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Tour de Crepes
Rating Details »
Category: Creperies
Neighborhoods: Alberta Arts District, Northeast Portland, Concordia2921 NE Alberta St
Portland, OR 97211
(503) 473-8657
- Hours:
Thu. 10:00 a.m. - 8:00 p.m.
Fri. 10:00 a.m. - 9:00 p.m.
Sat. 9:00 a.m. - 9:00 p.m.
- Attire:
- Casual
- Accepts Credit Cards:
- Yes
- Parking:
- Street
- Price Range:
-
$
- Good for Groups:
- Yes
- Good for Kids:
- Yes
- Takes Reservations:
- No
- Delivery:
- No
- Waiter Service:
- Yes
- Wheelchair Accessible:
- Yes
- Outdoor Seating:
- Yes
- Good for:
- Breakfast, Dessert
- Alcohol:
- Beer & Wine Only
17 reviews for Tour de Crepes
+: Super low key spot with yummy crepes, check!
-: Accordion guy was fun at first but I got over it fast.
!: My first time trying gruyere cheese and it was delicious!
?: Where else can you order a crepe from a trailer in the back? So rad!
I'm with Tim M. on this one. My husband, kid and I had a similar and terrible experience with this place. Let me break it down for you:
-10:10am we arrive and go back to the trailer to order.
-10:20am, we are finally acknowledged and our order is taken
-10:35am, our coffee (with no sugar provided) and juice arrive
-10:45am, our kid enters the pissy "where's my food?" phase. Us too.
-10:50am, we are getting more and more annoyed by the lack of acknowledgement by the 1 server who is present, but clearly not wanting to see us.
-11:00am, our crepes come out. One is cold, the others lukewarm. The child is too hungry and frustrated to hunker down and eat. We get her crepe wrapped up.
-11:15am, we depart feeling ripped off and wanting to tell the world of what a joke this place is.
Which brings me to now. This place is run by jackasses who think that if they throw together a cute and unique venue, they can get away with bad service and average food.
The reason why it took us 4 years to try this place is because it is never open during the usual hours that most folks have breakfast, ya know? 8am on? This place is designed for folks who think that being a Francophile entails waiting for an hour to get your food, being treated rudely and paying way too much for it. Seriously people. Go to Chez Machin instead.
When I went vegan, one of the most depressing prospects for me was a lifetime of eliminating the deliciousness to be found at the Icosium Kafe (http://www.yelp.com/bi...). Vegan crepes are rarely found, and are done *well* even more rarely.
Enter Tour de Crepes - a staggering four blocks from my house.
The set-up won me over immediately. Tiny tables in a small building, and one large table made from a door. Yes, a door. And movie theatre seats! Imagine this complemented by colorful walls and an accordian/fiddle duo that plays every Sunday until 1:00. Crepes, delicious drinks, AND one of my favorite instruments in the world? I could have fallen in love right away -- (the arm of my dining companion that found its way around my shoulders and the untouched NY Times crossword puzzle left on the table only served to cement this.)
You order at the trailer behind the building. Yes, you order directly from the two folks running the establishment. And their dog.
There are some amazing vegan choices including vegan Nutella! I almost wish I'd never stumbled upon this. You also have the option of building your own crepe from their array of meats, veggies, cheeses, fruits, and sauces. I went with a pre-combined one, however, and had the fig-onion chutney, garlic paste, and spinach crepe in the vegan buckwheat batter.
Although not terribly well combined (I got maybe two bites in which all the flavors melded together), it was delicious and filling. Their coffee is brewed by the cup and their mocktails are almost sinfully delicious (I was able to sample their strawberry bellini).
Be prepared for a long wait, though. We waited at least 25 minutes for ours but were constantly kept entertained by the shenanigans of the musicians and the newspaper.
It's a lovely spot for a relaxed Sunday breakfast and I'll be back if only for a caramelized onion, sweet potato, and spicy mustard crepe. And the accordian.
Stopped by this place with my girlfriend after looking through the Portland Monthly Best of Breakfast article. Saturday morning (10:00am) the place was almost empty.
Decor and art was eclectic. There is a very cool big table that is basically a door with legs. They have a few framed chalkboards in the corner that you can create your our art. Overall relaxed feel to the joint
We got a little confused on how to order. You can go around back to the trailer and order; we were about to order out back until the waitress told us to grab a seat and she proceeded to take our order.
The menu is expansive, offering a wide variety of sweet and savory crepes. Plus there is a create-your-own menu, as well. I ordered the strawberry and nutella crepe and my girlfriend ordered a peach and creme fresh crepe. Both were very tasty.
They have a limited drink menu, no espresso (you can go next door to the coffee shop to get your latte fix). I ordered their chai tea (it was unsweetened and wasn't too strong which I loved). My girlfriend ordered drip coffee and they serve it with a simple portable gravity drip that you can get refilled with hot water (great idea).
