Marketplace Cafe

Nordstrom decided to "upgrade" their menu, and just about wrecked the place. The Tuscany roast chicken went from two pieces to one piece, to one smaller less tasty piece. The lovely roast potatoes that came with it are now replaced with some fubar grain. Classic case of a chef stretching his creativity to the detriment of the food. Today I had the French dip. The beef was a travesty, horribly over spiced (pepper and garlic?), and severely overcooked; not even a hint of beef flavor to it. The bread (roll) was excellent. Aside from Ranch and Caesar, their list of salad dressing is laughably pretentious nonsense. I chose Caesar, and it was was inedible. Got a bite close to my mouth, but after one smell I put it back on the plate untasted. Good Cherry tart (with a pretentious name). Excellent chocolate chip macadamia nut cookie. Service was great. (As is usual here, despite the idiotic practice of ordering and paying up front, sitting down, having to pay again if you decide to add dessert or another glass of wine, etc. Moronic at best.) The new chef or new manager has wrecked what was once a favorite place, good for twice a week on my list. I will be back, but only when they have Strawberry shortcake, and only for that. I want to reiterate, they have a GREAT STAFF! This botch job is fully on management and executive chef. Creative cooking and creative menus can be both fun and delicious, but creativity without a talented guiding hand end up... like this. They will probably throw me out next time I show up. I go there enough that my comments will be recognized. C'est la vie.
2 9 years ago (09-05-2017)

This is one of the best places to eat in the entire Portland area, but it hides itself in a mall. If you can brave the stale, hyper-consumerism of a department store, you're in for a treat! Hint: don't skip dessert. :)
5 9 years ago (08-04-2017)

LOVE norstroms cafe and great servers. Wish they would get tables for group more then 4 ended up pulling a chair up to the table from another table, where someone else was seated later and they ended up having to get a chair from somewhere else
5 10 years ago (28-10-2016)

2 STARS..... THEY SCREWED UP MY ORDER... NOT ONCE... BUT TWICE
2 10 years ago (08-05-2016)