Helser’s on Alberta

We ended up here after searching for a place without too long of a line. Everything on the menu looks so good that I had a hard time deciding, which made it a little disappointing when my meal came out! I had a Bloody Mary that was great, spicy but with a great flavor. For my meal, I got the bacon and cheddar hash, which was sliced potatoes and chopped up bacon with cheese melted over it. Sounds great, but the potato to everything else ratio was way off — too many potatoes. My eggs were poached well, but everything was just bland, nothing amazing happening. My husband got the scotch egg and potato pancakes, which I tasted as well. The pancakes were disappointing, and he said the scotch egg was surprisingly bland as well. The service was good and the restaurant itself is cute, but the food did not impress!

Took my cousin visiting from out of town to have a quick lunch. Had a scotch egg, potato pancakes, and a cup of spicy chicken noodle soup (soup of the day). It was all very good — but the chicken noodle soup might’ve been the best I’ve ever had. Creamy, thick, and just the right amount of kick.

It was a bit of a challenge to find Eggs Benedict on a Friday morning, but Helser’s delivered.
A cute place on the corner along Alberta, with the entrance dripping with house plants and the bright airy windows lighting a geometric mural reminiscent of the 80s/​90s.
The ham eggs bene was served on ciabatta, which impressed us. As did the smoked salmon hash and the potato pancakes. The house potatoes (which came as a side for the bene and hash) were very good too. The Louisiana Hot Sausage Scramble Wrap was pretty good, but we expected the sausage to be scrambled as well, so it was a surprise to see a whole link dominating the wrap; it was the weakest order of the four, but still pretty satisfying.
Service was a bit slow, but we walked away happy.

Helser’s on Alberta (the only Helser’s in Portland) is a cozy little brunch place on a cozy little street. The space is small and the food is tasty so come early if you don’t want to wait outside for a table. But seriously, the sign-​in sheet specifically stipulates that all dining hopefuls must take their hungry butts outside until their name is called. Even so, Helser’s more than made up for its draconian line laws with its accommodating staff and good eats.
The menu is rounded out with your typical breakfast foods — scrambles, omelettes, hashes, pancakes. Despite that humdrum list, this place delivers on everything. I partook of the smoked salmon hash that was topped with some of the finest poached eggs I’ve ever consumed. If the Portland area held an egg poaching competition, I wouldn’t be surprised if Helser’s took home top honors. In fact, the only way it wouldn’t win that competition is if the Portland Brunch Alliance was rife with corruption and the judges were paid off with syrupy wads of cash and under the table breakfast favors. And by «under the table breakfast favors» I mean buttery biscuits. Lots and lots of biscuits.
Moving along, my friend made the great decision of ordering the Scotch egg. For the unaware, a Scotch egg is a hard-​boiled egg wrapped in sausage meat, coated in bread crumbs and baked or deep-​fried. Yup, you read that correctly. I got the mouth sweats just looking at the thing when it came out.
All in all, Helser’s is a great — if not a little too standard — place for some morning grub that I can’t wait to revisit to try everything else on the menu.

Another great brunch place in Portland. I have been to this place twice now with a gap of one year and both the times I have liked the food that they have served.
For the food: my top recommendations for savory would be the Black Bean Chili Scramble and the shrimp omelette, if they have it (it was the special last time I had gone there). Black Bean Chili scramble is a very good choice for vegetarians. For sweet the French toast was amazing and I would definitely order it again. My wife also liked the Brioche Bacon and Egg Sandwich. If you like bacon, which I am sure many many people do, then this sandwich is a good idea.
Drinks: the hot chocolate was good and the hot toddy was very nice too. I would recommend either of those.
Tip: this is a small place so can be a bit of a wait for large groups, but I have found it to be worth it. I would recommend managing your time to when you think the crowd would be smaller.

Just a little disappointed in Helser’s and doubt that I’ll be back very soon. The mimosa did not have fresh OJ, the pumpkin french toast was nothing special (would have been much better with cooked cranberries) and the ham was tough! I make better coffee at home.
When I go out for a $ 25. breakfast I just expect something a little more special.

What a treat! Stumbled upon this little gem when a different first choice had a 1h15 wait. So glad this was our alternative. We were not only seated within 10 minutes, but also got our food within a similar time frame as well. Since I was visiting a girlfriend here in Portland, she recommended getting their «scotch egg» as an extra little treat, something I had never heard of before. It was like meatball awesomeness meets yummy boiled egg. For my main meal, I got the eggs Benedict with mushrooms, spinach and tomatoes. The hollandaise sauce was delicious and the poached eggs were perfectly cooked (not overchewy or soggy). I also loved that they were served on sliced baguette bread with thinly sliced potatoes that were also full of flavor.
The service was great, it wasn’t too loud which is also very pleasant. Our waitress was friendly and attentive to our needs. I would definitely recommend this little joint to other Portland locals or visitors, such as myself! Best of all, the price was very affordable, even after throwing in a mimosa!

