONG 4 stars, but I didn't quite get the 5-star vibe from the atmosphere. . . but again - I'll probably go back tomorrow for lunch, so what does that tell ya!
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I've been lucky enough to catch The Daily Cafe for breakfast and lunch a few times and have always been pleasantly surprised by how good it is. Great and creative soups and sandwiches, amazing quiche and a frittata that was worth telling everyone about. Hip and clean art blends well to the modern look of the place but it all still manages to be warm and inviting. Yum!
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I've only been to Daily Cafe for lunch, and I love their vegetarian sandwich and their soup. I high recommend get their weekly special. Its never disappointing. My friend visiting from LA loves their turkey sandwich. She claim its the best she's ever had. The place is clean, atmosphere is nice, and tons of middle aged married couples. Not my type of crowd.
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There's a note on the menu here that says something to the effect of "Trying really hard to make brunch at the Daily a Portland tradition," and I sure hope they succeed. The fam and I had decided to take a late morning stroll through the famed Pearl District and ended up here for brunch. A quick Yelp mobile consultation confirmed that this was the place to be.
The Prix-fixe options were delicious and plentiful - I was feeling Mexican so I went with the huevos rancheros which were spicy and tasty. I was especially digging the pepper-jack quesadilla. Apparently the menu rotates and everything is fresh local organic (?) ingredients. And 3 courses for $12.95 is a pretty sweet deal no matter where you are (in NYC that's unheard of).
Decor is sleek and simple. I saw another review say it looks like it belongs in Stockholm, which is pretty accurate. I get the feeling if I lived in Portland I would hang out in the Pearl a lot, and probably eat here just as much.
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I love this place for breakfast. Especially the brunch on Sundays! The only bad thing is that they don't open until 9. I'm usually hungry before that!
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Our local friends/relatives took us here for a fabulous brunch.
Apparently, the menu changes often so it's always fresh - gotta love that. We enjoyed the prix fixe Sunday brunch where you select an appetizer and entree, except it ultimately ended up being way too much food... and everything came out at once so it seemed more like we had ordered two breakfasts! Still, for everything we got with the meal it was very reasonably priced - make sure to come in hungry!
Some really original and unique options, good service and nice ambiance. A little crazy on Sunday morning, but probably mellower during the week. Definitely worth checking out!
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A smart stylish cafe in what was once an industrial space on the fringe of the Pearl. Cement floors, modern art, bright colors - it looks and feels like a hip cafe in Stockholm. This is more of a breakfast/lunch place than dinner. Saturday and Sunday mornings, the DC is bursting with see and be seen urbanites munching on above average breakfast fare in their REI tees and bicycle shorts. There can be a wait on the weekends but the food is good - if not expensive. Two for brunch with tip is likely to be $35+. Service is friendly, but can be rushed. That said, I've never had a bad meal there.
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Yummy Yummy Yum.
I just hit up this place yesterday. It was the perfect little lunch spot for my rainy gross lunch break. The atmosphere is really modern, but not in a cold art museum kinda way. The staff was dancing with each other behind the counter when I got there, which I take as a great sign. Non pretentious restaurant staff in the pearl?? Gasp. I was thrilled. :)
I was feeling indecisive, ya know...as ya do. They were really great and gave me the low low on what I should get and what I should avoid.
I ordered the Fajita Panini which BLEW MY FRIGGIN' MIND. Delicious roast beef with bell peppers and onions in a chipotle aioli sauce all grilled up and served to me on crispy buttery panini bread. Aren't you excited about that?? Yeah. Me too. I also got the vegan soup. Oh yeah! Lots of vegan options here if you are so inclined. I am carnivorous, but some warm lentil soup sounded too good to pass up. Not too pricey at all. I will be back, rain or shine.
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Food is WAYYYYYY over rated. Nothing to write home about.
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I do so love brunch at the Daily and now that the weather is getting consistently nicer and summer is upon us I shall be going more often. Brunch is where it's at. You start with basket of cute and small pastries to choose from and then your meal. Excellent service which means the coffee is always flowing and when you are done they fill a to go cup full of coffee and send you on your way. Pleased as always just thinking about it.
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Oh how I love the daily caf! For brunch, lunch, or dinner, this is one of my favorite spots in the Pearl. All or almost all of the food is organic and local, so the vegetables change seasonally and are always deliciously integrated into a dish.