Service was good, the place started to pick up around 11:00am. The one waitress was stretched thin at that point and it took us a while to get our check.
Overall, I loved the place and would recommend it to anyone. I'll be back there soon!
I live in the neighborhood and my experience on a Saturday at noon makes it unlikely that I'll return.
My wife, child and I had to wait 15 min before our coffee and drinks arrived, and we left the restaurant without eating ~35 minutes after ordering. The entire restaurant was staffed by one woman - serving, cooking, making drinks, etc. When I asked her whether another server had failed to show to work or was the restaurant intentionally single-staffed, she said the owner only scheduled one person intentionally.
Dear Owner of Tour de Crepes - don't be penny wise and pound foolish. You cannot get away with staffing a full-menu, breakfast restaurant on a Saturday morning with one person. You lost three customers today and - by the looks on the faces of the other dozen customers - probably many more.
I'm not the Alberta type...so it, and it's quirkiness, scares me. That's right, I said it! And phew do I feel better. No more pretending to be someone I'm not. Okay, okay, it was no secret...
I had to meet some out of town friends for a late Saturday breakfast and I admit, I was in fear of being beaten by a filthy 90 pound messenger bag for driving my rootin' tootin' pollutin' car across the river to Tour de Crepes. But once there, the homemade lemon curd and fresh brewed in the cup/by the cup coffee calmed my nerves. This place rocks! Nothing like crepes made fresh in an Airstream!
It's so cute...and odd...and Portland...I loved it.
We were taken to Tour de Crepes last weekend when it was sweltering hot. Hell had frozen over and Portland, in turn, was melting down. It was a gorgeously dusky summer evening, the air thick with the heat of the day and the buttery smell of crepes. The porchlight called from the converted Airstream, which offered forth buckwheat-wrapped apple, fontina, and cayenne pepper; sweet sticky strawberry and creme fraiche. We floated atop the night like insects, drunk on the honey of warm light and abundant snacks beckoning their flickery, fleeting pleasures, concealing our impending doom.
For I am lactose intolerant.
Woe was me.
Adorable and strange.
Adorable: This is the kind of place where you could expect them to have a 8pm showing of Amelie, projected onto the rear white wall of this tiny little shop, literally. Stop in to play some games, sip on a latte, or have a deliciously decadent crepe (raspberries & vanilla bean custard with vanilla ice cream anyone??). Quaint little store with a huge quirky personality and excellent treats.
Strange: Walk in, and by a sign you are directed to exit the store out the back door, which is where you will see The Trailer (yes, a real silver trailer). Here you can place your order & have it cooked up. The server will bring it to you inside the store....so very very odd really when you think about it. Where are the bathrooms you wonder? In the silver trailer? No, there are no bathrooms, you must go next door to the coffee shop...don't worry, they don't mind....
I heart crepes doo doot doo doot doo doo...
If you could see me, I'm doing a little crepe loving dance right now. That's a pretty regular thing in my life.
This place is great. It's so funky and cute and so Portland in a "I'm-cooking-your-crepes-out-back-in-an-Airstream- trailer" kind of way. And I love it.
My crepe and my husband's crepe were fall-down delicious. Mine involved Nutella (oh how I love thee), toasted coconut, and coconut cream. Heaven on a plate. I ordered a little side salad with mine which was kind of waldorf-ish, apples, blue cheese crumbles, and walnuts. So bueno.
The husband's crepe was a buckwheat crepe that had jack cheese, fresh tomatoes, and a pesto that tasted like lime and basil had a lovechild.
Our crepes were so good. The coffee is also brewed per cup when you order it. Mmmmm... Say no more.
Yes, it might take a little bit to get your crepe, the server is taking your order and cooking up these little treasures all by herself. Yes, she is cooking them in the Airstream out back. But isn't that part of what makes this place so wonderful and charming? While you wait, play Scrabble or flip through the culinary magazines and dream up what you'll cook for your next dinner party. Just go here, and enjoy it! You'll be glad you did.
I'm not sure what my review would be like if I regular crepes. But I don't. I'm vegan, and I've never had a real crepe before due to milk/egg allergies. I have, however, had other vegan "crepes" and this place tops the cake. I got one with dark chocolate, and fried bananas. It came with peanut butter but I'm allergic to that, too, so she omitted it and also decreased the price of the crepe. Most places don't do that if you leave off ingredients. It was delicious. The crepe was thin and chewy and the filling was perfect. My husband got dark chocolate with cinnamon and chile powder. I also had a cup of coffee brewed to order. It was so good, I had it black.
Yes, the wait takes a little while. Yes, there are no bathrooms. Yes, you have to go to the trailer to order and I didn't see any sign telling me to do that so we waited for a while first. And the crepes could have been a bit larger.
