Bluehour

Great happy hour cocktails & bites! Wait staff was awesome & atmosphere comfortably sophisticated. Would go there again!

Don’t underestimate the burger!
I’m not one to promote a hamburger, but when I stopped in to grab lunch while running errands, I was pleasantly surprised at how good this burger was! Additionally, served with my favorite shoestring french fry… I left quite satiated and satisfied!

This is Portland – land of food carts, donuts and too many brew pubs. So it’s wonderful to remember it’s Spring at Blue Hour– and the menu reflects their commitment to the bounty of fresh ingredients available here. There are too many tasty appetizers to mention– try to restrain yourself. My entrée of halibut plated with crunchy sugar snap peas and thin slices of sweet baby turnips was simply perfection. I could have said «enough» and ended my meal satisfied — –however — - who could pass on an Oregon strawberry tart with scrumptious goat cheese ice cream? Blue Hour delivers on all counts. Treat yourself.

Continues to have the best drinks in town! The martinis and the vodka gimlets
–just great.
Love the bar menu and the service is always top notch.

The last time I came here prior to last week was over 8 years ago. I remembered it was solid, but not wow, it was pricey, so I never came back. I was invited to dinner last week and very much enjoyed my dinner. The service was very good, the cocktails were on point, the appetizers were current to what’s in season. Each dish has many different components with interesting textures, temperatures and flavors. Even a droplet of sauce on the side taste great and made with care. I’m certainly impressed by it this time and hope to return sooner than last time.

Great service, food and drinks come through and see Jason and Donald. They are awesome bartenders.

I’ve been here many times and only because of how beautiful this place is inside! Cute for date night.
The customer service is horrible, so maybe you don’t wanna have a first date here. You would think walking into a place as beautiful as this the customer service would be excellent. I don’t mind paying good money for good food but the problem is the food is not that great and on top of that the servers are rude and not welcoming at all. If your going to charge me that much I expect you to at least fake being welcoming and nice… The service they provide does not fit the atmosphere of this place, it’s actually quite misleading. All the servers have a «I hate my life attitude» I’m a friendly person and even when I get rude service I am never rude back.
The bartenders are nice and that’s the only reason I go and the only place I will sit in there.
Overall, huge disappointment every single time I’ve gone to give it another shot thinking it will get better.

Bluehour was always a favorite when I traveled to Portland for work from San Francisco and continues to be a favorite now that I live here.
We love visiting the bar for happy hour or a pre dinner cocktail. The bartenders have always been and continue to be very skilled, knowledgable, fun, friendly and easy on the eyes!
When we arrived, we had concerns about our parking situation and the lovely hostess directed our concerns to the GM, John Darcy, who promptly suggested we move our car into an empty valet spot! What great customer service! John continued to check on us throughout our stay.
Our waiter, Marc, was awesome! We have always had fantastic service at Bluehour.
Valentine’s Day dinner did not disappoint, especially the Ménage a Foie, three great preparations of foie gras. Thank you Marc for the excellent wine pairing! The Wagyu Brisket was so tender and rich I could not stop eating it!
Bluehour will continue to be our favorite for a special occasion or a casual happy hour!
You outdid yourselves, once again!