Obviously food was delicious!
Waiting sucked, + the fact that they were not seating outside. Also a recommendation would be to provide menus to the guests waiting so we can be ready to order when we sit down!

There’s always a waiting line so be prepare to wait
It’s a small place so it gets loud
Waiters are nice but since there are super busy they cannot give you an excellent service yet they do their best n they do great :)
Food: was good I order the Benedict w spinach n mushrooms and tomatoes. The part I dislike was the tomatoes were cooked (personal dislike) and the potatoes weren’t crispy and also there was almost nothing of Hollande’s sauce in mine n husband plate so that’s something that I didn’t like… There house coffee wasn’t so great either .
Yet I still will give 4 stars cause my husband loved his salmon hash and the atmosphere was nice fast service

Came here on a Sunday at 2pm and there wasn’t a tremendously long line. It was not immediately clear that you should seat yourselves when you walked in-​there was no sign, but after I saw an abandoned seating list and no hostess I took the cue and sat at the bar. My companion and I decided rather quickly and when I asked for a server to take our order she said okay, but she couldn’t do it herself because someone else had our section… Even though we sat at the bar. Our server was enthralled with staring at the kitchen service area where her orders were coming out (facing away from us), so finally another gal had to go up and tell her to take our order. She came up with no introduction and just said «what are ya having?» Not the most professional (felt more like a diner than a hipster hovel) but I’m not too picky and she was on top of our drink refills so I was pleased with the service from there on out.
The prices vary but there are some options below $ 11 and the average is close to $ 15 a plate. My eggs were perfectly poached, but contrary to some of the other reviews there was no salt on my potatoes at all. I never add salt to my food but I felt the need to do so here. My favorite thing about this place was the good selection of gluten free options and the maple sausage was to die for. I will be back for another go soon enough!

I was super stoked to try the smoked salmon benedict because I’d seen a picture on Unilocal about it. Now maybe I’m being a little bratty because every place I’ve been to in Portland thus far has been amazing! But this place fell short of expectation. When I got the food, the salmon looked bubblegum pink??? And the potatoes tasted like the meal the chef had made before mine, as if they don’t clean their grill. The tastes were extremely off and way too salty.
The waitresses didn’t seem too excited about serving and seemed more interested in talking amongst themselves rather than to the customers.

Was my favorite Eggs Benedict of all time!
It was in English Crumpets. Couldn’t wait to eat here again. Ordered and didn’t really look that it was changed to“Brioche”. Was a sad day. It was good but not Amazing. When I asked the waitress was real short. They don’t have storage and making Crumpets was to hard. Build a shelf please! It’s what made you different.;(

I ordered the biscuit with mushroom gravy. It was OK, not the best biscuits and gravy I’ve had. The gravy needed more of a savory flavor, in my opinion. My brunch companion had a hash, which was pretty big. The portions are big, and enough for two meals.
In general, I thought their service was slow, and their food not worth the wait.

nom nom nom!!! Helser’s was to die for! I loved the hollandaise sauce for the eggs Benedict and the potatoes! My friend and I were surprised to be seated within 10 minutes of putting our names down for brunch, especially due to the fact the Alberta street fair was also going on!
The service was super fast, the atmosphere was friendly, and the food was great! I was happy to get a great brunch experience in Portland!

Hopped off the plane at PDX… and immediately drove here. Helser’s has got to be one of the top ten brunch spots in Portland, if not thee best. I broke my 5 year Helser’s fast the other day and it still lives up to my memory of the first time I indulged in the delectable brioche French toast years ago. Since then I’ve been thinking of my return and what out of this world meal I would get to experience next.
This time I opted for the Biscuits and Mushroom Gravy, which was of course a home run. The first bite alone made every single second of the seemingly endless wait worth it. The fluffy, buttery biscuit immersed in the rich gravy hit my taste buds and I wanted to cry out of happiness. That’s how I feel about everything on the menu that I’ve tried so just know that no matter what you order you won’t be disappointed.
Aside from the incredible food, the cozy atmosphere and friendly waiters make Helser’s such a great spot to grab breakfast or lunch at. As with any popular restaurant there is always a wait but this is one place where it is truly worth it. Parking is also a hassle but I would circle around the block for 20 minutes just to eat here.
Helser’s is an absolute must if you haven’t already had the pleasure of dining here (and even if you have, tbh). Make sure you try it!