However, the food was so fresh and tasty, the inside of the garage-turned-bistro is cute and fun, there are lots of games to play while you are there, and they have French movies on Friday nights. And there are many vegan options. I even forgot to tip at all, and I called later to apologize and the waitress was really sweet and laughed. So maybe the other reviewer had a different waitress on a bad day. Not excuseable though.
I'll be back.
Tasty crepes even though the place is a little weird. The building is old and small. The kitchen is in a trailer out back and the restrooms are in a coffee shop in the building next door.
The crepe with raspberries and vanilla bean custard was delicious, especially with some vanilla ice cream on the side. The coffee was also great and individually brewed for each cup.
I would definitely recommend this place for dessert after having dinner in any of the local restaurants.
What a disappointment. My friends and I stopped in here early on a Sunday afternoon while having a shopping outing. I liked the artwork on the walls, but the eclectic atmosphere was taken a bit far - with tables that wobbled and uncomfortable chairs. We waited over an hour after placing our order for 4 crepes, before I eventually got antsy enough to walk back to the trailer-kitchen and ask if they were still planning to serve us. They said they'd be right out, and about 15 minutes later our food was served.
Unfortunately, it wasn't worth the wait. The crepes themselves were too thick and dry, and the 'prosciutto' was something I would have a hard time calling anything but thick-cut ham. One of my friends ordered the "strawberries and creme fraiche" and was rather shocked to find it filled with strawberry jam, without so much as a fresh strawberry for garnish.
However, the point that made me really want to warn people off was that the waitress apparently decided after we left that the 10% tip we chose to leave (which we felt was rather generous after this experience) was not enough, and took it upon herself to change the charge slip and run my friend's card for an extra $5. After that, there's no chance of my giving them another shot.
Stopped in for an afternoon snack on a sunny Saturday with our dog. They get two stars for letting us sit outside with our dog. But when you spend $6 for a crepe with some honey, apples and cinnamon it better be exceptional. Well..... it wasn't. I can't really explain it but knowing how crepes taste in France and even in Vietnam this one was not good at all. I ate it because I was really hungry but 20 min later I needed another snack. It was sooo unsatisfying.
Oh yeah and they have no bathroom to clean up.
Stopped in on a Friday night. Cool movie showing on the screen, but just one woman working the whole place. The sweet crepes are quite nice and the savory crepes are really luscious- love the pesto!
Deeply disappointed that it took 45 minutes to make a couple crepes. If this place ramped up the service just a bit, it could easily support 2-3 times as many much happier customers.
Delicious crepes, funky (maybe a little overly so) ambience, good service. I had the Prosciutto, goat cheese and fig crepe, and it was yum...and surprisingly filling. However, I worry for their survival because we went on a Friday night at around 7pm and there was only one other table filled - which happened to be occupied by an old friend of mine who I haven't seen in a year. So that was cool. Overall, nice place and great food, but they need to do something to bring the customers in, otherwise they ain't gonna last!
It's easy to walk by this crepe shack and not even notice. Set waay back off the street from Alberta is a little trailer where they cook up some really phenomenal crepes. Seating consists of this sort of ramshackle house next to the trailer with a few random tables/chairs/couches, plus a few wobbly outdoor tables. Sandbox and sidewalk chalk are available to entertain the kiddies. Place your order at the trailer and pay them later, after you eat - you're sort of on the honor system to remember to go back and pay. The crepes are top-notch. I had this buckwheat, cheesy spinach onion kalamata thing that was great. The kiddo had fresh raspberries and crme fraiche - hers was even better. Crepes are on the spendy side - like $7 - 8 or so for a full-on crepe. I'm a light eater but always need to order a side of soup or something with my crepe, so you could spend some bucks on a casual lunch pretty easily. The coffee is fine, but comes in some sort of filtering device where you brew the coffee at your table, a cup at a time. Cute idea, but I still don't have the swing of it after several visits. I think I just generally like someone else to make the coffee for me and pour it in my cup, so am still not too hip on the concept. They fairly recently got a liquor license and I think now sell beer/wine. Oh, no bathroom on site, but the folks at the gallery next door are nice enough to let you use theirs. I actually really like this place - it's low key, never very crowded, and a nice people-watching perch on Alberta.
Small child: I like the raspberries but I no like the white stuff. The sandbox had rocks in it.
This is one of my favorite spots in NE PDX. If you are in the neighborhood or walk past take a peek inside. It is an old carriage house set back from the street with an intact rustic interior. A few of the tables are old doors and the walls are always adorned with new and local art. Don't go if you are in the mood for take-out. This place is meant to be taken in with the time between ordering and eating. I recommend the lemon curd crepe and a cup of coffee, which they brew individually on each cup at your table. Go ahead, take a little holiday to Paris.