I have dinned in many, many restaurants around the world, and bar none, Bluehour is the epitome of what is to me, a perfect dining experience. To us, when evaluating a restaurant we look for several things and how well they all «hang together». This approach can apply to a ‘dive restaurant’ as well as a high end establishment. Bluehour is the only restaurant, in our opinion, that represents the perfect execution of a concept from plate (food), to ambiance (interior design /​music, etc.), to service.
Let’s get the food out of the way first… I have dined at Bluehour several times over the last 10 years, and not once have I been disappointed. The first time I visited Bluehour was when I was in Portland on business and decided to drop in for lunch with a small group. We were politely greeted and seated in spite of not having a reservation. When the food arrived, at first silence all around the table… everybody was just eating. Then came the «oh my gosh this is amazing!» comments, one after another. I was so impressed by lunch I returned the same evening for dinner; it was even more amazing because dining in the evening at Bluehour is when it really «shines».
When you walk into Bluehour in the evening, the space is filled with soft indirect light that fills the restaurant with a warm even lighting that is punctuated by candles throughout the restaurant. If you are visiting for Valentines or Christmas, you will likely see branches strung with lights weaving through the ceiling space adding to the mystique of the atmosphere. The music matches the atmosphere perfectly — soft, jazzy, hip.
The table service is polished, professional, not overbearing yet you never feel like you are being ignored. Every time I have dined here, no matter day or evening, each waiter has been sharply pressed, professional, delightful, and never overbearing. We have dined at restaurants where the waiters are aware of the restaurants position in the culinary world and wear that attitude on their sleeve and make you feel that they are doing you a favor just to let you sit and eat. Not here — you feel like you are a welcomed part of the family and they are happy to have you as a guest.
Back to the food, simply elegantly presented, and the flavors never, ever disappoint. There is a reason that Bluehour is the most sought after restaurant to be trained in after graduating from the Culinary Institute of America… this restaurant demonstrates perfect service, food, and concept night after night, season after season. Also what is refreshing, the price is not where you feel that you need to take out a second mortgage on your home to be able to dine here. Yes, it is on the higher end of the scale of cost of dining, however when compared to other restaurants that approach this caliber, it is a bargain. A dinner for two, with cocktail, appetizers, a main dish, dessert and a bottle of wine will likely run under $ 200 (depending on your selections of course!).
Bottom line; Bluehour is a ‘must’ if you are ever in Portland! You will not be disappointed!

Quality of food is great, atmosphere is amazing, service is wonderful!
Great place to take a date or dinner with clients… Definitely impressive.

This is one of my favorite places for special events. The atmosphere is always magical, maybe it’s the dim lights and the modern instrumental music in the background. The menu is rotating but it seems that every dish I’ve eaten here seems like the best meal I’ve ever had.
Tonight I tried gnocchi with elk and huckleberries. It was completely delectable and juicy. Their specialty cocktails are about $ 10 a piece which isn’t bad for an upscale restaurant such as this.
Try starting your meal off with their cheese platter, it’s simply amazing!
To top this review off, we just got champagne on the house since we’re here for my birthday tonight! I love this place.

This is a great place to go for Happy Hour. It’s in a neat location and the interior design is sleek and classic. Perfect place to grab a drink with your girlfriends. They have a great HH menu which changes every now and then so you can keep coming back!
In response to Bruce Carey’s response below, I was very impressed by the New York Sour. I would define it as a really nice hard lemonade. It’s simple, very refreshing and perfect for a sunny day. My go-​to drinks are classic cocktails and red wine but I could drink the sour all summer long!

I really do love Bluehour. I moved to Dallas for a few years and I loved how beautiful and fancy most of the eating establishments are there. So, when I moved back to Portland recently I immediately visited this Portland staple.
Bluehour is the one place in town that I feel is truly beautiful inside, upscale and the sort of place that I feel like I can put my nice clothes on and have a beautiful candlelit dinner. However, I also recently stopped in while shopping mid afternoon in my jeans and t-​shirt for a beer and burger and felt equally as comfortable. The food is always excellent and the staff is attentive and professional.

I don’t know when they open. I had to wait quite some time before actually entering the place and had to called and made sure they’re not closed. Turns out they forgot to unlock the doors! Anyways, my meat was overcooked a bit and the wait was long. At that time me and my co-​workers were the only ones in there as well. Interior décor is stunning, great service, but food could be better.

We came for new years eve dinner. The atmosphere and ambience is good. However, they only started becoming lively at 10:30 PM. We had arrived at 8PM. The four course meal was fair, it wasn’t as great of a fine dining experience I had expected in shelling out 75 dollars for a meal.
The appetizer that I had was the beet cardizona. The beets were thinly slized, I regret not getting the veal shortbread that my friends got. The second course was a pear soup, it was okay, tasted very purée and bland to me. The main course was steak. Cooked medium well even tho I had requested medium rare. I had three big pieces but one and a half was fat.
The best part of the meal was dessert, a chocolate gonoche. The service was great, our waitress was very courteous and tended us accordingly.