Meats are free range and organic also.
The space itself is a little cold from the concrete floors and high ceilings, and it doesn't help that the chairs are plastic in bright orange and green. It looks like a mix between a school and a shot from Dwell magazine, but it's still comfortable and bright and it's all about the food anyway.
Some of the best salads are here, because the produce is so yummy. This is also a great place to try a veggie you might otherwise shy away from, because it will be done up in some delicious way you never imagined.
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After attempting several other restaurants for brunch on a Sunday around 1pm, we ended up at the Daily Cafe. Amidst a group of locals, I assumed we were ... settling... for the Daily only because other attempts failed when in reality it was more like "why didn't we just come here first?" The place was full when our party of 6 + 1 year old baby walked through the door. Although we had to wait a couple minutes they were more than accommodating and put together two tables for us so we could all sit together. A brunch fanatic, I thought the optional prix fixe menu was an ingenious twist on the ordinary. You were still able to order sides alone or appetizers or just plain entrees, but the combinations made sharing fun and easy.
The food was good, but not great. After watching plates whiz by from the kitchen to the dining room while waiting for our table, my mouth was watering, upon ordering they tasted just pretty good, but not wow-er if you know what I mean. I enjoyed the pastry baskets and my three egg savory omelet immensely, but I tasted others' oatmeal appetizer and my glazed and broiled grapefruit, though yummy-looking were only so so.
All in all, I did appreciate the use of ingredients, the menu offering and especially the waitstaff who were very friendly and accommodating.
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Maybe for brunch instead?
I've heard both good and bad things about the Daily Caf in the Pearl, so decided to try it for lunch recently.
The menu offers a good variety of sandwiches, and I ordered the tuna. It was fresh and was seasoned nicely but nothing spectacular. My friend ordered tomato soup, which she said was very tasty and creamy. I was more impressed with the atmosphere, which sported bright warehouse windows and fun colors inside. It was soothing, especially on a rainy day.
Tip: I that heard their prix fixe brunch is a good deal and known for its organic quality.
Sunday brunch at the Daily Cafe involves a three-course prix fixe at an affordable $12.95. We started with a basket of pastries that included a cranberry scone, banana nut muffin, and cheddar cheese biscuit--all of which were fairly generic and dry.
Our appetizers came after our entrees and weren't memorable interpretations of apple cobbler or granola. The standouts were our entrees of baked Portuguese eggs with choricou and kale and smoked salmon omelette. In both case, our eggs were cooked to perfection and well seasoned.
The modern space is painted in vibrant oranges and reds and is a dose of sunshine waiting for you on a Sunday morning. Not too busy or noisy, it is a good place to bring the family on a warm weekend.
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The Daily is a nice place - good food and a nice atmosphere, but it is too expensive. Rumor is they have lowered prices, but I don't know if it has helped.
I have probably eaten at this place for breakfast and lunch more than any other in Portland. I have always found their food to be very high quality and well made. They have daily lunch specials that change in the categories of soup, quiche (love me some quiche), sandwiches, and pastas.
And in the way of breakfast, it's the same deal. Daily specials that change. They also have some regular menu items. I love getting their oatmeal for breakfast. So creamy and comes with fruit, milk and usually some nuts or raisins. I have never really thought this place was too expensive in regards to the quality. It is a nice sized space that has ever changing art and nice wood tables.
They also make some pretty great pastries, cookies and breads and a killer latte.
The Daily Cafe pearl is an awesome spot for getting high quality, organic, local and super fresh foods. Its best for breakfast with grilled sandwhiches, big scrambles and a really great take on the classic bacon-eggs-toast brekkie (the chicken apple sausage is the best!).
You are paying for fresh, local, organic etc so its more expensive than your average breakfast place.
Its big enough that when I've gone with a party of three or four, we haven't ever had to wait more than a few minutes. It is usally busy on sat/sun mornings.
Its casual in that you oder at the counter and they bring your food out to your table. Except on Sunday with the prix fixe, where you sit down to order. Its a great price of 12.95 and the first thing they do is bring you a basket of muffins and scones.
I think my favorite starter on the sunday brunch is the oatmeal - they broil it on the top, like creme brulee. SO GOOD!
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