Savoy Tavern

3.5 stars, but default to 4 for the items containing cheese.

Two different atmospheres in one spot.
Mac & cheese to die for.
Delicious cheese curds.
Yummy beer cheese soup.
Brussels Sprouts with bacon were also yummy, and more al dente.

Fried chicken is pretty good. Not the best I've had, but definitely not the worst.
I would not recommend the pot pie. It was burnt (see picture) and for $12 (it says $8 online, but it's $12 on the actual menu), I would expect more than sloppy ingredients resembling Campbell's soup broiled in an oven with a puff pastry on top. Not a pie at all and not worth the price increase. A side salad came with the pie, but it was also lackluster. Not exciting, but I wouldn't expect a super exciting salad with pot pie - the flavors would probably clash.
Savoy, please take this off of your menu or make an actual pie. I can get two real Pacific Pie Company pies for the price of your one "pie," which is blasphemous. All of the cake people are laughing at me right now, and that's okay.

I have to say, this was one of the better bar experiences I've had in Portland. I read a few reviews on Yelp and didn't really know what to expect when a group of friends decided to go there. So glad they picked this place!

Instantly, I felt comfortable and cozy at this smaller bar. There was plenty of seating since it was earlier in the evening but it's a smaller bar with red booths in half the bar and tables near the front.

Their cocktail drink menu is interesting. I had a Midwestern Mule and The Aristocrat, both which were refreshing and delightful. I especially enjoyed the Earl Grey vodka they use, just a hint of bergamot. They were also very reasonable priced. I could picture myself having a lazy afternoon drinking their cocktails. I also ordered their fried cheese curds since it was mentioned in a few reviews. So good! Do you want something salty, crispy and fried in your mouth? Yeah... it's a repeat. You can also order burgers and food at the restaurant next to the bar but sit at the bar. Not a bad idea!

And the guys working this place were really on top of it. We never had to flag them down or get that attitude. You know what I'm talking about. They were so friendly but not the fake kind.

All around great place, I can't wait to go back.

The Good....
The cheese curds, are AMAZING! The service was good. I have had 2 burgers here a while back, once again, AMAZING! The fries are pretty good too....

The Bad.....
1 can of soda is $2.50, lame, I can get 4 liters at the grocery store for $2.50. :(

It is possible I am not hipster enough for this place.

I had the Fried Chicken with 2 sides, the mac and cheese and the fries. It was $16. I didn't eat the Mac and Cheese, as it was VERY bland, and not very tasty. The fries are always good, the fried chicken wasn't anything to write home about. KFC would have been just as good, in addition, the breast was very dry.

My daughter had the Pork Chop, Mac & Cheese and the salad. $16. The pork tasted funny, and it was dry. Mac & Cheese was still bland and just blah. The side salad, was yum! They have good Ranch.

So we had...
Cheese curds( happy hour)
2 cans of soda
Friend Chicken dinner
Pork Chop dinner and it came to $42.

For $42 i want to be fed and take home left overs. The portions were small, not great and again, maybe i am not hipster enough, i thought it was a waste of money. I wont be back.

What a cool idea - midwestern cuisine imported to the uber hip restaurant scene of Portland. I really like this place. There is an allure, "I am with the cool kids" feel to the place.

The food - well no need to look any further than their outstanding French Fries. They are awesome morsels of fried delight. The brussels sprouts, meat board, and cheese plate are all really nice as well (I feel bad we did not try the cheese curds; but having had them in WI before I know how unsettling they are to the palate).

I settled for the pork chop. Nicely prepared and well paired with the sautéed greens. My table mates each went for something a little different. From the "three sides" entree to the ham and cheese sandwich - everyone of our dishes were good.

The one complaint - the restaurant is not the best at timing the courses. We ordered a bunch of food - and it all came at once . . . including the salads. I am not going to "beat them up" for this little oversight - because everything else was really good.

The serves were all very nice and completely approachable. This is not always the case in some of Portland's more trendy and hip restaurants.

My recommendation - this is worth the visit. A gem of a place tucked away in the Clinton Neighborhood of southeast PDX. Worth every bite!

I didn't actually eat here, but I can say that the 5 people I was with were all really happy with their orders.

I'd showed up to have a couple drinks while my friends ate. Small tap list, but some unique stuff in bottles. My first beer took about 20 minutes to show, which was almost as long as the wait for food. Maybe they needed to run to the grocery store? My second beer never did come, as our waiter was MIA after he brought everyone their food. I wasn't the only one who would have gotten a second drink, so the absent service made for a smaller check. I guess that was a good thing, as the waiter had a REALLY hard time handling the mix of cards and cash, even though a member of our group wrote it all down on the receipt. On top of it all, I had to pay an extra fee because too many members of our group paid by card.

Like I said, everybody really liked their food, but I wasn't at all impressed with the service. Too many good alternatives in this city for me to get back to the Savoy Tavern.

Succotash, collard greens, fried chicken, I look forward to going back. What a great place, and superb staff. And they do benefits for their community, too.

Only went once for Happy Hour:

The heralded cheese curds delivered! Only those at The Original on 6th are as good. The Trout on Rye was just okay; the pickles that came with were excellent though. Meatballs and sauce were better than average. The Red Velvet Cake was very dry, the frosting a little dated. Of the many versions of this dessert I've tried in Portland, Savoy's was my least favorite. The server was okay, the hostess (a guy) seemed like he didn't care about our existence.

We had a house party to go to in the area so I searched on Yelp to find a place for us to meet and eat prior. Found the Savoy and recalled it had also been reviewed in the recent Portland Monthly so how could we go wrong.

It was a Sunday evening and we got there at 5. The place had just opened so it was a little chilly and empty. Which was fine. The service was prompt and the specials were quite interesting.

Neither of us were too hungry but we had to order the cheese curds since that seems to be what this place is known for. Well - I gotta say - I wasn't too impressed. It was just big clumps of orange cheese fried and salty. It didn't even come with a dipping sauce. We chose to add the smoked trout starter. It came with 2 pickles, 2 pieces of toast/cracker, mustand, capers and a rather lightly smoked sorta dry piece of trout. The mustard was good with the cheese curds. Then we each got a beet/cheese/salad. That was quite tasty and I'd probably order that again if I came back to this place. They had a bunch of larger meals on the menu and I wished I had been more hungry as I bet their heartier items are good.

I'd give this place another try however, I'd skip the cheese curds.

So I love the cocktails, the ambience, and the staff here.
It feels like a cool little hidden bar that you can sit in a corner by candlelight and people watch or canoodle. The bartender is AWESOME and they actually make real Moscow Mules here. My hang up is that the food is so so. I just can't get excited about trout and cheese. Everything I've eaten here has been decent but not great-and it may just be that the style of food isn't really my cup of tea. I would advise you to sidle up to the bar and enjoy a great drink and give those deep fried cheese curds a go.

(Decent happy hour as well.....drink and food specials.)

I take back everything I previously said about the Savoy Tavern - it's back! My fiancee and I went there last night after hearing that they'd changed the menu around and introduced a Tavern favorites menu. Service was great, food was great, the drink was great. I like what they've done with the place now - if people want the fast food style burger (that I previously lamented) then they can order that from one side of the restaurant. If they want the classic Tavern fare that the Savoy Tavern did so well, they can sit down and have a nice meal on the other side of the restaurant.

So glad that they reintroduced the tavern style menu options - my go to place on the east side of Portland is back!