Our food was great, I seriously enjoyed the Carrot 8 Ways, Salmon Tar Tar, Goat and Beet Salad and ALL the deserts. I wanted the beef carpaccio to have more acid, but other than that, everything was bad ass. I got a tour of the kitchen, very clean, organized and it was awesome to see that they were working with local farmers, seed savers and incorporating as much heirloom and local produce/​meat into their cuisine as possible. Very cool, looking forward to coming back!
Our server was less impressive: frantic and inattentive, she had the unfortunate task of managing all the seats in the bar section, which was very spread out and included the outdoor patio. Lucky for us, we were there for a special occasion, and being that I work in the restaurant industry, I was more than willing to solicit service from the other employees who were AWESOME.

I only came here for happy hour drinks, so I will write a more detailed review once I have had a chance to eat here… but the ambiance here is spot on!
On a nice day, their outdoor patio is a perfect spot to grab a drink and people watch in the Pearl. Their happy hour is 4 – 6 and they have great prices on their small plates and cocktails/​drinks.
The service here was also very friendly and they were ON TOP of keeping my water glass filled on the 85 degree day yesterday! Overall, I look forward to coming back and experiencing the food!

It’s hard to explain why I didn’t go 5 star here, as this place truly is wonderful, but awkward wine ordering is the culprit. My colleague and I were seated at a nice corner table and during our wine musings asked for help as (of course!) the wine list was heavy on the WA and OR wines. We described what we were after and gave a price point to stick around. The server immediately began gushing about an amazing bottle that we would seemingly die if we didn’t try only to discover it was 150% of the price point mentioned. Now, I’m all for a good up sell, but don’t smack me over the head with it. Perhaps start with describing a bottle or two more in the range and then go up from there. I dunno. It was very uncomfortable though and really spoiled the vibe. Thankfully the stemware was nice and the right kind for our Pinot noir.
The atmosphere is cozy/​posh/​upscale with ethereal lighting and nice spacing between tables. Amuse bouche was a tiny mushroom tart, which was a savory little nibble, followed by our soup and salad respectively. I had a radicchio and beet salad which was a perfect winter salad and my companion a smooth broccoli soup.
My coho salmon was to die for and melt in your mouth texture. We skipped dessert as we were utterly overloaded with the richness of the food. Other than the bizarre wine incident we had a lovely time.
I would come again and pray for a less pretentious server.

If you know anything about me you know I love all things fancy and you can bet that includes a fancy happy hour. Lucky for me Bluehour is just a stroll away from my abode and located in the Pearl District.
Besides the upscale, elegant atmosphere and impeccable service that Bluehour delivers, it also offers up a diversely delicious happy hour. One of my favorite things to indulge in is the $ 20.00 bottle of bubbly to go with the $ 2.00 spiced hazelnuts.
Of note: If you look at the online menu you will find it is not what they currently offer. On my last visit I intended to order the wild prawns and was told those were no longer on the happy hour menu but in its place were seared scallops, which I did order and let me just say — Oh My God, they were amazing. The soup of the day was squash, which really hit the spot on a rainy and cold evening.
For those of you not lucky enough to be able to walk to Bluehour, you don’t need to worry about fussing with parking which can be tiresome in the Pearl District as they offer valet service.
Bön appétit!
2014 — Review # 95

In search of happy hour, try Bluehour. Draft beer $ 4, cocktails /​wine $ 6, and an abundant menu $ 2-​$ 8, includes almonds, olives, soup, Dungeness crab croquettes, caesar salad, cheese, deviled eggs, burger, etc. We love the grass fed burger $ 8 – no skimping, big & delicious with white cheddar cheese and grilled onions and comes with fries. Great deal for burger people, like us! Tonight, the burger is a choice-​combo of wagu, kobe & grass-​fed ground chuck!
It is a cool-​posh place with bar on the permitter of a simple-​elegant dining room with long flowing curtains and windows open to the bustling 13^th Ave. alley. Light is low! The mood is party, kick-​back or chat quietly with a friend or lover, you will discover – the mood you are looking for. And the service is most attentive and making certain you are in the mood!