This food was DELICIOUS. I ordered the pepper bacon hash and Louisiana hot sausage. First of all, these dishes were huge and affordable. Secondly, you could order half sizes. Thirdly, again, DELICIOUS. I cannot get over how amazing this food was. If it weren’t for a minor seating issue, this would’ve been five stars. I wouldn’t recommend this place for large groups only because the place is somewhat small so the seating is limited, however, I did see one large group of 6. I loved it here! Get that bacon hash and sausage! The hash is humongous so get the half size if you don’t eat a lot. It was perfection.

Great brunch spot that didn’t have a wait in Sunday which was quite nice.
SCOTCH EGG ($ 3.50): Loved the boiled egg coated in sausage, then breaded and fried. Boiled egg was a little overdone though.
MUSHROOM HASH ($ 10.25): Huge portions! I tried my best to eat half of it and saved the rest for a second meal. Tons of mushrooms and Yukon gold potatoes with roasted garlic and Havarti cheese topped two poached eggs. Perfect dish for me especially after topping with ketchup and hot sauce.
GERMAN PANCAKE ($ 9): Very delicious Dutch baby that’s made fresh so it’s piping hot as served. Edges were very crispy and center was nice and fluffy.
COFFEE ($ 2.50): Great smooth coffee and they were good about constantly refilling my cup.

Although I’m not a big brunch person, Helser’s gives me a different perspective of how delicious the morning meal can be.
We had the German pancake with seasonal warm fruit on top. It’s pretty much a gigantic pancake that is crispy on the bottom and around the edges and a soft texture in the middle. It takes around 20 minutes to make the pancake so do expect a wait. The warm fruit is a nice touch since you don’t have to use additional syrup but I personally think that the pancake itself is delicious enough to be on its own. You can appreciate the texture more without added syrup. The size of the pancake is bigger than my head and certainly can feed two. It’s $ 8 for the pancake and $ 3.25 for the added fruit. Think it’s a great deal since I could only eat ¼ of it (plenty of leftovers for the next day).
We also ordered the sausage breakfast. It comes with 2 choices of meat, 2 eggs any way, and 2 potato pancakes. You can also upgrade to the fancy Scotch egg for $ 2 more (totally worth it if you want to try something unique). The Scotch egg was totally new to me. It’s basically a hard boiled egg wrapped with sausage, crusted with breadcrumbs and then deep fried. It tasted pretty unique and good. We had the bratwurst and the Louisiana hot sausage. The bratwurst was super tasty and would be great with just a bun. The Louisiana hot sausage was very spicy. No need to add hot sauce and if you don’t like spicy food, this might be too hot for you. The potato pancakes had really nice texture. They were perfectly cooked. This dish is around $ 11 without the Scotch egg upgrade. It’s a steal if you are a meat eater or a very hungry person.
Despite being a very busy place, service was excellent. I had my coffee refilled 3 times and they also pack away your leftovers. Certainly was a 5 star food and service with such decent prices.
I highly recommend Helser’s. I will definitely come back and if you don’t want a long wait, come before 10am. Don’t forget to check the board for specials as you wait though, because they have some good options too.

I haven’t been to Helser’s in a couple years but it did not disappoint. There’s coffee of course while you wait and it was only 15 – 20 minutes at 10am, so not bad at all.
Our server came over to top our coffees once we sat and was nice. The place is small but holds quite a few people and it’s all windows so nice light and very modern.
We ordered a mimosa and Bloody Mary to start… The champagne came in it’s own little bottle which I enjoy because I’m a woman and anything miniature really gets us goin.
For breakfast I ordered the Louisiana sausage wrap. Pretty spicy and it came with fresh fruit. It was pretty delicious but lacked something, maybe beans or more cheese/​sauce, I’m not sure. My dad got the black bean scramble, which I stole a bite of and it was wonderful. Great flavors and both plates were perfect portions. Nice little spot, my dad thinks it’s better than Jam but I beg to differ. Still yummy though and a good alternative when you don’t want to wait an hour for tasty n sons or tin shed

I love how they split your plate if you ask them to!
I had ordered the pepper bacon potato hash, & had it split in two plates. It was amazing! It had peppered bacon, cheddar, rounded sliced potatoes, scallions, crème freight, with two poached eggs (well one on each of our plates). It was garlicy goodness that I cleaned my whole half.
We had also gotten orange mimosas & I love how our server brought out the individual champagne bottle. So cute.
Overall I give this place 4 stars, our server seemed tired & disoriented.

Every single table was full when I arrived here with my boyfriend for a late brunch and there was only ONE server. We almost left because we didn’t want to wait a million years for our food, but this lone girl darted around the restaurant like a goddamn torpedo and got everybody’s stuff out super promptly. I was very impressed by her, to say the least. Then she brought me a Scottish egg and coffee and I fell in love with her. But so did everyone else in the restaurant, so I had no chance of pursuing my fantasy relationship with her where we lived together and she brought me things before I even knew I wanted them. I still left her a big tip though.